Packet of Biographical Sketches for Workshop
Presenters
4th USGS Wildland
Fire Science Workshop
December 6-9, 2005
Tucson, AZ
(Arranged in sequence of presentation on
Agenda.)
KIRK ROWDABAUGH, Arizona State Forester
The Governor appointed Kirk to be State Forester in August,
2004, and with Executive Order 2004-21, and Kirk was subsequently confirmed by
the Arizona Senate the following spring. Previously, Kirk had been Deputy State
Forester and had been delegated all of the responsibilities of the State
Forester by the State Land Commissioner.
During the last few years Kirk has represented the State of Arizona in several
significant state and federal forestry and fire management organizations, and
continues to enjoy leadership in many of them.
Kirk is currently: Chair, National Wildfire Coordinating Group, and Secretary,
National Association of State Foresters.
Previously Kirk has been:
Chair, Council of Western State
Foresters
Co-chair (State Lead), Western Forestry Leadership
Coalition
Co-chair (State Lead), Southwest Strategy Regional
Executive Committee
Co-chair, WGA/ FederalFire Cost
Containment Blue Ribbon Panel
Chair, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality,
Redraft of State Open
Burning Regulations Committee
Member, National Association of State Foresters,
Executive Committee and
NASF Fire Committee
Member, Arizona Governor’s Forest Health Advisory Council
Member, Arizona Governor’s Forest Health Oversight
Council
Member
Western Governor’s Association Forest Health Advisory Committee
Member, Arizona
Department of Water Quality, Drought Task Force
Education
June 1978 - Colorado
State University, Fort Collins; Master of
Science, Forest Management (Fire Science);
Thesis: The Role of Fire in the Ponderosa Pine Mixed Conifer Ecosystem; Phi
Kappa Phi National Academic Honors Society
June 1975 - University
of New Mexico, Albuquerque; Bachelor of Science, Majors:
Biology & Chemistry, Minor: English Literature
Work Experience
August 2004 – Present: Arizona State
Forester
July 2001 – August 2004: Deputy State Forester,
Arizona State Land Department, Phoenix,
Arizona
September 1997 - July 2001: Director, Fire Management
Division, Arizona State Land Department, Phoenix,
Arizona
November 1996 - September 1997: Assistant Director,
National Advanced Resource Technology Center;
USDA, Forest Service, Marana,
Arizona (USDI, BLM Employee)
June 1996 - November 1996: Associate District Manager,
Elko Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, Elko, Nevada
July 1990 - June 1996: State Fire Management Officer, Arizona State
Office, Bureau of Land Management, Phoenix,
Arizona
September 1987 - July 1990: Program / Budget Analyst, Alaska State
Office, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage,
Alaska
October 1986 - September 1987: Land Use Planner, Alaska State
Office, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage,
Alaska
September 1981 - October 1986: District Forester /
Fire Ecologist, Anchorage District, Bureau of Land Management, Anchorage, Alaska
January 1979 - September 1981: District Fire
Management Officer, Redding District, Bureau of Land Management, Redding, California
September 1976 - January 1979: Graduate
Research/Teaching Assistant, Colorado State University,
Fort Collins, Colorado
1969 – 1976: Seasonal Firefighter, Wilderness Ranger,
Recreation Tech, Timber Sale Prep, USDA, Forest
Service, Cloudcroft New Mexico and Greybull, Wyoming
JON E. KEELEY, Research Ecologist, Western
Ecological Research
Center, USGS
Dr. Keeley
earned his Ph.D. in botany and ecology from the University
of Georgia in 1977 and has a Master’s
degree in biology from San Diego
State University. He is currently a research ecologist with the
U.S. Geological Survey, stationed at Sequoia
National Park and is an adjunct
professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California,
Los Angeles, and is a research associate of the Rancho Santa
Ana Botanic Garden.
In 1997-98 he served 1 year in Washington,
DC as director of the ecology
program for the National Science Foundation. Prior to this he was professor of
biology at Occidental
College for 20 years and
spent a sabbatical year at the University of Cape
Town, South Africa. He has over 250
publications in national and international scientific journals and books. His research has focused on ecological
impacts of wildfires as well as other aspects of plant ecology, including rare
plants, rare habitats such as vernal pools, and ecophysiology
of seed germination and photosynthetic pathways. His current research includes
projects on the role of fire suppression in crown fire ecosystems, interaction
between fire and invasive species, and the impact of fire season on
prescription burning in mixed conifer forests. In 1985 he was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of the Southern California Academy of
Sciences and an Honorary Lifetime Member of the California Botanical Society.
He has served on the LA County Department of Regional Planning Environmental
Review Board and the State Natural Communities Conservation Program (NCCP)
Scientific Board.
Recent relevant publications:
Keeley, J.E. and C.J. Fotheringham. 1997. Trace gas
emissions in smoke-induced germination. Science 276:1248-1250.
Keeley, J.E. and P.H. Zedler. 1998. Evolution
of life histories in Pinus, pp. 219-251. In D. Richardson (ed),
Ecology
and Biogeography of Pines. Cambridge University
Press, U.K.
Keeley, J.E., C.J. Fotheringham,
and M. Morais. 1999. Reexamining Fire
Suppression Impacts on Brushland Fire Regimes. Science 284:1829-1832.
Keeley, J.E. and N.L.
Stephenson.
2000. Restoring Natural Fire Regimes in
the Sierra Nevada in an Era of Global Change,
In Wilderness Science in a Time of Change. USFS RMRS-P-15.
Keeley, J.E. and C.J. Fotheringham. 2001. The Historical Role of Fire in California Shrublands. Conservation
Biology 15:1536-1548.
Keeley, J.E. 2002. Native American Impacts on Fire Regimes in California Coastal Ranges. Journal of Biogeography 29:303-320.
Keeley, J.E. Role of
Antecedent Climate on Fire Regimes in Coastal California. International Journal of Wildland Fire
13:173-182.
Keeley, J.E. Ecological
Impacts of Wheat Seeding After a Sierra Nevada
Wildfire. International Journal of Wildland Fire 13:73-82.
Keeley, J.E. 2005. Chaparral fuel
modification: what do we know --- and need to know? Fire Management Today I65(4):11-12.
CARL J. MARKON,
Deputy Chief - Geography, Alaska
Science Center,
USGS
Carl Markon coordinates the USGS
Geography and Geographic Information Office activities in Alaska and is also the USGS Land Remote
Sensing Program Science Advisor. His
Geography activities in Alaska include Land Remote Sensing research and
coordination of land remote sensing data utilization and application among the
various federal, state, and local agencies in Alaska, along with Geographic
Analysis and Monitoring activities in Alaska such as Status and Trends,
LANDFIRE, MRLC/NLCD, and a new Statewide Lake Drying assessment. He is also the Point of Contact for Fire
Science activities at the Alaska
Science Center.
MELANIE MILLER, BLM Fire Ecologist, Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Lab
Melanie's work
experience in fire science began as a forestry technician at the Missoula
Northern Forest Fire Lab, while she attended graduate school from 1974 to
1976. From 1976 to 1978, Melanie was a
Resource Management Planner for the Alberta Provincial Parks Division. She was the fire ecologist for the BLM, Fairbanks District, Alaska,
from 1979 to 1985. In 1985, she became
the BLM fire ecologist at the National
Interagency Fire
Center, and currently
reports to the BLM National Office of Fire and Aviation, at NIFC. In 2001, she moved to Montana to represent BLM at the Missoula
Fire Sciences Lab, where her assignment is the integration of BLM issues and
ecosystems into wildland fire research. Melanie has worked in fire management and
land use planning, prescribed fire monitoring, interagency fire ecology and
prescribed fire training, and identification of fire research needs. She has written or co-authored papers on the autecology of plant response to fire, fuel moisture
sampling, the Fire Effects Information System, and vegetation mapping for the
LANDFIRE prototypes. She recently
co-developed a model that qualitatively predicts the response of understory vegetation to fire and thinning in dry western
forests. Melanie currently serves as the
Steering Group Chair for the 3rd International Fire Ecology and
Management Congress to be held in San
Diego in November 2006. Melanie has a B.S. Honors in Physical
Geography from the University of Calgary, and an M.S. in Forest Fire Science from the University of Montana.
