Research Expertise and Interest

climate change, endangered species, rangelands, political ecology, pastoralism, ranching, environmental history, suburbanization, human-environment interactions, environmental geography, range science and management, Southwestern US, scale, community-based conservation

Research Description

My research examines rangeland management from an historical, ecological, and critical geographical perspective. I work with ranchers and ecologists in the Southwestern US to understand how the reproduction of capital takes place on and through desert grasslands, mediated by biophysical processes (drought, grazing, vegetation and soils), political processes (public land management policies, wildlife conservation regulations), and management practices (grazing systems, infrastructural investments, prescribed fire, vegetation manipulations). I also work with community-based conservation organizations formed by ranchers to prevent subdivision of their landscapes for residential development and to restore and enhance grasslands.