Dr. Kevin McGarigal

Kevin is an applied research landscape ecologist, having earned a B.S. degree in Forestry and Wildlife from Virginia Tech, an M.S. degree in Wildlife Science from Oregon State University, and a Ph.D. in Forest Science from Oregon State University. He was a professor of landscape ecology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst from 1997 until 2019. Kevin’s applied research focuses on understanding how landscapes are structured physically and biologically and the agents responsible for those patterns, how these patterns affect the distribution and dynamics of plant and animal populations, how these patterns and processes change over time, and how to apply this information to better manage natural resources over multiple spatial and temporal scales. Accordingly, a major component of his work has been the development and technical support of software tools for both scientists and managers (e.g., FRAGSTATS) for quantifying landscape patterns and landscape dynamics. In particular, Kevin is the developer of a landscape disturbance-succession simulation model (LDSim) for simulating the range of variation in landscape patterns under natural and anthropogenic disturbance regimes to help land managers gain a quantitative understanding of the landscape under historical reference period conditions and alternative future scenarios. Kevin is eager to bring his substantial experience, knowledge, and prolific set of tools and software to enhance Land Tender and the future suite of decision support applications that are currently being developed by Vibrant Planet.