Current Research

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) working with other scientists to assess recent disturbances (fire, insects, disease, invasive plants, drought) in the western U.S. in in the context of forest sustainability; (2) improving techniques for predicting change in future habitat for different tree species; and (3) assessing recent changes in forests within California, Oregon, and Washington in relation to disturbances. 

Research Interests

• Forest planning
• Forest modeling
• Forest management
• Biometrics
• Spatial analysis

Past Research

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.

Education

• 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

Professional Experience

Featured Publications & Products

• Barrett, Tara M.; Pattison, Robert R. 2017. No evidence of recent (1995-2013) decrease of yellow-cedar in Alaska.
• Sullivan, Patrick F; Mulvey, Robin L; Brownlee, Annalis H; Barrett, Tara M; Pattison, Robert R. 2015. Warm summer nights and the growth decline of shore pine in Southeast Alaska.
• Barrett, Tara. 2014. Storage and flux of carbon in live trees, snags, and logs in the Chugach and Tongass national forests.
• 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.
• Barrett, Tara M.; Christensen, Glenn A. 2011. Forests of southeast and south-central Alaska, 2004 2008: five-year forest inventory and analysis report.
• 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, 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

• Barrett, Tara M.; Robertson, Guy C. 2021. Disturbance and sustainability in forests of the Western United States.
• Yatskov, Mikhail A.; Harmon, Mark E.; Barrett, Tara M.; Dobelbower, Kevin R. 2019. Carbon pools and biomass stores in the forests of Coastal Alaska: Uncertainty of estimates and impact of disturbance.
• Mulvey, Robin; Barrett, Tara; Bisbing, Sarah. 2015. Factors contributing to Shore Pine (Pinus contorta subsp contorta) mortality and damage in southeast Alaska (Project WC EM B 12 03).
• Barrett, Tara M. 2015. Forest dynamics in the temperate rainforests of Alaska: from individual tree to regional scales.
• Yatskov, Mikhaill A.; Harmon, Mark E.; Krankina, Olga N.; Barrett, Tara M.; Dobelbower, Kevin R.; Gray, Andrew N.; Fasth, Becky; Trummer, Lori; Hoyman, Toni L.; Dudoit, Chana M. 2015. Regional biomass stores and dynamics in forests of coastal Alaska.
• Buma, Brian; Barrett, Tara M. 2015. Spatial and topgraphic trends in forest expansion and biomass change, from regional to local scales.
• Peterson, Randy L.; Liang, Jingjing; Barrett, Tara M. 2014. Modeling population dynamics and woody biomass of Alaska coastal forest.
• 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.
• 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.
• Eskelson, Bianca N.I.; Barrett, Tara M.; Temesgen, Hailemariam. 2009. Imputing mean annual change to estimate current forest attributes.
• 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, T.M.; Zuuring, H.R.; Christopher, T. 2006. Interpretation of forest characteristics from computer-generated images..
• 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..
• 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.

Research Highlights

Highlight	Title	Year
PNW-2015-66	Disturbance and Regrowth in Southeast Alaska Forests Shows Spatial Patterning Southeast Alaska is gaining forest area on the northern side of mountain slopes, higher latitudes, and higher elevations while losing forest are ...	2015
PNW-2017-217	Recent increases found in yellow-cedar in Alaska In most unmanaged forests in Alaska, yellow-cedar has recently increased, as measured by live tree basal area, and the average mortality rate ha ...	2017
PNW-2013-106	Scientists Develop the First Estimates of Aboveground Carbon Flux and Storage in Trees Within the National Forests of Alaska While the Tongass National Forest had no detectable change in above-ground tree carbon, the Chugach National Forest had an average annual increa ...	2013