| Lyman McDonald - Senior Statistician/Biometrician |
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Dr. Lyman McDonald is a biometrician/statistician with thirty-five years of experience in
the application of statistical methods to design, conduct, and analyze environmental and
laboratory studies. His specialties include sampling of biological populations, resource
selection modeling, design of monitoring programs, calibration of biased sampling
procedures, and multivariate analysis.
Dr. McDonald has designed and managed both large and small environmental impact
assessment and monitoring programs. He has experience in terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems including marine environments. His experience has lead to appointments to
regional and national technical advisory and review committees, including the Technical
Dispute Settlement Board for the Pacific Salmon Commission, Chair of the Program
Advisory Panel for the Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Act Collaborative
Program, the Independent Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) for NOAA Fisheries and the
Northwest Power and Conservation Council, and the Independent Scientific Review
Panel (RSRP) for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
Dr. McDonald is the author of more than 75 papers in the scientific literature and is joint
author of the Second Edition of the book entitled Resource Selection by Animals:
Statistical Design and Analysis for Field Studies. His responsibilities on projects have
included design and analysis for: Natural Resource Damage Assessments, wildlife
surveys, habitat selection by wildlife populations, laboratory and field studies, effects of
pesticides on wildlife populations, and bioassay for fresh water and marine organisms. He
has also organized and taught workshops on statistical procedures for practicing
biologists.
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| Dale Strickland - Senior Ecologist |
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Dale Strickland is Vice-President and Senior Ecologist with Western EcoSystmems
Technology, Inc. (WEST) in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He received a B.S. in Zoology (1969)
and an M.S. in Wildlife Management (1972) from the University of Tennessee and a
Ph.D in Zoology from the University of Wyoming (1975). Prior to his employment with
WEST he served as a scientist and administrator with the Wyoming Game and Fish
Department and served on the faculty of the Department of Statistics at the University of
Wyoming. He has also taught courses in wildlife management and statistics as a visiting
instructor at the University of Wyoming.
He has over thirty years of experience in ecological research and wildlife management.
Specialties include the design, conduct, and analysis of field studies of terrestrial and
avian wildlife, threatened and endangered species, wildlife management, impact, risk,
and injury assessment studies and resolution of conflicts over natural resources. He is
author of more than 75 papers and technical reports in the scientific and popular literature
on wildlife research and natural resource conservation and management. He is the lead
author of a chapter on harvest management in the 5th edition of the Wildlife Techniques
Manual and co-author of the text “Wildlife Study Design” published in 2001. He
contributed to documents for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for
the quantification of injury due to oil spills in Type B Natural Resource Damage
Assessments and authored a chapter in a guidance document on the conduct of research
on avian wind power interactions for the National Wind Coordinating Committee. Dr.
Strickland is currently serving as the Executive Director of the Platte River Endangered
Species Partnership. He and his staff provide technical and administrative support for the
Governance Committee, which oversees the development of The Platte River Recovery
Implementation Program (Program). He is a member of the American Statistical
Association, The Ecological Society of America, Certified Senior Ecologist, The Wildlife
Society, Certified Wildlife Biologist, Wyoming Chapter, The Wildlife Society, Past
President and is currently serving as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Wildlife
Management.
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| Clayton Derby - Wildlife Biologist |
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Clayton Derby is project manager and wildlife biologist for WEST. Clayton received a
Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Moorhead State University, Moorhead,
Minnesota in 1992 and a Masters of Science degree in Zoology and Physiology from the
University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming in 1995. Clayton’s graduate research
focused on determining the impacts of cormorant and pelican predation on trout and other
fishes. Since graduating in 1995, Clayton has worked for WEST as a wildlife biologist.
His work has covered numerous subject matters; include raptors, migratory birds,
wetlands, fisheries, water quality, big game, and vegetation. Currently, Clayton is the
Assistant Executive Director for the Platte River Cooperative Agreement. In this position
he assists in conducting meetings and building consensus with both technical and policy
level people from state and federal government, water users, environmental groups, and
private individuals in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. Clayton Derby is the Project
Manager for several large natural gas pipeline development projects in the western U.S.,
and wind energy development projects throughout the west and midwest. As Project
Manager, Clayton has insured that the wildlife, vegetation, and state and federal listed
species resource surveys and reviews are completed on time, in budget, and to the client’s
and resource agencies’ high demands. In 2005 Clayton opened a branch office of WEST
in Bismarck, North Dakota. Clayton lives in Bismarck and enjoys spending time with his
family and hunting, and fishing in the great outdoors.
