Certification
Certified Wildfire Mitigation Specialist
Professional training focused on defensible space, structure survivability, mitigation planning, and wildfire risk communication.
Wildfire & Forestry
A practice in noticing
Ecology can be complex, but at its core, it is a practice in noticing. Noticing patterns across a landscape can reveal how systems function. Small observations, like how tree species distribute themselves differently across light, or how different bark beetles will always prefer different parts of a tree, can guide more thoughtful and effective land management.
Forestry begins with attention, and a responsibility to respond to what you notice.
Credentials
Training and foundations for wildfire and forestry practice
Qualification
Incident Qualification Card (Fire Fighter Type 2)
Completion of required training, fitness standards, and qualifications for participation in wildland fire operations.
Certification
Wilderness First Aid
Training in assessing, stabilizing, and responding to injury in remote field settings where immediate medical care is unavailable.
Academic Foundation
UC Berkeley + UCLA
B.S. in Ecosystem Management and Forestry from UC Berkeley, with ongoing graduate work in Geospatial Information Systems and Technologies at UCLA.
Featured Program
Defensible space inspections
At Plumas Corp, I developed a defensible space inspection program focused on parcel-level wildfire risk reduction through one-on-one consultation.
I personally scheduled and led every site during my time in Plumas County, typically spending 90 minutes to 2 hours assessing defensible space and home hardening opportunities. Following each visit, I would rely on Fire Aside's GIS-based tools to produce a detailed report that included a map of the property, identified risks, specific mitigation recommendations, implementation guidance, and a resillience score.
Beyond my initial assessment, I continued to work directly with landowners to help them understand and impement the recommended changes.
428
Acres inspected
300+
People received personal consultation
175
Unique parcels assessed
Modeling
Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS)
FVS uses field-collected stand data to project forest structure through time, making it possible to compare how different management strategies may influence stand conditions, wildfire effects, and post-fire recovery.
The workflow begins with real stand inventory data. From there, forest conditions can be modeled under different treatment scenarios and revisited across time to evaluate how management decisions may shape future structure, fuels, and resilience.
What we can do
Model stand growth
Project forest development from real inventory data
Compare treatments
Evaluate how management strategies influence future conditions
Explore disturbance
Assess stand trajectories before, during, and after wildfire
Example Sequence
Management Strategy X through time
The images below show how one management strategy can be visualized across different moments, including stand development, wildfire occurrence, and post-fire condition.
Early projected stand condition under the selected treatment.
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Modeled stand condition during a wildfire scenario.
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Projected stand structure two years after wildfire effects - ~75% tree mortality.
Outputs
Beyond visualization: quantitative stand data
In addition to visualizing forest structure, FVS produces detailed stand-level outputs that allow for direct comparison of how different management strategies influence forest conditions over time.
Stand Structure
- Tree density and basal area
- Diameter and height distributions
- Canopy structure and stand layering
Species Composition
- Species presence and dominance
- Changes in composition over time
- Regeneration and recruitment patterns
Mortality & Growth
- Tree mortality rates
- Growth by species and size class
- Effects of treatment and disturbance
Fuels & Fire Effects
- Surface and canopy fuel loads
- Fire behavior and severity (FFE extension)
- Post-fire stand conditions
Biomass & Carbon
- Aboveground biomass estimates
- Carbon storage and flux
- Changes under management scenarios
Management Outcomes
- Treatment effectiveness over time
- Tradeoffs between strategies
- Long-term stand trajectory comparison
Core Areas
Community protection & forest health
How I bring together field experience, technical training, and ecological theory in my work.
Field Ecology & Forest Assessment
- Forest inventory and stand measurement
- Tree and plant identification
- Bark beetle and forest pathogen identification
- Soil recognition and site interpretation
Defensible Space & Home Risk Reduction
- Parcel-level defensible space inspections
- Resident consultation and mitigation recommendations
- Home hardening and structure survivability scoring
- Translation of wildfire risk into site-specific action
Hazardous Fuels & Forest Health
- Hazardous fuels reduction planning
- Applied forest ecology and vegetation assessment
- Forest health and resilience-focused project support
- Forest Vegetation Simulator familiarity
Prescribed Fire & Field Operations
- Prescribed fire support
- Field-based work in high-risk landscapes
- Safety, logistics, and operational awareness
- Experience working in wildfire-focused settings
Publications
Research contributions and scholarly work
Occurrence of aneuploidy across the range of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)
G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, Volume 15, Issue 5
Contributed to field and laboratory research on coast redwood genetics across the species’ range, including multi-day foliage sampling trips from Monterey to southern Oregon, ArcGIS Pro-based sampling scheme development, stand evaluation, field tree selection, and CTAB-based DNA extraction. Listed in acknowledgements.
Isolation controls reestablishment mechanisms and post-drying community structure in an intermittent stream
Ecology, Volume 104, Issue 2
Contributor through field and lab efforts connected to stream ecology and macroinvertebrate-based evaluation of stream health. Listed in acknowledgements.
Tree Tech
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