STEPHEN C. BUNTING,
Professor of Rangeland Ecology, College
of Natural Resources, University of Idaho
Steve Bunting currently teaches rangeland and landscape
ecology in the Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management. His past
research has concentrated on the effects of fire on vegetation and soils in
sagebrush steppe, juniper woodlands, and ponderosa and whitebark
pine forests. The spatial scale of his fire effects research has varied from
individual plant responses to that of extensive landscape areas. International research has also included fire
effects research on maritime pine forests of northern Portugal and the caldenal
woodlands of central Argentina.
He received a BS degree in Forest and Range Management from Colorado State
University. He received
his training in prescribed fire while working under Dr. Henry Wright at Texas Tech
University, resulting in
a MS degree in fire ecology. In 1978 he
received a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University
in rangeland ecology and has been on the faculty at the University of Idaho
since that time.
JAN L. BEYERS, Plant
Ecologist, Riverside Forest Fire Laboratory, Pacific Southwest Research
Station, Forest Service R&D
Jan Beyers is a research plant
ecologist in the Prescribed Fire and Fire Effects work unit at the Riverside
Fire Lab, USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station. She has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental
Studies-Biology from Whitman College and a Ph.D. in Botany from Duke University. Her Forest Service research has focused on
the effectiveness of postfire emergency
rehabilitation treatments, ranging from ryegrass seeding to aerial hydromulch, and on fire ecology of chaparral and related
plant communities. She recently
completed a long-term assignment as the research liaison to the southern California national
forest’s Forest Plan Revision interdisciplinary team, a task which highlighted
research needs of land managers in the region.
Current research projects include fire response of rare species in
southern California, postfire effects of past
vegetation manipulation at San Dimas Experimental
Forest, and response of mammals to the San Diego County fires of 2003 (with
cooperators including San Diego Natural History Museum), as well as ongoing postfire rehab effectiveness studies.
CRAIG D. ALLEN, Research Ecologist, Jemez
Mountains Field Station, Fort
Collins Science Center, USGS
Craig D. Allen is a research ecologist with the U.S.
Geological Survey, and is Station Leader of the Jemez Mountains Field Station
based at Bandelier
National Monument. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in
geography from the University of Wisconsin (Madison),
and a Ph.D. focused on forest and landscape ecology from the University of California
(Berkeley). He has worked as a place-based ecologist with
the Department of Interior in the Jemez
Mountains since
1986. Craig conducts research on the
ecology and environmental history of Southwestern landscapes, and provides
technical support in the areas of conservation biology and ecological
restoration to Bandelier National
Monument and other land management agencies in
the region. Recent and ongoing research
activities involving a variety of colleagues and collaborators include: development of vegetation and fire histories
in the Southwest; responses of semiarid forests and woodlands to drought,
including extensive vegetation dieback; runoff and erosion processes in piñon-juniper watersheds; ecological restoration of
Southwestern forests and woodlands; and development of long-term ecological
monitoring networks across landscape gradients in the Jemez Mountains. Craig is one of the core PI’s of the Western
Mountain Initiative, an integration of research programs that study global
change in mountain ecosystems of the western United States (http://www.cfr.washington.edu/research.fme/wmi/ ). See website for CDA work regarding
place-based science, fire history and ecology, applied historical ecology, and
restoration of Southwestern forests and woodlands: http://www.fort.usgs.gov/resources/spotlight/place/place_home.asp
THOMAS W. SWETNAM, Director & Professor of Dendrochronology
& Watershed Management, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, The University of
Arizona
Dr. Swetnam is a forest ecologist and tree-ring scientist. He studies the long-term history of forest
fires, insect outbreaks, and the effects of climatic change on forest and
woodland ecosystems. He has studied
forests throughout the western United States,
and he has carried out collaborative research in northern Mexico, Alaska,
Argentina, and Siberia. Dr. Swetnam’s interests include the application of historical
and ecological knowledge to land management and policy. He currently serves on Arizona Governor Janet
Napolitano’s Forest Health Advisory Council, and on her Climate Change Advisory
Group. As Director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research he works with
interdisciplinary faculty, staff, and students to maintain the excellence of
this premier and largest laboratory in the world dedicated to the use of tree
rings to study environmental and cultural change. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in
Biology from the University
of New Mexico in
1977. He was a wildland
fire fighter with the U.S. Forest Service from 1978 to 1980, and then he
attended the University
of Arizona for graduate
studies where he completed his PhD in Watershed Management in 1987. He has been
on the faculty of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research since 1988.
JAN W. VAN WAGTENDONK, Research Scientist,
Yosemite Field Station, Western Ecological Research Center,
USGS
Although a native of California, Dr. van Wagtendonk
grew up in Indiana, where he began his study
of forestry at Purdue
University. Summer seasonal work as a smokejumper for the
Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management convinced him to finish his
undergraduate work at Oregon
State University,
where he received his B.S. in Forest Management in 1963. After serving four and a half years as an
officer in the U.S. Army with the 101st Airborne Division and as an advisor to
the Vietnamese army, he entered graduate school at the University
of California, Berkeley.
There Dr. van Wagtendonk obtained his M.S. in
Range Management in 1968 and his Ph.D. in Wildland
Resource Science with a specialty in fire ecology in 1972. From 1972 through 1993 he was employed as a
research scientist with the National Park Service at Yosemite National Park. Since 1994, Dr. van Wagtendonk
has been employed as a research scientist with the U. S. Geological Survey at Yosemite. His areas of research have included
prescriptions for burning in wildland ecosystems,
recreational impacts in wilderness, and the application of geographic
information systems to resources management.
His work currently focuses on the role of fire in Sierra
Nevada ecosystems.
JONATHAN G. TAYLOR,
Emeritus Fire Social Scientist, Fort
Collins Science Center, Policy Analysis and Science
Assistance Branch, USGS
Dr. Jonathan Taylor received his Ph.D. in Renewable Natural
Resources from the University of Arizona in 1982; his M.S. in Environmental Science
from Washington State University
in 1973. He began Federal service with
the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1988 and was transferred to the Biological
Resources Division of the USGS when that division was created. Dr. Taylor’s Fire Social Science research
began with his Dissertation, studying public perception of fire effects on
southwest Ponderosa pine (Pinus Ponderosa) forests.1 He then
collaborated on studies of public acceptance of prescribed fire2 and
on fire managers’ risk-taking/risk-avoidance in various fire scenarios.3 More recently, while serving the USGS,
Dr. Taylor conducted research on fire communications4 and on
community recovery from wildland fire.5 He also collaborated in an interdisciplinary
study of various effects of wildland fire
intensity/burn severity with colleagues from all divisions of the USGS.6
Selected
Publications
1 Perception:
Taylor, J.G. 1990. Playing with Fire: Effects of Fire in Management of Southwestern
Recreation Resources. Pp. 112-121 In
J.S. Krammes, (Tech. Coord.)
Effects of Fire in
Management of Southwestern Natural Resources. Gen. Tech. Rep.
RM-191, USDA For. Svc., RMF&RES, Fort Collins, CO.
