James H. Thorne

2006-2009 Research Scientist, Information Center for the Environment, University of

                   California, Davis, CA.

2003-2005 Post-Doctoral Position, Center for Applied Biodiversity Studies, Conservation

International. Advisor: Lee Hannah.

2003    Ph.D.   Ecology, University California, Davis

                        Advisors: Drs. James F. Quinn and Michael G. Barbour

1997    M. A. Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara

Advisor: Dr. Frank Davis

1985    B.A.    Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz

Areas of Interest

Conservation Planning, Landscape Ecology, Climate Change, Informatics, Biogeography,     Historical Ecology, Species Distribution Modeling, Phenology, Environmental Policy, Urban Growth Modeling

Languages

English, French, Spanish

Objective

          To use my training in ecology, geography, and environmental science for landscape ecological research, teaching, and to develop effective conservation projects.

Current Projects

US Forest Service, International Branch. I am developing curriculum for a program to bring 20 mid-level forest and resource managers a year to UC Davis for a 3 week field training in management strategies under climate change for grassland, chaparral and forest ecosystems. This program, initiated in 2009, is under curriculum development now, and is funded to run for a minimum of three years, with the objective to run indefinitely.

Korean Initiative. I work with faculty at Seoul National University and the National Inventory and Environmental Research Institute (Korean agency) on a three part effort: to assess the success of a reintroduction program for Asiatic Black Bear; to quantify the impacts of roads on wildlife through landscape scale monitoring and experiment; and to quantify the differences in spatial and taxonomic detail obtained through three independent national scale bioinventories.

EcoAdapt: Modeling Mountain Gorilla Ranges Under Climate Change. I am the GIS lead for a project to assemble existing data on Mountain Gorilla, and model their potential distribution under climate change.

Historical Ecology and Climate ChangeI am interested in biotic response to climate change, and use several tools to assess and predict change: historical and contemporary data, and modeled future projections. California historical data include > 10,000 vegetation plots and 100,000 km² vegetation maps (1930s) which I am digitizing. When compared to contemporary vegetation plots and maps, shifts in species ranges and forest structure can be detected. I assembled over 20,000 contemporary vegetation plot surveys from a variety of sources, and have used those to extract the presence and absence of species. Climate variables extracted from digital maps at the same locations permit species distribution model development. Once current ranges have been modeled, future ranges can be modeled using future climate predictions and the same weightings of the predictor variables as from the current time period. We have done this for over 400 California plant species, and are now looking at comparing models for birds, bird habitats, and the dominant plant species in those habitats to see if the models all point to future ranges going in the same direction.

I am also leading an initiative to bundle monitoring around weather stations in natural reserves. This involves development of standard protocols that detect, for plants, species, cover and structure. These surveys, and accompanying vertebrate surveys, must not be too labor intensive. However, if they are installed near to weather stations, they add great value to the weather station data over time. In this process I collaborate with multiple groups including the California Energy Commission, US Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, and Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

Human-Environment Interactions. I am involved with several studies of human impacts on natural systems, with the objective of identifying sustainable designs for human-environment interactions. I direct a wildlife monitoring program assessing the use of unimproved highway underpasses and wildlife road mortality along highways on California’s central coast. This includes camera installations, track plates and tracking. We are also projecting future urban growth patterns using the model UPlan, to evaluate how the footprint of the future projections may impact habitats and wildlife. We further have developed biologically relevant measures of landscape fragmentation for California (effective mesh size), are developing the same for China, and are assessing the level of species range degradation by this metric.

