The Wilderness Society’s Gloria Barron Scholarship Recipients

The Gloria Barron Scholarship was established in 1998. Below is a summary of each Gloria Barron recipient and their research project.

View scholarship application procedures and guidelines.
Read more about the scholarship.

2009
University of Michigan

	Jesse Fernandes		Natalie Flynn
	Samantha Gibbes		Matt Griffis
	Takahiro Isshiki		Sean Killian
	Laura Palombi		Nerissa Rujanavech
	Sarah Tomsky		Merry Tondro

Renewable Energy in the California Desert: Mechanisms for Evaluating Solar Development on Public Lands
This group project aims to provide the BLM, environmental organizations, and other engaged stakeholders with a systematic methodology and accompanying tools for evaluating proposed large-scale solar energy projects in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts of California. The overall goal is to assist the BLM in efficiently selecting the best proposals in desert locations that allow for both effective generation of solar energy and the best possible conservation of ecosystems. Through development and application of a series of GIS screens, the project will integrate known relationships with new analytical tools to create a process for quantitative and qualitative analysis of solar projects across several focus areas: the flora and fauna in affected desert ecosystems, policy and management incentives and disincentives, resource and infrastructure needs of various solar technologies, net economic impact, and socioeconomic considerations.

2008
Travis Belote, Virginia Tech

The Influence of Land Use on Ecosystem Carbon Capture and Biodiversity: The Role of Wilderness Areas in Maintaining Regional Productivity and Species Diversity
This research will provide a better understanding on what role wilderness areas play in regional carbon sequestration and protection of species diversity. Travis plans to investigate what environmental or biological mechanisms lead to differences in productivity-diversity relationships between wilderness and other management areas and what role does human appropriation of productivity (e.g., through plantation forestry or logging) and alteration of species distributions play in determining that relationship.

Crystal Krause, Northern Arizona University

Conservation Ecology of Endemic Plant Species within the Greater Colorado River Corridor: Potential Climate Change Impacts on Range Shifts
Climate change must be addressed in conservation strategies to protect biodiversity in the future. Some of the major challenges climate change modeling is addressing are species range shifts, change in abundance, geographic variation in magnitude of response to climate change. Advances in modeling climate change and ecological niches provide a powerful set of tools for protecting biodiversity under a global change scenario. Crystal’s research attempts to address these challenges and enable resource managers to take preemptive measures to protect biodiversity specifically in the Colorado Plateau ecoregion.

2007
Stacey Schulte, University of Colorado

Environmental Implications of Benefits-based Management of BLM Lands
This project will examine the environmental impacts of value-driven management on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands. As BLM increasingly manages for recreation, planners have begun focusing on providing certain benefits to users (i.e. family bonding or stress reduction). This project will compare the outcomes of benefits-based management with those of an ecosystem management framework in the planning and management of off-road vehicle riders. Data will be collected through user surveys, key information interviews and planning document review related to the agency’s current planning effort. Results will be used to inform future planning efforts and the evaluation of planning alternatives.

2005
Peter Morgan, Stanford Law School

Creating Buffers and Connectors for Wilderness Reserves
Through the use of Conservation Reserves on the Working Landscape Land surrounding reserves has been converted to human use and is now best characterized as part of the “working landscape”. Although lacking in many of the qualities – aesthetic, spiritual, and ecological – that are normally associated with wilderness these lands many nevertheless retain crucial value for the ultimate health of surrounding wild areas. This research project will address all of the available techniques for protecting the working landscape, but will focus on new and emerging strategies, and in particular on those protections derived from the valuation of ecosystem services.

2004
Pauline Gaden, John Hopkins University

An Initiative to Support the Proposed Expansion of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park by Demonstrating Economic and Ecological Benefits
This research project assesses the role of national parks in the economics of high amenity, non-metropolitan regions of the Canadian and American Flathead Valleys. The goal of this project is to show that it is possible to maintain small-town community character, grow a healthy economy, and conserve the natural treasures of the region.

2003
Zack Holden, University of Idaho

Evaluating the Effects of 25 Years of Wildland Fire Use on Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests: Tree Mortality and Stand Structure
Field work will be conducted in the Gila-Aldo Leopold Wilderness Complex and Rincon Mountain Wilderness Area in New Mexico. Many ponderosa pine forests are severely degraded and there is a great need for restoration of these forests. Knowing the effects of multiple fires on tree mortality has important implications for future restoration and will help to determine the level of mechanical thinning that may be necessary before fire can be allowed to burn without high tree mortality. By measuring the effects of 25 years of naturally occurring fires this research project should be able to evaluate the potential use of fire and fire use programs as a tool for landscape-scale restoration.

2002
Stacy Clark, Oklahoma State University

Restoration and Management Research for Ancient Cross Timbers Forest
These remnant stands of old-growth forests in central Oklahoma and northern Texas represent a mosaic of xeric oak woodlands scattered throughout patches of savanna and prairie openings. Historical evidence indicates that the cross timbers vegetation was historically shaped by disturbances such as fires and drought. They are important reserves for biodiversity as well as for providing opportunities for recreation, aesthetics, and scientific learning. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the old-growth cross timbers forests is privately owned and is increasingly threatened by resources extraction, urban sprawl, exotic pests, and air pollution. Understanding the forest’s attributes before management practices can be implemented is key.

2001
Monique Rocca, Duke University

Incorporating Spatial Variability into Fire Restoration Plans: What Kinds of Heterogeneity Matter to Plants
This topic is extremely important in The Wilderness Society’s efforts to protect wildlands in the West. The outcome of this project may feed into TWS’s efforts to influence the National Fire Plan and forest restoration.

2000
David Lewis, Oregon State University

Land Conservation and Economic Growth in the Northern Forest
This project examined the economic issues in the northern forests from Maine west through northern Minnesota. Several articles have been published from this work.

• “Easements and conservation policy in the North Maine Woods”
• “Public conservation land and economic growth in the Northern Forest Region”
• “Public conservation land and employment growth in the Northern Forest Region”

1999
Marcus Renner, University of Wisconsin-Madison

A Citizen's guide to Education and Outreach for Community-based Conservation Programs
This guide will be based on Mr. Renner’s Master’s thesis and could be used by local conservation groups to understand how they can organize effectively. Mr. Renner will work closely with The Wilderness Society staff to produce a well-crafted manuscript titled “Widening the Circle: education and outreach for community-based conservation.”

1998
David Pilliod

Introduction of Fish to Wilderness Lakes without Existing Predatory Fish
The consequences of fish introductions on the survivorship of frogs will be examined. These frogs have evolved without such a predator and, consequently, have developed no defenses against them. Typically, the frogs disappear from lakes that now have predatory fish populations.

Christina Cromley

Learning from and Improving Bison Management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
This research project centered on the social aspects of solving the Bison-Montana conflicts in Yellowstone National Park. The work was subsequently published as a chapter in a book, titled “Finding Common Ground: Governance and Natural Resources in the American West”. The chapter, “Bison management in Greater Yellowstone” presents the findings of her work.