Taylor, J.G. and R.W. Mutch. l986. Fire in wilderness: Public knowledge,
acceptance and perceptions. Pp. 49‑59 In: R.C. Lucas, (Compiler), Proceedings: National Wilderness Research
Conference: Current Research, Fort Collins, CO July l985. USDA For. Svc. GTR—INT‑2l2.
Taylor, J.G. and T. C. Daniel. 1985. Perceived scenic and recreational quality of forest burn
areas. Pp. 398-406 In: J.E. Lotan, B.M. Kilgore, W.C. Fischer, and R.W. Mutch, (Tech. coord.), Proceedings -- Symposium and Workshop on
Wilderness Fire, Missoula,
MT November 1983. USDA For. Svc., Gen.
Tech. Rep. INT-182.
Taylor, J.G., and T.C. Daniel. l984. Prescribed fire: Public
education and perception. Journal of Forestry 82(6):36l‑365.
Taylor, J.G.
1982. Environmental Education Effects on Perception of Recreational and
Scenic Qualities of Forest Burn Areas. Dissertation
submitted to School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. in Renewable Natural
Resources Studies.
2 Public Acceptance:
Cortner, H.C., P.D. Gardner, and J.G. Taylor. 1990. Fire hazards at the Urban-Wildland
Interface: What the Public Expects. Environmental Management 14(1): 57-62.
Carpenter, E.H., J.G. Taylor, H.J. Cortner, P.D.
Gardner, M.J. Zwolinski, and T.C. Daniel. l986. Targeting audiences
and content for forest fire information programs. Journal
of Environmental Education l7(3): 33‑4l.
Taylor, J.G., H.J. Cortner, P.D.
Gardner, T.C. Daniel, M.J. Zwolinski and E.H.
Carpenter. l986.
Recreation and fire management: Public concerns, attitudes, and
perceptions. Leisure Sciences 8(2):l67‑l87.
Cortner, H.J., P.D. Gardner, J.G. Taylor, E.H. Carpenter, M.J. Zwolinski,
T.C. Daniel and K.J. Stenberg.
l984. Uses of
public opinion surveys in resource planning. The
Environmental Professional 6:265‑275.
Cortner, H.J., M.J. Zwolinski,
E.H. Carpenter, and J.G. Taylor. l984. Public support for fire‑management policies. Journal
of Forestry 82(6):359‑36l.
Zwolinski, M.J., H.J. Cortner,
E.H. Carpenter and J.G. Taylor. l983. Public Support for Fire Management Policies in Recreational Land
Management. Report to the USDA Forest
Service, Eisenhower Consortium. School of Renewable Natural
Resources, U. of Arizona,
Tucson. l60 p.
3 Risk behavior:
Cortner, H.J., J.G.
Taylor, E.H. Carpenter and D.A. Cleaves. 1990. Factors Influencing Forest
Service Fire Managers' Risk Behavior. Forest Science 36(3):527-544.
Cortner, H.J., J.G.
Taylor, E.H. Carpenter and D.A. Cleaves. 1989. Fire Managers' Risk Perceptions. Fire Management Notes 50(4):16-18. USDA Forest Service, Washington,
D.C.
Taylor, J.G., E.H. Carpenter, H.J. Cortner,
and D.A. Cleaves. 1989. Risk perceptions
and behavioral context: U.S. Forest Service fire management professionals. Society and Natural Resources
1(3):253-268.
4 Communication:
Taylor, J.G., S.C. Gillette, R.W.
Hodgson, and J.L. Downing, Burns, M.R.,
D. Chavez, and J.T. Hogan. Under Revision.
Informing the Network: Improving Communication with Wildland
Interface Communities During Wildland
Fire. Intended for
Journal Publication.
Gillette, S. C., J. G. Taylor, D. Chavez, R. Hodgson. Accepted. Citizen Journalism in a Time of Crisis: Lessons
from a Large-scale California
Wildfire. Electronic Journal of Communication.
Taylor, J.G.,
S.C. Gillette, R.W. Hodgson, and J.L. Downing, 2005. Communicating with Wildland
Interface Communities During Wildfire. USGS Open File
Report 2005-1061, Fort Collins
Science Center. [www.fort.usgs.gov/products/publications/21411/21411.asp]
5 Community Recovery:
Burns, M.R., J.G. Taylor, and J.T.
Hogan. In Press. Integrative Healing: The Importance of
Collaborative Efforts in Post-Fire Community Recovery. In
B. Kent and C. Raisch. Wildfire and Fuels Management: Risk and Human Reaction.
Dr.
Jonathan G. Taylor, Ms Michele R. Burns, and
Mr. John T. Hogan. 2005. Human Ecology of Post-Fire Recovery:
Adaptive, Integrative Healing. Paper presented at the 20th Society
for Human Ecology Conference, Oct. 2005, Salt
Lake City.
6
Interdisciplinary:
Martin, D.A., S.H. Cannon, G.W. Chong,
S.L. Haire, C.H. Key, R.F. Kokaly,
N.B. Kotliar, J.A. Moody and J.G. Taylor. 2004.
Venture Capitol Project Final Report: The Ecological, Hydrological and
Geological Consequences of Burn Severity and Social Application of those
Results. USGS Internal
Report, submitted 5/14/2004.
NATHAN J. WOOD,
Research Geographer, Western Geographic Science Center,
USGS
Nathan Wood is a research geographer in the Western Geographic
Science Center
and is co-located at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, WA.
His research focuses on assessing the vulnerability of human systems to natural
hazards. His current work focuses on the vulnerability of communities to
tsunamis on the Oregon coast and to volcanic lahar hazards in Puget Sound.
He received a B.S in Geology from Duke
University and a M.S. in Marine
Science from the University
of South Florida, where
his research focused on sediment transport and the geomorphology of coastal
wetlands. In 2002, he received a PhD from Oregon State
University in Geography
for his work on the vulnerability of coastal communities to large-magnitude
earthquake hazards. He has been with the U.S. Geological Survey since 2002.
DEBORAH A. MARTIN,
Research Hydrologist, National Research Program, Water Resources Discipline,
USGS
Deborah Martin received her undergraduate degree in geology
from Princeton University
and her master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of Virginia.
That multidisciplinary background has been especially useful in her work in the
Amazon on an atmospheric chemistry project, in South Africa on a weather
modification project, and most recently in research through the U.S. Geological
Survey on the consequences of wildfire. Deborah has worked with the U.S.
Geological Survey since 1983, first in Reston, Virginia and currently in Boulder, Colorado.
Since the Buffalo Creek Fire in Colorado
in 1996, Deborah has studied the erosion and flooding following wildfire and
has a particular interest in the water quality effects of fire. Deborah lives
with her husband and two children in the wildland-urban
interface west of Boulder
and is an active volunteer in the Boulder County Wildfire Mitigation Group.
SUSAN H. CANNON,
Research Geologist, Landslide Hazards Program, USGS
Sue Cannon has Masters degrees in geology and civil engineering from the University of Colorado,
and a PhD from the University
of Colorado. She has been a researcher with the U.S.
Geological Survey Landslide Hazards Program since 1990, and has been working on
issues dealing with the generation of fire-related debris flows since
1994. Her primary focus is the
development of tools and methods for defining fire-related debris-flow hazards,
and her current research project is focused in southern California.
She finds it hard to stay away from a good fire.
ROBERT E. GRESSWELL,
Research Biologist, Northern Rocky Mountain
Science Center,
USGS
Bob Gresswell is an aquatic ecologist at the USGS Northern
Rocky Mountain
Science Center
and is an affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Ecology at Montana State
University and a courtesy assistant
professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State
University. His interests
concerning the influence of disturbance in forested ecosystems have led to
research on the relationships among landscape-scale environmental features, instream habitat characteristics, and cutthroat trout
abundance. Bob first became involved with research on the effects of fire on
aquatic ecosystems during the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park.
