College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Community Sustainability

My research focuses on understanding and explaining how people make conservation-related judgments and decisions, and the intersection of such judgments with conservation policy and practice. My approach to research is necessarily interdisciplinary—it often integrates theory and concepts from basic social science disciplines (e.g., psychology, economics) with practical fields of study (e.g., conservation biology, environmental science). The general aim is to contribute to bodies of knowledge that promote biodiversity and sustainable human use of natural resources.

Currently, my research program centers on two related areas: (i) understanding judgments and behaviors related to wildlife—with a particular focus on elucidating factors related with human tolerance for wildlife and factors impacting wildlife-associated behaviors (e.g., recreational hunting, fishing, and trapping); and (ii) quantifying societal changes in values and attitudes – especially those relating to the natural world, and explaining how and why these changes occur.

I earned my PhD in Natural Resources Science and Management from the University of Minnesota (2007) and my Masters in the Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Management from Utah State University (2004).  I also hold a BA in Art from Western Michigan University.

Areas of Expertise

• Natural resources-related values, attitudes
• Fisheries and wildlife policy
• Human-wildlife interactions
• Conservation psychology (with a focus on intergroup conflicts)

Selected Publications

Can be obtained at Research Gate or GoogleScholar.

Ghasemi, B., Bruskotter, J. T., Vucetich, J. A., Elbroch, L. M., Wilson, R. S., Carter, N. H., ... & Hinton, J. W. (2026). Restoring the wild east: Predicting public support for cougar and red wolf reintroduction in the eastern United States. Biological Conservation, 313, 111532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111532

Bruskotter, J. T., Carter, N. H., Hamilton, M., & Vucetich, J. A. (in Press). Beyond procedural justice for coexistence with biodiversity: Response to Pooley.  Conservation Biology, e70174. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.70174

Chapron, G., Epstein, Y., Bruskotter, J. T., & López-Bao, J. V. (2025). Europeans support large carnivore recovery while opposing both further population growth and hunting. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02914-1

Slagle, K., & Bruskotter, J.T. (2025). Public support for restrictions on the killing of coyotes at odds with organized stakeholder group preferences for management. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 29684. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15378-x

Bruskotter, J. T., Elbroch, L. M., & Vucetich, J. A. (2025). Government agencies in the United States are obstructing native species restoration, creating regulatory pits for wildlife. BioScience, 76(1), 7-9. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaf116

Von Furstenberg, R., Larson, L. R., Peterson, M. N., Lee, K. J., Vayer, V. R., Nelson, S. A., Bruskotter, J.T., ... & Woosnam, K. M. (2025). Environmental identities of college students reveal potential conflicts and common ground for wildlife conservation. Biological Conservation, 312, 111471. https://doi-org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111471

Elbroch, L. M., Murphy, J. J., Carlson, S. C., Vucetich, J. A., Berl, R. E., Galiardi, L., Perry, S., Butler, T., Carter, N., Hinton, J.W., Moehrenschlager, A., Carrollo, E., Bayrakcismith, R., & Bruskotter, J. T. (2025). Public support for puma reintroduction in the eastern United States. Conservation Science and Practice, 7(8), e70105. https://doi-org/10.1111/csp2.70105

Vucetich, J. A., Bruskotter, J. T., Wilson, R., Elbroch, L. M., Feltz, A. and Offer-Westort, T. (2025), Support for the US Endangered Species Act Is High and Steady Over the Past Three Decades. Conservation Letters., 18: e13111. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/10.1111/conl.13111

Nayeri, D., Rastgoo, R., Mohammadi, A., Farhadinia, M. S., Bruskotter, J. T., & Vucetich, J. A. (2025). The influence of culpability, harm to animals, and professional education on attitudes about killing animals in the name of conservation. Biological Conservation, 307, 111204.
 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111204

Bruskotter, J. T., Carter, N. H., Berl, R., Hinton, J., Murphy, J., Elbroch, L. M., and Vucetich, J. A. (2025). Bridging social and ecological science to create spatially-explicit models of human-caused mortality of carnivores. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02165

Merz, L., Bergmann, N. T., Brown, C., Martin, J. V., Wardropper, C., Bruskotter, J. T., & Carter, N. H. (2025). State-level variation drives wolf management in the northwestern United States. Environmental Research: Ecology, 4(1), 015008. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/adafad 

Rapp, C., Nelson, M. P., & Bruskotter, J. T. (2025). Effects of long-term ecological research and cognitive biases on the evaluation of scientific information by public land managers in Oregon and Washington, USA. Ecology and Society, 30(1). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-15744-300101

Elbroch, L. M., Vucetich, J. A., Rose, C. & Bruskotter, J. T. (2025), Supporting Wildlife Restoration in Eastern States via State Wildlife Action Plans. Diversity and Distributions, 31, e13971. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13971

Slagle, K. M., Karns, G., & Bruskotter, J. T. (2024). Private lands, public benefits: the potential for wildlife habitat and public recreation on private lands in Ohio. Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 29(5), 535–539. https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2023.2280905

Epstein, Y., López‐Bao, J. V., & Bruskotter, J. T. (2024). Most EU Residents Support Rights of Nature Laws. Nordisk miljörättslig tidskrift (special issue), p. 123-135.

Vucetich, J. A., Bruskotter, J. T., Ghasemi, B., Rapp, C. E., Nelson, M. P., & Slagle, K. M. (2024). A flexible inventory of survey items for environmental concepts generated via special attention to content validity and item response theory. Sustainability, 16(5), 1916. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16051916