Integration of Regional Conservation Designs with Regional Mitigation Needs (California Department of Transportation (CalTrans)). I serve as ecologist on projects to develop state-wide, regional, and local biological and ecological assessment capacity. We seek advanced impact assessments for road and waterway construction. This permits proactive mitigation planning at the level of habitats. Early quantification of area of habitat impacted permits earlier and more effective offsite parcel selection. We also use regional conservation objectives (the “greenprint”- including locations of endangered species, identified wildlife corridors, etc) as a mask within which to seek suitable parcels for mitigation. We then use the reserve selection tool Marxan to identify potential suitable acquisitions that will meet the biological mitigation requirements of the agency. This approach permits infrastructure agencies to contribute to regional sustainability designs through their mitigation practices. For California, we developed a state-wide GIS and database that quantifies impacts from 967 highway construction projects. We have three pilot projects, the first of which is purchasing their first parcels under this analysis. The third project has led to the submission of proposed law at the California State level, and language in the National Re-authorization of the Transportation bill, to use regional planning for better integration of regional conservation objectives with infrastructure construction.

Resource Management Under Uncertainty, US National Parks. Starting in October 2009, I will participate as a GIS analyst and strategist in an effort to compile trend and status information for over 2 dozen conservation focal elements in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Proactive vulnerability assessments, and development of conservation management of these focal elements is a major new area of research for the US National Park Service, which is grappling with whether it is possible to increase the robustness of each focal element in the face of climate change, and what management strategies might be required to do so.

Butterfly Phenology 30 Year Study. http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/. I oversaw development, analysis and online publication of a database of butterfly phenology, records recorded by Dr. Art Shapiro, UC Davis. I was author of a NSF grant ($217,000) obtained under the Informatics and Databases division, to register his 30 year study of butterfly phenology into a database and analyze the contents. We have over 80,000 species observation events from 10 sites forming a transect from San Francisco to the east side of the Sierra Nevada. I developed daily probability values for observing each butterfly species at each site.

Oak Restoration & Long-Term Field Experiment. I run a restoration project that provides free native Valley Oak (Quercus lobata) seedlings to a wide range of restoration groups. Last year 6 different groups used our seedlings. I also serve as ecologist on a 5 year study of oak restoration practices in degraded California woodlands and savannahs. We installed two, 5-year planting experiments to determine effective and cost effective restoration techniques for private land owners (predominantly ranchers) interested in oak rangeland restoration on their properties.

National Biological Information Infrastructure, California Node. http://cain.nbii.org/portal/server.pt. I co-directed development of the National Biological Information Infrastructure’s California Information Node, a website. The site, based at the UC Davis, Information Center for the Environment, is tasked with delivering biological information on-line. We posted digital range maps for 7887 California vascular plant taxa, derived from a plant geo-database I helped develop.

Publications coordinator, Information Center for the Environment (ICE), UC Davis. I coordinate GIS and model development undertaken for state and national agencies at my institute,  ICE. In this capacity I identify the publishable elements of ongoing work, and support the development of peer-reviewed publications. This position requires the assembly of manuscript teams, identification of team members’ obligations for manuscript production, and preparation for meetings with local and regional government and private business.

Publications

Refereed Archival Journals:

22. Waetjen, D. P. J. H. Thorne, A. D. Hollander, A. M. Shapiro, and J. F. Quinn.  The Butterfly Effect: An approach for web-based scientific data distribution and management with linkages to climate data and the semantic web. In: (Eds Anandarajan, M. & Anandarajan, A.) E-Research collaboration: Frameworks, Tools and Techniques. Springer-Verlag. Berlin. Accepted.

21. G. F. Midgley, I. D. Davies, C. H. Albert, R. Altwegg, L. Hannah, G. O. Hughes, L. P. Ries, J. H. Thorne, C. Seo, W. Thuiller. BioMove – an integrated platform simulating the dynamic response of species to environmental change. Ecography - Accepted with minor revisions

20. Huber, P., J. H. Thorne, S. Greco. Boundaries make a difference: the effects of spatial and temporal parameters on conservation planning. Professional Geographer. Accepted.

19. Beardsley, K., J. H. Thorne, N. E. Roth, M. McCoy. Impact of Rapid Human Population Growth on Biological Resources in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Landscape and Urban Planning - In Press  <!--[if gte vml 1]> o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f"
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18. Schmidt, E., J. H. Thorne, P. Huber, N. Roth, E. Thompson, M McCoy. A new vision for prioritizing farmland preservation in the San Joaquin Valley, California. California Agriculture - In Press.

