Maine People

Cyndy Loftin Unit Leader Email: cynthia.loftin@maine.edu Tel: (207) 581 - 2843

Dr. Loftin joined the Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit in 1999 as the Assistant Unit Leader-Wildlife. She became the Unit Leader in 2011. She holds a graduate faculty appointment as an Associate Professor in the Wildlife Ecology department in the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture.

Joseph Zydlewski Assistant Unit Leader Email: jzydlewski@usgs.gov Tel: (207) 581 - 2853

Joe joined the Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit in 2004 as Assistant Unit Leader, coming from the USFWS Columbia River Fisheries Program Office. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and cooperating faculty in the School of Biology and Ecology and the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, Orono.

John Armstrong Student Field Worker Assistant Email: john.armstrong@umit.maine.edu

Rena Carey Administrative Assistant II Email: rena.carey@umit.maine.edu Tel: (207) 581 - 2907

Rena came to the University of Maine, Department of Wildlife Ecology in May 2006. She started working with the Cooperative Research Unit in December 2008.

Prior to that, Rena worked for 13 years at the Office Manager/Bookkeeper for a quasi-state government agency in Bangor, Maine.

Amanda Flye Student Research Assistant Email: amanda.flye@umit.maine.edu

Lee Hecker Student Field Worker Assistant Email: lee.hecker@umit.maine.edu

Gregory LaBonte Student Research Asst. II Email: Gregory.LaBonte@umit.maine.edu

Julie Nowell Secretary Email: julie.nowell@umit.maine.edu Tel: (207) 581 - 2862

Julie started working for the University of Maine, Department of Wildlife Ecology and the Cooperative Research Unit in July 2009.

Andy O'Malley Scientific Tech. II Email: andrew.o'malley@umit.maine.edu

Andy graduated from UMaine in Fall 2010 with a BS in Ecology and Environmental Sciences. He has been working on various projects for the Maine Unit since early 2011. Andy enjoys hunting, fishing, and a variety of outdoor activities.

Stephen Page Student Field Worker Assistant Email: stephen.page@umit.maine.edu

Shannon Prescott Stundent Lab. Tech. IV Email: Shannon.Prescott@umit.maine.edu

Collin Wells Student Lab. Tech. II Email: Collin.wells@umit.maine.edu

Shannon Chapin Email: shannon.chapin@umit.maine.edu Tel: (207) 581 - 2921

As an undergraduate at Penn State, I assisted with research focused on the phenological adaptations of plants to nutrient stress and the influence of elevated CO2 levels on plant productivity. After finishing my B.S, I interned with the USFWS at Blackwater NWR and studied the nesting behavior of marsh birds. I then headed south to work at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center, where I assisted with a project that examined the effects of climate change on bald cypress swamps throughout the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Next, I took a job with the California Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (CCFWRU) to study the ecological benefits of the federal Wetland Reserve Program (WRP). While at the CCFWRU, I assisted with vegetation, soil, morphological, amphibian and avian surveys, as well as conducted a GIS analysis of the potential flood storage capacity of select WRPs in California’s Central Valley and Oregon’s Klamath River Basin. It was this project that helped me to realize my calling; I enrolled in Humboldt State University’s (HSU) Graduate Certificate in GIS & Remote Sensing program in the spring of 2010. I was also concurrently employed by the USFS and HSU’s Institute for Cartography. Specifically, I worked as a biological technician at the USFS’s Redwood Sciences Laboratory and examined the spatial patterns of amphibian diseases throughout the Klamath and Cascade Mountains. My employment with the Institute for Cartography helped improve my ability to present spatially explicit data. After completing the certificate program I moved to Maine and worked as a scientist technician for Kleinschmidt Associates.

Sarah Drahovzal Email: sarah.drahovzal@umit.maine.edu

Sarah came to the Maine Unit in September 2008. She is from Tuscaloosa, AL and her interests include Wetland Ecology, Botany, Hiking, Running, Reading, and Printmaking.

Luke Groff Email: lukegroff@gmail.com Tel: (207) 581 - 2939

Hola! I began as a Research Assistant with Maine’s Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative in February 2011. I was born and raised in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but have left the Amish paradise for other lands. I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology at the University of Maine while satisfying my herpetological, freshwater ecology, spatial modeling and remote camping interests/passions.

