Zander Evans joined the staff at the Forest Guild to direct the research program after finishing his PhD at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His dissertation used multiple spatial scales to analyze the invasion an exotic invasive insect that threatens to remove hemlock trees from eastern forests.  Before returning to school for doctoral studies, Zander was a cartographer and spatial analyst with the US Geological Survey. His work there included digital mapping around Lake Tahoe and disaster mitigation in Central America. Zander's current research includes an strategies for successful and responsible biomass removal projects, the socio-economic impacts of fire fuel reduction thinnings, and an assessment of the carbon budget for restoration thinning. As research director, Zander is helping to coordinate the Forest Guild's Ecological Forestry Initiative. Zander is principal investigator on a grant from the Joint Fire Sciences Program to undertake a year long investigation of biomass removal projects. Our goal is to uncover strategies and techniques managers from across the country are using to successfully implement ecologically sound biomass projects. The investigation will be based on case studies of actual, on-the-ground projects. Zander is working with scientists from Northern Arizona University to measure the change in carbon stocks after a restoration thinning in ponderosa pine. This research will measure the fossil fuels used to harvest timber from the site, carbon released from burned slash, and product life cycle for timber removed from the site. Zander and colleagues will compare this careful accounting of carbon on the site to the probability of wild fire and carbon stock liquidation in the absence of restoration. Zander looks forward to continuing the Guild's history of creditable and useful publications and expanding the Guild's efforts in peer-reviewed, forest science.

Publications:

Evans, A.M., and R.T. Perschel (In review). A review of forestry mitigation and adaptation strategies in the Northeast U.S. Climatic Change.

Evans, A. M. (In review). Differences in Infestation of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Between Stands. Northern Journal of Applied Forestry.

Finkral, A. J., and Evans, A. M. 2008. The effect of a restoration thinning on carbon stocks in a ponderosa pine forest. Forest Ecology and Management 255(7):2743-2750. DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2008.01.041

Evans, A. M. (In press 2008). Growth and infestation by hemlock woolly adelgid of two exotic hemlock species in a New England forest. Journal of Sustainable Forestry. 26(3)

Savage, M., T. Derr, A. M. Evans, E. Krasilovsky, K. Smith, and H. Carey. 2008. Short guide for developing CFRP restoration prescriptions. New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute, Las Vegas, NM.

Perschel, R.T., A. M. Evans, and M.J. Summers. 2007. Climate change, carbon, and the forests of the Northeast. The Forest Guild, Santa Fe, NM.

Evans, A. M., M. Tyrrell, A. Camp, C. Riely. 2007. Biotic and abiotic influences on severity of wind disturbance in forests of NW Pennsylvania. Forest Ecology and Management. 245(1-3): 44-53. DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2007.03.024

Evans, A. M., and T. G. Gregoire. 2007. A Geographically variable model of HWA spread. Biological Invasions. 9(4):369-382. DOI:10.1007/s10530-006-9039-z

Evans, A. M., and T. G. Gregoire. 2007. The tree crown distribution of hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae (Hem., Adelgidae) from randomized branch sampling. Journal of Applied Entomology 131(1):26–33. DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0418.2006.01121.x

Evans, A. M. and G. McKinley. 2007. An evaluation of fuel reduction projects and the Healthy Forests Initiative. Forest Guild. Santa Fe, NM

Evans, A. M. Tyrrell, A. Camp, C. Rielly. 2005. Vulnerability of Northwestern Pennsylvania Forests to Major Windstorms . Yale University Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry, New Haven, CT.

Evans, A. M. 2005. A randomized branch sampling method for hemlock woolly adelgid. in B. Onken and R. Reardon, editors. Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. USDA Forest Service, Ashville, NC, USA.

Evans, A. M. 2004. An anisotropic model of HWA spread. in K. Gottschalk, editor. Proceedings of the 15th USDA Interagency Research Forum on Gypsy Moth and Other Invasive Species. USDA Forest Service, Annapolis, MD, USA. p. 26

Raumann, C. G., S. Stine, A. M. Evans, J. Wilson. 2002. Digital bathymetric model of Mono Lake, California. Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2393. U.S. Geological Survey.

Bernknopf, R. L., L. B. Dinitz, S. J. M. Rabinovici, and A. M. Evans. 2001. A portfolio approach to evaluating natural hazard mitigation policies: An application to lateral-Spread ground failure in coastal California. International Geology Review 43:424-440.

Ashton, M. S., R. Mendelsohn, B. M. P. Singhakumara, C. V. S. Gunatilleke, I. A. U. N. Gunatilleke, and A. M. Evans. 2001. A financial analysis of rain forest silviculture in southwestern Sri Lanka. Forest Ecology and Management 154:431-441.