17. Thorne, J. H., J.H. Viers, J. Price, D. M. Stoms. 2009. Spatial patterns of endemic plants in California. Natural Areas Journal - In Press.

16. Thorne, J. H., P. Huber, E. Girvetz, J. F. Quinn, M. McCoy. 2009. Integration of regional mitigation assessment and conservation planning.  Ecology and Society 14:47 [online] http://

www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art47/.

15. Williams, C. Seo, J. H. Thorne, J. N., J. K. Nelson, S. Erwin, J. M. O’Brien, M. W. Schwartz. 2009. Using species distribution models to predict new occurrences for rare plants.  Diversity and Distributions. 15: 565-576. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2009.00567.x

14. Thorne, J. H., E. H. Girvetz, and M. McCoy. 2009. Evaluating aggregate terrestrial impacts of road construction projects for advanced regional mitigation. Environmental Management 43: 936-948. DOI: 10.1007/s00267-008-9246-8

13. Seo, C., J. H. Thorne, L. Hannah, W. Thuiller. 2009. Scale effects in species distribution models; implications for planning under climate change. Biology Letters 5:39-43. http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/x08310826r318131/?p=4f7483d92f474fef8c5b5d3ece83f86e&pi=0

12. Thorne, J. H., B. J. Morgan, and J. A, Kennedy. 2008. Vegetation Change over 60 Years in the Central Sierra Nevada. Madroño 55:223-237.

11. Harrison, S., J. H. Viers, J. H. Thorne, J. B. Grace. 2008. Favorable Environments and the Persistence of Naturally Rare Species. Conservation Letters 1: 65-74.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118902559/home

10. Girvetz, E. H, J. H. Thorne, A. M Berry, and J. A.G. Jaeger. 2008. Integration of Landscape fragmentation analysis into regional planning: a state-wide multiscale case study for California. Landscape and Urban Planning 86: 205-218. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01692046

9. Girvetz, E. H., J. A. G. Jaeger, J. H. Thorne. 2007. Comment on „Roadless Space of the Conterminous United States“. Science- Technical Comment 1240b.

8. Thorne, J. H., J. M. O’Brien, M. L. Forister, and A. M. Shapiro. 2006. Building Phenological Models from Presence/Absence Data for a Butterfly Fauna. Ecological Applications 16(5) 1730-1743.

7. Thorne, J.H., S. Gao, A. D. Hollander, J. A.  Kennedy, M. McCoy, R. A. Johnston, J. F. Quinn. 2006. Modeling potential species richness and urban buildout to identify mitigation sites along a California highway. Journal of Transportation Research D 11(4) 233-314.

6. Thorne, J.H., D. Cameron, and J.F. Quinn. 2006. A conservation design for the central coast of California and the evaluation of mountain lion as an umbrella species. Natural Areas Journal 26:137-148.

5. Schwartz, M. W., J. Thorne, and  J.H. Viers. 2006 Biotic homogenization of the California flora in urban and urbanizing regions. Biological Conservation 127(3): 282-291.

4. Viers, J. H., J. H. Thorne, and J. F. Quinn. 2006. CalJep: A spatial distribution database of CalFlora and Jepson plant species. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science. Vol. 4, Issue 1 (February 2006), Article 1. http://repositories.cdlib.org/jmie/sfews/vol4/iss1/art1

3. Stubblefield, A., S. Chandra, S. Eagan, T. Dampil, G. Davaadorzh, D. Gilroy, J. Sampson, R. Allen, J. Thorne, Z. Hogan. 2005. Impacts of gold mining and land use alterations on the water quality of central Mongolian rivers. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 1(3) 1-7.

