Author: Joan Dudney

Joan Dudney was awarded the prestigious Switzer Fellowship! Twenty fellows were chosen to join the ranks of over 600 Fellows whose leadership efforts are creating innovating environmental solutions across the globe. Joan is honored to be chosen as a Switzer Fellow, and aims to use her award to further her research efforts on white pine health in the Sierra Nevada. For more info, see the ESPM Grad News announcement.

Left: Joan Dudney measures DBH (diameter at breast height) of a dead foxtail pine, an endemic species in California that may be threatened by climate change and mountain pine beetle attacks.

Congratulations to Carrie Levine for publishing a ground-breaking study! Levine’s paper refutes previous research that was the basis for a lawsuit against restoration efforts following the Rim Fire.

Carrie’s paper, published in Ecological Applications, highlighted critical flaws in previous analyses that led to erroneous conclusions about Sierra forest density.

Her work provides a corrected and accurate description of forest density, which will help inform future management and restoration in the Sierra Nevada. For more information see the Berkeley news report!And the Friday Flash e-news report!

Study refutes findings behind challenge to Sierra Nevada forest restoration

Joan Dudney wins second place at the UC Berkeley-wide Grad Slam competition! Each year, students from every department can submit a three minute speech on their dissertation research. The challenge: make your research engage a broad audience. The goal of Grad Slam is to provide “emerging scientists and scholars with the skills to engage the public in their work.” Dudney was one of eight selected for the semi-finals in March and finished in second place in the finals, winning $1,000 for her efforts.

Dudney’s first chapter of her dissertation was published by the Journal of Ecology. See the Journal of Ecology’s Blogpost for a research summary and click the link here to read the paper online.