Craig D Allen, Ph.D.

Craig D. Allen is a research ecologist with the USGS Fort Collins Science Center, and is Station Leader of the New Mexico Landscapes Field Station (formerly the Jemez Mountains Field Station) based at Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico, where he has worked as a place-based ecologist with the U.S. Dept. of Interior since 1986. Craig conducts research on the ecology and environmental history of Southwestern landscapes, and the responses of Western mountain ecosystems and forests globally to climate change; he also provides technical support in the areas of ecosystem management and restoration to diverse land management agencies in the region. He is a core principal investigator of the USGS Western Mountain Initiative, an integration of research programs that study global change in mountain ecosystems across the western United States (see WesternMountains.org), with extensive international collaborations. Recent and ongoing research activities, involving many colleagues and collaborators, include: integrated understanding of climate-induced tree mortality and forest die-off, including determination of global patterns and trends; development of ecological and fire histories in the southwest U.S.; ecological effects of recent fires on southwestern landscapes; ecological restoration of southwestern forests and woodlands; and developing long-term ecological monitoring networks across landscape gradients in the Jemez Mountains.

Education

• Ph.D. Forest and Landscape Ecology, Wildland Resource Science Program, University of California, Berkeley, 1989
• M.S. Biogeography, Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1984
• Organization for Tropical Studies 6-week tropical biology field course OTS 83-1, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, 1983
• B.S. Geography, Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1980

Selected Professional Experience

• 1993-present: USGS Research Ecologist and Station Leader, USGS Jemez Mountains Field Station, based at Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico. Associate faculty member at multiple universities.
• 2001-2003: Acting Preserve Scientist, at then-newly-established Valles Caldera National Preserve, NM. Initiated diverse long-term ecological inventory, monitoring, and research efforts.
• 1989-1993: Ecologist, Bandelier National Monument, NM. Initiated a variety of long-term ecological monitoring & research.

Affiliations

Associate faculty member at multiple universities for varying time periods, including: University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, University of New Mexico, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University.

Selected Links to Interesting Media Articles featuring Craig D. Allen

• As Fires Grow, a New Landscape Appears in the West - 2015, article in the New York Times
• The Bug That’s Eating the Woods--A warming climate allowed pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) to ravage the West - 2015, article in National Geographic
• The Tree Coroners: To Save the West’s Forests, Scientists Must First Learn How Trees Die, 2013, article in High Country News
• National Public Radio 4-part in-depth special science report, 2012, National Public Radio shows with photos
• Tree Death, 2012, “Catalyst," an Australia Broadcasting Corporation public television science documentary
• Forest fires: Burn out, 2012, News report in the journal Nature on climate and high-severity fire in the U.S. Southwest
• Earth on Fire, June 2014, Australia Braodcasting Corporation public television "Catalyst" science documentary 

Featured Article

Seeing the Forest and the Trees