2. Thorne, J.H., J. A. Kennedy,  T.  Keeler-Wolf J. F. Quinn, M. McCoy, J. Menke. 2004.

A new vegetation map of Napa County using the Manual of California Vegetation Classification and its comparison to other digital vegetation maps. Madroño 51(4) 343-363.

1. Vander Zanden, J., J.D. Olden, J.H. Thorne, N.E. Mandrake. 2004. Predicting occurrences and impacts of smallmouth bass introductions in north temperate lakes. Ecological Applications 14(1) 132-148.

Thorne, J.H. 2003. Development and Interpretation of Ecological Datasets for Conservation Planning and Natural Resources Management. PhD Dissertation, UC, Davis.

Post-Revision Resubmissions

Huber, P. R., S. Greco, J. H. Thorne. Spatial scale and its effects on conservation network design: trade-offs and omissions in regional versus local scale planning. Landscape Ecology

Manuscripts in Review:

Casner, K., M. L. Forister, J. H. Thorne, J. M. O’Brien, A. M. Shapiro. The utility of repeated presence-absence data as a surrogate for relative abundance. Biological Conservation

T. Li, F. Shilling, J. H. Thorne, F. Li, H. Schott, R. Boynton, A. M. Berry. First Evaluation of Fragmentation of China’s Landscape by Roads and Urban Areas. Landscape Ecology

Forister, M.L., A.C. McCall, N.J. Sander, J.A. Fordyce, J.H. Thorne, J. O’Brien, D.P. Waetjan, A.M. Shapiro. Compounded effects of climate change and habitat alternation shift patterns of butterfly diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Roth, R. J. H. Thorne, R. Johnston, M. McCoy. Financial costs to agriculture and municipal governments of urban growth in an agricultural valley. Targeted Journal: International Journal of Geographic Information Systems.

Santos, M.J. and J.H. Thorne. Contrasting culture and ecology: conservation planning of oak woodlands in Mediterranean landscapes of Portugal and California. Environmental Conservation

Peer Reviewed Technical & Government Reports:

Thorne, J. H. 2009 Impacts on biological systems: Vegetation- Forest Vegetation Patterns. pp. 136-142. In: Indicators of Climate Change in California. Ed: L. Mazur. California Environmental Protection Agency, Sacramento. http://oehha.ca.gov/multimedia/epic/pdf/ClimateChangeIndicatorsApril2009.pdf

Thorne, J. H., E. Girvetz, M.C. McCoy. 2008. Report on California state-wide mitigation needs forecasting database. Technical Report to the California Department of Transportation, UC Davis, CA.

Girvetz, E.H., J.H. Thorne, J.F. Quinn, M.C. McCoy. 2008. Early Biological Mitigation Needs Assessment: Elkhorn Slough Pilot Project. Technical Report to the California Department of Transportation, UC Davis, CA.

Huber, P., E.H. Girvetz, J.H. Thorne, A. Hollander, J.F. Quinn, M.C. McCoy. 2008. Early biological mitigation needs assessment: Pleasant Grove pilot project. Technical Report to the California Department of Transportation, UC Davis, CA.

L. Hannah, G. Midgley, I Davies, F Davis, L Ries, W Thuiller, J Thorne, C Seo, D Stoms, N Snider. 2007.  BioMove – Improvement and Parameterization of a Hybrid Model for the Assessment of  Climate Change Impacts on the Vegetation of California. Technical Report for California Energy Commission, Public Interest Energy Research, Sacramento, CA. 96 p.

Thorne, J., J. Bjorkman, S. Thrasher, R. Kelsey, and B. J. Morgan. 2007. 1930s extent of oak species in the central Sierra Nevada. US Forest Service General Technical Report. http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr217/psw_gtr217_569.pdf

Beardsley, K., J.H. Thorne, M.C. McCoy. 2007. Policy Implications of Growth Modeling and Environmental Assessment in the San Joaquin Valley. Technical Report published by John Muir Institute for the Environment, UC Davis, CA.

