Department of Natural Resources Conservation
University of Massachusetts
304 Holdsworth Natural Resources Center
Box 34210
Amherst, MA 01003
Fax: (413) 545-4358
Phone: (413) 577-0655
Email: mcgarigalk@forwild.umass.edu

Dr. McGarigal earned his Ph.D. in the Forest Sciences Department at Oregon State University in 1993, where he studied the relationship between landscape structure and avian abundance patterns in the Oregon Coast Range. Prior to that he received his M.S. degree from the Fisheries and Wildlife Department at Oregon State University in 1988 where he studied the interactions between humans and bald eagles on the lower Columbia River. He graduated in 1983 from the Forestry and Wildlife program at Virginia Tech. Dr. McGarigal is currently a landscape ecologist and assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Dr. McGarigal's overall professional goal, achieved through research, teaching, and outreach, is to improve our understanding of how landscapes are structured physically and biologically and the agents responsible for those patterns, how these patterns affect the distribution and dynamics of animal populations, how these patterns and processes change over time, and how to apply this information to better manage natural resources over multiple spatial and temporal scales. Accordingly, a major goal of his research program is to provide natural resource managers with information and tools that will enable them to become better stewards of healthy and sustainable ecosystems.