Founder | President
Desert biologist Tim Shields has 35+ years experience in the field, logging some 25,000 miles on foot, surveying and making observations. HIs observations of avian predation of precious assets led to his founding Hardshell Labs, Inc. (HSL) a California corporation in 2014. HSL produces inventions, innovations and services that provide resource protection in both the commercial and natural worlds — most recently by creating a raven deterrence program for Southern California Edison and receiving the prestigious U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 2022 Theodore Roosevelt Genius Award for “Promoting Nonlethal Human-Wildlife Conflict: Creating a No-Fly Zone for Nuisance Birds”.
Shields has authored, co-authored and illustrated numerous scientific papers, is generally recognized among U.S. conservationists, and is specifically established as a leader in threatened desert tortoise population management. Shields has trained 200+ workers in various aspects of field biology. He is leading development and demonstration projects for HSL’s innovative avian deterrence technologies and processes with leading agencies and corporations involved with avian deterrence and desert conservation in southern California including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Raven Management Working Group, Desert Tortoise Council, Desert Tortoise Conservancy, Bureau of Land Management, utility companies with power powers in the raven-affected conservation areas, and with test installations at a dairy and waste management site.
Shield’s background also includes: co-founding serving as Executive Director of the Takshanuk Watershed Council, a very successful watershed conservation and public education non-profit. He is also an accomplished wildlife artist, and hosted a public radio show in his home town, Haines, Alaska. Shield’s artwork has appeared in numerous publications and prestigious traveling exhibitions. His perspectives on conservation biology have been quoted by BBC World News Update, Audubon magazine’s on-line article, “Meet the Bird Brainiacs: Common Raven” as well as its print editions, CNN, the Los Angeles Times Magazine and the Sierra Club. Shields contributed a chapter in a book on desert conservation published by Death Valley National Park presenting his prescriptions for ensuring the survival of the desert tortoise. Please reference Shields’ full resumè for further detail; context and a few highlights are incorporated here.