Thorne, J. H. 2006. The development of 70-year old Wieslander Vegetation maps and an assessment of landscape change in the central Sierra Nevada. Technical Report for California Energy Commission, Public Interest Energy Research, Sacramento, CA. 115 p.

Thorne, J.H., B. J. Morgan, T. R. Kelsey, and J. A. Kennedy. 2006. Wieslander Vegetation Type Maps: A Digitizing Process Manual. Technical Report prepared for the Pacific Northwest Research Station, US Forest Service. University of California, Davis.

Thorne, James, M. McCoy, A. Hollander, N. Roth, and J. Quinn. 2005. Regional Analysis for Transportation Corridor Planning. Proceedings of the International Conference on Environment and Transportation, San Diego, CA. 

Thorne, J.H., D. Cameron, V. Jigour. 2002. A Guide to Wildlands Conservation in the Central Coast Region of California. California Wilderness Coalition, Davis CA. http://cain.ice.ucdavis.edu/repository/CC.pdf

Davis F. W., D. M Stoms, A. D. Hollander, K.A. Thomas, P.A. Stine, D. Odion, M. I. Borchert, J. H. Thorne, M. V. Gray, K. Warner, and J. Graae. 1998. The California Gap Analysis Project – Final Report. June 30, 1998. University of California, Santa Barbara. http://www.biogeog.ucsb.edu/projects/gap/gap_home.html

Thorne, J.H. 1997. GAP Analysis: the vegetation of northwest California. Master’s thesis. University of California, Santa Barbara.

Published Conference Proceedings and Presentations

Beardsley, K. J.H. Thorne, J. F. Quinn. 2009. Estimating Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions in 2050 from New Buildings in California. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco.

T. Diamond, C. McFarland, J. Thorne, J. Keller, D. Myers, and J. Devers. 2009. California Central Coast Wildlife Connectivity Project: Identifying and implementing connectivity for wildlife movement throughout the Central Coast of California. The Wildlife Society, Western Chapter, Monterey CA.

Thorne, J. H. 2009. Vegetation Shifts in the Sierra Nevada over the past 100 years. California Energy Commission’s Climate Change Conference, Sacramento, CA.

Thorne, J.H. 2009. Stories from California: using vegetation plot data for biodiversity studies, mapping, landcover change and climate studies. Workshop of Biodiversity and Protection Areas – About Habitat Modelling. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, Seoul North Korea. Invited Keynote.

Bjorkman, J., J. H. Thorne. 2009. Landscape Change in the Bay Area. ESRI User Conference.

P. R. Huber, D. Cameron, J. H. Thorne, T. M. Frink. 2009. Regional Advance Mitigation Planning: a Pilot Study Integrating Multi-agency Mitigation Needs and Actions Within a Comprehensive Ecological Framework. International Conference on Ecology and Transportation. Duluth, MN.

Thorne, J. H., S. E. Cameron. 2008. Three scales of vegetation response to climate change and fire over the past 70 years. Yosemite National Park Hydroclimatology Conference, CA.

Thorne, J. H. 2008. Use of Oaks in Urban and Rural Restoration Settings. Annual Oak Restoration Symposium, Sierra Foothills Research Station, University of California.

Thorne, J. H., J. Bjorkman, R. Boynton, S. Thrasher. 2008. Observed Changes in Vegetation Patterns in California. California Energy Commission’s Second Annual Climate Change Conference, Sacramento, CA.

Thorne, J.H., S. Dobrowski, R. Boynton, S. Thrasher, J. Bjorkman, H. Safford. 2008. Ecotones and Vegetation Bands – 70 years of vegetation dynamics in the Sierra Nevada. California Society for Ecological Restoration, Santa Rosa, CA. Invited talk.

Thorne, J.H., S. Dobrowski, H. Safford. 2008. Comparing 70 year old vegetation maps in California: lessons from the Sierra Nevada and Bay Area. Ecological Society of America Meetings, Milwaukee, WI. Invited talk.

