Every summer my family would take two or three week long vacation exploring different national parks. It was during these visits, that I began to become interesting in forested ecosystems. As a high school junior and senior, I worked at a local county forest preserve restoring an oak-savanna. After these two summers, I knew I wanted to study ecology.
I headed up to the western Upper Pennisula of Michigan to attend Michigan Technological University in fall of 2005 to study Forestry. During that time, I was able to explore many different forest types ranging from northern hardwoods to Jack pine. After taking my first silviculture class, everything else made sense! Silviculture allowed me to use all my previous classes (soils, forest ecology, biometrics, etc.) to understand the current stand conditions and how different tools can be utilized to aid in managment decisions.
After graduating with my B.S. in Forestry in 2009, I began my M.S. in Forestry studying herbaceous species dynamics in the Western U.P. I studied with Dr. Linda Nagel. My thesis had two distinct parts. The first part of my thesis explored how different harvest treatments in a northern hardwood stand in Ford Forestry Center effected herbaceous species dynamics. Diameter-limit treatments had very different herbaceous communities than treatments that used single-tree selection. Diamter-limit treatments generally had more weedy and invasive herbaceous species than single-tree selection and the reserve treatments. The second part of my thesis resampled a subset of plots used to create the Habitat Typing Guide of Michigan by Burger and Kotar (2003). After 10 years, overstory density decreased in all habitat types sampled and weedy and invasive species increased in richness. However, herbaceous species present within the habitat types still allowed for accurate classification.
During my master's degree, I was a teaching assistant (TA) for Fall Camp. Fall Camp consists of 6 or 7 classes which all natural resources majors (forestry, ecology, wildlife management) take. As a forestry graduate student, I was the TA for Multiple Resource Assessment, Silviculture, Wildlife Habitat, Land Measurement and GPS, Timber Harvesting, and Forest Health. As a TA, I was responsible for scouting field locations for labs, grading assignments, assisting students with assigments, and developing evening help sessions.
After my master's degree, I began a Ph.D. in Ecology at Utah State University working with Dr. James Long. I am currently funded through a USDA NIFA fellowship. My work focuses on explore compositional and structural patterns in forests in the Intermountain West. From these patterns, I will also be exploring how these patterns can aid in understanding forest resilience and tipping points in an uncertain climatic future. I am also interested in integrating scientific research and management decisions.
I headed up to the western Upper Pennisula of Michigan to attend Michigan Technological University in fall of 2005 to study Forestry. During that time, I was able to explore many different forest types ranging from northern hardwoods to Jack pine. After taking my first silviculture class, everything else made sense! Silviculture allowed me to use all my previous classes (soils, forest ecology, biometrics, etc.) to understand the current stand conditions and how different tools can be utilized to aid in managment decisions.
After graduating with my B.S. in Forestry in 2009, I began my M.S. in Forestry studying herbaceous species dynamics in the Western U.P. I studied with Dr. Linda Nagel. My thesis had two distinct parts. The first part of my thesis explored how different harvest treatments in a northern hardwood stand in Ford Forestry Center effected herbaceous species dynamics. Diameter-limit treatments had very different herbaceous communities than treatments that used single-tree selection. Diamter-limit treatments generally had more weedy and invasive herbaceous species than single-tree selection and the reserve treatments. The second part of my thesis resampled a subset of plots used to create the Habitat Typing Guide of Michigan by Burger and Kotar (2003). After 10 years, overstory density decreased in all habitat types sampled and weedy and invasive species increased in richness. However, herbaceous species present within the habitat types still allowed for accurate classification.
During my master's degree, I was a teaching assistant (TA) for Fall Camp. Fall Camp consists of 6 or 7 classes which all natural resources majors (forestry, ecology, wildlife management) take. As a forestry graduate student, I was the TA for Multiple Resource Assessment, Silviculture, Wildlife Habitat, Land Measurement and GPS, Timber Harvesting, and Forest Health. As a TA, I was responsible for scouting field locations for labs, grading assignments, assisting students with assigments, and developing evening help sessions.
After my master's degree, I began a Ph.D. in Ecology at Utah State University working with Dr. James Long. I am currently funded through a USDA NIFA fellowship. My work focuses on explore compositional and structural patterns in forests in the Intermountain West. From these patterns, I will also be exploring how these patterns can aid in understanding forest resilience and tipping points in an uncertain climatic future. I am also interested in integrating scientific research and management decisions.