As of this week, a new face is heading up the wildlife division of the local branch of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Neil Anderson officially began his new job Monday as the new wildlife manager for Region One, which covers Northwest Montana and is headquartered in Kalispell. His predecessor, Jim Williams, is now the regional director.

“I’ve worked with almost all the biologists here in one fashion or another,” Anderson said. “We’re not enforcing the laws, but we do work with [game wardens] a lot of the time to develop harvest strategies and season-setting. We have to make sure what we create is enforceable.”

A graduate of Montana State University, Anderson is an expert in Montana’s land predators. He began focusing on grizzly bear diets for his master’s project, winding up as a technician at the agency’s wildlife laboratory in Bozeman, where he would remain for 21 years.

“When I started there we did quite a bit of stuff with predators: We’d do examinations of mountain lions, I put out the aging guide field assessment for mountain lions.”

He said he also published a paper on wolverines, working with the University of Idaho to track regional populations’ genetic trends.

Anderson has also researched pneumonia in bighorn sheep, populations of various fur-bearing animals and chronic wasting disease in deer, elk and moose. Now installed as the supervisor of both game and non-game biologists working at the regional fish and game office, he said that background will come in handy.

“Predators are a big issue up here. Obviously there are a lot of bears of both species, lions and wolves. Those will offer some unique challenges.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com