• Currently, I am a Forester with The Confederated Salish and Kootenai (CSKT) tribal government on the beautiful Flathead Indian Reservation (1938 square miles) in northwest Montana. Our forest management plan and management activities are driven by sustainability and promoting healthy forests on the landscape. We have a small team of foresters that are the backbone of the operations and functioning of tribal forestry. We manage and oversee our projects from entering into the management areas from initial reconnaissance and all the way through contract writing and putting the timber out for bid. My job as a forester has enabled me to gain valuable experience conducting forest health assessments; identifying areas in need of management; identifying and delineating riparian areas and streamside management zones; cruising and marking timber; estimating timber volumes; and writing timber sale contracts and project proposals. In addition, I am also responsible for following best management practices; developing/writing silvicultural prescriptions; marking guidelines; and planning/overseeing harvest operations. 

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• Before my time as a professional forester, I completed substantial coursework at the University of Montana (UM) that focused on forest management and ecosystem ecology (2019-2021). In addition, I was a teaching assistant for Forest Ecology and Soils, Water & Climate.  I was also working on a funded research assistantship, conducting research on the project "Optimizing Forest Management in Mixed Coniferous Forests of the Northern Rocky Mountain Region for Climate Stabilization Ecosystem Services." For this project, I completed a full six-month field season (May-October 2021) conducting consecutive 7-day fieldwork hitches in the Kootenai National Forest, remeasuring and collecting data in abandoned USFS permanent growth plots throughout northwest Montana and northern Idaho to assess and quantify the effects of various thinning operations to different carbon pools and fuels in the forest. Collected data consisted primarily of overstory tree measurements and biomass, understory vegetation, and ground cover density and type. Brown’s transects were used to measure and quantify CWD and forest fuels and soil samples were collected to analyze soil organic carbon. During my time at UM, I also assisted other graduate students with data collection for a project that assessed the establishment of biological communities in newly established, glacial melt lakes.

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• While in Montana, I also founded the Missoula Botanical Society (MBS) with the goal to foster a sense of community and outreach for education, conservation, and engaging with the public. Although MBS was short-lived, it was a great experience involving and educating the community, and I also learned a lot. 

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• In the winter of 2019, I worked as a seasonal forestry technician for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks in western Montanas premier game and wildlife preserve - Blackfoot Clearwater Wildlife Management Area. Here, I implemented silvicultural prescription and marking guides and conducted timber marking in forest stands with the objective to enhance wildlife benefit, promote aspen recruitment and growth, and to prevent pine encroachment in rangelands. 

 

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