Silviculture, Fire and Forest Health
Silviculture is a discipline focused on meeting diverse and shifting management objectives ranging from promoting sustainable wood or biomass production to conserving biodiversity, altering wildfire activity, promoting adaptation to climate change, and increasing carbon storage. My research revolves around understanding how different silvicultural practices influence changes in forest structure and function so we can evaluate potential tradeoffs among these diverse objectives. My specific research interests focus on understanding how processes related to forest growth, productivity, and stand development respond to management activities or disturbances that create different stand structures. I am particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms that drive stand development following management activities and other disturbances that create spatial complexity in forests, but I am generally interested in any research that investigates the impacts of different management activities on basic processes that influence patterns of forest growth and stand dynamics.
