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

Staff Member


Jonathan Wellesley Cummings

On top of Haleakala after I climbed 10,000 of those 10,023'.

PhD
Phone: (802) 656 - 3388
Email: jwcummin@uvm.edu

Links:

Education

  • Ph D University of Vermont 2014
  • MS Simon Fraser University 2009
  • BA Oberlin College 2005

Biography

Having grown up in the Vermont woods, I enjoy studying natural resource management and in my free time I enjoy soccer, outdoor sports, and spending time with my wife Lauren and our dog Bailey.. In general I am interested in the ways we model nature through the use of quantitative ecology in order to understand and better manage natural resources. My current research is focused on the development of a wildlife database and applying structured decision making, adaptive management and population modeling techniques to state wildlife populations to benefit management practices. We developed a database for the state of Vermont to centrally store the data the state collects and uses to chronicle and manage wildlife populations. We will then be able to identify populations with the data available for the more sophisticated decision analyzes and identify areas of data gaps the additional studies may fill. My PhD research will assess the current and future status of bobcat and fisher populations and their habitat in Vermont. The objectives are to model the abundance and distribution of these species, evaluate how management can be improved based on a structured decision making and adaptive management framework, and determine the impact of projected development and climate change on these species. Current and future habitat status will be determined using presence-only species distribution models and using those model results to evaluate changes in species distribution that may ...

Research Publications Publication Date
Cummings, Jonathan W. , Hague, Merran J. , Patterson, David A. and Peterman, Randall M.2011. The impact of different performance measures on model selection for Fraser River Sockeye Salmon. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 31:323 — 334. | Abstract | Download | Publisher Website May 2011
Presentations Presentation Date
Cummings, J., and T. Donovan. 2014. The Value of Maps in Natural Resource Management: An Application of Expected Value of Sample Information. 70th Annual Northeast Fish and Wildlife Confernce, Portald, ME. April 2014
Technical Publications Publication Date
Terry Doyle, Jonathan Cummings, Mitchell Eaton, Sandy Johnson, Scott Johnston, Steve Lewis, John McConnell, Jim Neal, Carmen Simonton, Kristina Slagle, and Kim Wagner. A Structured Decision Process for Revising the US Fish and Wildlife Service Policy on Double-crested Cormorant Management. A Case Study from the Structured Decision Making Workshop, January 24-28, 2011. National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA January 2011
John Takekawa, Karen Thorne, Brady Mattsson, Jonathan Cummings, Giselle Block, Valary Bloom, Matt Gerhart, Steve Goldbeck, Jaime O’Halloran, Beth Huning, Nadine Peterson, Christina Sloop , Mendel Stewart, Karen Taylor, Laura Valoppi , Debby Crouse, Sarah J. Converse , and Michelle A. Haynes. Climate change and tidal marsh restoration in San Francisco Bay: should we restore more marshes to full tidal action and how should they be prioritized? A Case Study from the Structured Decision Making Workshop,17-21 October, 2011 Sacramento State University, Sacramento, California USA December 2012