Background and motivation:
As a serial land manager, I have been working in
western US ecosystems since 2005. From leading conservation corps crews to
working with small scale private forest products industries, I have sought to
understand and make a positive impact on natural environments and the people
who enjoy them. In 2011 I shifted gears
and started a career as a wildland firefighter with the US Forest Service. I
feel strongly that our country’s public lands are one of its greatest gifts to
the people and I want to be a part of managing it for both ecosystem and human
benefit. While conducting a burn
severity survey on the effects of the 2011 Wallow Fire, I came across prolific
moss growth on forest slopes that had burned only three months earlier. I noticed the moss growing most prolifically
on the high severity burned areas. Spurred
on by the questioning minds of young americorps members I had worked with in
the past, I began taking classes at Northern Arizona University’s School of
Forestry and was soon given an opportunity to study this curious moss I had
found growing in the wake of the Wallow fire.
Research interests:
- Using fire moss as a tool for post-fire restoration
- Natural history of fire moss species (Funaria hygrometrica, Ceratodon purpureus, and Bryum argenteum)
- Viability of post-fire restoration techniques
- Small scale forest products industries and their role in sustainable local communities
- Fire history of southwestern forested ecosystem, especially warm/dry mixed conifer
- Communication and knowledge exchange between fire researchers and fire managers
- History of land use change and public lands in the United States and Mexico
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