Kathryn McEachern
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
Comparison of reintroduction and enhancement effects on metapopulation viability
Ecological change on California's Channel Islands from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene
Ability of matrix models to explain the past and predict the future of plant populations.
First report of fasciation in Pitcher's Thistle, Cirsium pitcheri (Asteraceae)
Effects of a non-native biocontrol weevil, Larinus planus, and other emerging threats on populations of the federally threatened Pitcher's thistle, Cirsium pitcheri
Terrestrial forest management plan for Palmyra Atoll
Seasonal timing of first rain storms affects rare plant population dynamics
Field Surveys of Rare Plants on Santa Cruz Island, California, 2003-2006: Historical Records and Current Distributions
Do competitors modulate rare plant response to precipitation change?
Climate alters response of an endemic island plant to removal of invasive herbivores
Uncertainty in georeferencing current and historic plant locations
Recovering endemic plants of the Channel Islands
Science and Products
Comparison of reintroduction and enhancement effects on metapopulation viability
Ecological change on California's Channel Islands from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene
Ability of matrix models to explain the past and predict the future of plant populations.
First report of fasciation in Pitcher's Thistle, Cirsium pitcheri (Asteraceae)
Effects of a non-native biocontrol weevil, Larinus planus, and other emerging threats on populations of the federally threatened Pitcher's thistle, Cirsium pitcheri
Terrestrial forest management plan for Palmyra Atoll
Seasonal timing of first rain storms affects rare plant population dynamics
Field Surveys of Rare Plants on Santa Cruz Island, California, 2003-2006: Historical Records and Current Distributions
Do competitors modulate rare plant response to precipitation change?
Climate alters response of an endemic island plant to removal of invasive herbivores
Uncertainty in georeferencing current and historic plant locations
Recovering endemic plants of the Channel Islands
*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