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| Wallace Erickson - Statistician/Biometrician |
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Mr. Wallace P. Erickson is a statistician/project manager with WEST since 1991. He has over 14 years of consulting experience related to the design and analysis of environmental and wildlife studies. His primary research interests include habitat selection methodology with applications to GIS and study designs and analysis for detecting impacts from environmental perturbations. He has been lead statistician and/or WEST project manager for baseline studies, environmental permitting, and/or operational monitoring/research at over fifteen wind energy projects in seven states (California, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming). He is an author/co-author on over 30 professional journal articles, book chapters or peer reviewed proceedings papers, and is co-author of the 2nd edition of the book "Resource Selection by Animals". He has presented over 20 papers/posters at national/regional meetings. His is lead author on the paper "Avian collisions with wind turbines: A summary of existing studies and comparisons to other sources of avian collision mortality in the United States". Some of the Wind power clients he has worked with include Cannon, California Energy Commission, CH2MHILL, Cielo, Distributed Generation Systems, Energy Northwest, EnXco, FPL Energy, Klickitat County, Northwestern Windpower, NREL, Pacific Winds, Zilkha Renewable Energy. He also has managed numerous projects with the USFWS, USFS, and USGS BRD, especially in Alaska.
His duties with WEST Inc. involve using current state-of-the-art statistical principles in designing ecological studies and analyzing subsequent data. He has had extensive experience with most statistical computer packages, including SAS, SPLUS, SYSTAT, and SPSS, and in most relational database applications (e.g., ACCESS, DBASE). He also has experience in Geographical information Systems, including ARCVIEW. He has taught workshops on the following topics: 1) Statistics for Spatial Correlated GIS Data, 2) Resource Selection, 3) Computer Intensive Statistics, and 4) Basic Statistics for Biologists and Field Ecologists. He is currently working on a Phd in Statistics at the University of Wyoming. The topic of his dissertation in on methods for estimating wildlife fatality rates in field study situations. He is the father of four daughters, and enjoys hiking, hunting, birding, and other outdoor activities.
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| Rhett Good - Wildlife Biologist/Field Supervisor |
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Rhett Good has been a Project Manager and Wildlife Biologist for WEST, Inc. since 1998.
He received his B.S. in Biology from Ball State University (1995) and an M.S. in Zoology
and Physiology from the University of Wyoming (1998). He has received formal training
and/or certification in Wetland Plant Identification and Delineation, and the identification
and survey methods for several Threatened and Endangered (T&E) species, including Ute’s
ladies tresses, Colorado butterfly plant, black-footed ferrets, Preble’s meadow jumping
mouse and American burying beetle. Rhett has a wide range of experience conducting field
studies for several species and habitat types. He has studied the foraging ecology of northern
goshawks for his Master’s research, the breeding ecology and distribution of mountain
plovers in Wyoming, the effects of wind power on raptors, songbirds, big game and T&E
species at several locations in Washington, West Virginia, Oregon, Montana, Michigan,
Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Wyoming, the impacts of highway construction,
cellular towers, oil and gas development and various other construction projects on a variety
of wildlife throughout the U.S. Rhett has served as Project Manager and Biologist on a
rangewide population level survey of golden eagles in the western U.S. for the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. Rhett has also assisted in several wetland delineations and the preparation
of numerous National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents. Rhett currently lives in
Laramie, Wyoming and enjoys a birding, hunting, hiking and a variety of outdoor activities.
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| Gregory Johnson - Ecologist/Wetlands Specialist |
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Greg Johnson has been an Ecologist and Project Manager for WEST, Inc. since 1991. He
received a B.S. degree in Wildlife Conservation and Management and a M.S. degree in Zoology
and Physiology from the University of Wyoming. He has over 18 years of consulting experience
in wildlife and ecological studies. He is a Certified Wildlife Biologist through The Wildlife
Society, a Professional Wetland Scientist through the Society of Wetland Scientists, and a
certified Senior Ecologist through the Ecological Society of America. His specialty areas
include wildlife research with an emphasis on contaminants and wind power development;
endangered species; wetland delineation, mitigation, and functional value assessment; and
vegetation sampling.