Seo Changwan, J. H. Thorne, L. Hannah, W. Thuiller. 2008. "Scale Sensitivity of Species Distribution Models for Conservation Planning", 28th Annual Conference International Association for Impact Assessment, 4-10 May 2008, Perth, Western Australia 2008

Bjorkman, J., J.H. Thorne, S. Thrasher, R. Boynton. 2008. Landscape change in the Bay Area: using historic maps to show vegetation change.  10^th Annual Bay Area Conservation Biology Symposium, Davis, CA.

Girvetz, E. H., J.A.G. Jaeger, J. H. Thorne, A.M. Berry. 2007. Integrating habitat fragmentation analysis into transportation planning using the effective mesh size landscape metric.

Paper to the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation.

Thorne, J. H., E. H. Girvetz, and M. McCoy. 2007. A multi-scale and context sensitive state-wide environmental mitigation planning tool for transportation projects in California. Paper to the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation.

Ries, L. P., L. Hannah, C. Seo, J. H. Thorne, F. Davis, 2007, A dynamic species modeling approach to assess climate change impacts on California tree species, American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting; Dec 10-14, S. F, CA

Seo, C., J. H. Thorne, L. Hannah, W. Thuiller 2007, Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation Planning : Species Distribution Models Applications, Vietnam-Korea EIA Workshop,   December 6-8, 2007, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Hannah, L., C. Seo, G. Midgley, J. H. Thorne, D. Stoms, I. Davies, W. Thuiller, N. Snider, F. W. Davis, 2006, Dynamic Modeling of Climate Change Impacts on California Endemic Tree Species, Third  Annual Climate Change Research Conference, September 13-15, 2006, Sacramento, California.

Ries,  L., Lee Hannah, C. Seo, J. H. Thorne, Frank W. Davis, David Stoms, 2007, Dynamic species modeling; Predicting CA vegetation niches under climate change, Fourth Annual California Climate Change Conference, September 10-13, 2007, Sacramento, California.

Thorne, J. H., S. Dobrowski, H. Safford. 2007. A 70 year review of landscape change across the Sierra Nevada. Ecological Society of America, San Jose, CA.

Cameron, S. E., J. H. Thorne. 2007. Influence of fire and climate change on vegetation in a mountainous national park. Ecological Society of America, San Jose, CA.

Huber, P., N. E. Roth, K. Beardsley, J. H. Thorne, M. McCoy, R. Meade. 2007. Potential impacts of urban growth on an ecological network in the San Joaquin Valley, California. American Association of Geographers, San Francisco, CA.

Seo C., J. H. Thorne, D. Stoms, W. Thullier, F. Davis, and L. Hannah. 2007. Model selection for predictive species range mapping. IAEA, Korea.

Thorne, J. H. 2007. Retreat of the trailing edge of ponderosa pine forests in the Sierra Nevada over 140 years. The Wildlife Society Meetings, Monterey. Invited Talk.

Thorne, J. H. and T.R. Kelsey. 2006. 140 Dynamics of a Forest Ecotone under climate and environmental change. American Geophysical Union Meeting, San Francisco. Invited talk.

Thorne, James. 2006. Forest Change over 140 Years in the Central Sierra Nevada. Ecological Society of America Meeting. Memphis, TN.

Hannah, L., J.H. Thorne, C. Seo, D. Stoms, I. Davies, G. Midgley, W. Thullier and F. Davis. 2005. Modeling climate change impacts on biodiversity.  California Energy Commission’s Second Annual Climate Change Conference, Sacramento, CA.

Thorne, J.H. and B.J. Morgan. 2005. Developing historical vegetation maps to support modeling in California. California Energy Commission’s Second Annual Climate Change Conference, Sacramento, CA.

Thorne, James, Joshua Obrien, Mathew Forister, Arthur Shapiro. 2005. Butterfly community phenology across an altitudinal transect. Ecological Society of America Meeting.

