- PhD, Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- MS, Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- AB, Social Relations, Harvard University
BIO
Dr. Stuart White has applied his training as a geographer to a variety of conservation and land use initiatives in Ecuador, his adopted home. Among these initiatives, he founded the Fundación Cordillera Tropical, dedicated to conserving wild habitats in the region of Sangay National Park; carried out the first reintroduction (from Chile) of alpacas, a domestic species that had become extinct in Ecuador a hundred years earlier; proposed and wrote the feasibility study for the addition of 246,000 hectares of wild habitats to Sangay National Park; hosted Round River Conservation Studies’ South American program; and in recent years and in multiple contexts, advocated for private nature reserves as critical to a successful strategy of protection for Ecuador’s prodigious biodiversity. Stuart and his wife Patricia maintain a conservation area, the Mazar Wildlife Reserve, in the mountains of the upper Amazon, where they raise alpacas and promote their incorporation into the subsistence systems of highland communities.
Dr. White taught geography for two years at the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque before moving to Ecuador, but continued as an adjunct assistant professor, with occasional semesters on campus as an instructor, over the next 25 years. He became a Lecturer in the Geography Department at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ in 2011, where he taught World Regional Geography, and continues as Lecturer, teaching a field course in Ecuador over Spring Break, Reading Grass Paramo (GEOG 2730). In addition, he teaches a field course for the Animal and Veterinary Sciences department, Bootcamp in Alpaca Husbandry (ASCI 3605), during the summer session.
Currently, Dr. White’s primary academic interest is the etiology of paramo, a native grassland located above 3400 m throughout the northern Andes and dating from the glacial retreat in the Late Pleistocene. Understanding the early development of grass páramo and the role of anthropic fire in driving the plant community are essential to the adequate management of this awesome yet endangered ecosystem. Stuart’s personal interests included hiking, photography, all things planetary and cosmic, and Andean archaeology.
Area(s) of expertise
Pre-Columbian Andes resource management, Mountain farming systems, Wildland conservation in the context of agricultural societies, Páramo and puna biogeography, South American camelids, especially the alpaca.
Bio
Dr. Stuart White has applied his training as a geographer to a variety of conservation and land use initiatives in Ecuador, his adopted home. Among these initiatives, he founded the Fundación Cordillera Tropical, dedicated to conserving wild habitats in the region of Sangay National Park; carried out the first reintroduction (from Chile) of alpacas, a domestic species that had become extinct in Ecuador a hundred years earlier; proposed and wrote the feasibility study for the addition of 246,000 hectares of wild habitats to Sangay National Park; hosted Round River Conservation Studies’ South American program; and in recent years and in multiple contexts, advocated for private nature reserves as critical to a successful strategy of protection for Ecuador’s prodigious biodiversity. Stuart and his wife Patricia maintain a conservation area, the Mazar Wildlife Reserve, in the mountains of the upper Amazon, where they raise alpacas and promote their incorporation into the subsistence systems of highland communities.
Dr. White taught geography for two years at the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque before moving to Ecuador, but continued as an adjunct assistant professor, with occasional semesters on campus as an instructor, over the next 25 years. He became a Lecturer in the Geography Department at ¶¶Òõ̽̽ in 2011, where he taught World Regional Geography, and continues as Lecturer, teaching a field course in Ecuador over Spring Break, Reading Grass Paramo (GEOG 2730). In addition, he teaches a field course for the Animal and Veterinary Sciences department, Bootcamp in Alpaca Husbandry (ASCI 3605), during the summer session.
Currently, Dr. White’s primary academic interest is the etiology of paramo, a native grassland located above 3400 m throughout the northern Andes and dating from the glacial retreat in the Late Pleistocene. Understanding the early development of grass páramo and the role of anthropic fire in driving the plant community are essential to the adequate management of this awesome yet endangered ecosystem. Stuart’s personal interests included hiking, photography, all things planetary and cosmic, and Andean archaeology.
Areas of Expertise
Pre-Columbian Andes resource management, Mountain farming systems, Wildland conservation in the context of agricultural societies, Páramo and puna biogeography, South American camelids, especially the alpaca.