DROUGHT EXPERTS: University of Oregon researchers available to comment on the ongoing drought

University of Oregon researchers are available to comment on the ongoing drought. More academic experts can be found on the Oregon Experts page.

Adell Amos
Clayton R. Hess Professor of Law Adell
Amos is an academic expert in water drought, natural resource law and resource management. She is especially well-versed in policy and law related to public lands, conservation, wilderness and hydrology. At the University of Oregon, she serves as the associate dean for academic affairs at the UO School of Law and teaches in the nationally ranked Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program. Selected by the Obama Administration in 2008 to serve a two-year appointment with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Adell developed strategies and oversaw policy issues around the nation’s public lands.

Cassandra Moseley
Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation; Research Professor, Institute for a Sustainable Environment; Director, Ecosystem Workforce Program Cassandra Moseley studies the changing face of wildfire management in the West and has a particular focus on how natural resource policies affect rural communities, businesses and workers, including immigrant forest workers. She examines how communities organize to increase resiliency to economic, social and environmental change. Cass can speak about forest land management and firefighters/contracted services. She can also speak in broad strokes about community wildfire preparedness.

Daniel Gavin
Professor, Geography
Dan Gavin is an expert in climate change and the impacts of climate change, wildfires and drought on ecosystems over time. He has used tree-ring records to understand how tree respond to climate change, insect outbreaks and fires. When talking about drought, Dan can weigh-in on the historical precedents for large or severe fires.

Lucas Silva
Associate Professor, Environmental Studies and Geography Lucas Silva studies the impacts of climate change, such as drought, on natural and managed lands. His research focuses on terrestrial ecology and biogeochemistry and soil-plant-atmosphere interactions.

Josh Roering
Professor, Earth Sciences
As a geomorphologist, Josh Roering’s research examines how perturbations and extreme events like earthquakes, intense rainfall, and fire shape landscapes through erosion, alter carbon cycles, and generate hazards such as landslides. His work in Western Oregon and Southeast Alaska is funded by National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Mark Fonstad
Associate Professor, Geography
Mark Fonstad is an academic expert in riverscape and mountain environments. He studies how humans interact with their environments through management, hazards, sustainability, law, engineering, restoration and habitat.