He has supervised 17 field studies to assess effects on terrestrial and aquatic wildlife of
pesticides and other contaminants throughout the U.S. Over the last 10 years he has studied
wildlife–windpower interactions at proposed or existing wind energy facilities in 12 states, and is
currently focusing his research on avian issues associated with a proposed offshore wind plant
near Long Island, New York and potential effects of wind energy development on bats. He has
delineated over 3,500 acres of jurisdictional wetland and has designed and monitored the success
of numerous created wetlands.
He is a member of the Ecological Society of America, The Wildlife Society, Society of
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Society of Wetland Scientists, and Bat Conservation
International. He is the primary author of 23 and coauthor of 14 professional journal articles,
book chapters or peer reviewed proceedings papers and is an author/coauthor of 33 presentations
at scientific meetings. His interests include hunting, birding, fishing, and carving decorative
wooden decoys.
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| Bryan Manly - Statistical Consultant |
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Bryan Manly has 35 years of experience as a consultant, researcher and teacher,
specializing in applications of statistics in the areas of ecology and environmental
science. Prior to joining West Inc. in 2000 he taught statistics at the University of Otago,
having the positions of Chair of Statistics and Director of the Center for Applications of
Statistics and Mathematics for the years 1987-2000. He has particular expertise in the
areas of the design and analysis of biological sampling programs, multivariate analysis,
population modeling, computer-intensive methods, and the design and analysis of studies
on resource selection by animals.
Bryan Manly has a DSc degree from the City University in London, England, is a
Chartered Statistician of the Royal Statistical Society, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
New Zealand, has received the Distinguished Statistical Ecology Award from the
International Association for Ecology, and is an Adjunct Professor of Statistics at the
University of Wyoming. His research and consulting experience covers a very wide range
of areas which includes hydrology, archaeology and medical science, as well as biology.
This experience includes representing the New Zealand government on the Statistics
Subcommittee of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Resources, an
organization involving 28 countries that is charged with monitoring and managing the
Antarctic ecosystem.
Bryan Manly is the author of nearly 200 papers in refereed journals, is the sole author of
seven books, and a joint author or editor of a number of other books and conference
proceedings. He was Editor of the Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental
Statistics, 1999-2001, and is currently on the Editorial Board or is an Associate Editor for
Environmental and Ecological Statistics, the Journal of Animal Ecology, Population
Ecology, Environmetrics, and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics.
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| Trent McDonald - Statistician/Biometrician |
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Trent McDonald is a statistician and project manager with Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc.
(WEST, Inc.) and adjunct statistics professor at the University of Wyoming. He holds a B.S.
in Statistics and Computer Science from the University of Wyoming (1988), a M.S. in
Statistics from New Mexico State University (1990), and a Ph.D. in Statistics from Oregon
State University (1996).
Dr. McDonald specializes in application of capture-recapture analyses, habitat selection
analyses, linear models, computer intensive statistical models, and finite population surveys.
In applications, he has experience detecting bowhead whale displacement around anthropogenic
sound sources, modeling population growth and demographic parameters of Northern spotted owls
and polar bears, analyzing aerial surveys for Eastern grey whales, modeling habitat needs of
moose, grizzly bears, polar bears, and bighorn sheep. Dr. McDonald has published a number of
articles on capture-recapture and habitat selection methods, including co-editing a book on
capture-recapture methods and co-authored a book on habitat-selection. Computer intensive
statistical methods, such as bootstrap and permutation methods, as well as their application
to dependent data, are a key component of all of Dr. McDonald’s work. Workshop instruction
experience includes week-long workshops on capture-recapture methods, 1-week and 1-day
workshops on habitat selection, and several 1-week workshops on computer intensive statistics.
He has worked for private and public clients including the National Park Service, U. S.
Geological Survey, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, BP, Exxon, Green Diamond Resources, and
others. His endangered species experience includes projects involving Northern spotted owls,
bowhead whales, eastern grey whales, polar bears, grizzly bears, tailed frogs, hell-benders, and many others.
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| David P. Young, Jr. - Wildlife Biologist |
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David Young has been a Project Manager and Wildlife Biologist for WEST, Inc. since 1992.
