Environmental Studies Faculty

Personal Summary

Conservation Biology: My interests in the field of conservation biology include transboundary conservation planning and connectivity preservation and restoration. I am also interested in the mapping of biodiversity and the threats to its preservation, especially to support reserve planning and design. I have recently had graduate students working on evaluation of the efficacy of wildlife crossing structures, avian ecology, and enduring features analysis to name a few.

Environmental Law and Policy: An active part of my work is studying how citizens can influence the policy process and environmental outcomes to protect the environment and the human communities that depend on it. I have played a part in environmental policy debates ranging from local land use planning to wilderness designation to wildland conservation to species conservation particularly grizzly bears. Recent graduate students have worked on projects to understand the integration of collaboration into agency practice, the implications of the new US Forest Service planning regulations on connectivity and the status of inventoried roadless area protection in Montana under the Roadless Rule.

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: I am interested in how we can mitigate and adapt to climate change through individual and collective choices and policy initiatives. Attending the Paris Climate Change meetings as a credentialed observer was an incredible opportunity. I am currently working on an analysis of snowpack accumulation and retention in the watersheds of the Crown of the Continent for use in climate change adaptation planning for the Crown Managers Partnership . I have also led a number of projects using renewable energy. A current graduate student working under my supervision is working on completing an analysis of factors influencing the successful implementation of distributed renewable energy micro-grids in the developing world.