Ann Grote Email: ann.grote@umit.maine.edu

My previous research experience was on the West Coast, where I worked for both federal and state fisheries management agencies. My work at the USGS Columbia River Research Laboratory used acoustic telemetry to monitor the outmigration and survival of juvenile salmonids on the Columbia and Sacramento rivers. I have also worked for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife comparing the spawning success of reintroduced hatchery and wild coho salmon in Calapooya Creek, and conducting salmonid habitat surveys for the Aquatic Inventories Project.

Margaret Guyette Email: margaret.guyette@umit.maine.edu

Margaret came to the Maine Unit in January 2008. Margaret's interests include Aquatic Ecology, Birding, Organic Gardening, Biking, Swimming, and Cooking.

Robert Hogg Email: Robert.Hogg@umit.maine.edu

After graduating from Yreka High School in 1986, I started a 16-year career in the Northern California forest resources industry. Out of sheer boredom during typical “mud-season” layoffs I took classes at my local community college. Eventually this led to a two-year general education degree. Meanwhile, as the demand for timber declined, I found myself dissatisfied with the lack of consistent work and decided to pursue a career change. I transferred to Southern Oregon University where I sought to combine my logging experience with higher education in an attempt to bridge the gap between natural resource policy and application. In my undergraduate studies, I developed an appreciation for the challenges faced by diadromous fish as influenced by the anthropogenic management of natural resources. This renewed appreciation directed me towards research opportunities with the University of Idaho, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, employment opportunities with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and finally as a graduate assistant with UMaine’s USGS Co-op.

Ian McCullough Email: ian.mccullough@umit.maine.edu

Ian was born in Ann Arbor, MI and came to the Maine Unit in the Fall of 201. Research interests include: Ecological applications of GIS/Remote sensing, biogeography, sustainable natural resource management and human dimensions,
lake ecology, conservation biology, and anything moose-related.
General interests include sports, traveling, hiking, running, photography, humor, and moose.

Silas Ratten Email: silas.ratten@umit.maine.edu

Prior to my current project I was involved in fish research as a summer technician for Utah State University were I aided in a study focused on interactions between stream dwelling nonnative brook trout and Bonneville cutthroat trout. While in Utah, I also aided in research critical to understanding the movements and habitat preferences of endemic fishes in a tributary to the Green River, Utah.
As an undergraduate student and full time technician at the University of Maine I’ve been involved in a multitude of research projects including a studies focused on lake whitefish predation, the competitive interactions between juvenile Atlantic salmon and small mouth bass, annual arctic charr population assessments, investigations into small stream movements of native brook trout, understanding migrations of sea-run brook trout through otolith microchemistry, and evaluating the ability of sea lamprey to predispose Atlantic salmon spawning habitat.

Amanda Shearin

My M.S. research examined the effects of cropping practices on the abundance and distribution of the beneficial invertebrate weed seed predator Harpalus rufipes DeGeer in Maine. Prior to my graduate studies in Maine, I was an educator and teen volunteer coordinator at the Ecotarium, an environmental learning center and museum in Worcester, MA. While at the museum, I developed and delivered interactive public programs on forest, freshwater, and marine ecology, initiated a teen volunteer amphibian monitoring project, and trained volunteers for public presentations. From 2002 to 2005, I also served as a part-time naturalist and staff scientist aboard whale watching vessels based out of Bar Harbor, ME and Gloucester, MA.

Douglas Sigourney Email: douglas.sigourney@maine.edu Tel: (207) 581 - 2870

I was born in Boston, MA. I pursued my doctoral degree at the University of Massachusetts where I studied the ecology of salmon. I am now a post doctoral researcher at the University of Maine.

Daniel Stich Email: daniel.stich@umit.maine.edu

I'm originally from Upstate New York. I was born in Oneida Hospital, but I've lived in 14 different towns in New York. My parents now live in Glennville, NY. After NY, I moved to Virginia where I initially lived in Blacksburg before moving to the small town of Pembroke on the New River in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I came to the Maine unit on March 28, 2011. I enjoy playing and fishing with my daughter.