I'm a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow pursuing a masters degree in Forest Resources at the University of Maine. I received my B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Michigan State University in 2023. Throughout my academic career, I've won awards for presentations at local and national conferences, published in a peer-reviewed journal, and received numerous grants for research projects. In my professional career, I've worked biological field jobs across the Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic tundra of Alaska to the rainforests of Belize, where I gained hands on experience and learned extensively about ecological systems. In addition to biological jobs, I've worked jobs in the recreation industry from trail building and maintenance to bike repair and ski instructing. My experience in both recreation and ecological systems make this an exciting project to carry out.