Most recently he has been involved in research on the role of small lakes as
biotic refugia during fire and patterns of postfire recovery at local and landscape scales.
TODD C. ESQUE, Ecologist, Las Vegas Field Station, Western Ecological Research Center, USGS
Todd Esque is an ecologist working
with the US Geological Survey in Henderson,
Nevada. He has been studying
desert ecology since 1978. He received a Bachelor of Arts at Prescott
College, Arizona; Master’s Degree
in Biology at Colorado State University
his PhD in the Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology at the University of Nevada,
Reno. His
primary research interests focus on the response of desert plants and animals
to natural and man-made disturbances.
DOUGLAS G. FOX, Senior Research Scientist, Cooperative
Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State
University
Doug joined Colorado
State University’s
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere as a Senior Research
Scientist in 1996, following a 25 year career with the USDA-Forest Service where he was a research project leader, Chief
Meteorologist and Program Manager of the Interior West Climate Change Research.
At CIRA, Doug is the Principal Investigator of a continuing cooperative
research program with the National Park Service. NPS research at CIRA focuses
on air quality and especially on relating impaired visibility to the pollution
sources which cause it. In addition to
working at CIRA, Doug consults for a variety of government agencies. Among
other activities, Doug was a lead author of the UN’s IPCC Working Group II, Second Assessment Report, responsible for the
Chapter on Effects of Climate Change on Mountains; he drafted the Climate
Change Action program for US AID’s Asian Environmental
Partnership, and helps to coordinate the US Forest Service’s Fire Consortia for
Advanced Modeling of Meteorology & Smoke (FCAMMS). Doug currently
spends about 25% of his time on the Isle of Man
where he is helping to develop their Climate Change program. Doug is a graduate of the Cooper Union in NYC and received a PhD in
Engineering & Applied Mathematics from Princeton University.
Before joining the Forest Service he worked as a scientist at NCAR, EPA & NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory. He is past President of the 15,000 member
international Air & Waste Management Association.
DONALD A. FALK,
Adjunct Associate Professor of Dendrochronology,
Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona
Don Falk is
a researcher and Adjunct Associate Professor of dendrochronology
in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona.
His research focuses on fire history, fire ecology, dendroecology,
and restoration ecology, including multi-scale studies of fire as an ecological
and physical phenomenon in the Jemez Mountains of New
Mexico. He has received research support and
fellowships from the National Science Foundation and the US Forest Service, and
has been honored for his work by the Pinchot
Institute, Australian Fulbright Foundation, McGinnies
Scholarship in Arid Lands Studies, and the International Association of
Landscape Ecology, among others. In 2003 he received the Edward S. Deevey Award from the Ecological Society of America for
outstanding graduate work in paleoecology. Don is a
Fellow of the AAAS, and was appointed by Governor Janet Napolitano to serve as
a member of the Arizona Forest Health Advisory Council. Don was co-founder and
Executive Director of the Center for Plant Conservation, originally at the
Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and now at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
He served subsequently as first Executive Director of the Society for
Ecological Restoration. His publications include two books on conservation
genetics and restoration of endangered species, and a forthcoming book, Foundations
of Restoration Ecology, to be published by Island Press in 2006. He
currently serves as Associate Editor for the Island Press-SER series, Science
and Practice of Restoration Ecology, which he helped
establish.
THOMAS D. SISK,
Center for Environmental Sciences and Education, Northern
Arizona University
Tom Sisk is an ecologist with the Center for Environmental
Sciences and Education at Northern
Arizona University. He is a native of New
Mexico and focuses on science and policy issues affecting
biodiversity and natural resources, primarily in arid North
America. Tom directed an
international program in tropical conservation biology for the Center for
Conservation Biology at Stanford
University, where he
received his Ph.D. in 1992. Before
joining the NAU faculty in 1996, Tom served as the Special Assistant to the
Director of the National Biological Service, U.S. Department of the
Interior. Currently, he teaches courses
in ecology, conservation biology, and environmental policy, and oversees an
active research group studying the effects of habitat fragmentation, livestock
grazing, forest and fire management, and long-term changes in land use and land
cover. He coordinates NAU’s interdisciplinary M.S. program in Environmental Sciences
and Policy, and serves on numerous editorial boards and advisory
committees. In 2001 he was named a
fellow of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program of the Ecological Society of
America, and he was recently elected to Board of Governors of the Society for
Conservation Biology.
MATTHEW L. BROOKS, Research Botanist, Las Vegas Field Station, Western
Ecological Research
Center, USGS
Matt Brooks has conducted research related to the ecology
and management of natural resources in arid and semi-arid ecosystems since the
late 1980s. His past research has focused on a wide range of issues, including
the ecological effects of livestock grazing, off-highway vehicle use, roads,
atmospheric nitrogen deposition, non-native plants invasions, and fire. He has
studied the responses of both plants and animals to these disturbance factors,
and to efforts to foster the recovery of natural resources from these
disturbances. His current research is focused more specifically on the effects
of non-native plants and fire on plant population and community structure and
inter-specific relationships, and on the relatively success of different
management treatments designed to mitigate their impacts. He received a BS in
Biological Sciences from the University
of California, Irvine
in 1987, a MA in Biology from California
State University,
Fresno in 1992, and a PhD in Biology, Concentration in Ecology and
Population Biology, from the University
of California, Riverside in 1998. He taught biological
sciences at the high school, community college, and University levels from
1987-1998, and was employed as a Research Ecologist for the US Geological
Survey from 1998-2001. He has been in his current position as a Research
Botanist for the US Geological Survey since 2001.
DAN NEARY PhD,
CPSS, FSSSA, FASA
Research Soil Scientist & Project Leader
USDA
Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Research Station
RMRS-4302 Watersheds & Riparian Ecosystems
Flagstaff,
AZ
Education:
BS, Forestry 1969 Michigan
State University
MS, Forest Ecology 1972, Michigan State
University
PhD, Forest Soils 1974, Michigan State
University
Experience:
Forestry Research and Development: 29 years USDA Forest
Service, Southern Research Station and Rocky Mountain Research Station; 3 years
New Zealand Forest Research Institute; International Science Exchange: 16
countries
Career Highlights:
New Zealand Forest Research Institute, 1974-1977
Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory,
Franklin, NC, 1978-1981
Intensive Management Practices
Assessment Center,
Gainesville, FL 1981-1994
University of Florida Adjunct Professor 1981-Present
Watershed and Riparian Ecosystems Project, Flagstaff, AZ,
1994-Present
Univ. of Arizona and Northern Arizona Univ.
Adjunct Professor, 1994-Present
Accomplishments:
Publications: 280 (3 books, 20 book chapters)
Graduate Students: 37 MS and PhD Graduate Students from 14
countries
Emergency Medical Technician 1975-Present; ICS Medical Unit
Leader
Certified Professional Soil Scientist, Soil Sci. Soc. of America Board Member
Fellow, Soil Sci. Soc. of America; and Fellow,
American Society of Agronomy
Personal Information:
Birth Place: Eau
Claire, WI; Married:
Wife Vicki (Pharmacy Tech), Children: Collin 29, Andrea 26, David 23, Erika 20;
Interests: Travel, Hiking, Celtic Heritage, Theater, Languages, Volunteer EMT, Skiing,
Swimming, Sailing.
