Southern Sierra Science Symposium planned for Visalia

HUMAN SYSTEMS RESPONSE TO SOUTHERN SIERRA ECOSYSTEM STRESSORS
MARK NECHODOM
Pacific Southwest Research Station; USDA Forest Service

Mark Nechodom (nék-o-dum) is the Climate Science Policy Coordinator for the Pacific Southwest Region of the USDA Forest Service and a research scientist at the Pacific Southwest Research Station.

Dr. Nechodom is actively involved in the development of policy and research in support of California's Global Warming Solutions Act, or AB 32, and serves as a federal liaison to state agencies and Non Government Organizations (NGO). He also serves on several national-level climate policy efforts, and represents the Washington Office in a number of state and regional climate initiatives.

His current research uses life cycle assessment modeling (LCA) to identify the economic and environmental impacts of biomass-to-energy production. He also leads teams of researchers focused on carbon cycling in forest ecosystems, including wildfire effects and greenhouse gas emissions.

Over the last decade, he served as lead Social Scientist for the Sierra Nevada Framework, which directs management of 11 million acres of national forest land in California. Nechodom also led the social science team involved in the Lake Tahoe Basin Science Assessment, a major synthesis of scientific information related to the environmental conditions of the basin, as well as the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's 20-year regional plan revision for 2007.

In the 1990s, he established the Natural Resources Policy and Education Program at California State University, Sacramento, and subsequently co-founded and directed the Land Use and Natural Resources Program at the University of California, Davis. He is currently a visiting scholar and occasional lecturer at the University of California, Davis.

Nechodom spent several years as an agricultural and environmental policy adviser, consultant and researcher in Mexico and Latin America working with clients such as U.S. AID, the United Nations and other NGO development agencies.

Nechodom holds a Ph.D. in political science and environmental policy from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Background: In January 2008, the Forest Service (Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument along with the Pacific Southwest Research Station) signed a historic partnership agreement with the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and the U.S. Geological Survey to work together to better understand climate change and its effects on the Southern Sierra Nevada ecosystem. The long-term goal of this partnership is to establish a Research Learning Center.