O'Brien, Joshua, Forister, Matthew, Thorne, J., Shapiro, Arthur. 2005. Detection of long-term changes in an alpine butterfly community using non-parametric bootstrap methods. Ecological Society of America Meeting.
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Quinn, James, Hollander, Allan, Thorne, James, Viers, Joshua. 2005. SPIRE: Semantic Web applications for biodiversity and invasive species. Ecological Society of America Meeting

Anderson, Kayce, Forister, Matthew, Shapiro, Arthur, O'Brien, J, Thorne, J. 2005. Urban boundaries in a biodiversity hotspot: Declining butterfly diversity in California's modified Central Valley. Ecological Society of America Meeting.

Viers, Joshua, Thorne, James, Vaghti, Mehrey, Quinn, James. 2005. Patterns of regional and local diversity in the California Bay-Delta ecoregion and its watersheds: Lessons for riparian restoration and monitoring. Ecological Society of America Meeting.
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Thorne, James. 2004. A Conservation Design for the Central Coast of California using modeled cores and corridors for mountain lion (Felis concolor). Society for Conservation Biology, UC Davis.

Review and Editorial Activities

Reviewer for International Scientific Journals

            Global Change Biology (2007)

Ecology (since 2006)

            Biogeography (since 2005)

            Oikos (since 2006)

            Landscape and Urban Planning (2007)

Professional Activities

2005-present    Advisor to ecosystem connectivity initiatives in the Santa Cruz Mountains area.

2004-present    Advisor to oak conservation program in Yolo County

Awards

California State Legislature & University of California, Davis- Outstanding Staff Award. 2007. For most dedicated Community Service staff member from the University of California, Davis.

Dissertations and Theses Supervised

Ph. D. Dissertations: Committee member (4)

Masters Theses: Committee member (2)

Graduate Students Advised

Melissa Whitaker- MA studying butterfly populations

Michael McGrann- PhD studying plants of the Sierra Nevada

Nate Roth - PhD studying economic impacts of urban growth.

Karen Willet-PhD Completed 2009. Use of Urban Growth Models to simulate policy and assess impacts of future growth on biotic resources.

Patrick Huber- PhD Geography, UCD 2009. Now a post-doc working with me on conservation assessment and network design.

Ethan Inlander, MA Geography, UCSB. 2004. Now GIS specialist for TNC, Arkansas.

Classes Taught at Graduate and Undergraduate Level

As Instructor:

1. Week long training course in Karst cave conservation in Spanish for The Nature Conservancy in the Dominican Republic. 2008
2. Training Courses (5) in English and French for Park Rangers from 15 countries in Africa. Dec. 2003-  Dec. 2004. Instruction in how to set up the computational data entry for the MIKE (Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants) program.  I helped design, then teach two levels of computer orientation, database use and GIS orientation. Courses were taught in Kenya, Cameroon and Niger. Contact Karen Beardsley– University of California, Davis coordinator for education component of the MIKE program. 530-752-5678
3. Conservation and GIS. I taught an upper division course on the uses of GIS in conservation projects at UC Santa Barbara. Contact Ethan Inlander 479-973-9110, co-presenter.
4. Ran an internship program at UCSB for students to help register 25 years of bird observation records stored at the Vertebrate Natural History Museum. Contact John Gallo gallo@geog.ucsb.edu.

Co-taught, or as Teaching Assistant

1. Ecological Field Methods – Dr. Jim Quinn, UC Davis 2002, 2003
2. Vegetation of California- Dr. Michael Barbour, UC Davis 2002
3. Biogeography, upper division, undergraduate- Dr. Frank Davis, UCSB 1996
4. Physical Geography- Dr. Jeff Dozier UCSB 1996
5. Introduction to Environmental Studies- Social Systems- Dr. Robert Hatherill, UCSB 1995, 1996
6. Introduction to Environmental Studies- Physical Systems- UCSB 1995.

Countries & States worked in

Have worked extensively in the national parks in Alaska.