THOMAS J. CASADEVALL, Central Region
Director, USGS
Tom Casadevall
became Regional Director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s 15-state Central
Region on January 1, 2000. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Director of the
USGS, from November 1998 through December 1999, including almost a year as USGS
Acting Director. Tom served for two
years as USGS Western Regional Director in 1996 and 1997. He has studied volcanoes around the world and
from 1978 to 1996 was a geologist with the USGS Volcano Hazards Program,
stationed at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, the Cascades Volcano
Observatory, and in Denver,
Colorado. From 1985 to 1988 he was the Advisory Volcanologist to the Government of Indonesia. Tom graduated from Beloit
College, Wisconsin, with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Geology; he earned a Master of Arts degree in
Geology and a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from Pennsylvania State
University. His honors and awards include the Department
of the Interior’s Superior Service Award in 1994 and Meritorious Service Award
in 2000.
JIM DOUGLAS, Deputy
Director, Office of Wildland Fire Coordination,
Office of Assistant Secretary-Policy, Management and Budget, Department of the
Interior
Prior experience includes serving as Director for Response/Director
for Continuity Programs, Homeland Security Council, Executive Office of the
President; Chief of Staff to the Special Trustee for American Indians;
Emergency Coordinator, Office of Managing Risk and Public Safety, Department of
the Interior; and Departmental Fire Program Coordinator, Department of the
Interior. Jim joined the Department in
1979 in the Office of Policy Analysis and later spent a number of years in the
Department’s budget office. In the
course of his career he has been involved in the 1989, 1994, and 2000 fire
policy reviews as well as the follow-up to the South Canyon Fire investigation
in 1994. He has been involved in setting
up the Joint Fire Science Program and other fire science-related
activities. He has an A.B. from Grinnell College
and a Masters degree in Public Policy, University of Michigan,
with an emphasis in land use planning and natural resource issues.
TOM NICHOLS, Deputy Fire Planning Program Leader, National Park
Service, Fire Management Program
Center
Tom joined the Park Service in 1977 as a seasonal park technician in
Resource Management, monitoring and documenting the effects of natural and
prescribed fires in Sequoia and Kings
Canyon National
Parks. In 1978, he returned as a seasonal for
resources management, and wrote much of the Park's Fire Management Plan, Fire
Monitoring Guidelines, and part of the Prescribed Burning Guidelines. In 1979,
he was hired as a permanent forestry technician (fire ecology), responsible for
refining the prescribed burning program and developing the prescriptions used
in the various vegetation types in the Parks. He also acquired the
responsibility for writing smoke management guidelines and for determining and
documenting air quality in the Park.
In 1981, he became the
Park's Environmental Specialist, responsible for prescribed burning, fire
monitoring activities, fire effects studies, air quality monitoring, fire
management training, and the refinement of the Fire Management Plan and its
prescriptions and procedures. Tom was also involved in backcountry management
and acid rain research. In 1992, he became the Prescribed Fire Specialist for
the Western Region of the National Park Service. He became Fire Management
Officer for the Pacific Great Basin Support Office in 1996, and supervised fire
management programs for National Park Service units in California,
Nevada, and Hawaii. In 1999 this was expanded to the
entire Pacific West Region, with the addition of Washington,
Oregon, and Idaho. Tom accepted the Fire Management Officer
position with Yosemite
National Park in 2002. In 2005, Tom moved to Boise
as the Deputy Fire Planning Program Leader for the National Park Service’s Fire Management
Program Center.
Tom received a B.A. degree in Chemistry and Earth Sciences from the University of California at San
Diego, and an M.S. degree in Biology with a specialization in
Ecology from San Diego
State University.
Carl Rountree
U.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management • Arizona
Associate State
Director
Education: 1970 B.A. Political Science, The
Citadel, Charleston, SC
1975 M.A. City &
Regional Planning, Clemson University, Clemson,
SC
Experience: 30 years of professional land use and natural
resource planning and management experience, working for local, state and
federal government agencies with 20 years of increasing supervisory and
leadership responsibilities.
08/73 - 01/75 Project
Director, Clemson Architectural Foundation, Clemson, SC
02/75 - 09/77 Land Use Planner, BCD Council of Governments, Charleston, SC
10/77 - 12/80 Land Use Planner, Forest Service, Washington, D.C.
01/81 - 01/85 Community
Planner, BLM, Sacramento,
CA
01/85 - 12/92 Chief, Planning & Environmental Coordination, BLM, Sacramento, CA
12/92 - 04/95 Chief,
Branch of Biological Resources, BLM, Sacramento,
CA
04/95 - 08/97 Assistant
Director, Ecosystem Science Div., BLM, Sacramento,
CA
08/97 - 03/01 Deputy
State Director, Natural Resources, BLM, Sacramento,
CA
03/01 - Pres. Associate
State Director, BLM, Phoenix,
AZ
Professional
Affiliations
·
Post
Member of the American Planning Association, the California Planning Roundtable, the National
Association of Environmental Professionals, Western Chapter of the Wildlife
Society
·
U.S.
Delegate to the People’s Republic of China
to exchange information on natural resource management and land use planning
practices within the U.S.
and China
·
Instructor,
Environmental Law Institute, Washington,
D.C., “Environmental Policy:
Development and Implementation,” USDI-BLM Environmental Law Course
·
Guest
lecturer for national and state conferences of the American Planning
Association, the National Association of Environmental Professionals, The
Wildlife Society, and the National Academy of Science
·
Past
Chair, Executive Committee, California
Biodiversity Council
Personal
Information & Interests
·
Honorable
military discharge; helicopter pilot, Republic of Vietnam
·
Interests
include: running, hiking, backpacking and soccer
MARK KAIB, Regional Fire Ecologist, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Southwest Region 2
Mark is currently the fire ecologist for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service Southwest Region in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, where he consults the Refuge fire
programs in Arizona, New
Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Mark applies his fire research and management
experience to support the refuge prescribed fire and habitat management
programs. Regional fire and fuel
monitoring planning and implementation, research and development, a regional
fire programmatic consultation, and emergency fire stabilization and
rehabilitation plans are some of his current projects and
responsibilities. In northern Mexico and the Southwest
United States, Mark has investigated the land-use and fire history
of mixed-conifer, oak woodland, and semi-desert grassland ecosystems. Mark has expanded his dissertation research
into remote areas of the Northern Sierra Madres, where he has used a
multidisciplinary approach to reconstruct forest history and cultural patterns
using tree-ring evidence, documentary sources, and ethnographical methods.
B.S., Environmental Resource
Sciences, Arizona
State University,
1992
M.S., Watershed Management, The University
of Arizona, 1998
Ph.D. Candidate, Arid Lands
Resource Sciences, The University of Arizona
15 years experience in Fire
Management; USFS, NPS, BLM, and FWS
TOM ZIMMERMAN, Director, Fire and Aviation
Management, USDA Forest Service, Southwestern Region (R3)
Tom’s work experience
includes assignments with Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.
Tom moved to his current position with the USDA Forest Service Southwestern
Region in 2003. Program responsibilities
include regional oversight and direction for all aspects of the fire and
aviation management program within the region. Tom is involved in national
training cadres in Advanced Incident Management, Area Command, Advanced Fire
Behavior Interpretation, and Advanced Fire Use Applications. He has served on type 2 and type 1 Incident
Management Teams and Interagency Fire Use Management Teams. Currently, he is an Area Commander on a
National Interagency Area Command Team.
Tom received a B.S. degree in Forestry from the University
of Montana, a M.S. degree in Fire
Ecology from the University of Idaho, and a Ph.D. in Fire Science from Colorado State University.
JAY JENSEN, Executive
Director, Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (representing WGA)
For more than a decade Jay Jensen
has been involved in influencing and tracking natural resource legislative and
policy issues, especially on forestry.
