Cheatgrass Research
In 2020, I had the honor to be funded by Boulder County (BC) and Boulder County Nature Association (BCNA) to conduct a research project with Stephen R. Jones, Christel Markevich, and Timothy Seastedt investigating the impacts of cheatgrass (an invasive weed) on mammals, bird, and butterfly populations and distributions. The project was a success, yielding valuable data on the impact of cheatgrass on wildlife, something that, to our knowledge, had never been done except for small mammals. Here is the link to the final Boulder County report for 2020.
BC asked us to continue the study for a second (2021) season to investigate the impacts of a fall wildfire on cheatgrass and wildlife. A presentation of the preliminary results can be found here. Following two rounds of incomplete peer-review, a pre-print of the resulting research paper is available on ResearchGate. Our research team is currently working on publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
Christel Markevich and I sampling cheatgrass density. Photo by Stephen R. Jones.
Rocky Mountain Wolf Project
From 2017 to 2019 I volunteered for Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, a nonprofit aiming to reintroduce wolves to Colorado. I spent dozens of hours at fairs and other public events educating people on the importance and merits of wolf reintroduction. This campaign was ultimately successful — in 2020 Coloradans voted to reintroduce wolves to their state by 2023. I am honored to have been part of this campaign.
Yellowstone
Every year in May my parents and I travel to Yellowstone National Park to watch wolves. These trips allow me to observe wolf behavior first hand, to help dozens of park visitors watch wolves for the first time in their lives, and to interact extensively with long-time wolf watchers, both hobbyists and professional scientists.
Bat Houses
Since 2017 I built 13 bat houses and sold them to neighbors, using the opportunity to educate them on the importance of bats in the ecosystem. Merlin Tuttle, a leading bat conservationist, helped me design the bat houses specifically for our cold mountain climate. Merlin subsequently featured me in his blog.
Wildlife Friendly Garden
My family and I built a raised-bed garden designed for our local cold climate, hungry wildlife, and intense sunlight. We created a video to inform neighbors about this design and encouraged them to adopt similar approaches. We showed that using the principles of Compassionate Conservation it is entirely possible to have a productive garden while respecting the local wildlife!
