Research Staff
Marco Donoso
Marco Donoso is a Botanist at the University of Nevada, Reno. He provides field and technical support to SageSTEP.
Jess Pletcher
Jess is a Conservation Ecologist studying the impacts of vegetation treatments on the habitat usage of various wildlife species in the SageSTEP woodland network. Her primary interests lie in understanding changes in biodiversity and individual...
Core Team
April Hulet
April is an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University. Her research focuses on enhancing rangeland resilience to disturbances and resistance to invasive species across spatially and temporally variable environments. Her research extends to monitoring and...
Benjamin Rau
Ben Rau is a Soil Scientist for the USDA-ARS. His work with SageSTEP is related to vegetation shifts and ecosystem rehabilitation effects on total carbon and nitrogen budgets and plant-soil interactions in the Great Basin....
Jason Williams
Dr. Williams’ research explores ecohydrologic feedbacks between vegetation, soils, and the atmosphere. Much of his current research centers on the effects of disturbances (e.g., plant community transitions and wildland fire) and conservation/restoration practices on vegetation,...
Jon Dinkins
Jon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Animal and Rangeland Sciences at Oregon State University. His position focuses on sagebrush wildlife ecology, which includes research and outreach through Extension. He also teaches habitat...
Matt Reeves
Matt specializes in use of remote sensing and GIS to facilitate evaluation of contemporary issues facing US rangelands. He is interested in facilitating management and administration of the nations’ rangelands and is pursuing numerous efforts...
Collaborators
Dustin Smith
Dustin began his Bureau of Land Management (BLM) journey in wildland firefighting while attending Idaho State University, working seasonally from 2001 to 2005 on the Twin Falls District as a wildland firefighter on an engine....
Kerri Minatre
Dr. Minatre is an ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow whose research has examined the impact of moderate- and high-severity wildfire on soils. Her current work investigates the interacting effects of prescribed fire and grazing on soils across the...
Maddy Case
Maddy’s research focuses on how environmental variability, disturbance, and global change influence vegetation change and ecosystem function in rangelands, and how management strategies can address these changes. She is leading projects on drought resilience and...
Natalia Rogova
Dr. Rogova is passionate about nature conservation and the use of remote sensing in ecological research. She is currently a postdoc in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences at OSU, where she studies...
Scott Shaff
Scott as an Ecologist with the USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center managed field and data logistics for the first 18 years of the SageSTEP project.
Seren Bagcilar
Dr. Bagcilar is a Biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center. Her research considers how global change, fire, and management interact to impact soil and ecosystem processes across landscapes. Within...
Emeritus
Bruce Roundy
Dr. Roundy’s research projects include establishment ecology of weeds and native plants, vegetation disturbance thresholds for management of sagebrush systems, watershed responses to management practices, and increasing diversity of fire rehabilitation and other range seedings.
David Pyke
Dr. Pyke studies the population ecology of native and invasive plants in the Intermountain West with an emphasis on restoring native plants on invaded landscapes. He also specializes in developing monitoring protocols for ecosystem integrity...
Eva Strand
Eva Strand is the manager of the University of Idaho GIS teaching Lab. Eva’s research focuses on the landscape-scale dynamics of woody encroachment in juniper/sagebrush-steppe rangelands. As part of her extensive research she has developed...
James McIver
Dr. McIver conducts research on the ecology of arthropod predator-prey relationships, on the organization of foraging in ants, and coordinates the SageSTEP study.