In April 2005, Jay became the Executive Director for the Western
Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC), a Denver-based federal-state governmental
partnership of western forest land managers that include the State Foresters
and Regional Foresters of the USDA Forest Service. Before he became the Executive Director of
WFLC, Jay served as the Senior Forestry Advisor for the Western Governors’
Association, covering forest health, wildfire and biomass energy issues for the
bipartisan WGA. During his tenure, he
played an important role in implementing and updating the 10-year Comprehensive
Wildfire Strategy and oversaw WGA’s $1+ million
biomass energy grants program. Prior to
WGA, Jay was the Legislative and Policy Director for the WFLC. In this position he was instrumental in the
reauthorization of the 2002 Farm Bill, the development of the National Fire
Plan and was party to developing targeted appropriations that would best serve
forestry both in the West and at the national level.
Prior to his move out west in 2001,
Jay served as the lead forestry advisor for the House Committee on Agriculture
for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington,
DC. As the “wood head” for the Committee, he
worked with members of Congress on a number of issues including Canadian
softwood lumber, the 2002 Farm Bill, and oversight of the USDA Forest
Service. Jay also spent three years in Washington, DC
with the National Association of State Foresters as their Legislative Assistant
and Lead Policy Analyst tackling contentious issues such as EPA’s Total Maximum
Daily Load rule addressing water quality.
Jay has been a member of the
Society of American Foresters since 1998.
He holds a Bachelors degree in biology and geography from University of California
at Los Angeles and is currently completing a
Masters degree in forestry at Colorado
State University. Jay is an avid sports enthusiast, so in his
free time you’ll see him playing a game of pick-up basketball or mountain biking the scenic trails in Colorado.
JAMES “PAT” MCELROY, Washington State Forester and Past President,
National Association of State Foresters
Pat McElroy is the Executive
Director of Regulatory Programs for the Washington Department of Natural
Resources, and Washington’s
State Forester. A native of California, Pat has a Bachelor’s degree in Forest
Management from Humboldt State College and a Master of Public Administration
from the University
of Puget Sound. Pat started in forestry in 1957 as a forest
firefighter for the California Division of Forestry during his college
years. After graduating from college, he
moved to Washington
to work for the recently formed Department of Natural Resources as a
forester. Since then, he has gained over
34 years of experience with the Department with responsibilities in trust land
management, forest fire protection, forest regulation, service forestry and
administration. He served in many staff
and line positions in both field and headquarters offices over the years. During the early 1970s, Pat was assigned to
the US Forest Service as the Pacific Northwest Region Fire Prevention
Specialist through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act. The last 15 years of
his work have been in Executive Management.
From 1994 until his return to DNR in 2001, Pat retired to Arizona where he hiked
and explored the mountains and deserts of the Southwest.
Since returning to work, his
responsibilities include oversight responsibility for the Department’s
regulatory, geology and earth resources, resource protection and service
forestry programs. He is also the
Commissioner’s Designee as Chair of the State Forest Practices Board. He has served his professional society, the
Society of American Foresters, in many capacities, and was elected a Fellow of
the Society in 2003. As State Forester he is active in the National Association
of State Foresters, currently serving as Past President.
M. REESE LOLLEY, Fire
Ecologist, The Nature Conservancy of New
Mexico / Gila
National Forest
Reese Lolley is currently working
in a cost-share position between The Nature Conservancy of New Mexico and the Gila National
Forest to develop the scientific foundation for
fire management, and to help managers identify goals, objectives and priorities
for treatment of hazardous fuels and restoration of ecological systems. Prior to coming to the Southwest he worked as
a vegetation ecologist for the Kootenai
National Forest in Montana.
He received a B.S. degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Western Washington University. He earned a M.S. degree from the University of Washington,
College of Forest Resources under Dr. James Agee
with a research focus on the effect of fuel treatments on potential fire
behavior at one of the National Fire and Fire Surrogate sites.
CRAIG THOMPSON, GIS Specialist, National Park
Service – NIFC (FPA)
Area of Expertise / Responsibility: GIS Architecture/Spatial Process Design
Time with Current Employer: 4 years
Major Past Employers: Chevron, BLM
Interesting Fact About Yourself:
(e.g., recent life milestone, award, humorous event) -
Lived in the middle of a 75,000 acre
National Park that was 90 minutes from New
York City.
HOWARD K. ROOSE, Fire
Program Analysis System, Bureau of Land Management Core Team Member, National
Interagency Fire Center
Howard began his career in fire
management with the State of Idaho Department of Lands in 1969, on the Cataldo Protective Unit.
Howard worked for the State the summers of 1969 and 1970. In 1971, Howard became a member of the Coeur
d’ Alene Hotshot Crew located on the Coeur d’ Alene National Forest in North Idaho.
Howard remained with
the crew until 1976 having served as Squad Boss and Superintendent. Howard was one of the lucky winners of the
lottery, Selective Service that is, and spent two wonderful years in the Army,
from 1972-1974. In 1976, Howard
transferred to the Tiller Ranger District, Umpqua National
Forest here in Oregon
as a fuels assistant.
In 1977, having not been able to
rid himself of the “Hotshot” crew life style and activities he transferred back
to the Coeur d’ Alene Hotshot Crew as the
Superintendent until 1979. From the Hotshot crew he moved into a
fuels/prescribed fire planning position on the Wallace Ranger District of the
Idaho Panhandle Forests until 1983. Howard moved to the Ninemile
Ranger District of the Lolo
National Forest as the
Assistant District Fire Management Officer and remained there until 1989,
moving to the Forest Supervisor’s Office as the Deputy Forest Fire Management
Officer.
In September 1999, he became the
Regional Fire Planner for the Northern Region of the Forest Service in Missoula, Montana. That lasted three months; he was then
selected as the National Fire Planner for the Forest Service and moved to the National Interagency Fire
Center. Howard transferred to the Bureau of Land Management,
National Fire Planning Specialist, November of 2001and served there until June
of 2002, moving into the position of Business Team Leader and BLM’s Core Team Member for the Fire Program Analysis
System.
Howard has attended University
of Idaho and the University of Montana, majoring in Forestry.
JAMES E. VOGELMANN,
Principal Scientist, SAIC, Center for EROS, USGS
Jim Vogelmann is currently a work
manager and researcher for the LANDFIRE project at EROS. His past research and current research
interests include large area land cover characterization and monitoring using
satellite remote sensing data. Previous
responsibilities have included serving as work manager for the 1990’s National
Land Cover Data Set project, and serving as a member of the Landsat
7 Science Team. He received a BA degree
in Botany from the University of Vermont in 1978, and a Ph.D. from Indiana University
in Plant Biology in 1983.
Carl Key, Geographer, Glacier Field
station, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, USGS
Carl Key
currently studies landscape-level fire ecology using Landsat
remote sensing with support from the Joint Fire Sciences Program, the National
Park Service, and USGS. Recent work in
developing the dNBR (differenced Normalized Burn
Ratio) and complementary field sampling using the CBI (Composite Burn Index)
has been integrated into several operational programs for burn assessment and
mapping, in both national and international settings. Various aspects have
benefited from close collaboration with Nate Benson
of the National Park Service, and scientists at the USGS National
Center for EROS. Carl has
worked at Glacier
National Park for over 25
years, and previous studies have engaged a variety of interests, including
small mammals, forest ecology, fire history, and glacier dynamics. An enjoyable
part of the last six years has been getting to know many wonderful people
associated with fire ecology, and especially working with younger people in training and
fieldwork.
DAVID A. PYKE, Research Ecologist, Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem
Science Center,
USGS
Dave Pyke obtained all his college
degrees from Washington
State University.
