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Blair Smyth

Allegheny Highlands Program Director, Virginia

Lexington, VA

Blair Smyth headshot.

Blair Smyth Allegheny Highlands Program Director. © Courtesy Blair Smyth

Areas of Expertise

Forest conservation, ecology, land management, wildlife biology

Media Contact

Chelsea Bowers
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Biography

Blair Smyth joined the Virginia chapter in 2019 after working most of his career as a wildlife biologist for universities and various state agencies.  As a district biologist for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR), Blair led a black bear research project—putting GPS collars on sows, looking at how they used the habitat, how their movements changed during hunting season and placing orphaned cubs with foster moms. 

While still passionate about wildlife, Blair is part of a team that works with a range of partners, including the US Forest Service, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and DWR, to increase forest restoration across the Allegheny Highlands region of Virginia. Areas of program emphasis include prescribed fire, monitoring and research, leading collaborative stakeholder groups and land protection efforts. Collaborating with partners allows Blair and the Allegheny Highlands team to work together to achieve lasting impacts at a landscape level. 

Blair holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Arkansas-Monticello. 

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Blair Smyth: Q & A

Blair shares his experiences working with wildlife—including placing orphaned black bear cubs with foster mothers in the wild.

Nature.org: Where did you grow up?

Blair Smyth: I was born in New York City, but moved to Roanoke Rapids when I was three. My stepdad got me started fishing and hunting, and I spent the better part of my middle and high school years roaming around our Christmas tree farm, playing in the Roanoke River, just enjoying the outdoors and working on the farm.

Did your interest in wildlife start there?

Definitely. For me, it started with game animals, from watching deer in peanut fields to jumping coveys of quail to seeing flocks of turkeys. But later I got interested in salamanders and turtles and things like that. I didn’t know yet that there was a job out there where you could study all this stuff and run around in the woods, but that’s really what I wanted to do.

When did you make the connection that you could actually do that for a living?

It was 9th or 10th grade, one of those career days that all the high school students do. But instead of touring a doctor’s office or whatever, I drove to the middle of nowhere to meet up with some U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees. We got up early the next morning and shot a rocket net over a bunch of swans. Being able to catch critters, taking biological measurements—the hands-on work made it real for me. By the end of that morning, I was sold.

Fast-forwarding a bit, before coming to TNC, you were a biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Tell us about your work.

As a district biologist, you never know what you’re walking into every day. You might be on the phone helping someone figure out how to keep bears away from trash cans and bird feeders.  One time I had to go get a fox out of the foyer of an elementary school.

The work I most enjoyed was leading a black bear research project—putting GPS collars on sows, looking at how they used the habitat, how their movements changed during hunting season, placing orphaned cubs with foster moms.

Can you walk us through that last one—why and how do you get a bear to be a foster mom?

Let’s say a sow with two cubs gets hit by a car on I-64. We would scoop up those cubs, check out their health, and as soon as possible, put them in a wild den with another sow. We’d know where to find a den because of the GPS collars.

You tuck the cubs in your coat to keep them warm and quiet, and then you sneak right into the den and try to lay the cubs right next to the sow. As soon as a cub makes any noise, the sow will lift her head. It is the coolest thing in the world to watch a sow look up and see a cub, say “How the heck did that get there?” and then walk over to pick it up, lay it down with her own cubs and start nursing it.