The dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming has been honored for his efforts to protect the state's natural resources.
The Wyoming Stock Growers Association presented Frank Galey the Guardian of the Grasslands award during its cattle industry convention in Jackson.
"The college's partnership with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association is very important," says Galey. "We work well together, and I feel very privileged to have been given this award."
Frank Galey
The honor is not limited to members of the WSGA, nor intended to be given annually, but when a uniquely qualified candidate emerges, according to association officials.
Galey has demonstrated outstanding efforts through strong leadership of the governor's brucellosis task force, his commitment to brucellosis research as well as his contribution to the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources for the past 13 years, according to a WFGA spokesman.
In 2004, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal created the Wyoming Brucellosis Coordination Team, which Galey chairs, to chart a course for brucellosis management. The team presented the governor with 28 recommendations to manage and control the disease which can strike elk, wild bison and cattle.
The extensive Wyoming brucellosis team effort includes members of almost every interest involved in animal agriculture in the state, including legislators, industry leaders and agency representatives.
Today, many of those actions are implemented under guidance of the team.
"While working in the dean's office, I saw on a daily basis how important agriculture and natural resources are to Galey," says Brittany Schaneman, WSGA intern and recent graduate of the college.
"He strives to encourage students to enhance the image of agriculture and natural resources in Wyoming."
Galey received his Ph.D in veterinary biosciences and holds a specialty certification in toxicology. His research interests include the fields of diagnostic and forensic animal medicine, plant and other natural product poisonings and analytical pharmacology and toxicology.