About Maria

I am a rangeland and human ecologist with expertise in rangeland assessment, monitoring, collaborative and community-based management, local/indigenous knowledge, and participatory research. I coordinate transdisciplinary teams that span physical, biological and social sciences and non-scientist participants to solve real-word problems in the western US, Mongolia and Spain.

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Interests

  • My research interests include both ecological and social dimensions of wildland ecosystems, focusing primarily on rangelands. Current and past projects have addressed the following themes: rancher decision-making; community-based and collaborative natural resource management; traditional and local ecological knowledge; pastoralism and pastoral development; participatory research; gender and rangeland management; effects of livestock grazing and other disturbances on the structure and function of rangeland ecosystems.

Education

Ph.D. , Wildland Resource Science - University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, 1997

M.S. , Range Management - University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, 1992

B.A., Philosophy - Yale University
New Haven, 1987