My research focuses on how people value their land, understand environmental processes and change, and then shape their land management activities in response. My projects mainly examine collective land management practices or programs designed to incentivize conservation.

ProjectS

Water Funds & Landscape Change

One of my sites of ongoing research is within the paramo of Ecuador. The paramo is a high-altitude, biodiverse, humid grassland ecosystem that regulates the flow of water sustaining both urban and rural communities in the northern Andes. My research in this region examines the relationship between urban and rural landscapes as the paramo is re-conceptualized as infrastructure for water provision in terms of ecosystem services.

(Left) Afternoon fog envelopes the paramo grasslands in Ecuador. (Right) A rural community gives a tour of their water catchment system in the paramo.

Wildfire & Incentive-Based Conservation

Kansas ranks among the top 5 states in the US for number of acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), one of the oldest programs that offers financial incentives to private landowners for conservation practices. The CRP pays landowners to keep land out of agricultural production and restore natural vegetation for reasons that include improving water quality, preventing soil erosion, and maintaining wildlife habitat. In the last five years, mega-fires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres of grassland in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas in areas that have some of the highest CRP enrollment in the country. This project examines the conservation incentive program in the context of a volatile landscape. In particular, it examines how perceptions of wildfire in the southern Great Plains shape engagement with the CRP and other conservation practices.

This project is funded by NSF - HEGS award #2117533

More information on this project can be found at: Chapman Center for Rural Studies 

Technology & Prescribed Burning

This project aims to develop technology tools for those managing lands through prescribed burning to enhance safety. In particular, I am studying how technology shapes and supports local fire-related land management. In particular, I examine how the use of technology shapes landowners' perceptions of their land and the risks of prescribed burning. My work also supports the development of user-friendly tech to meet the needs of the communities that are engaged with prescribed burning. 

This project is funded by NSF - CNS award # 2306603 

Project Website: https://smartfire.gsu.edu/events.html

News Release about the project: Smart and Safe Prescribed Burning

Above are photos from a prescribed burning event near Medicine Lodge, KS in August 2024. 388 acres were burned by the Gyp Hills Prescribed Burn Association.