When scientists communicate their work to a lay audience, they often load up with facts and figures that might not resonate with people outside their profession. It’s no different with the biologists who work for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, says Marilyn Vetter of New Richmond, Wisconsin, president and CEO of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. “If you talk to the wildlife biologists on the team, they’re going to be the first ones to admit that, just like anybody that majors in biology or engineering, they love the facts behind things,” Vetter said in an interview.

“The science is inherently what drives them. “Sometimes, when you have that mindset, it’s hard to understand why others don’t get inspired by hearing just the facts. For most people that are not in the career, it’s hard to get attached emotionally to the facts.

” Therein lies the dilemma when communicating science. Vetter, who grew up near Anamoose, North Dakota, and graduated from UND in 1988 with a major in communications and a minor in political science, will highlight the challenge – and how to overcome it – at noon Friday, April 25, as keynote speaker for the 2025 Glenn Allen Paur Lecture Series. Vetter’s topic for this year’s Paur Lecture is “Science and Storytelling: How Leaders Can (and should) Create Excitement for Wildlife Conservation.

” The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Chester Fritz Library Room 406. “It’s super important for those that are doing research or deploying research to figure out, ‘How do they use what inspires them to inspire others through means that make it more approachable, that are more in layman’s terms,’ ” Vetter said. “If they come out and do a lecture on the science behind bird nesting behavior or habitat, that’s probably going to be difficult for most people to embrace unless they’re already interested in the actual facts behind it.

“What I’m suggesting is, if we want good science to win, we have to find a way for people to hear (the facts) so they get to experience two things: They get to experience that emotional connection to the story, and it’s based on fact.” The UND Chapter of The Wildlife Society hosts the annual lecture series in honor of Glenn Allen Paur, a UND biology graduate from Pisek, North Dakota, who drowned in a May 1978 boating accident while assisting a UND professor with a research project on Leech Lake. The Paur family established the Lecture Series and the Glenn Allen Paur Memorial Scholarship in 1979 in his honor and memory.

The series has featured a variety of notable speakers, including Steve Williams, a 1981 UND master’s degree graduate and former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in 2022; David Bjerklie, a 1976 UND graduate and renowned science communicator, in 2023; and, in 2024, Chuck Black, a 2010 UND graduate and wildlife artist now living in Belgrade, Montana, who won the 2023 Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest.

That puts Vetter in some lofty company. “Believe me, I went back and looked, and I’m like, ‘Wow, those are some big shoes to fill,’ ” she said. “The folks that have preceded me, it’s a small group and some really important people that have made a huge difference in conservation.

“I’m certainly more than humbled and honored to be part of that.” Vetter, who became president and CEO of PF and QF in February 2023, says communicating about conservation can be especially challenging on social media, where “the sexy story is what sells in headlines.” “It is very hard for people that have the science behind them to break through on those platforms if they can’t find a way to either tell (the story) through a shorter version of the words that create a more emotional connection or through video, to break through all of that clutter,” she said.

“And if we don’t find a way to break through, then the facts will get left behind, and the facts are really what creates urgency and a compelling story around conservation and everything else.” Video has proven to be the most effective way for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever to tell their stories, Vetter says. “Even if it’s just the person (telling) the story in the video, because that is how people digest news anymore on social media,” she said.

“It’s fascinating to watch how our corporate sponsors or how agency partners and others come to us and say, ‘Well, we’d love to support this initiative, but we’d sure love to have a video to tell the story afterwards.’ “They know that’s how people are digesting and internalizing the news.” A perfect example of social media success is “Pheasant Fact Friday,” Vetter says.

The weekly educational series, which includes snippets of info about pheasants and quail, posts Friday afternoons on the PF and QF Facebook and Instagram pages. People have embraced the pheasant and quail nuggets, she said. “I can tell you, I have learned a lot about pheasants and quail in the last however many months we’ve been promoting Pheasant Fact Friday and its sister in the quail space,” Vetter said.

“It has made (the information) digestible enough that people are learning in bite-sized snacks. And over a year, they’re learning a ton of information in a way that they can remember it.” Before taking the helm of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, Vetter says she hadn’t been back on the UND campus in several years.

In April 2023, Vetter was the keynote speaker at UND’s Women for Philanthropy Luncheon and says she’s looking forward to returning to campus for the Paur Lecture. “It’s so powerful to come back and see that campus and how it has flourished,” Vetter said. “It was a remarkable place for me to go to school, and it changed my world.

I grew up on a cattle ranch, and my bubble was the size of a postage stamp, and I remember coming to campus and thinking, ‘Wow, this place is huge.’ “I love that I get to come back to campus in a way that’s more aligned with my new role and that I get to spend time with students in the wildlife biology arena and watch, just how they’re thinking about the future in this space. It’s pretty remarkable, and I’m really excited.

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