usgs_staff_profile:
meta: status_code: 200 timestamp: '2023-09-30T17:33:38.925637' url: https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/kathryn-mceachern profile: abstracts: [] affiliations: - California Native Plant Society - International Association for Vegetation Science - Society for Conservation Biology - The Ecological Society of America education: - Ph.D., Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 1992 - B.S., Botany, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 1979 email: kathryn_mceachern@usgs.gov expertise_terms: [] honors: [] intro_statements: - Dr. Kathryn McEachern began her career in the open pit coal mines of Pacific Power and Light in Wyoming and Montana. name: Kathryn McEachern name_qualifier: null orcid: 0000-0003-2631-8247 organization_link: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/werc organization_name: Western Ecological Research Center (WERC) personal_statement: "There she designed long-term vegetation monitoring programs,\ \ directed topsoil salvage operations, and designed and tested native plant\ \ seed mixes for habitat reclamation. Her interest in ecosystem restoration\ \ led her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she participated in\ \ the restoration ecology group, and helped design a new Conservation Biology\ \ Master\u2019s program. In 1988, she began working with the National Park Service\ \ in the Great Lakes region on conservation of coastal ecosystems. She began\ \ long-term studies of a threatened dune thistle in one of the habitats she\ \ loves best: coastal dunes. Her research interests led her to the California\ \ south coast, where she continues to study rare plants and vegetation. Her\ \ particular interests are in the study of how the vegetation forms the context\ \ for rare plant persistence, as seen through long-term demographic patterns\ \ in the rare plants of the California Channel Islands. To look at this question,\ \ she is tracking the native and alien plant communities of the islands along\ \ with a suite of rare native plants that inhabit these communities. She guides\ \ the Prototype Vegetation Monitoring Program at Channel Islands National Park,\ \ and assists other agencies with plant community and rare plant monitoring\ \ program design.RESEARCH INTERESTSChaparral EcologyCoastal Sage EcologyCommunity\ \ ecologyConservation biologyEcological monitoringGeographic Information SystemsInvasive\ \ species ecologyLandscape ecologyLandscape patternsPlant ecologyPop. viab.\ \ modelsPopulation biologyRestoration ecologySpecies/Population managementWeed\ \ management" professional_experience: [] title: Research Ecologist