He received a BS in Range Management in 1976, an MS in Forest
and Range Management in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Botany 1984 that focused
specifically on the population biology of cheatgrass
and bluebunch wheatgrass under severe defoliation. He
was awarded a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship and an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship
before becoming a faculty member in the Range Science Department at Utah State
University. While at USU,
he focused his research on the population biology of native and invasive
grasses of the Great Basin. In 1992, he began
his federal research career with the BLM in Corvallis. Although the agency has changed
from the BLM to the NBS to the USGS, he has remained in Corvallis focusing his research on native
plant restoration and invasive plant management in semi-arid ecosystems of the
Intermountain West. He has published over 60 basic and applied science papers
relating to these topics. Currently, he is an editor for Restoration Ecology,
the scientific journal of the Society for Ecological Restoration and the
Project Leader for the USGS Coordinated Intermountain Restoration Project.
NATE BENSON, Fire Ecologist, Fire
Management Program
Center, National Park Service,
National Interagency Fire
Center
Nate Benson has worked for
the National Park Service for more than fifteen years in a variety of
positions. He started his NPS fire
career as a fire effects monitor at Glacier
National Park, and then moved to
Yellowstone and Great Smoky
Mountains National Parks
as a Fire Use Module Leader. More
recently he was the Prescribed Fire Specialist at Everglades
National Park and the fire
ecologist-natural resource liaison located at the NPS Natural
Resources Program
Center. He is currently at the NPS Fire Management Program
Center as the National
Fire Ecology Program Lead.
Since 1996, Nate has worked
with Carl Key on researching characteristics of fire severity using remote
sensing and has been the lead for the National Park Service in developing the
National Burn Severity Mapping Project, a cooperative project between the
National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey. He is currently part of a
joint effort by the U. S. Geological Survey National Center for Earth Resources
Observation and Science and USDA Forest Service, Remote
Sensing Applications
Center to monitor trends in burn
severity for the entire United
States.
Nate has a Master of Science - Land Resources
degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Environmental
Studies.
MATTHEW L. BROOKS, Research Botanist, Las Vegas Field Station, Western
Ecological Research
Center, USGS
Matt Brooks has conducted research related to the ecology
and management of natural resources in arid and semi-arid ecosystems since the
late 1980s. His past research has focused on a wide range of issues, including
the ecological effects of livestock grazing, off-highway vehicle use, roads,
atmospheric nitrogen deposition, non-native plants invasions, and fire. He has
studied the responses of both plants and animals to these disturbance factors,
and to efforts to foster the recovery of natural resources from these
disturbances. His current research is focused more specifically on the effects
of non-native plants and fire on plant population and community structure and
inter-specific relationships, and on the relatively success of different
management treatments designed to mitigate their impacts. He received a BS in
Biological Sciences from the University
of California, Irvine
in 1987, a MA in Biology from California
State University,
Fresno in 1992, and a PhD in Biology, Concentration in Ecology and
Population Biology, from the University
of California, Riverside in 1998. He taught biological
sciences at the high school, community college, and University levels from
1987-1998, and was employed as a Research Ecologist for the US Geological
Survey from 1998-2001. He has been in his current position as a Research
Botanist for the US Geological Survey since 2001.
DYLAN SCHWILK, Ecologist, Sequoia-Kings Canyon Field Station, Western
Ecological Research
Center, USGS
Dylan Schwilk
is the network analyst for the nationwide Fire and Fire Surrogates study. He is an ecologist at the Sequoia and Kings
Canyon Field Station, USGS/WERC. He
currently is investigating the ecological effects of fuel reduction methods in
forests that historically experienced low severity ground fires. Much of his past work investigated the
evolution of fire-related plant traits, especially the evolution of
flammability. He has studied plants and
fire in both ground- and crown-fire dominated ecosystems such as North American coniferous
forests, California
chaparral and South African fynbos shrublands. He received
his BA degree from Occidental College and his PhD from Stanford University.
JAMIE BARBOUR,
Program Manager, Focused Science Delivery Program, Pacific Northwest Research
Station, Forest Service R&D
Jamie Barbour earned a BS in Botany from Washington State
University (1979), and a MS (1983) and
Ph.D. (1990) in Wood and Fiber Science from the University of Washington. He has worked for Weyerhaeuser’s Technology Center (1984-1986) and Forintek Canada Corp. (1986-1993), where he conducted
research on the effects of different forest management practices on the
physical properties of wood products. In
1993 he joined the Ecologically Sustainable Production of Forest Resources Team
at the USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station, where he conducted research
on the interaction of ecological and economic objectives for forestry. From 1997 to 2002 he was team leader for that
team. In April 2002 he became Program
Manager for the Focused Science Delivery Program also at the PNW Research
Station. The FSD program helps policy
makers, natural resource managers, and the public more effectively use what we
already know about natural resource management by conducting analyses of
existing scientific information to address current and emerging issues in
forest policy and management. Jamie is
the author or coauthor of more than 90 scientific publications on natural
resource management and use.
ANNE E. BLACK,
Ecologist, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, Rocky Mountain Research
Station, Forest Service R&D
Anne Black is currently a post-doctoral ecologist with the
Leopold Institute. For the past three years she has focused on understanding
the barriers and facilitators of Wildland Fire Use
programs. Her work includes developing the Fire Effects Planning Framework, a
process for spatially calculating resource benefits and risks from fire,
participating in the national Science Synthesis project to ensure managers have
access to the best available science for assessing hazardous fuels reduction
projects, and delving into the Organizational Learning world to learn, practice
and evaluate potentially useful techniques for increasing our capacity to
safely and successfully put fire on the ground. This interdisciplinary approach
mirrors her educational and professional background. While all of her formal
training has been in natural resources (University of Montana 1984, Yale School
of Forestry and Environmental Studies 1992, University of Idaho, College of
Natural Resources 1998), her course work and dissertation include both social
and natural ecology. Her work has taken her from the prairies of eastern Montana where she was a rural community organizer, to an
internship in Washington, DC,
to the Point Reyes peninsula, where she was
the Landscape Ecologist for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.
GREG GOLLBERG,
Project Manager - FRAMES, College of Natural Resources, University of Idaho
Greg Gollberg is the project
manager for the collaborative interagency Fire Research and Management Exchange
System (FRAMES). Greg has a B.S. in
Natural Resource Ecology and Conservation and a M.S. in Forest Resources from
the University of
Idaho. His areas of research include fire ecology,
science delivery, and technology transfer.
In 1999, he coordinated the first Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP)
conference entitled, “Integrating spatial technologies and ecological
principles for a new age in fire management.” In 2001, while serving as guest editor for a
special edition of the International Journal of Wildland
Fire, he and others including Bob Keane (USDA Forest Service, Missoula Fire
Lab) and Penny Morgan (University of Idaho. Forest Resources Department)
developed the idea for a gateway website for one point-access to wildland fire and fire-related data, documents, tools, and
other information resources. In 2003,
the construction of FRAMES began.
BARRON J. ORR,
Assistant Professor and Geospatial Extension Specialist, Office of Arid Lands
Studies, University of Arizona
Barron Orr is an Assistant Professor and Geospatial Extension
Specialist at the University
of Arizona. His position
was created to help join the missions of NASA, USDA and NOAA with the
experience and infrastructure of Cooperative Extension in order to bridge the
gap between geospatial technology and its potential users in the state of Arizona. Dr. Orr directs
a number of database development and web programming initiatives designed to
make geospatial data and information products accessible to stakeholders. His
research focuses on land tenure, land degradation, environmental change and a
precision approach to natural resource management. Prior to this position, Dr.
Orr led a major public lands utilization land study for USAID in Malawi and worked on a desertification control
project on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Morocco. Between these experiences
he worked for six years in marketing for an international firm. He received his
Ph.D. in Arid Lands Resources Sciences in 2000.