South Korea: am advising the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) on their biological survey protocols, and co-authoring papers on Asiatic black bear reintroductions and road kill monitoring.

Cameroon, Kenya, Niger: Trained Park Wardens in database use and GPS as part of ‘Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants.

Mongolia: field studies of impacts of Gold Mining on rivers containing world’s largest salmon, Hucho taimen taimen.

Chile, Argentina: 3 month field examination of conservation conditions in the southern temperate rainforests.

Ecuador, Costa Rica, Guatemala: Studied what makes conservation projects successful.

Domican Republic, training of cave conservation biologists.

Canada: studied old growth coastal forests on mid-coast of British Columbia, involved in campaign to create the Tatshinshini Provincial Park.

Mexico: Extensive expedition experience in the Copper Canyon region & Baja, California; served as translator for Lumi Indians (from Washington State) who were doing a trans-tribal training with the Lacandon Maya in southern Mexico. Translated from English to Spanish. Another translator then translated to Mayan.

California-Based Projects 

Have worked in all terrestrial ecoregions of California, including:

1) Survey of potential UC reserve sites in Modoc Plateau;

2) Vegetation mapping and plot surveys in Klamath & Shasta/Trinity National

Forests;

3) Field surveys of vegetation for the California GAP Analysis Program- Sierra

Nevada, East Side, North Coast, Central Coast;

4) National Park Service studies of effects of acid rain and forest monitoring –

Sequoia National Park;

5) Supervised surveying of over 1100 vegetation plots in the Mojave & Sonoran

Desert regions, included coordinating surveys on 3 national parks (Death Valley,

Joshua Tree and Mojave National Preserve), 4 military bases (Naval Air Warfare

Center Weapons Division China Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, Fort Irwin, and

the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center), 2 nature reserves (Granite

MountainsPreserve & Desert Research Center), and the BLM lands;

6) Field surveys of mountain lion suitable habitat (core and corridors) in the Central

Coast of California;

7) Herpetological field work in central and southern coastal California;

8) Teaching (TA) of field ecology and vegetation courses in central and southern

California, and the north coast;

9) Oak restoration and long term studies in the Central Valley of California;

10) First state-wide existing vegetation & conservation lands (GAP Analysis

Project);

11) Development of CalJep, a geodatabase of the distributions of 7887 California

plants;

12) Assembly of over 25,000 vegetation plots surveyed by various researchers &

agencies;

13) Co-developed models of over 400 California plant ranges under current and

            future Climate;

            14) Oversight of development of county-by-county urban growth models projecting

                        future urban growth in California under business as usual assumptions

                         (ongoing);

            15) Development of the Wieslander Vegetation maps, originally surveyed in the

                        1930s covering 1/3 of the state (ongoing, Sierra Nevada and Bay Area

                         completed);

            16) Created MCV 1 ha mmu vegetation map of Napa County

17) Development of a state-wide mitigation needs assessment database for Caltrans;

18) Development of 2 pilot projects assessing potential contributions of multi-

            project road mitigation efforts to regional conservation designs, for Caltrans.

Professional Memberships

            Ecological Society of America

            American Geophysical Union

            Society for Conservation Biology, UC Davis Chapter

Selected Extra Curricular

Survey of old-growth forest plots, Mid-Coast, British Columbia, Canada. Summer 2003. I installed over 20 vegetation plots in remote locations accessed through the fjords near Bella Coola, British Columbia. Access was by boat, with targeted areas those slated for future logging.

Head of restoration committee of the UC Davis chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology, 2002-2006.

Participant- TNC workshops to identify conservation priorities on Central Coast of California.

President, UC Davis Chapter of Society of Conservation Biology, 2002-2003.

Co-founded the Conception Coast Project 1994-1996. This is a successful non-profit organization that provides GIS support and analysis for conservation projects in the Santa Barbara region. http://conceptioncoast.org/Conception_Coast_Project.html.

Mandolin Player in local bluegrass band, Ghost Pine Ramblers.