Welcome to the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center’s Forest and Conservation Biology Lab. The lab is actively involved in the development of conservation and restoration strategies for native plant species that are guided by a better understanding of how native plants evolve in response to selective pressures such as drought, pest outbreaks, invasive species, fire, and other disturbances. These strategies hold the potential to amplify population and ecosystem resiliency. We are also actively working on advancing equity and diversity in forestry, conservation, and restoration initiatives.

Related Research Projects

Climate Resilient Restoration
Forest Health
Population Dynamics
Ecological Genetics & Evolutionary Potential
Conservation & Restoration
Raising Baby Trees
News & Media
 

Check out the Climate Resilient Forest Restoration StoryMap

Learn how the Forest & Conservation Biology Lab is working to restore Sugar pine in the Greater Lake Tahoe Region using innovative and resilient restoration approaches with this interactive StoryMap!

Donate to the Forest and Conservation Biology Fund

Forests and forest health issues are the central focus of TERC’s forest and conservation biology lab. Gifts to the Forest and Conservation Biology Fund helps to save, reforest, and improve populations of Tahoe's most vulnerable trees. Thank you for your support of science to sustain the Lake Tahoe Basin. 

Current Members

DR. PATRICIA MALONEY is the lead scientist in the UCD Tahoe Environmental Research Center’s Forest and Conservation Biology Lab and is currently the Associate Director of TERC. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis in 2000. The labs research program broadly studies forest health, eco-evolutionary dynamics, tree physiology, restoration, and conservation biology. Her primary interest is to better understand natural and anthropogenic influences on forest tree dynamics, genetic structure, and adaptations in western montane ecosystems, as well as responses to pathogens, insects, and drought across these landscapes. She has 20+ years’ experience in developing conservation, restoration, and climate adaptation strategies for North American white pine species. She is also actively working on advancing equity and diversity in forestry, conservation, and restoration initiatives with the California Conservation Corps.
 

TOM BURT started working with lead scientist Maloney in 1995 and has always been the “FAE” or “Field Assistant Extraordinaire." Via osmosis he has become a forest & conservation biologist and has been the primary contract cone collector for gene conservation efforts of high-elevation white pines in California and Nevada. When not being Big Daddy (to our daughters Nina and Hannah) or FAE, Tom is out riding on whatever medium of water that is beckoning to him (i.e. snow, freshwater, saltwater, or ice) or in the mountains enjoying his family and friends (and making pies). Tom graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1986 with a double major in Math & Education and a minor in Physics and is 4th generation Lake Tahoe.

CAMILLE JENSEN received a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Minnesota and a M.S. in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Davis.  She has extensive experience as a forest health specialist and forest biologist.  As a post-graduate researcher, she studied the response of forest insects and disease to large scale disturbance events in Northern Minnesota and Alaska.  This work inspired her to pursue a Master’s degree focused on a destructive pathogen causing widespread mortality in California's coastal forests.  Since joining TERC’s Forest and Conservation lab she has worked on various projects to gain a better understanding of forest insect and disease ecology, forest dynamics, phenomics of 5-needle pines, and the development of innovative reforestation practices. 

AARON VANDERPOOL (avanderpool@ucdavis.edu) received his B.S. in Environmental Science & Ecology with a minor in Sustainability from Sierra Nevada College. Since 2017, he has been participating in studies on forest health, forest restoration, ecophysiology, ecological genetics, dendrochronology, particle size distribution, and algal communities. Being a born and raised native of the Lake Tahoe region and spending a great deal of time outdoors, he is passionate about the ecological and social sustainability of the area. He loves spending time in wilderness and learning about the world holistically on a systems level.

SHANNON LYNCH is an affiliate faculty of the Forest & Conservation Biology in UCD’s Department of Plant Pathology and has been collaborating with Patricia Maloney and Camille Jensen over the last 20 years. Dr. Lynch’s career has been dedicated to effectively responding to emergent pests and pathogens as drivers of global change in forest ecosystems. She develops new analytical approaches that merge large-scale monitoring with tools from phylogenetic ecology and climate science to create predictive epidemiological models of the spread of novel pests and pathogens over heterogeneous landscapes. She complements this work by combining culture-dependent approaches with metagenomics to examine how tree microbiomes shape host resilience to destructive pathogens. Finally, she combines analytical and community-based approaches to understand the intersecting impacts of environmental injustice, urban forest pathogens, and climate change on disadvantaged communities in cities and urban forest systems. 

Former Members & Interns

ELISA MARINI worked in the lab from 2015-2017 monitoring bark beetle populations, conducting dendrochronology studies, and forest carbon dynamics. Elisa received her B.S. in Forest and Environmental Technologies from the University of Padua, Italy in 2011 and her M.S. in Forest and Environmental Sciences from the University of Padua in 2014. Elisa is currently an award-winning cheesemaker back in Italy, here is her shops website: https://www.saporidimontegnago.com/#/.  They do not ship to the US but hopefully I can travel to Italy soon to taste her wonderfully crafted cheeses. 

MARTIN FRY worked in the lab from 2011-2015 and assisted in common garden studies, restoration plantings and monitoring, as well as vertebrate studies in white pine blister rust-impacted whitebark pine stands. Martin also assisted Tom Burt in gene conservation collections of five-needled white pines. Martin graduated from Lewis & Clark University in 2010 with a double major in Environmental & Hispanic Studies and a minor in Latin American Studies. Currently he is the field crew leader at Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project, an organization working to locate, protect, and enhance seabird habitat in Maui Nui.

UNDERGRADUATE INTERNS: James Pollock (2011-2012), Richa Nanavati (2015), Hannah Perkins (2016), Traci Bond (2016), Aaron Vanderpool (2016-2017), Bryn Anderson (2017), Jennay Argiris (2017), Serena Galindo (2017), Ayden Williamson (2017), Elana Ketchian (2018), Steven Shuster (2018), Megan Birnbaum (2019), Cora Lochner (2019), Angelina Ghilotti (2019-2020), Cora Lochner (2021).

Volunteers

For decades, JEAN ZAMBIK contributed to the Lake Tahoe community working at the Tahoe Biltmore, Crystal Bay Club and Hyatt casinos. When not working, she enjoyed hiking, swimming, stargazing and relishing the beauty of nature. When recreating she was always litter picking, paying careful attention not to step on any plants and even lifting wind-fallen branches from shrubs and forbs so they may thrive. Her continued environmental stewardship brought her to becoming a volunteer extraordinaire for the Forest and Conservation Lab. Wise, curious, caring, along with a quick wit followed with her inviting laugh, are just a few of her most endearing qualities that made her a friend to many. 

Lab Motto

“The mountains are my playground……..and my office”