Please note: As of August 2013, my research group will not admit any new students.
My research has encompassed three general areas:
1. the response of terrestrial vertebrates to forest and range management practices,
2. the ecology and management of introduced species, especially feral animals, and
3. the autecology of economically or politically important wildlife, including, fishers, coyotes, pumas, wolverines, deer, elk, wild pigs and wild turkeys.
I have been involved with the development and testing of the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System and represented the University on the California Interagency Wildlife Task Group from 1980-2000. Results of this work are now being used by the forest industry and state resource agencies in producing environmental review documents. Topics of interest include land use planning, landscape ecology, conservation biology and vertebrate population ecology as they relate to the problem of predicting the responses of wildlife to human activities, especially on forest and rangelands.
Methods used in my research program include a wide range of vertebrate census techniques, including direct observation, live-trapping, and automated detection systems. Radio-telemetry, including GPS collars, is commonly used for in-depth studies of behavior and habitat preference. Geographic information systems are used to analyze empirical data and to derive spatial models for assessing management alternatives.
Current Projects
Current graduate students are studying 1) the response of wildlife to thinning and prescribed burning in the Sierra Nevada, 2) the population ecology of fishers in the southern Sierra, 3) the wildlife communities of golf courses, 4) the comparative population dynamics of two tule elk populations, and 5) testing comprehensive wildlife survey methods for adaptive management of wildlands.
