Project Conception and Design: Rebecca Moore and Jodi Frediani
The SJWC timberland analysis project was launched in 2005 by Rebecca Moore, a Google Earth engineer, founder of the Mountain Resource Group and co-founder of Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging (NAIL, http://www.mountainresource.org/nail). Jodi Frediani, a consultant for NAIL and Mountain Resource Group, alerted NAIL to the state regulations regarding timberland ownership requirements for NTMP submission and presented the possibility of using aerial photography in conjunction with Google Earth to make our own determination. Jodi enlisted the invaluable aid of Ken and Gabrielle Adelman, of the California Coast Records Project, who twice flew us over the SJWC lands in their private helicopter, taking more than 700 high-resolution aerial photographs required for timberland identification. Rebecca then geo-referenced these photographs in Google Earth, with the idea of using Google Earth as the organizing framework and 3D visualization environment for this project. We were tremendously fortunate that Adelia Barber signed on to perform the heart of the project: the detailed aerial photo interpretation, species identification, timberland delineation and scientific documentation of results. Thanks also to Wei Luo, PhD, for reviewing and corroborating Adelia's findings. (Wei Luo has a Ph.D. in GIS and Remote Sensing, from the Department of Environmental Planning, 2004, University of California, Berkeley, her dissertation topic was the Cellular Automata Modeling of Wildland/Urban Interface Fires)
Scientific Analysis: Adelia Barber
The bulk of the scientific analysis and write-up was completed by Adelia Barber. I am a PhD Student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Santa Cruz. I received a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science at Brown University in 2002. My specialty lies in population modeling, particularly of long-lived trees. I am very well acquainted with the flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains, both through research experience and as an avid naturalist of this area for many years. Descriptions of my research experience and CV may be found here.
In the summer of 2006, I was approached by a few of my friends and neighbors who belong to the neighborhood group NAIL (Neighbors Against Irresponsible Logging) and asked if I would volunteer to help calculate the total acreage of timberland owned by SJWC. Rebecca Moore and Jodi Frediani were critical in designing the approach to this project and informing me on technical issues. In addition, this analysis would not have been possible without the generous assistance of Ken and Gabrielle Adelman. Several UCSC students and staff also provided valuable assistance. Lastly, I greatly appreciate Google's donation of a free license of Google Earth Pro.
For this analysis I was asked to do a very specific job within my area of scientific competence, I have confidence in the accuracy of the results of this study. I hope that this analysis can be viewed as an impartial scientific assessment. Towards that goal I have attempted to make all my methods as transparent and repeatable as possible through this website.
Individuals of any organization can feel free to contact me with questions: adelia ~at~ biology.ucsc.edu