Education

• 1999 MS. Environmental Science, Bard College
• Master’s Thesis: Using Historic Research, Remote Sensing and GIS to Investigate Vegetation Change Related to Land Use in a Rangeland Ecosystem
• 1996 BS. Environmental Studies, Cum Laude, Utah State University

Research 

• Using and developing innovative GIS and remote sensing techniques to investigate environmental change
• Partnering with beaver for watershed restoration
• Investigating climate change inducted disturbance: high-elevation ecosystems
• Channel narrowing of large, canyon-bound rivers: western US 
• Using and developing innovative detailed topographic mapping techniques
• Spatial modeling and mapping of ecogeomorphic characteristics of watersheds

Bio

Wally Macfarlane, is a veteran geospatial professional with nearly 15 years of experience developing and using innovative GIS, photogrammetry and remote sensing techniques to assess climate and land-use induced environmental change. Within his highly productive career Wally’s skills have been instrumental on over 30 different natural resource related projects for federal, state, municipal and NGO organizations and agencies.

Projects

• GCT: Pilot Study: Testing the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT)
• NPS: Assessment of Indicator Sites & Quantifying Short-Term Effects of High Flows on Riparian Vegetation along the Yampa & Green Rivers
• USGS: Big River Monitoring Protocol Development
  

Scholarly Contributions

Peer Reviewed Publications

• Scott, M.L., D.W. Perkins, J.M. Wheaton, and W.W. Macfarlane. In prep. Hypothesis driven, multi-scalar monitoring protocol development: big, canyon-bound rivers. For Submission to: River Research and Applications.
• Wheaton, J.M., W.W. Macfarlane, M. O’Brien, and J.L. Christensen. In prep. Modeling the capacity of riverscapes to support dam-building beaver. For Submission to: Biological Conservation.
• Macfarlane, W.W., Logan, J. A., and W.R. Kern. In press. An aerial survey assessment of mountain pine beetle-caused whitebark pine mortality in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ecological Applications.   http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/11-1982.1
• Logan, J. A., W.W. Macfarlane, and L. Willcox 2010. Whitebark pine vulnerability to climate-driven mountain pine beetle disturbance in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Ecological Applications. 20:895—902. http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/09-0655.
• Logan, J. A., W.W. Macfarlane 2010. Beetle Devastates Yellowstone Whitebark Pine Forests ActionBioscience.org. http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/loganmacfarlane.html
• Logan, J.A., W.W. Macfarlane, and L. Willcox 2009. Effective monitoring as a basis for adaptive management: a case history of mountain pine beetle in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem whitebark pine. iForest 2: 19-22 [online: 2009-01-21] URL: http://www.sisef.it/iforest/show.php?id=477 
  

Conference Papers, Presentations & Posters

• Upcoming poster: Macfarlane, W.W., J.M. Wheaton, M. O'Brien, and J.L. Christensen 2012. Modeling the Capacity of Riverscapes to Support Dam-Building Beaver, AGU Fall Meeting 2012. American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA.
• Invited seminar: Graduate Degree Program in Forest Ecology, Fall 2011, University of Montana
• Invited workshop presentation: Whitebark Pine Ecosystem Foundation workshop,  Fall 2011, Cody, Wyoming.
• 10th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Questioning Greater Yellowstone’s Future: Climate, Land Use, and Invasive Species  October 11–13, 2010. Poster: Whitebark pine vulnerability to climate driven mountain pine beetle disturbance in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
• Global Change and the World's Mountains, Perth II-Five Years Later, Perth, Scotland September 26-30, 2010. Oral presentation: An assessment of mountain pine beetle-caused mortality of whitebark pine forests of mountain areas of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
• 2010 Annual Ecological Society of America Meeting, August 1-6 2010. Oral presentation: Climatic threshold dynamics and unprecedented mountain pine beetle outbreaks in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
• “High-Five" Symposium, The Future of High-Elevation Five-Needle White Pines in Western North America, June 28 - 30, 2010. Oral presentation: Using the Landscape Assessment System (LAS) to map mountain pine beetle‐caused mortality in whitebark pine, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, 2009. Oral presentation: A tool for restoration: The 2009 Landscape Assessment System (LAS) mountain pine beetle‐caused mortality assessment in whitebark pine, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Oral presentation: Citizen Science: Assessing ecological function in whitebark pine forests impacted by mountain pine beetles.
• 2010 Western Forest Insect Work Conference, April 5-8, 2010 Oral presentation: Using the Landscape Assessment System (LAS): An Aerial Survey Method for Mapping the Extent and Intensity of Mountain Pine Beetle-caused Tree Mortality
• Union of International Forest Researchers (IUFRO): Forest Insects and Environmental Change Conference, September 27^th - October 2, 2009, Oral presentation: Status of Whitebark Pine Decline in the Greater Yellowstone Using GIS and Remote Sensing
• 7th North American Forest Ecology Workshop,  June 22 -26, 2009. Oral presentation: Remote Sensing and GIS Landscape Assessment of Whitebark Pine Mortality
• Macfarlane, W.W., J.A. Logan and L. Willcox 2008. Whitebark Pine Citizen Scientists Project: Poster: A Hands-on Approach to Monitoring Catastrophic Whitebark Pine Loss in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem 2008. 
• International Development Enterprise (IDE) Rural Prosperity Initiative Project, Kathmandu, Nepal, May 2008. Provided week long GIS and GPS hands-on training, refresher course.
• International Development Enterprise (IDE) Rural Prosperity Initiative Project, Kathmandu, Nepal, June, 2007. Provided week long GIS and GPS, hands-on training course.
• International Development Enterprise (IDE) Rural Prosperity Initiative Project, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Lusaka, Zambia, July, 2007. Provided week long GIS and GPS hands-on training course.
• Western Wildlands Environmental Threats Assessment Center, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Pacific Northwest Regional Office, Portland, Oregon, August 7-8, 2007 Provided 2-day Training Workshop: GMWest System -- A GIS-based Risk Assessment System for Gypsy Moth Introductions.
• Macfarlane, W.W., Pederson, J.L., and Petersen, P.A., 2002. Testing the limits of photogrammetryto monitor erosion of archaeological sites in Grand Canyon. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 33, no. 6, p. 134.

Reports

• Macfarlane, W.W, J. A. Logan, and W.R. Kern 2010. Using the Landscape Assessment System (LAS) to Assess Mountain Pine Beetle-Caused Mortality of Whitebark Pine, Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, 2009: Project Report 2010. http://docs.nrdc.org/land/files/lan_10072101a.pdf 
• Bentz, B. J. (ed, co-organizer), J. A. Logan (co-organizer), J. MacMahon (facilitator) and W.W. Macfarlane (GIS support). 2009. Bark Beetle Outbreaks in Western North America: Causes and Consequences. Bark Beetle Symposium, Snowbird, UT, Nov 2005. University of Utah Press. http://www.usu.edu/beetle/pubs_2000.htm
• Pederson, J.L., Petersen, P.A., Macfarlane, W.W., Gonzales, M.F. and Kohl, K., 2003. Mitigation,Monitoring and Geomorphology Related to Gully Erosion of Cultural Sites in Grand Canyon. Report to the U.S. Geological Survey, Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, 241 p.