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Research
Land Use / Land Cover Change
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Changing land use practices can have substantial effects on social,
economic, and ecological systems and have created conflict over traditional
land management practices, property subdivision, and the preservation of
open space in the western United States. As a doctoral fellow in the
National Science Foundation Integrated Graduate Education and Research
Traineeship (IGERT), I
worked with a team of faculty and doctoral fellows to develop a research
program on changing land use practices in two northern Idaho Counties.
Read the
factsheet
Read the
Landscape Ecology article
- Sense of Place, Place Attachment, Place
Identity
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Sociodemographic change in the non-metropolitan western USA is credited with
contributing to conflict over natural resource management and land use
planning. These changes have been framed in many rural western
economies as one from extractive industries and government installations
(old-West) to amenity-driven recreation, vacation-home, and retirement
sectors (new West). Both popular literature and empirical research
suggest that conflicts associated with phenomena such as the
old-West/new-West transition arises from differences in sense of place, and
the attachment and identity that people develop with the landscape.
The disciplinary research components of my dissertation focus on the
bonding, values, and attitudes people hold regarding their landscape.
Research articles are in preparation or have been submitted to the Journal
of Environmental Psychology, Society and Natural Resources, and Rural
Sociology.
Read the results from mail surveys in
Wallowa County, Oregon, and Latah and Benewah Counties, Idaho
- Interdisciplinary Research and Education
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As a graduate fellow I participated in
two research groups studying the tools needed to facilitate
interdisciplinary research and education. One group focused on the
philosophical underpinnings and tools needed for interdisciplinary
scientists to be successful from epistemological and metaphysical
approaches. An article published in January 2007 in BioScience details
the group's discoveries. The second group focused on an evaluation of
the National Science Foundation interdisciplinary doctoral program at the
University of Idaho, specifically addressing our lessons about the bridges
and barriers to developing interdisciplinary research at the graduate level.
An article was published in December 2007 in
Ecology and Society.
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- Historical Fire Ecology
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Fire suppression has altered the
structure and composition of landscapes and ecosystems across North America.
In fire adapted ecosystems such as ponderosa pine forests of the northern
Rockies the change in fire regime has led to fewer and more intense fires.
Understanding how to manage fire adapted ecosystems is increasing in
importance as residential development in rural forested landscapes
continues. Working with Dr. Emily Heyerdahl at the USFS Fire Sciences
Laboratory in Missoula, MT and Dr. Penny Morgan at the University of Idaho I
designed a research internship focused on understanding the historical fire
return interval in forests along the edge of the Bitterroot Mountains and
the Palouse region of Latah County, Idaho. Using fire scared
cross-sections from old tree stumps we dated historical fires and their
season. Using the old-stump data we confirmed that fire frequency
along this ecotone was frequent (7-19 years) through the 1700s and 1800s,
after which fire frequency dropped to near zero. We noted that the
density and distribution of the old ponderosa pine stumps is much different
from the forest that exists today.
Read the
Research Summary
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