We spent most of our summers, weekends, and longer breaks during the winter at our cottages on Fife Lake, about 30 minutes south of Traverse City.  It was a great place to spend summers and probably the main reason I am interested in the environment today.  I learned to readily identify the plants, trees, birds, and insects at a pretty early age while out collecting fire wood with my family.  Fife Lake remains a pretty quiet lake, all things considered.  Cottages are built only about 1 deep from the lakeshore in contrast to many other inland lakes in northern Michigan.  Common loons and bald eagles still make the water's edge their home which adds a nice ambiance during summer visits.  Given the pressures of development and the rise in powerboating and jet skis I'm not sure how long this will last.  So far the eagles and loons have been remarkably tolerant.

 
I graduated from Mt. Pleasant High School in 1989 and entered Central Michigan University the following fall.  CMU is located in Mt. Pleasant, so I didn't go far.  I graduated from CMU in December 1993 and moved to Longview, WA the following March to work for the Washington Department of Natural Resources looking for northern spotted owls.  It was a great job but seasonal so I ended up moving back to Michigan for more permanent work as a land surveyor in Traverse City, Michigan.  Of course, my fiance (now wife) lived in Traverse City at the time so that was a bit of a draw.  I worked mostly as a GPS surveyor helping to site new natural gas wells on public land.  Another great job since I was out doors in pretty remote areas most of the time.  I also learned how to conduct conventional surveys from perhaps some of the greatest, most patient teachers out there.  Of course they had to put up with my constantly training the transit on birds.

 
In 1995 I entered graduate school at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.  I spent the next two years working with Bill Baker on a fire history study in subalpine forests of the Medicine Bow National Forest.  It was an extraordinary opportunity and the experience prepared me well for Ph.D. work.

I started my Ph.D. research with Tom Swetnam at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research during the summer of 1997.  I was baptized by fire so to speak because I went directly from Laramie to the research site in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area (on the Idaho/Montana border) before I even met Tom in person.  The research involved collecting fire history information as well as reconstructing climate in subalpine forests.  The Selway was a spectacular place to work and I hope to continue conducting research in the area in the near future.  I completed my dissertation in January 2003 much to the relief of my wife and dissertation committee.