He received his B.S. in Biology from Earlham College (1986) and an M.S. in Zoology from
the University of Georgia (1988). His specialty areas include threatened and endangered
(T&E) species and wind power research. He has received formal training in Endangered
Species Act, Section 7 consultation and Habitat Conservation Plans. He has conducted T&E
species surveys, clearances, and monitoring projects; has written numerous Biological
Assessments for determining adverse effects from highway construction projects, water
development projects, and wind plants; and has been a paid and volunteer field technician
studying many T&E species including Indiana bat, grey bat, copperbelly water snake, and
Kirtland=s snake Indiana; green sea turtles, Florida; wood stork, Georgia; black-footed
ferrets, Wyoming toads, Preble’s meadow jumping mouse, mountain plover, Ute ladies’
tresses orchid, and Colorado butterfly plant, Wyoming; Mexican spotted owl, Arizona; bald
eagles, and Washington ground squirrel Washington/Oregon; bull trout and westslope
cutthroat trout, Montana; Allen’s Cay Rock Iguana and Riley’s Rock Iguana, Bahamas.
David Young’s wind power work includes ten years of experience conducting avian research
in wind plants in Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, West Virginia, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and
New York. His experience includes pre-construction Phase 1 assessments and baseline
resource studies, post-construction avian and bat impact monitoring, T&E species surveys,
and Biological Assessments (BA) and Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP). He was the
Project Manager for studies at the Foote Creek Rim Wind Plant, Wyoming, Maiden Wind
Project, Washington, Eurus Combine Hills Turbine Ranch, Oregon; Hopkins Ridge Wind
Project, Washington, the Desert Claim Wind Plant, Washington, and the Mount Storm Wind
Project, West Virginia. His clients include SeaWest Windpower, Pacificorp, enXco, Zilkha
Renewable Energy, Renewable Energy Systems; Bonneville Power Administration;
Foresight Energy Inc., Eurus Energy America Corp, and NedPower. He has been an invited
speaker to several wildlife society chapter meetings to discuss wind power and avian and bat
interactions and impacts.
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| Jerry Baker - Wildlife Biologist |
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Jerry Baker has been primarily involved with studies of potential impacts of wind power
developments on wildlife. These tasks have included ground raptor nest surveys and
monitoring, avian and raptor point counts, breeding bird surveys, Washington ground
squirrel surveys and monitoring, rare plant surveys, big game ground surveys, sage
grouse lek searches, and sensitive wildlife species surveys in native habitats.
Additionally, he has performed carcass searching, carcass removal and searcher
efficiency trials in support of actual turbine mortality studies. He has supervised field
crews as part of both pre- and post construction environmental surveys for large wind
facilities in the Pacific Northwest. He is a longtime sportsman and remains an avid
angler, especially enjoying time steelhead fishing with his children. He also enjoys
birdwatching in Mexico when visiting his wife’s relatives, and is fluent in Spanish. He
lives with his family in Athena, Oregon.
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| Kimberly Bay - Statistician |
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Kimberly Bay is a Biometrician with WEST. She received a B.S. in
Mathematics/Statistics in 2000 and an M.S. in Statistics in 2003 from the University of
Wyoming. She has been an employee of WEST for the last four years. She works
primarily on management of databases and statistical analyses for numerous wind power
projects. She has also worked on several RSF projects and distance analyses. She has
experience with most statistical computer packages including, SAS, Distance, SPLUS,
and SPSS, the database application ACCESS, and the GIS application ARCVIEW.
Kimberly and her husband are both Wyoming natives and both enjoy many outdoor
activities.
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| Ann L. Dahl - Wildlife Biologist/GIS Specialist |
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Ann L. Dahl joined the WEST staff as a Wildlife Biologist/GIS Specialist at the Bismarck,
ND office in March 2006. Ann received her BS in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
from Northwest Missouri State University, a MS in Wildlife Sciences with a minor in
Experimental Statistics from New Mexico State University, and a PhD in Wildlife
Sciences from the University of Washington. Ann’s primary education and work
background is in wildlife biology, particularly waterfowl and other birds. She also has
extensive experience in wetland ecology, limnology, landscape ecology, and hydrology.
Since graduating, Ann’s work experience and projects have included a strong GIS
component. She is proficient in the use of ArcGIS and GIS-associated hardware, and
constructing and managing databases.
