Biology Seminar Series - Dr. Jonathan Cummings, Fish and Wildlife: Applying Decision Science to Natural Resource Mgmt

This will be a wide-ranging talk exploring the insights and challenges of practicing applied science and utilizing decision theory to aid natural resource management. I’ll begin with an overview of my career, an explanation of structured decision making, and the flavors of applied science I practice. From there, based on audience interest, I will provide greater detail on some selected applications and case studies of interest. Potential case studies address monitoring design, emergency management of endangered species, stakeholder engagement in decision processes, trade-off analysis, allocation of fish in a stocking program, predicting population viability, conducting expert elicitation of climate impacts on species persistence, and more.

Bio: Jonathan Cummings is a Biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Headquarters Ecological Services Office in the Branch of Species Status Assessment Science Support. Jonathan provides analyses that inform endangered species management, develops decision support tools to inform management, and guides natural resource management decision processes. Jonathan wants decision science to be as commonplace as math, biology, or any other mainstream field of study.