Lake Barrett (’23) was instrumental in getting this paper across the finish line. It also marks my first publication with long-time friend and colleague Dean Fraga!
New Publication on the Genetics of Squirrel Melanism
Let the semester begin!
Over the holiday break, I got moved into a nice new office with not one but TWO windows! It’s not Hogwarts but I’ll take it.
New snake species for Wooster Memorial Park
Yesterday (9/27/2023) on a class field trip, my students and I found a baby milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) in the woods at Wooster Memorial Park (WMP). In ~15 years of working on amphibian and reptiles at this site, this is the first milk snake I have found. It is the seventh snake species documented from WMP (the others being eastern garter snakes, ribbon snakes, black rat snakes, northern water snakes, Dekay’s brown snakes and ringneck snakes). Hope to see more in the future!
Reforestation project kicks off!
On Saturday August 26th, volunteers from the College of Wooster swim team helped initiate a reforestation project at Wooster Memorial Park. About 80 native trees were protected from deer browsing in the Ostroski meadow (using tree tubes, see below). With this assistance, these young trees will gradually turn a old field into a young forest, providing valuable wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration benefits. Many hands make light work – thanks all for your help!
New (and old) publication on the rescue effect
I recently published a new paper providing some of the clearest empirical evidence for the demographic rescue effect that I know of. But this was based on field work I did over 20 years ago in the rainforests of Madagascar for my dissertation. To say this has had a long gestation period is a major understatement! When you start a new faculty job, you often focus on starting new projects and sometimes the old ones get (temporarily) forgotten. Glad to have this out and I hope someone reads it!