For her master’s degree, Ann conducted a study to determine foraging behavior of
waterbirds on a New Mexico reservoir in relation to the available food base. Her
doctoral research focused on the Aleutian Canada goose habitat use and availability on
its wintering areas in northern California. In North Dakota, Ann conducted a study to
examine bird nesting on created island to determine the relationship between nest
numbers and landscape and local parameters. Ann worked for the US Geological
Survey where she conducted hydrologic analyses using GIS to delineate watershed
basins, compute water flow direction and accumulation. She provided GIS support for a
project examining the impact of wetland drainage and restoration on flood water storage
capacity. She also developed a GIS-based decision-support model for prioritizing
wetland restoration sites. Recently, Ann worked on a study to determine wetland loss
due to surface drainage in the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota. Ann
has also surveyed breeding birds in the Prairie Pothole Region.
At WEST, Ann primarily works on database and GIS management for pipeline and wind
projects as well as field work as needed. Ann lives in North Dakota with her husband,
dog, and cats. When not working, Ann attends auctions and cruises antique stores.
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| Jamey Eddy |
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Jamey P. Eddy started working for WEST in 1995 and has been primarily involved with studies of the potential impacts of wind power developments on wildlife. These tasks have included aerial and ground raptor nest surveys and monitoring, avian and raptor point counts, mountain plover surveys and nest monitoring, lagomorph and prairie dog surveys and sage grouse lek counts. He has also performed carcass searching, carcass removal and searcher efficiency trials in support of actual turbine mortality studies.
Prior to starting at WEST, he received a B.S. degree in animal science from California Polytechnic state university San Luis Obispo and was then on the staff at the Predatory Bird Research Group at the University of California Santa Cruz where he was a raptor breeding and raptor food production specialist as part of the Peregrine Falcon reintroduction program for the west coast. He was also involved with the the release of young as well as on-going surveys of the wild falcon population as it continued to increase.
He now resides with his family in Laramie, Wyoming.
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| Shay Howlin - Statistician/Biometrician |
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Shay Howlin has been a biometrician for WEST since 1999. She received her B.S. in
Wildlife and Fisheries Science from the Pennsylvania State University and her M.S. in
Statistics from Oregon State University. Shay's experience in the implementation of
survey techniques and her formal training in statistical theory and analysis qualify her to
assist in the design, conduct, and analysis of wildlife field studies.
As a biometrician for WEST, Shay primarily has been involved in ecological monitoring
studies and analyses, designing and estimating resource selection functions, conducting
data analyses, writing statistical analysis plans, designing databases, and wildlife
research. Shay has experience in simulation and computing using SAS, S-Plus, Arcview,
and Microsoft Access. Shay's past clients include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Wyoming Department of Environmental
Quality, and Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Shay currently lives in Calgary,
Alberta and enjoys mothering, skiing, gardening and birding.
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| Jay Jeffrey - Research Ecologist |
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Mr. Jeffrey currently conducts biological reconnaissance and assessment, and both
conducts and supervises pre- and post-construction environmental surveys for wind
power developments in the Pacific Northwest. He has also been involved with wind
power wildlife monitoring studies in WY, MN, and SD. He has conducted avian research
in KS, UT, FL, WY, MN, OR, WA, HI, and Micronesia. Survey techniques used include
line-transect, point-count, mist-net, auditory response via species-specific recordings, lek
observation, patagial and leg band mark-resight, radiotelemetry, and nest searches.
Mr. Jeffrey has extensive experience using GPS and compass bearings to establish study
grids and arrays composed of transects and/or fixed points, as well as georeference
animals or habitats. He is also trained in relational database management and GIS theory
and GAP analysis, especially as it pertains to floral and faunal distributions, and habitat
geospatial analysis. In addition to avian studies, Mr. Jeffrey has been involved with
aquatic and terrestrial bioassessments that evaluate a site's plants, reptiles, amphibians,
fishes, and mammals; often focusing on threatened and endangered species and their
habitats. He has supervised large field crews as part of amphibian monitoring studies on
both private land and PGA-class golf course developments, and also supervised field
technicians conducting stream surveys on a 40,000-acre military training range.
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| Jessica Kerns - Wildlife Biologist |
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Jessica Kerns is a wildlife biologist with Western Ecosystems Technology, Inc. involved
primarily in wildlife/wind energy research in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic, and northeast.
Jessica began working on wind-wildlife related projects in 2003 as a biologist at the
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science conducting pre-construction
avian surveys on proposed wind sites in western Maryland. In 2003, she was hired to
conduct the first year of post-construction fatality monitoring at the Mountaineer Wind
Energy Center (MWEC) in West Virginia and eventually co-authored the final report.
