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Jessie A. Vespi
M.S. Candidate in Environmental Sciences and Policy
B.S.J., Journalism, Northern Arizona University
B.S. (Extended Major), Environmental Science, emphasis in Communications, Northern Arizona University
My main interest is grassland systems. I am trying to shed light into controversial rangeland issues, the biggest being grazing, of course. My current research in the Sisk Lab of Landscape Ecology and Conservation Biology is part of a larger project on Anderson Mesa in northern Arizona, which is both a wildlife hotspot and a highly used summer cattle grazing pasture. Two other projects in the Lab focus on grazing treatment effects on grassland systems and on plant landscape dynamics.
With a recent EIS grazing permit being implemented by the Forest Service there have been management actions taken on the Mesa. My research focuses on the grazing issues within the highly dynamic systems of emphemeral/seasonal wetlands and grazing. The three part project starts with a grazing exclosure experiment within the transitional plant zone of these wetlands. The second part will help to show some fundamental relationships of plant phenology and soil moisture/temporal changes along the vegetational gradient (from wetland to grassland),which is important to understand in with highly variable drought of the last couple of years. This will also help to determine the best time for collection. The third part of the project focuses on the wetlands that had been fenced off from cattle by the preferred alternative of the EIS. It will track the progress of the plant communities that will occur from being cattle free.
Email:jav23@nau.edu
Jessie Vespi
Banner photo: The "Ducknest" grazing exclosure study site on Anderson Mesa in northern Arizona
