Southwest Region Ecological Services

Dr. Jon Boren is Extension Wildlife Specialist, Assistant Professor, New Mexico State University, Department of Extension Animal Resources. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Wildlife Ecology, and a Ph.D. in Range Science from Oklahoma State University. His responsibilities include developing extension programs related to wildlife damage control, wildlife enterprises on private land, New Mexico wildlife education and management, and youth development in natural resources. As a member of the Range Improvement Task Force, he is also responsible for scientific studies on wildlife/livestock interaction and mediating natural resource conflicts. Dr. Boren provides wildlife expertise in preparing comments on environmental impact statements, environmental assessment of forest plans, and resource management plans. He develops extension programs related to threatened and endangered species and riparian area management. In his role as Extension Wildlife Specialist, he develops teaching materials, aids, methods, and techniques for educational programs for off-campus programs, and works with the State 4-H as a team member in youth programs related to wildlife. Dr. Boren’s research has included an examination of the effects of prescribed burning and herbicide application on the nutritional ecology of bobwhite quail and the interaction of ownership unit size, land use, and vegetation change on avian biological diversity using a geographical information system. His current research focuses on the foraging relationships between elk, mule deer, and cattle on Southwestern forests and rangelands.

William L. Graf

Dr. William L. Graf is Regents' Professor of Geography at Arizona State University. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a major in physical geography and a minor in water resources management. His specialties include fluvial geomorphology and policy for public land and water. The emphasis of much of his geomorphologic research and teaching has been on river channel change, human impacts on river processes and morphology, contaminant transport and storage in river sediments, and the downstream impacts of large dams. Much of his work has focused on dryland rivers. He has served as an officer in the Geological Society of America, and is the President-Elect of the Association of American Geographers. In the area of public policy he has emphasized the interaction of science and decision-making, and resolution of the conflict between economic development and environmental preservation. Dr. Graf has published more than 100 papers, articles, book chapters, and reports on geomorphology, riparian ecology, river management, and the interaction between science and public policy. His work has produced awards from the Association of American Geographers and the Geological Society of America, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship. Dr. Graf is a member of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, and has been a member of the Water and Science Technology Board, Committee on Glen Canyon Environmental Studies, and Committee on Rediscovering Geography. He has also chaired the Academy Committee on Innovative Watershed Management, as well as, the Workshop to Advise the President's Council on Sustainable Development. President Clinton has recently appointed him to the President's Council on American Heritage Rivers.

Deborah M. Finch

Dr. Deborah M. Finch is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Wyoming, Laramie in 1987, her Master's from Arizona State University, Tempe, and her B.S. from Humboldt State University, Arcata, California. Dr. Finch’s research interests focus on neotropical migratory birds, bird migration in the southwest, avian breeding ecology, riparian and grassland ecosystems, and ecosystem restoration and conservation. She has published over 80 papers in a variety of outlets and has chaired and served on numerous committees and boards of the Cooper Ornithological Society, American Ornithologists' Union, and The Wildlife Society.

Jerry Holechek

Dr. Jerry Holechek is a Professor of Range Animal Ecology, Department of Animal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University. He grew up on a cattle ranch in central Oregon that he presently owns with his mother and brother. He received his B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology from Oregon State University. After serving a three-year hitch in the U.S. Army, he attended Montana State University where he received a M.S. in Range Science. He returned to Oregon State University and received a Ph.D. in Range Livestock Nutrition. In 1980, Dr. Holechek accepted a faculty position at New Mexico State University. He has authored one textbook, five chapters in other books, and over one hundred articles relating to range and wildlife management. His research has emphasized the effects of grazing management on rangeland vegetation, wildlife populations, and financial outcomes. He has served as president for the New Mexico Section of the Society for Range Management and has received several awards, including the outstanding achievement award from the Society for Range Management. Dr. Holechek’s interests include travel, shooting, photography, snow skiing, and guitar playing.

Barbara Kus

Dr. Barbara Kus is a Research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Biological Resources Division, and Station Leader of its San Diego Field Station at San Diego State University, where she is a Research Professor in the Department of Biology. She received a B.S. in Anthropology and a B.A. in Zoology, a M.S. in Ecology, and a Ph.D. in Ecology from U.C. Davis. Dr. Kus has been conducting research for the past 13 years on the population ecology of least Bell’s vireos, southwestern willow flycatchers, and other sensitive riparian birds in southern California and Mexico. Her current work focuses on demography and dispersal of vireos and flycatchers, and the effectiveness of habitat restoration in providing habitat for endangered species. She is a member of several Recovery Teams and advisory boards developing conservation policy.

Robert M. Marshall

Robert M. Marshall is a Conservation Planner with The Nature Conservancy in Tucson, Arizona. He received a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and an M.F.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. His professional background is in avian ecology, wetlands ecology, and wildlife management conducting demographic, habitat, and migration studies on neotropical migrants and endangered species for Manomet Bird Observatory, Dartmouth College, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. Before joining The Nature Conservancy, Rob worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for four years where he was the Service's lead biologist for the southwestern willow flycatcher.

