Biography

Zack holds positions as the Ecosystem Forecasting & Monitoring Lead scientist with Vibrant Planet and as a research ecologist in the Fire Ecology Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. For Vibrant Planet, Zack is working to improve land management decision-making in disturbance-prone and multi-use landscapes. At UC Berkeley, Zack’s research focuses on the consequences of shifting wildfire patterns and efforts to restore ecological process (e.g., through use of managed wildfire) for biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. Some of his past research focused on how wildfire and forest management alter landscape pattern, and influence habitat use of birds and bats in the forests of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.

• zlsteel[at]berkeley.edu