JOHN T. HOGAN,
Physical Scientist, Jemez Mountains Field Station, Fort Collins Science
Center, USGS
John Hogan is a Physical Scientist with the Jemez Mountains
Field Station of the US Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center. For the past 13 years, John has participated
in field research related to landscape change in the Jemez Mountains,
with an emphasis on wildfire. Since May
of 2000, John has been deeply involved with the community-based, non-profit
Volunteer Task Force (VTF). A VTF
co-founder, he continues to work with students and adults in fire-affected and
at-risk communities in northern New
Mexico, and throughout the western US. More than six thousand northern New Mexico students have
now participated in hands-on ecological education and community service with
the VTF. John also served on the Burned
Area Emergency Response (BAER) Teams for the Rodeo-Chediski
Fire in Arizona’s White Mountains, the Aspen
Fire in the Santa Catalina Mountains outside of Tucson,
and the Old and Grand Prix Fires in the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California.
He is currently conducting monitoring studies for the Los Alamos County
Fuel Mitigation – Forest Restoration Project.
JULIO L. BETANCOURT, Senior
Scientist, Desert Laboratory, USGS
Julio Betancourt is a Senior Scientist with the U.S.
Geological Survey and is an adjunct professor at the University
of Arizona in Tucson, where he obtained his M.S. and Ph.D.
For most of his career, he has been based at the Desert Laboratory, a research
institution with a 100-yr legacy in environmental studies (http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/).
Julio works for the National Research Program of the Water Resources Division,
who classifies him as a Research Hydrologist, which by his own admission he is
not. He’ll finally answer to paleoecologist or paleoclimatologist if pressed, but usually hems and haws and
carries on if people let him. Accordingly, he has spent the last 25 years
dodging labels and avoiding specialization, while adapting a wide array of
techniques to study the influence of climate variability on physical and
biological systems in the Americas
at interannual to millennial time scales (http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/julio_cv.html).
His service of late
includes organization of the AIBS-NEON workshop on ecological responses to
climate change (http://www.neoninc.org/documents/neon-climate-report.pdf),
co-leadership in an exciting initiative to help jumpstart a USA-National Phenology Network (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Geography/npn/),
and participation on a current NRC Committee that is reviewing the scientific
basis for managing Colorado River water resources.
Even closer to home, Julio is presently waging a holy crusade against buffelgrass invasion and the unhinging of a unique American
ecosystem- the Sonoran Desert
(http://wwwpaztcn.wr.usgs.gov/buffelgrass/).
ERIK BERG, Program
Manager, Joint Fire Sciences Program, National Interagency Fire Center
Currently Erik Berg serves as the Joint Fire Science Program
Manager stationed in Boise,
Idaho. Previously (1994-2004) Erik
was a research forester at the Bent Creek Experimental
Forest, Southern Research Station,
USDA Forest Service in Asheville,
North Carolina. He managed the Bent Creek technology transfer
program and conducted research on upland hardwood and conifer forest responses
to disturbance. Erik investigated
vegetation responses to wind, fire, ice, single-tree and group selection, and shelterwood treatments, with an emphasis on spatial and
resource gradient effects on forest understory
vegetation. During 19754-1994, he
completed timber management and silviculture
assignments with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and USFS National Forests
in the inland northwest.
Education:
Degree School
BS (Forestry) University of Idaho
Masters Degrees University
of Idaho, Washington State
University
Ph.D. (Forest Ecology) Clemson
University
Susan G. Conard, Wildland Fire Research
and Development Strategic Program Area Team Leader, National Program Leader for
Fire Ecology Research, Forest Management Research Staff, Forest
Service R&D
Recent Past Positions:
Oct. 2000-Dec. 2001:
Agency representative, National Science and Technology Council, working at the
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the
President
1985-1996: Project
Leader, Ecology and Fire Effects Research, Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest
Service, Riverside, CA
Current Activities:
Chair Governing Board, interagency Joint Fire Science
Program;
USDA/FS representative, Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction,
Committee on Environment and Natural Resources;
Deputy Coordinator, Division 8,
International Union of Forest Research Organizations; Steering Group,
International Boreal Forest Research
Association.
Areas of Interest and Expertise:
Fire ecology and effects, disturbance
ecology, fire/carbon cycle interactions, boreal forest ecology and management,
international collaboration. Experience with vegetation management research, disturbance
ecology, and fire effects in California, Oregon, British Columbia,
and Russia.
Education: Ph.D., University of California, Davis (1980), Plant
ecology; M.S., University of California, Davis (1974), Plant Ecology; B.A.,
Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio (1971), Environmental Studies
JACK B. WAIDE,
National Program Coordinator – Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Marine Ecosystems
Program, USGS
Jack Waide
presently serves as National Program Coordinator for the Ecosystems Program
within the Biological Resources Discipline in Reston. One major element of this diverse program is
research focused on Fire Ecology. In
this position, he works to coordinate fire science research across USGS
Disciplines and with DOI and other agencies and organizations. Prior to joining the USGS in 2004, Jack held
several positions in Forest Service R&D in which he was responsible for
national and regional leadership and coordination of agency R&D programs,
including National Program Leader for Ecosystem Research; Acting Director of
Wildlife, Fish, Watershed, and Atmospheric Sciences Research; and Assistant
Director of the Rocky Mountain Research Station, with responsibility for
overseeing station research in Idaho, Nevada and Utah.
Jack
completed undergraduate studies in biological sciences and mathematics at the University of Texas,
and graduate studies and research in systems ecology at the Institute of Ecology,
University of Georgia.
With over 30 years of professional experience, he has held positions in
university (Clemson), national laboratory (Oak Ridge National Lab), federal
agency (USAE Waterways Experiment Station, Forest Service R&D Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory [NC] and Forest Hydrology
Laboratory [MS]), and private consulting firm environments. Prior to stumbling onto the path of research
leadership and coordination, the bulk of Jack’s research focused on developing
improved understanding and models of the dynamics, organization, and resilience
of watershed ecosystems and their responses to human and natural disturbances,
especially resource management practices including prescribed fire, acid
deposition, climate variability including severe drought, and major insect
defoliation.
RANDALL G. UPDIKE,
Regional Executive for Geology, USGS Central Region
Dr. Randall G. Updike is an earth scientist. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Volcanic
Geology from Arizona State University,
in 1977, with his dissertation on the ‘Cenozoic Geology of the San Francisco
Peaks, Arizona.’ He joined the Alaska Division of Geological
and Geophysical Surveys, in Anchorage,
in 1978. For the next 10 years he
conducted applied research in engineering geology throughout Alaska,
specializing in earthquake, landslide and volcanic hazards, including mapping
the surficial geology of Prudhoe Bay, Quaternary
Geology and Earthquake Hazards of Upper Cook Inlet, and engineering geology
projects in the Aleutians, Kodiak, Wrangell, and Valdez. He also led bedrock and surficial
geologic mapping projects in the Chugach Mountains of
south-central Alaska
for five years. In 1987, Randy accepted
a position with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Virginia,
where he served as Associate Office Chief for the Office of Earthquakes,
Volcanoes and Engineering and as the National Program Coordinator for the
Earthquake Program. In 1994, he
transferred to Denver, Colorado, where he became the Branch Chief
for the Branch of Earthquake and Landslide Hazards, and concurrently the USGS
National Landslide Program Coordinator. From 1996 until 2001 he was Chief
Scientist for the Geologic Hazards Team, based in Golden, CO. He has led or participated in disaster
response teams domestically and internationally and has represented the USGS on
natural hazard and applied geology issues in over 20 foreign countries,
including the USAID-funded response to the landslide disasters caused by
Hurricane Mitch in Central America. In 2001, he was appointed Central Region
Associate Regional Geologist for Science Programs and in 2003 was selected
Central Regional Executive for Geology in Denver.