I am an Biologist at the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center in Boise, ID. I specialize in the use of ArcGIS applications to collect monitoring data as well as databases and web tools designed to collect data on habitat and wildlife conservation.
I started my USGS career by creating and entering the initial data for the Land Treatment Digital Library, a database designed to store tabular data, spatial locations, and documentation on Bureau of Land Management legacy vegetation manipulation treatments. The project is now in its 14th year and has grown to include all legacy treatment data across the contiguous western United States. In 2021, we officially released the Land Treatment Exploration Tool to allow users with any level of GIS experience to explore the history of their planned treatment area and assist them with identifying the best treatment methods for the area. In 2014, I started learning web design and became the lead web designer and database manager for the Conservation Efforts Database (CED). While the initial CED was designed to capture land treatment efforts implemented to preserve greater sage-grouse habitat, it continues to grow and expand. We now have two functional modules, a Sagebrush/Sage-grouse module and a Gunnison sage-grouse module. We are currently building a third module to capture cutthroat trout conservation efforts, demographics, genetics, and habitat data. In addition, I am the lead programmer for and manage the USGS Combined Wildland Fire Dataset. We currently have a team of around 30 wild and prescribed fire experts from multiple agencies and states helping us combine and present fire information from over 40 unique fire datasets.
Other duties include (1) creating mobile data collection apps using ArcGIS Survey123 and Collector, (2) assisting and advising users across the USGS and other agencies and groups in the design of mobile data collection forms, (3) creating and editing manuscripts for publication in scientific literature, (4) spatial mapping design and programming in ArcGIS and Python for work on multiple projects including those involved in global warming, toolbox development, and species habitat modeling, (5) assisting other staff at the station with spatial mapping and database issues, and (6) figure design for manuscript publications using programs such as Adobe Photoshop.
Professional Experience
2020 - Present: Biologist, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Boise, ID
2008 - 2020: Ecologist, USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Boise, ID
2005 - 2008: Student Teaching Assistance, Boise State University, Boise, ID
Education and Certifications
M.S., Raptor Biology, Boise State University, Boise, ID (2008)
Geographic Information Systems Certificate, Boise State University, Boise, ID (2008)
B.A., Environmental Science (Resource Management Track), Goshen College, Goshen, IN (2002)
Honors and Awards
Meritorious Service Award of the U.S. Department of the Interior (2019)
Northwest GIS User Group Conference Best Analysis Award for the Land Treatment Exploration Tool (2018)
U.S. Department of the Interior Unit Award for Excellence of Service – Greater Sage-Grouse Status Review Team (2015)
Science and Products
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
READI-Net: Transitioning eDNA aquatic invasive species surveillance from research to actionable science
GIS Clipping and Summarization Tool for Points, Lines, Polygons, and Rasters
The Wildfire Trends Tool: A data visualization and analysis tool to meet land management needs and facilitate scientific inquiry
Contributions to the development of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Sagebrush Conservation Strategy
Integrating short-term climate forecast into a restoration management support tool
Land Treatment Exploration Tool
Land Treatment Digital Library
Science and Products
- Publications
- Science
Wildland Fire Trends Tool
The Wildland Fire Trends Tool (WFTT) is a data visualization and analysis tool that calculates and displays wildfire trends and patterns for the western U.S. based on user-defined regions of interest, time periods, and ecosystem types. Users can use the tool to easily generate a variety of maps, graphs, and tabular data products that are informative for all levels of expertise. The WFTT provides...READI-Net: Transitioning eDNA aquatic invasive species surveillance from research to actionable science
USGS researchers are working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to optimize autonomous, robotic samplers for detection of DNA fragments shed by biological threats (BT; invasive species, parasites, pathogens) in our nation’s waters. Finding DNA fragments (a method known as environmental DNA sampling) produced by an emerging BT in water is akin to finding a needle in a haystack—many...ByEcosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, Columbia Environmental Research Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, New York Water Science Center, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center , Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center, Pacific Northwest Environmental DNA LaboratoryGIS Clipping and Summarization Tool for Points, Lines, Polygons, and Rasters
Geographic Information System (GIS) analyses are an essential part of natural resource management and research. Calculating and summarizing data within intersecting GIS layers is common practice for analysts and researchers. However, the various tools and steps required to complete this process are slow and tedious, requiring many tools iterating over hundreds, or even thousands of datasets. We prThe Wildfire Trends Tool: A data visualization and analysis tool to meet land management needs and facilitate scientific inquiry
Fighting wildfires and reducing their negative effects on natural resources costs billions of dollars annually in the U.S. We will develop the Wildfire Trends Tool (WTT), a data visualization and analysis tool that will calculate and display wildfire trends and patterns for the western U.S. based on user-defined regions of interest, time periods, and ecosystem types. The WTT will be publicly availContributions to the development of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Sagebrush Conservation Strategy
USGS scientists are contributing to the development of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Sagebrush Conservation Strategy, a strategy intended to provide guidance so that efforts to conserve the iconic greater sage-grouse can be expanded to the entire sagebrush biome to benefit the people and wildlife that depend on it.Integrating short-term climate forecast into a restoration management support tool
Natural resources managers are regularly required to make decisions regarding upcoming restoration treatments, often based on little more than business as usual practices. To assist in the decision-making process, we created a tool that predicts site-specific soil moisture and climate for the upcoming year, and provides guidance on whether common restoration activities (i.e. seeding, planting) wilLand Treatment Exploration Tool
The Land Treatment Exploration Tool provides a practical resource for managers who are planning restoration and rehabilitation actions on public lands. The tool generates a variety of spatial products while being user friendly for all levels of GIS expertise, even to those with little or no experience.Land Treatment Digital Library
The LTDL was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to catalog information about land treatments on Federal lands in the western United States for all interested parties. The flexible framework of the library allows for the storage of a wide variety of data in different formats. The LTDL currently stores previously established land treatments or what often are called legacy data. The project... - Data
- Multimedia
- Web Tools
- Software
- News