Dr. Kathryn McEachern began her career in the open pit coal mines of Pacific Power and Light in Wyoming and Montana.
There she designed long-term vegetation monitoring programs, directed topsoil salvage operations, and designed and tested native plant seed mixes for habitat reclamation. Her interest in ecosystem restoration led her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she participated in the restoration ecology group, and helped design a new Conservation Biology Master’s program. In 1988, she began working with the National Park Service in the Great Lakes region on conservation of coastal ecosystems. She began long-term studies of a threatened dune thistle in one of the habitats she loves best: coastal dunes. Her research interests led her to the California south coast, where she continues to study rare plants and vegetation. Her particular interests are in the study of how the vegetation forms the context for rare plant persistence, as seen through long-term demographic patterns in the rare plants of the California Channel Islands. To look at this question, she is tracking the native and alien plant communities of the islands along with a suite of rare native plants that inhabit these communities. She guides the Prototype Vegetation Monitoring Program at Channel Islands National Park, and assists other agencies with plant community and rare plant monitoring program design.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Chaparral Ecology
- Coastal Sage Ecology
- Community ecology
- Conservation biology
- Ecological monitoring
- Geographic Information Systems
- Invasive species ecology
- Landscape ecology
- Landscape patterns
- Plant ecology
- Pop. viab. models
- Population biology
- Restoration ecology
- Species/Population management
- Weed management
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 1992
B.S., Botany, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 1979
Affiliations and Memberships*
California Native Plant Society
International Association for Vegetation Science
Society for Conservation Biology
The Ecological Society of America
Science and Products
Drivers of Ecosystem Recovery on Santa Rosa Island
Developing Monitoring Programs for Damaged Ecosystems
Restoring Rare Plants on Public Lands
Channel Islands Field Station
Science and Products
- Science
Drivers of Ecosystem Recovery on Santa Rosa Island
The Channel Islands were used as ranches for almost 150 years. Sheep, cattle, pigs and other livestock grazed on native perennial scrub, leaving behind barren landscapes that could not collect moisture from coastal fog. In time, ranching ended and livestock were removed. WERC’s Dr. Kathryn McEachern is monitoring habitat recovery and testing the efficacy of restoration practices on the islands for...Developing Monitoring Programs for Damaged Ecosystems
California’s Channel Islands are recovering from a long history of ranching. As the island ecosystems respond to the absence of livestock, WERC’s Dr. Kathryn McEachern is working with the National Park Service to test new monitoring programs that could help ecologists and biologists study recovering environments across the West.Restoring Rare Plants on Public Lands
Ecosystems throughout the U.S. face threats from invasive species and rapid changes to the environment. Dr. Kathryn McEachern is studying the long-term effects of invasive plants and animals, and environmental change on the survival and recovery of rare plants across the 18 California Islands and in the Great Lakes.Channel Islands Field Station
Eight islands make up the California Islands archipelago in the United States, extending from Point Conception to the U.S. border with Mexico. The archipelago extends even farther south off the coastline of Baja Sur, Mexico, adding another 10 islands to the chain. WERC’s Channel Islands Field Station is the site of key research on endangered plants, invasive species, and conservation projects on... - Data
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*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government