About the author

John Bartholow's career as a software developer has followed an unusual path. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in computer science. After a brief stint teaching that subject at the University of Denver, he obtained a master's degree in wildlife biology and natural resource management at Colorado State University (CSU). As a Colorado Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit graduate student working under Dr. Jack Gross, he helped verify and validate the mainframe ONEPOP model by testing it for bison, elk, and longhorn cattle on the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge in Nebraska.

Upon graduation from CSU, John began work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a biologist, applying the first generation of geographic information systems to nationwide wildlife planning. Projects ranged from timber management in Alaska, to coal and oil shale development in the Rocky Mountain west, to winter navigation in the Great Lakes, to watershed development in the southeast. John then was employed by the U.S. Geological Survey where he worked as an ecologist and physical and biological modeler, and was a faculty affiliate at CSU.

On his days off, John likes to take his dog on hikes in the foothills and beyond, thoroughly enjoys landscape photography, and occasionally put in a bit of time at his longstanding hobby, Fossil Creek Software. During the time that personal computers were beginning to make headway into our lives, John took some time off his regular job and started Fossil Creek Software. POP-II was the first product off the assembly line, implemented in 1984 for a Tektronix desktop computer and followed rapidly with versions for the DOS/PC and then Apple computers. Initially, western state wildlife agencies were the only customers, but as use grew and word spread, modeling with POP-II radiated east, followed by use in universities and other settings.

Modeling remained integral to John's profession. He has worked not only on big game population modeling, but also in salmonid population and production models. He is adept at modeling physical systems, too. He has studied smokestack plume behavior, watershed mitigation for low head hydropower development, stream temperature and reservoir water quality modeling, and linking water quantity, water quality, and fish production models.

John is fluent in a variety of computer languages and data analysis techniques, but readily admits to being challenged by Windows programming. He has been a peer reviewer for several refereed journals, including Rivers, New Zealand J. of Marine and Freshwater Research, Journal of Range Management, and the North American Journal of Fisheries Management.

In his spare time, John has been a member of the Larimer County Environmental Advisory Board and past vice president of the City of Fort Collins Water Board. He is currently a board member on the Big Thompson Watershed Forum.  He is a sustaining member of both the Nature Conservancy and Population Action International.  Travel is big on John's list, being lucky enough to visit Alaska, Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Puerto Rico, Scotland, and Switzerland. He has also been fortunate enough to visit all 50 of our United States.

Publications  

What a different place our world would be if we valued the common as much as the rare.  ~ John Bartholow