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
Channel Islands National Park Landbird Monitoring Program Review
Status and trends of the nation's biological resources
Monitoring protocol for east Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park
San Nicolas Restoration and Monitoring, Final report to Pt. Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station
Inventory and monitoring of California Islands rare plant taxa. Technical Report to the Species at Risk Program, USGS-BRD, Channel Islands Field Station
San Nicolas Island vegetation monitoring report, 1993-1996
Summary of proposed endangered plant data collected on Santa Rosa Island by National Biological Survey staff and collaborators, 1994-1996
Seed predation and diffuse competition along environmental gradients: Interactive constraints on the population dynamics of a threatened fugitive plant
Natural disturbance and Pitcher's thistle populations in Great Lakes dune landscapes
A metapopulation approach to Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) recovery in southern Lake Michigan dunes
Recovery planning and reintroduction of the Federally threatened Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) in Illinois
Disturbance dynamics of Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) populations in Great Lakes sand dune landscapes
Science and Products
Channel Islands National Park Landbird Monitoring Program Review
Status and trends of the nation's biological resources
Monitoring protocol for east Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park
San Nicolas Restoration and Monitoring, Final report to Pt. Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station
Inventory and monitoring of California Islands rare plant taxa. Technical Report to the Species at Risk Program, USGS-BRD, Channel Islands Field Station
San Nicolas Island vegetation monitoring report, 1993-1996
Summary of proposed endangered plant data collected on Santa Rosa Island by National Biological Survey staff and collaborators, 1994-1996
Seed predation and diffuse competition along environmental gradients: Interactive constraints on the population dynamics of a threatened fugitive plant
Natural disturbance and Pitcher's thistle populations in Great Lakes dune landscapes
A metapopulation approach to Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) recovery in southern Lake Michigan dunes
Recovery planning and reintroduction of the Federally threatened Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) in Illinois
Disturbance dynamics of Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri) populations in Great Lakes sand dune landscapes
*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