Conservation

How to shape the anticipated build-out of industrial-scale renewable energy in a way that minimizes risk to wildlife remains contentious. The challenge of balancing wildlife conservation and decarbonization of the electricity sector is well …

Wind and solar energy will constitute an increasingly large share of the electricity generated in the United States as concerns grow about climate change, air and water pollution, and the political, social, and economic costs of reliance on fossil fuels. This will result in significant increases in the amount of land dedicated to energy production and transmission and, in turn, increase the potential for trade-offs to arise between the expansion of renewable energy capacity and competing land uses, including habitat for wildlife. In this project, I seek to understand the nature of these trade-offs and to identify potential solutions.

Bringing together scientists, conservation practitioners, policy-makers, industry representatives, and conservation financiers to develop a unified strategy for studying and conserving wild nature in Vermont

Spruce-fir forests blanket the mountaintops and cold valley bottoms of the northeastern United States. In them live a distinctive mix of plants and animals drawn from environments both north and south, forming a broad link between the great deciduous forests of the eastern United States and massive boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. This project explores the natural history of these forests, with a focus on its wildlife, and the ways in which human use, past and present, influence the nature of this wild landscape. In doing so, I look to answer a straightforward yet difficult question: how, in the face of climate change, growing human populations, and globalized commodity markets, can we sustain the many values provided by these forests, both for people and for wild nature?