Embedded Files
Global Audience: Documentaries & Interviews
Publishing manuscripts in scientific journals is a great way to have our work rigorously peer-reviewed before disseminating research results; however, information from the vast majority of scientific papers does not reach the general public. One alternative is to meet the public on their turf - television and streaming apps! Here is just one snippet from a scene I helped shoot, inspired by my research. Clips of wandering salamanders climbing, jumping, and gliding have reached millions of non-scientists around the world on networks like the BBC, National Geographic, the Weather Channel, and more.
Press: NYT, Smithsonian, Nat Geo, more
Radio Interviews: CBC Radio, Quirks & Quarks, more
Podcasts: 2Scientists, CoScienza (Italy), more
Scene_Wandering Salamander Jump Montage.mp4Nat Geo Wild - America the Beautiful (S01E02, Rise of the Redwood Giants)
Ecological Restoration and Giving Back
The redwoods will always be home. Like so many others, I found myself here. These forests provide refuge to frolic and forage, to hear and heal, shaping us into better versions of ourselves. Personally, I would love to pay it forward for the countless endemic species that also rely on redwoods for safe harbor.
Eureka's Sequoia Park is an underrated treasure - a grove of redwoods not yet old growth, but standing for longer than the groves logged on rotation. The trees here have branches and crotches large enough for mats of arboreal humus and ferns to grow, mats which are known to provide habitat for iconic redwood canopy dwellers like wandering salamanders. From 2023-2025, I have been seeding the canopy along the Redwood Skywalk with habitat-building fern mats and tracking their growth rates. The handicap-accessible walkway extending from the zoo into the lower canopy of Sequoia Park's intermediate-stage grove will ensure that our canopy garden, soon to grow into a local ecological asset, is accessible to all.
Save the USF Forest Preserve!
Save the USF Forest Preserve!
As scientists, we have a moral and societal duty to call out environmental injustice. During my tenure as a PhD student, the University of South Florida tried to lease a nature preserve to developers. This was a blatant effort to enrich a multi-million dollar institution at the expense of Native American cultural sites and clean water and air for the surrounding community. We fought back, and we won!
The university changed leadership, rescinded their offer to developers, hired a director to formally manage the nature preserve, and vowed to keep it a natural classroom. This is a very encouraging thing to see, and we continue to advocate for permanent protection in the form of a conservation easement, banning the possibility of construction, and properly funding the director of the nature preserve for proper management (regular burning, invasive plant removal, etc.).
Please follow the link below to read about our cause, watch our short documentary, and donate if you have the means.
News Coverage & Updates, w/ Interviews
News Coverage & Updates, w/ Interviews
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse