Tara M. Barrett
Forestry Sciences Lab
Wenatchee, WA 98801
Contact Tara M. Barrett
My current research interest is focused on how forests in the western U.S. are changing over time, particularly with respect to climate and disturbance. Aspects of this topic that I'll be working on this year include (1) change in biomass and carbon mass for different tree species and ecoregions in forests in southeast and south-central Alaska; (2) predicting change for western pines in California, Oregon, and Washington; and (3) links between disturbances, climate, and tree mortality in western forests.
Forest planning, forest modeling, forest management, biometrics, spatial analysis.
My past research includes spatial modeling of the effects of forest practices rules on economic returns and forest fragmentation; projecting landscape-level vegetation change; integrating prescribed fire and fuel treatments into general forest planning; developing methods for projecting regional forest change; and assessing status and change of forests in the Pacific West.
Why This Research is Important
Disturbance processes in western forests - including climate change, insects, disease, fire, and invasive species - impact the sustainability of both forest ecosystem processes and ecosystem services. Increased understanding of how interacting disturbances are likely to affect forests, and detecting early changes, is crucial to making choices that increase the resiliency of western forests and forest-dependent communities.
- University of California Berkeley, Ph.D. Wildland Resource Science (forest management), 1996
- University of Wisconsin Madison, M.S. Land Resources, 1990
- University of Wisconsin Madison, B.A. Computer Science, 1987
- Asst./Assoc. Professor of Forest Planning, The University of Montana
1996 - 2000
Featured Publications & Products
- Barrett, Tara M.; Latta, Greg; Hennon, Paul E.; Eskelson, Bianca N.I.; Temesgen, Hailemariam. 2012. Host-parasite distributions under changing climate: Tsuga heterophylla and Arceuthobium tsugense in Alaska.
- Barrett, Tara M.; Gray, Andrew N. 2011. Potential of a national monitoring program for forests to assess change in high-latitude ecosystems.
- Parks, Noreen; Barrett, Tara. 2013. Tangled trends for temperate rain forests as temperatures tick up.
- Latta, Gregory; Temesgen, Hailemariam; Adams, Darius; Barrett, Tara. 2010. Analysis of potential impacts of climate change on forests of the United States Pacific Northwest.
- Barrett, Tara M.; Christensen, Glenn A. 2011. Forests of southeast and south-central Alaska, 2004–2008: five-year forest inventory and analysis report.
- Eskelson, Bianca N.I.; Barrett, Tara M.; Temesgen, Hailemariam. 2009. Imputing mean annual change to estimate current forest attributes.
- Barrett, T.M.; Zuuring, H.R.; Christopher, T. 2006. Interpretation of forest characteristics from computer-generated images..
- Barrett, T.M. 2006. Optimizing efficiency of height modeling for extensive forest inventories..
- Barrett, T.M. 2006. Pre-epidemic mortality rates for common Phytophthora ramorum host tree species in California.
Publications & Products
- Barrett, Tara; Maltomo, Matti. 2012. Missing data in forest ecology and management: advances in quantitative methods [Preface].
- Wolken, Jane M.; Hollingsworth, Teresa N.; Rupp, T. Scott; Chapin, F. Stuart, III.; Trainor, Sarah F.; Barrett, Tara M.; Sullivan, Patrick F.; McGuire, A. David; Euskirchen, Eugenie S.; Hennon, Paul E.; Beever, Erik A.; Conn, Jeff S.; Crone, Lisa K.; A'More, David V.; Fresco, Nancy; Hanley, Thomas A.; Kielland, Knut; Kruse, James J.; Patterson, Trista; Schuur, Edward A.G.; Verbyla, David L.; Yarie, John. 2011. Evidence and implications of recent and projected climate change in Alaska's forest ecosystems.
- Jain, Theresa; Barrett, Tara M. 2011. The western Kenai Peninsula: An opportunity to study fire and its effects on soils and trees.
- Halbrook, Jeff M.; Morgan, Todd A.; Brandt, Jason P.; Keegan, Charles E., III.; Dillon, Thale; Barrett, Tara M. 2009. Alaska's timber harvest and forest products industry, 2005.
- Eskelson, Bianca N.I.; Temesgen, Hailemariam; Barrett, Tara M. 2009. Estimating cavity tree and snag abundance using negative binomial regression models and nearest neighbor imputation methods.
- Eskelson, Bianc N.I.; Temesgen, Hailemariam; Barrett, Tara M. 2009. Estimating current forest attributes from paneled inventory data using plot-level imputation: a study from the Pacific Northwest.
- Latta, Gregory; Temesgen, Hailemariam; Barrett, Tara. 2009. Mapping and imputing potential productivity of Pacific Northwest forests using climate variables.
- Eskelson, Bianca N. I.; Temesgen, Hailemariam; Lemay, Valerie; Barrett, Tara M.; Crookston, Nicholas L.; Hudak, Andrew T. 2009. The roles of nearest neighbor methods in imputing missing data in forest inventory and monitoring databases.
- Eskelson, Bianca; Hailemariam, Temesgen; Barrett, Tara. 2009. Tree-level imputation techniques to estimate current plot-level attributes in the Pacific Northwest using paneled inventory data.
- Eskelson, Bianca N. I.; Temesgen, Hailemariam; Barrett, Tara M. 2008. Comparison of stratified and non-stratified most similar neighbour imputation for estimating stand tables.
- Temesgen, Hailemariam; Barrett, Tara M.; Latta, Greg. 2008. Estimating cavity tree abundance using nearest neighbor imputation methods for western Oregon and Washington forests.
- Barrett, Tara M.; Gatziolis, Demetrios; Fried, Jeremy S.; Waddell, Karen L. 2006. Sudden oak death in California: what is the potential?.
- Waddell, K.L.; Barrett, T.M. 2005. Oak woodlands and other hardwood forests of California, 1990s..
- Bevers, Michael; Barrett, Tara M., tech. comps. 2005. System analysis in forest resources: proceedings of the 2003 symposium..
- Barrett, T.M. 2004. Estimation procedures for the combined 1990s periodic forest inventories of California, Oregon, and Washington..
- Barrett, T. M. 2001. Models of vegetation change for landscape planning: a comparison of FETM, LANDSUM, SIMPPLLE, and VDDT.