Jessica was invited to present those findings at the “Bats and Wind Power Generation
Technical Workshop” organized by Bat Conservation International and the USFWS and
hosted by Florida Power and Light Energy. Jessica was hired in 2004 as a principal
investigator for the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative to research patterns of bat fatality
at wind energy facilities. The findings of this collaborative research, “Relationships
between Bats and Wind Turbines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia: an assessment of
fatality search protocols, patterns of fatality, and behavioral interactions with wind
turbines” were released in 2005. Jessica holds a B.S. in wildlife biology and an M.S. in
applied ecology and conservation biology. She recently left her Ph.D. work to pursue
fulltime employment as WEST’s northeast component. She lives in Ithaca, NY with her
spoiled pets where she enjoys running, backpacking, swimming, summer sports, and
vegan cooking.
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| Christopher Nations - Statistician/Biometrician |
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Mr. Nations has three years of experience as a statistician at West, Inc. and over ten years of experience in laboratory and field biology. He is currently involved in a long-term study of impacts of aircraft noise on avian reproductive success at Camps Miramar and Pendleton in California. Other recent projects include ecological risk assessments for the Savanna Army Depot and the Kalamazoo River, and assessment of oil field activity on whale migration and seal densities in the Beaufort Sea.
Mr. Nations has experience in a variety of techniques in ecological statistics including: capture-recapture and band-recovery estimation of survival and population size; resource selection for diverse animals such as elk, passerines, and snakes; and, home range estimation based on telemetry data. He also has training and experience in multivariate methods, survival analysis, linear models including mixed models, and generalized linear models. Mr. Nations is also interested in population modeling; his most recent work in this area involves a model to project the impact of introduced lake trout on native cutthroat trout in Lake Yellowstone in Wyoming. Mr. Nations is familiar with several computer packages for statistical analysis, simulation, and general programming; these include SAS, S-Plus, SPSS, Matlab, Fortran, and Pascal. He is currently working on a Phd in Statistics at the University of Wyoming.
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| Ryan M. Nielson - Statistician/Biometrician |
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Mr. Ryan Nielson is a statistician/biometrician at WEST. He received a B.S. in
Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon in 1996, and an M.S. in Statistics
from the Colorado State University in 2001. Mr. Nielson joined the WEST team in 2001,
following the completion of his graduate studies.
Mr. Nielson has worked for WEST on the design and analysis of ecological monitoring
programs and wildlife population surveys. His experience in wildlife surveys includes
estimating population sizes of moose on the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge and the
Alaska Peninsula/Becharof National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska, and golden eagles in the
western United States. Mr. Nielson also has extensive experience in modeling
resource/habitat selection by animals. He has modeled den site selection by brown bears
on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and winter habitat selection by moose and caribou in
central Alaska, foraging and nesting habitat of spotted owls in northern California, and
sea ice selection by polar bears in the Beaufort Sea.
Mr. Nielson is currently studying the effects of oil and gas development on several
wildlife populations in Wyoming using mark-recapture and habitat use analyses. In the
next few years, Ryan will be working with other scientists to determine selective fishery
impacts on Yukon River Chinook salmon.
Mr. Nielson has training and experience in sampling design, linear and generalized linear
models, mixed models, spatial statistics, and distance sampling. Ryan’s current interests
in statistics include trend detection, validation of resource selection models, Bayesian
hierarchical modeling, bootstrapping and other computer intensive methods. His
personal interests include cross-country skiing, scuba diving, and hiking with his family.
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| Victoria Poulton - Biologist |
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Victoria Poulton joined the WEST staff in August of 2004. Previously, she was a
research assistant at South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve where she
studied the effects of oyster culture on estuarine communities. Tory received her M.S.
degree from the University of Wyoming on behavior of scaup ducks (Aythya marila, A.
affinis) in response to benthic invertebrate community characteristics in northern San
Francisco Bay, CA. Tory’s main areas of expertise are avian behavior and ecology,
estuarine benthic ecology, shellfish biology, and seagrass ecology. She has a graduate
minor in statistics, excellent technical editing skills, and a high tolerance for detailed
taxonomic identification of invertebrates and plants.
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| Troy Rintz - Wildlife Biologist |
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Troy Rintz is a wildlife biologist for WEST, Inc. He received his B.S. in Wildlife and
Fisheries Science from Pennsylvania State University in 1995. Following 10 years of
wildlife research throughout the United States, Troy joined the WEST team in 2004.
