CURRICULUM VITAE: David Schmidt
Fire and Vegetation Ecologist
The Nature Conservancy and US Forest Service
2132 Wickson Hall, One Shields Avenue
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616
dschmidt@tnc.org
EDUCATION
2005 MS, Geography (Ecology minor), The Pennsylvania State University
(“The Influence of Fuel Treatments and Landscape Arrangement on Simulated Fire Behavior in the Southern Cascades, California”)
2003 BS, Computer Engineering, Iowa State University
WORK EXPERIENCE
2006-Current Fire and Vegetation Ecologist, The Nature Conservancy, Davis, CA
As part of a cost-share agreement with the US Forest Service Region 5 Ecology Program, I help model vegetation dynamics in California’s fire-prone ecosystems and then apply those models to create spatially-explicit maps of departure from historic conditions. I analyze departure from historic vegetation structure as well as historic fire regimes and the results are used to guide fuel treatment projects and post-fire restoration. I am currently leading two other projects: 1) a statistical analysis of Sierra Nevada fire severity predictors and 2) a study of the effects of various Sequoia National Forest fuel and fire management scenarios on potential smoke and emissions. I have also been involved in a wide variety of field work, mostly collecting vegetation data in remote areas.
Summer/Fall 2005 Ecological Restoration Technician, Red-Tail Restoration, Inc., Iowa City, IA
I participated in prairie, wetlands, and woodland restoration and reconstruction projects. We primarily planted, burned, and mowed prairies; sprayed herbicides; and worked with landowners to create and implement timber management plans.
Fall/Spring 2004-5 Research Assistantship- Vegetation Dynamics Lab, University Park, PA
I modeled forest data with the Forest Vegetation Simulator/Stand Visualization System as well as analyzed tree ring cores and fire scar samples.
Summer 2004 Crew Leader, US Forest Service, Mt. Hebron, CA
I led a crew of six in collecting field data as part of the National Fire and Fire Surrogates Study, Klamath National Forest. We spent the summer measuring trees, fuels, and understory characteristics.
Fall/Spring 2003-4 Research Assistantship- GeoVISTA Center, University Park, PA
I created digital tools in Java for the GeoVISTA Studio visual programming and geographical exploration environment.
Summer 2003 Helitack Crew Member- US Forest Service, Hailey, Idaho
I was part of a helicopter crew that worked at helibases on large wildfire incidents and also helirappeled to perform initial attack for small wildfire incidents.
Summer 2002 Fuels Crew Member- US Forest Service, Grand Marais, MN
I worked with a hand crew in and around the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that also provided initial and extended attack response for fires. While not working on fires, the crew did chainsaw fuel reduction work in the 1999 Blowdown area.
Summer 2001 Engine Crew Member- US Forest Service, Ketchum, Idaho
I worked on a five-person wildfire engine crew performing various fire suppression duties with the engine or as part of a hand crew. While not on fires, we cut down hazard trees and did project work.
PRESENTATIONS
“Sierra Nevada Fire Severity Predictors”, Southwest Fire Ecology Conference, Tucson, AZ (January 2008)
“The Impact of Fire and Fuels Management on Potential Smoke and Emissions, Giant Sequoia National Monument”, Southwest Fire Ecology Conference, Tucson, AZ (January 2008)
“Fire Behavior and Vegetation Dynamics Modeling”, Dye Creek stakeholders association (November 2007)
“Fire Ecology”, UC Davis guest lecture for Prof. Susan Harrison (February 2007)
“Assessing Landscape-Scale Impacts of Wildfire and Fuels Treatments: Methods for Ecological Restoration Based on State-and-Transition Modeling”, Third International Fire Ecology and Management Congress, San Diego, CA (November 2006)
“The Influence of Fuel Treatment Type and Arrangement on Simulated Fire Behavior in Mixed Conifer Forest in the Southern Cascades”, Third International Fire Ecology and Management Congress, San Diego, CA (November 2006)
“Fire and Departure from Historic Conditions”, Tahoe National Forest / Modoc National Forest / Plumas National Forest / Stanislaus National Forest / Sequoia National Forest (various dates, 2006)
“Vegetation Dynamics Modeling”, Student Association for Fire Ecology, UC Davis chapter (November 2006)
“Effects of Fuel Treatment Type and Arrangement on Simulated Fire Behavior”, Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Denver, CO (March 2005)
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Association for Fire Ecology
Ecological Society of America
Pheasants Forever
National Wild Turkey Federation
PUBLICATIONS
Nakamura, G., C. Keithley, and D. Schmidt. 2007. “Fire Ecology in Watershed Assessment.” California Watershed Assessment Manual, Volume II. University of California, Davis. http://cwam.ucdavis.edu/
Safford, H.D., J. Miller, D. Schmidt, B. Roath, and A. Parsons. “BAER Soil Burn Severity Maps Cannot Be Used to Identify Fire Effects on Vegetation: A Reply to Odion and Hanson”. Ecosystems. 2007.
Schmidt, D.A, A.H. Taylor, and C.N. Skinner. In press. “The Influence of Fuels Treatment and Landscape Arrangement on Simulated Fire Behavior, Southern Cascade Range, California.” Forest Ecology and Management.
Shlisky, A., J. Waugh, P. Gonzalez, M. Gonzalez, M. Manta, H. Santoso, A. A. Nuruddin, D. A. Rodríguez Trejo, D. Schmidt, R. Myers, A. Alencar, F. Kearns, D. Johnson, and D. Zollner. 2007. “Fire, Ecosystems and People: Global Strategies for Biodiversity Conservation”. The Nature Conservancy. 2007.
TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
Ecological Models: Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator, Stand Visualization System, Landscape Management System, EnVision, Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool
Fire Models: BehavePlus, FARSITE, FlamMap, NEXUS, Fuel Characteristic Classification System, Consume, FireFamily Plus
GIS: ESRI ArcGIS 9.x
Statistical Modeling Packages: S-PLUS 6.1
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