Nature’s Capital provides detailed, quality products on regional and landscape scales and small acreage tracts. The firm consists benefitted employees – scientists, technicians, and managers. We are a diverse team of scientists with post-graduate degrees in ecosystems analysis, botany, forest resources, range ecology, conservation ecology, and environmental management. Combined, we possess decades of professional experience. The team has working experience in Federal and State agencies and private corporations.
Principal, Botanist / Ecologist
Steven K. Rust – Over 30 years’ experience in botany and plant ecology with National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, USDA Forest Service, and Idaho Department of Fish and Game; extensive knowledge of temperate terrestrial ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains; project leadership experience in USDA Forest Service FIA, CSE, and FIA Intensification projects; expert data analyst with knowledge of common agency inventory data management tools, modeling platforms, data structures, and content; accomplished botanist with extensive knowledge of the Pacific Northwest flora. Ecological Society of America Certified Senior Ecologist and Certified Wetland Delineator.
MS Forest Resources, University of Washington; BS Botany, University of Washington
Silviculturist
Robert Schantz – Expertise in stand diagnosis and prescriptions, marking guidelines, and logging and transportation planning for developing proposed actions and NEPA compliance; served on Mt. Hood, Willamette, Deschutes, and Ochoco national forests; provided logging systems, transportation planning, and potential harvest units for the Blue Mts. Forest Resiliency Project; extensive experience with silviculture of dry, coniferous forest of the Columbia Basin; active in Society of American Foresters and as a certified inspector with the American Tree Farm System (ATFS). USDA Forest Service certified silviculturist and sale planner (retired).
MS and BS Forestry, Oregon State University
Terrestrial Ecologist
Ayn Shlisky Hunt – Experience in range management, forest vegetation ecology, vegetation modeling, fire ecology and restoration; has led ecosystem restoration and land management planning processes in Forest- and international-level contexts; experience with forest and rangeland ecosystems on the northern Sierras and the Oregon Cascade Range.
PhD Ecosystem Science, University of California Berkley; MS Range Management, University of California Berkley
Wildlife Biologist
Jacqueline L. Dougherty – Over ten years’ experience in ecology, threatened species conservation, animal care, and field leadership; experience includes work with carnivorous mammals, birds, reptiles, and macroinvertebrates of the northern Great Basin and Pacific Northwest; common stand exams in Northern Rocky Mountains; proficient with forest mensuration technical concepts and measurement tools, plant identification, aerial photography interpretation, and GIS
BS Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Physical Geography, Pennsylvania State University
Forester
Danielle M. Kies – Four years’ experience conducting natural resource fieldwork and forestry college instruction; proficient with forest mensuration technical concepts and measurement tools, plant identification, aerial photography interpretation, and GIS
MS Environmental Science, The Evergreen State College; BAS Forest Resource Management, Green River College
GIS Specialist
Pamela I. Bond – Ten years’ experience in enterprise spatial data management with expertise in geodatabase administration, Python scripting for automated tasks, electronic field data collection solutions, and workflow documentation; prior wildlife field experience with great gray owls, flammulated owls, Northern Idaho ground squirrels, fisher, wolverine, mule deer, elk, black bears, greater sage-grouse, and bald eagles
MS Geographical Information Science, Idaho State University; BS Biology, Idaho State University