Adam Toomey, Ph.D. Candidate

Adam Toomey is originally from Youngwood, Pennsylvania. He spent most of my childhood learning from my father about the intricacies of the natural world. From a young age he instilled his great love for the outdoors in me and this eventually led me to earn a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Science from Washington & Jefferson College.

After graduating, he worked as a botany technician for the BLM in Carson City, NV. This position allowed me to work very closely with the regions many wildfire recovery efforts and in part is what drove me back to school to learn about fire’s influence on vegetative communities.  He recently earned my M.S.  in Range and Wildlife Management here at CKWRI studying the seasonal influence of prescribed burning on invasive grasses of south Texas.  

The Institute and it’s faculty convinced me this is where I wanted to finish my education. In August 2016, Adam accepted a doctoral position studying the effects of large-scale patch burning in the coastal prairies of south Texas under Dr. Sandra Rideout-Hanzak. We are looking to identify a preferable time of the year to burn Gulf cordgrass patches to optimize forage and habitat use for both livestock and wildlife.