Troy has a variety of experiences and knowledge. With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s black-footed ferret recovery program and Brown’s Park National Wildlife
Refuge, Troy has studied black-footed ferrets, prairie dogs, waterfowl, shorebirds,
raptors, and small mammals. His work included reintroducing black-footed ferrets to
Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Previously, he surveyed for northern goshawks in
the Targhee National Forest with the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative. He
has also studied bald eagles with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, neotropical
songbirds with Point Reyes Bird Observatory and University of Idaho and small
mammals, songbirds, and amphibians with Pennsylvania State University.
Currently for WEST, Troy is working on linear pipelines, wind power, and Wyoming
Department of Transportation projects. His wildlife work has included small mammal
trapping, black-footed ferret surveys, raptor surveys, Greater sage grouse lek counts,
songbird counts and habitat mapping. He has also surveyed for rare plants and assisted in
inventories of wetlands.
Troy lives with his wife and dog in Laramie, Wyoming. He enjoys hunting, fishing,
skiing, backpacking, and a variety of outdoor activities.
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| Hall Sawyer - Wildlife Biologist |
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Hall Sawyer is a wildlife biologist and project manager with WEST. Hall received a B.S.
in wildlife biology from Colorado State University in 1994 and an M.S. in Zoology from
the University of Wyoming in 1997. Following his graduate research on elk ecology, he
continued to work with the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit as a
research scientist, coordinating projects that focused on elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer,
pronghorn, and bighorn sheep. He also worked as a terrestrial biologist with the
Colorado Division of Wildlife, before joining the WEST team in 2002. His specialty
areas include ungulate ecology, habitat use analysis, animal capture, global positioning
system (GPS) technology, radio-telemetry, geographic information systems (GIS), and
impact assessment. He is currently involved in a long-term study designed to examine
impacts of natural gas development on mule deer populations in western Wyoming. Hall
lives in Laramie, Wyoming and enjoys backpacking, mountain biking, and hunting.
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| Michelle Bourassa Stahl - Biometrician |
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Michelle Bourassa Stahl has worked part-time for WEST since 1999, though her association with
WEST began in 1992 while working for one of WEST’s original clients. She received her B.S. in
Biology from the University of Vermont, her M.S. in Statistics from the University of Wyoming and
most of her field experience in Alaska between the two. Michelle’s experience with numerous
federal and state agencies on a wide variety of fisheries, wildlife, and vegetation studies gives her
an excellent understanding of the field environment, the practical and technical issues associated
with implementing research protocols in the field, and the implications for resulting data analyses.
As a biometrician with WEST, Michelle has primarily been involved with data management and
the preparation of data for analysis, designing and managing our original wind power databases.
A self described anal retentive, Michelle excels at quality control and the cleanup and
management of messy data. Michelle more recently has been conducting data analyses for
project managers. These include bootstrap resampling, survival analyses, linear modeling, and
distance sampling in addition to more basic statistical analyses. Michelle has training in sampling
and experimental design in addition to multivariate, time series, analysis of variance, regression,
and categorical data analyses. Michelle has experience in simulation and computing using
Fortran, Pascal, C, SAS, S-Plus, Arcview, Microsoft Access and Paradox.
Michelle lives in Laramie with her husband Peter, daughter Maya, and dog Dakota. She spends
her free time mothering, skiing, mountain biking, gardening, backpacking and fishing.
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| Kenton Taylor - Wildlife Biologist |
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Kenton Taylor has been a technician and wildlife biologist for WEST since 2004. He
received a B.S. in Zoology and Physiology from the University of Wyoming in 2001 and
an M.S. in Zoology and Physiology, Minor in Statistics from the University of Wyoming
in 2004. Kenton’s graduate studies were focused around waterfowl production on
created wetlands in N.E. Wyoming. He has formal training/ and or certification in
wetland delineation and various species specific surveys. Kenton has had the opportunity
to work with wildlife in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Nebraska, Arizona and Kansas. Currently, most of his time is devoted to biological
studies related to pipeline projects. Kenton resides in Laramie, WY and enjoys hiking,
fly-fishing, and hunting in his spare time.
