January 20, 2021

PNW CESU welcomes new Co-Leader Alison

Please join me in welcoming Alison Ainsworth as our new Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) Research Coordinator and Science Advisor for the Pacific Northwest CESU.

Alison Ainsworth is the new CESU Research Coordinator and Science Advisor for the Pacific Northwest CESU, hosted by the University of Washington in Seattle. She will also assist with projects conducted through the Great Basin CESU, hosted by the University of Nevada-Reno. Alison replaces Chris Lauver who retired in July 2020, and more recently Dr. Regina Rochefort who came out of retirement to serve as Acting CESU Research Coordinator, providing critical support for both CESUs as well as parks and programs. Alison earned a BS in Resource Ecology and Management at the University of Michigan, an MS in Wildlife on tropical fire ecology at Oregon State University and is earning her PhD. (ABD) in Botany on climate change impacts on high elevation Hawaiian plant communities at the University of Hawaii. She has over two decades of experience working in national parks in the Pacific Islands and the Mojave Desert. Her career began at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in Resources Management where her work included endangered species recovery, fire ecology, and landscape level restoration. As the Botanist for the Pacific Island Inventory and Monitoring Program, she developed and managed the vegetation program for all (11) Pacific Island Parks. Since 2018, Alison has served as Death Valley National Park’s Terrestrial Ecologist and has implemented a broad range of resource protection projects including rare plant monitoring, invasive burro exclusion fencing, archeological survey and off-road vehicle prevention and restoration. Alison is looking forward to exploring the Pacific Northwest NPS units and Seattle’s numerous dog parks with her furry beasts. She began her new position on January 17, 2021, and will be working remotely from Death Valley until sometime in later February/early March when she will arrive in Seattle.

Alison Ainsworth