Faculty Profile
Andrew Vander Yacht

Melanie Costello
mcoste04@syr.edu

• Degree Sought: MF
• Graduate Advisor(s): Vander yacht
• Area of Study: Forest Mgt and Operations

Sam Gilvarg
scgilvar@syr.edu

• Degree Sought: PHD
• Graduate Advisor(s): Vander yacht
• Area of Study: Forest Resources Management

Personal Statement
I am a Fire Ecologist and my current research is primarily focused on exploring how wildland fire influences the ecology of tickborne diseases in North Atlantic Coastal Woodlands. By understanding how fire influences disease transmission cycles in these systems, we hope to explore how fire management could be potentially employed as a means of promoting disturbance dependent ecosystems while concurrently benefiting the health of neighboring human populations (through a potential reduction in disease risk). Much of my work is predicated upon employing a One- Health approach to solving pressing environmental and epidemiological issues. One- Health is a methodology that aims to find realistic solutions to problems that exist at the interface of human health, environmental resiliency, and animal wellbeing. I am also broadly interested in Plant Conservation, Environmental History, and Emergency Medical Services.

Graduate Research Topic
Fire Ecology & Ecology of Vector-borne Diseases

Favorite Quote
“Land Management is an art that builds on history and is based in science”— Herbert L. Stoddard Sr.

Jade Haumann
jhaumann@syr.edu

• Degree Sought: MS
• Graduate Advisor(s): Vander yacht
• Area of Study: Forest Resources Management

About me
Sgeñnoñ! My name is Jade Haumann, of the Seneca Nation Wolf clan raised here in Onondaga. I am a Sloan Indigenous Graduate Fellow through ESF's Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. I’ve spent my entire life curious about the living world around me, carefully learning from all the plant and animal relatives we live among. Now I will spend my time at ESF studying traditional practices of controlled burns in our Haudenosaunee communities in relation to habitat and species conservation, cultural preservation, food sovereignty, and environmental justice.

Graduate Research Topic
Fire Ecology of the Haudenosaunee

Eva Legge
elegge@syr.edu

• Degree Sought: MS
• Graduate Advisor(s): Vander yacht
• Area of Study: Forest Resources Management

Links
evalegge.com

Personal Statement
I am a first year Master's of Science student at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) in the department of Sustainable Resources Management (SRM). My research aims to bridge the gap between basic mycorrhizal research and applied forest management. That said, I am lucky to currently be a member of two labs: Dr. Andrew Vander Yacht's Applied Forest and Fire Ecology Lab at SUNY ESF and Dr. Christopher Fernandez' Mycorrhizal Ecology Lab. I got my BA in Biology from Dartmouth College in June 2023, where I worked in the Hicks Pries Soil Ecology Lab. My undergraduate thesis examined the role arbuscular mycorrhizae may play in facilitating forest regeneration under varied levels of forest disturbance (selective harvest and quarter-acre clear cuts). I will continue along a similar vein of research in graduate school and beyond: working with landowners, forest managers, and local knowledge holders in order to help us manage our forests to be more resilient to global change. I'm also an avid science communicator, a practice which was inspired by my science writer grandfather. I believe good communication is necessary for any scientific practice that strives to be wide-reaching and inclusive.

Graduate Research Topic
My research focuses on how seedling-mycorrhizal relationships may be affected by different forest management methods, from timber harvest to prescribed burns.

Favorite Quote
"attention is the beginning of devotion" - Mary Oliver

Maria Loughran
mhloughr@syr.edu

• Degree Sought: MS
• Graduate Advisor(s): Vander yacht
• Area of Study: Forest Resources Management

Personal Statement
Hello! My name is Maria Loughran (muh-rye-uh lock-ran) and I am a friend of Burner Bob and pursuing a master's degree after ten-long years in the field. I hope to hone my experiences in freshwater ecology, botany, and fire ecology to a fine scientific point while I am here at ESF. My project involves better understanding how hydrologic behaviors might change in soil structures here in New York after interactions with fire (as could happen with prescribed or wildland fire). I am also working in the Applied Forest and Fire Ecology Lab to monitor and improve prescribed fire teaching fields set up at Heiberg Memorial Forest, where students of the new Fire Ecology and Management class perform a field exercise in prescribed fire in the fall semester. These fields also host a growth and survival experiment on American Chestnut, and will monitor how they respond to the prescribed fire events.

Graduate Research Topic
Fire Ecology: Soil and Hydrology, American Chestnut Growth and Survival