Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Though originally from Nebraska, I always wanted to move to the coast since I was a child. This is why I came to Maine to study marine biology, and from there shifted my focus to diadromous fish. Since moving to Maine I have become an avid fisher-woman, am starting to learn how to hunt, and have enjoyed numerous hiking and camping trips. . Part of my research as a Ph.D. student focused on developing a population and nutrient dynamics model for alewife that was parameterized for the St. Croix River. As a post-doctoral researcher, I am expanding this model to compare population dynamics for a range of management objectives (i.e. variable dam passage rates, dam removals, the location of a commercial fishery, etc.). With the help of Alejandro Molina Moctezuma, who is a graduate student in the Zydlewski lab, I will be developing the alewife population model into an interactive web application that will allow stakeholders to easily compare the results of management scenarios. This will help facilitate the decision-making process.