Stephen Rothstein

Dr. Stephen Rothstein is Professor of Zoology and Director of the Museum of Systematics and Ecology at U.C. Santa Barbara. He received a B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1965, a M.Ph. in 1969 and a Ph.D. in 1970 in Ecology and Evolution from Yale University. His thesis research was on interactions between parasitic birds and their hosts and he conducted postdoctoral work on that subject at the Smithsonian Institution from 1970 to 1972. Since joining the University of California, Santa Barbara faculty in 1972, he has continued his research on parasitic-host interactions and has also studied mating systems and song development in cowbirds, the conservation implications of cowbird parasitism, social behavior and status signaling in wintering sparrows and models for the evolution of spite, cooperation and reciprocal altruism. He has served as major advisor for over 20 graduate students who have received Master's and Ph.D. degrees under his supervision and is active in ornithological and animal behavior societies.

Susan Sferra

Susan Sferra is the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher Coordinator for the Bureau of Reclamation in the Phoenix Area Office. She received her B.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan and her M.S. in Wildlife Biology from Humboldt State University. She has been working on Southwestern Willow Flycatcher studies and management since 1992. Her responsibilities include local and rangewide coordination of monitoring, research, and management activities that benefit this subspecies. Prior to her current position, she was a Nongame Birds Program Manager with the Arizona Game and Fish Department for five years. She has worked as a wildlife biologist for a variety of other agencies and organizations throughout her career, including several years with the U.S. Forest Service.

Mark Sogge

Mark Sogge is an Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Colorado Plateau Field Station, Flagstaff, Arizona (a unit of the Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center). He graduated from San Jose State University, California with a B.A. in Biochemistry, and obtained an M.A. in Zoology from the University of California at Davis. He has worked as a biologist for a variety of federal agencies since 1983. His research interests include avian monitoring programs and protocols, southwestern riparian bird communities, and the ecology of endangered birds. He first studied willow flycatchers in 1988 in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade mountains in California. Since 1992, he has coordinated and conducted over a dozen southwestern willow flycatcher studies in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, as well as research on the winter ecology of willow flycatchers in Costa Rica. His research emphasis has been on flycatcher demography, habitat use, breeding ecology and population genetics.

Julie C. Stromberg

Dr. Julie Stromberg is an Associate Professor in the Plant Biology Department at Arizona State University. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee and a Ph.D. degree in botany from Arizona State University. Dr. Stromberg is an applied plant ecologist. Much of her research deals with understanding the relationships of stream flow regimes and fluvial processes with plant population dynamics and community structure, and applying this information to restore riparian ecosystems. She is past-president of the Arizona Riparian Council and has served on various commissions and expert-teams grappling with riparian protection and enhancement issues. She has published extensively in peer reviewed journals.

Brad Valentine

Brad Valentine is Senior Wildlife Biologist for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. He received an M.A. in Biology from California State University, Fresno. Prior employment included California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS), Kings River Conservation District, California Fish and Game Department, Idaho Fish and Game Department, Sierra National Forest, and private consulting. He has performed ecological research on the "Brewster's" subspecies of willow flycatcher, and participated in some of the early survey work in Arizona after the southwestern willow flycatcher was listed as endangered. He has authored several publications on willow flycatchers. Brad is a member of The Wildlife Society, American Fisheries Society, Society of Conservation Biologists, American Ornithological Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, Association of Field Ornithologists, Western Field Ornithologists, Western Bird Banding Association, and the California Native Plant Society.

Mary J. Whitfield

Mary J. Whitfield is a research associate at the Kern River Research Center. She holds a B.S. degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from U.C. Davis, and a M.S. degree in Biology from California State University, Chico. Mary has worked on a long-term breeding ecology study of the southwestern willow flycatcher since 1989. In conjunction with the southwestern willow flycatcher breeding ecology study, she has studied the effects of a brown-headed cowbird trapping program (started in 1993) on the reproductive success of the southwestern willow flycatcher. In the fall of 1998, Mary started working on a wintering willow flycatcher study.

Sartor O. Williams III

Dr. Sandy Williams is an Endangered Species Biologist for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, where he has statewide responsibility for nongame and endangered birds. He received his B.S. in Zoology and M.S. in Wildlife Management from Louisiana State University, and his Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University. He has been involved in endangered species recovery efforts in the southwest since the mid-1970s, including as a member of or consultant to several recovery teams. His current research and writings emphasize the distribution, status, and habitat needs of birds in New Mexico, the southwestern U.S., and northern Mexico. He has been closely involved with willow flycatcher issues throughout his 12 years with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, including overseeing research plus initiating and coordinating statewide surveys. Dr. Williams is an Adjunct Associate Professor and Graduate Faculty member at New Mexico State University, where he has served on several graduate committees in the Wildlife Department. He is active in all facets of New Mexico ornithology, including serving as state coordinator of the Breeding Bird Survey since 1987, New Mexico editor for American Birds/Field Notes since 1989, past president of the New Mexico Ornithological Society, former editor of the NMOS Bulletin, past chair of New Mexico Partners in Flight, and current secretary of the New Mexico Bird Records Committee.