Senior Research, Associate Professor
Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation sciences, Oregon State University

The foundation of my research program is one of co-produced science that has led directly to actionable knowledge and coupling wildlife resources with human dimensions in working landscapes. My research has always been practical and strives to be proactive in tackling imminent natural resource issues, including the effects wildfire and invasive grasses, juniper encroachment and its removal on space use and demography of wildlife in upland systems. More recently, I have begun work in wetland systems of the Klamath Basin trying to understand the role of seedbanks and restoration efforts to establish sub-emergent aquatic vegetation, and unraveling the mysteries of the western meta-population of Yellow Rail that resides here. Finally, I have begun to guide research related to large scale conservation of raptors. We are examining the potential for using rehabilitated raptors (admitted to rehab facilities due to anthropogenic causes) as a mitigation tool for individual mortalities that have occurred in various industry sectors. We are also examining the effects of land use and land cover on raptor populations in Kazakhstan. Last, but not least we are engaged in examining the effectiveness of painting 1 of 3 turbine blades black as a method for reducing raptor mortality at wind farms. As part of that work, we are developing 3-D movement models to more accurately asses how golden eagles, in particular, interact with turbines that have a painted blade and those without.