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| J. R. Boehrs - GIS Specialist |
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J.R. Boehrs is a G.I.S. Specialist at Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc. He received a B.A.
in Geography from the University of Wyoming in 2007. Prior to coming to WEST J.R. spent a
field season collecting fire fuels data on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central
Oregon with the Student Conservation Association. J.R. performs cartographic and other
G.I.S. related duties as needed at WEST. He is also the “Recycling Coordinator” at the
Cheyenne Corporate Headquarters.
J.R. lives in Cheyenne, WY and enjoys backpacking, running, bouldering, and travel.
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| Jeff Gruver - Research Biologist |
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Jeff Gruver joined WEST in 2007. Jeff has been involved in bat research since 1996, and has
studied bat ecology in the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, and the Badlands of
southern Alberta. He earned a B.S. in Economics (1993) from Penn State University and an
M.S. in Zoology and Physiology from the University of Wyoming (2002). Jeff's M.S. research
examined the assemblage of bats near a wind power facility in southern Wyoming in relation
to documented bat fatalities at the facility. His PhD research focused on the how
physiological constraints influence ecological responses of bats in northern arid climates.
Jeff has authored or co-authored scientific publications on topics ranging from species
conservation assessments to factors influencing bat fatality risks at wind energy
installations.
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| David Tidhar - Research Biologist |
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David Tidhar has been a Research Biologist for WEST, Inc. since 2005. He received his Bachelor
of Arts degree in History and Political Science from the University of Montana, Missoula in 1997
and a Masters of Science degree in Ecology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2000.
David’s M.S. thesis was an investigation of the behavioral and short-term spatial effects of
recreational human disturbance on red deer Cervus elaphus on a Scottish estate. He has over
10 years of experience working with wildlife in 20 U.S. states as well as Scotland and England.
David previously worked for Idaho Fish and Game Department, the U.S. Geological Survey Colorado
Plateau Research Station, Arizona Game and Fish Department, the University of Aberdeen (U.K.),
The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (U.K.), The Macaulay Institute (U.K.) and HawkWatch
International. He has worked on a variety of studies related to assessments of the potential
effects of human activities on wildlife, population dynamics, and inventory and monitoring.
David enjoys working on rare or elusive species in challenging environments; employing live-
trapping, behavioral observation or other methods to meet project goals. His work for WEST
has included studying the potential effects of wind power, cellular towers, oil and gas
development and linear pipeline construction on wildlife. David has coordinated baseline and
post-construction wind power studies in several states and been field supervisor on a range-
wide population level survey of golden eagles in the western U.S. for U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
David lives in Laramie with his wife, Wendy, and dog, Sally. He is an avid ski-mountaineer,
backpacker and mountain biker who spends as much free time as he can muster outdoors.
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| Donald Solick - Wildlife Biologist |
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Donald Solick is a wildlife biologist with over 12 years experience conducting research on bats
and other wildlife throughout North America and Canada. He received his M.S. in Ecology from
the University of Calgary, Alberta, and his B.S. in Wildlife Biology and B.A. in Environmental
Studies from The Evergreen State College, Washington.
With WEST, Donald is primarily
involved with coordinating pre- and post-construction bat surveys at wind energy facilities.
His background with bats is extensive, and he is experienced with acoustic monitoring, telemetry,
mist-netting/harp-trapping, radar, and night-vision surveys for bats. His thesis work focused on
the thermoregulatory and roosting behavior of bats inhabiting different environments in Canada, and
resulted in three scientific publications. Donald also has a broad background surveying other
wildlife, including experience conducting point counts and nest-searching for birds, live-trapping
small mammals, collecting and identifying insects and aquatic macroinvertebrates, call surveys for
frogs and toads, monitoring for sea turtles, tree-climbing to assess canopy moss communities,
electroshocking for fish, and assessing the health of streams.
Donald lives in Fort Collins with his wife and cat, and enjoys soccer, travel, Halloween prop-making,
and bird-watching.
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| Andrea Palochak - Technical Editor |
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Andrea Palochak is Technical Editor with WEST, Inc. She received a M.S. in Zoology from Brigham Young
University, Provo, Utah, in 2004, and a B.S. from the University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, in 2000.
Her graduate studies focused on black bear age and reproductive analyses conducted on the cementum
annuli of black bear premolars, and the accuracy of such methods for Utah black bear study populations.
Additionally, she has conducted goshawk nesting surveys, inventoried mist-net captured bats, prepared
museum specimens, and produced photographs for local businesses and artisans. She also currently assists
a Boy Scouts of America Troop as an Assistant Scoutmaster and Counselor.
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