Brett is a great lover of ecosystems. For as long as he can remember, he has been fascinated with wildlife. His professional education is in biology, but his passion lies in learning everything he can about the complex pieces of an ecosystem. Here in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, he started with an in-depth knowledge of grizzly bears and wolves, the apex predators of our local National Parks. He moved on to small mammals, birds, plant life, geology and even mycology (the study of fungi). He is a life-long learner of wildlife biology and ecology. Brett’s specialty is to connect you to this place, to help you find your place in the ecosystem, and to show how all things are intricately connected so that you come away with an appreciation for this incredibly unique place on Earth.
Certifications
- Level III Wildlife Track & Sign / CyberTracker
- B.S. Biology | University of Utah
- Wilderness First Responder & CPR
More Adventures
Brett's Favorite Safari Tours
Bio
Brett has been fascinated with wildlife for as long as he can remember. His passion for learning everything there is to know about grizzlies and wolves has spiraled out of control into learning everything he can about small mammals, and birds, and plants, and geology, and now, most recently, mycology. He tells us his most embarrassing secret is that he wasn’t born a hunter gatherer as he considers the world’s few remaining tribes that live off the land to be the authority on what guides should know.
As a wildlife biologist he has studied brown bears in Turkey, surveyed the skies of the Republic of Georgia for eagles and vultures, netted birds in Ethiopia with a National Geographic study, trapped small mammals amid Nevada’s archipelago of sky islands, and walked the deserts of Southern Utah in search of rare birds along its most beautiful rivers and creeks. Since his free time is filled up by his passion for skiing deep powder in the backcountry, mountain biking the best flowing trails of the west, fly-fishing for a trout dinner after work, and bird-watching his way through Africa, we find catching up with Brett is a bit like a spirited game of charades.
Brett loves to construct the continuum between the places you call home, and the ecosystem where you are on safari. To paint a picture of the wild potential of any corner of the globe is why Brett does what he does. What makes him tick is to cultivate your passion for our world’s ecosystems via the immersive expeditions on which you embark. While many of Africa’s great conservation areas like the Serengeti or the Omo Valley of Ethiopia have remained wild since time immemorial, many others represent an ecosystem of wild recovery that has ‘rewilded’ other areas. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where Brett is a year-round guide, is a great example of a hybrid between the two, where long-standing protection as a national park has kept the ecosystem more intact than anywhere in the US, but effects of humans on the landscape are very tangible.
Brett’s mission is to show you as much as he can of this beautiful landscape he calls home, and the fantastic animals within it. He hopes you will come away from his trips with a palpable sense of how our preservation of this place – that is chock-full with wildlife like nowhere else in the country – is, indeed, the best idea our country has ever had.