In 1992 I started working in Subtropical hardwood hammocks of Everglades National Park studying the effects of Hurricane Andrew’s. From 1992 to 1998 I studied Andrew’s impact on Everglades National Park and LSU’s Ben Hur Woods. In 1995 I was certified to fight forest fires and began understanding fires impact on the pine forests of the Gulf South under Dr. William J. Platt’s supervision. In 1998 I was hired on with the Louisiana Nature Conservancy as assistant Land Steward. From 1998 to 2001 I worked with The Nature Conservancy managing land throughout the state of Louisiana. In 2001 I was appointed to the position of fire leader. From 2002 to 2004 I worked at an environmental consulting firm named QRI, L.L.C. in Baton Rouge. My job was to identify plants growing in oil field sites that were being restored, and to understand what plants if any may help restore disturbed areas. In 2004 I moved back to New Orleans to restore a 7.66 acre parcel of land called A Studio in The Woods. This property was filled with Chinese Privet and Chinese Tallow. In 2006 I began splitting my time between A Studio in The Woods and doing research for Tulane’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department under the guidance of Dr. Jeff Chambers. I was given the task of establishing research plots in Pearl River Wildlife Management Area following Hurricane Katrina. Research plot establishment was also done following Hurricane Rita in the Big Thicket National Preserve and for Hurricane Gustav at the Indian Bayou Preserve in the Atchafalaya Basin. In 2007 I began doing independent consulting for City Park, educating the staff on Chinese Tallow eradication and Bottomland Hardwood forest restoration.
Over a 20 year period I have measured over a 100,000 trees, established 100’s of research plots, fought nearly 100 wildland and prescribed fires, published five papers, and written an ecology manual for young students studying Louisiana’s wetlands. At present I am working on two papers; one is a comprehensive understanding of the top 10 species in Bottomland Hardwood forest that are damaged in hurricanes, and the other is a 7 year study on Bottomland forest restoration, by simple invasive species eradication.