Dr. Kathryn McEachern began her career in the open pit coal mines of Pacific Power and Light in Wyoming and Montana. There she designed long-term vegetation monitoring programs, directed topsoil salvage operations, and designed and tested native plant seed mixes for habitat reclamation. Her interest in ecosystem restoration led her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she participated in the restoration ecology group, and helped design a new Conservation Biology Master’s program. In 1988, she began working with the National Park Service in the Great Lakes region on conservation of coastal ecosystems. She began long-term studies of a threatened dune thistle in one of the habitats she loves best: coastal dunes. Her research interests led her to the California south coast, where she continues to study rare plants and vegetation.

Chaparral Ecology Coastal Sage Ecology Community ecology Conservation biology Ecological monitoring Geographic Information Systems Invasive species ecology Landscape ecology Landscape patterns Plant ecology Pop. viab. models Population biology Restoration ecology Species/Population management Weed management