Travis Woolley

Travis uses an understanding of ecological relationships in forested ecosystems and sampling/monitoring expertise to design and implement science-informed adaptive management and monitoring programs. In a collaborative framework, he also develops and applies a variety of techniques and practices that promote innovation in monitoring, modeling and the use of science-based information in decision-making.

Trained as a forest ecologist and certified as a wildland fire ecologist, Travis was introduced to monitoring through his time working at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Here, he gained an appreciation for Long Term Ecological Research and the value it can bring to management decisions. Before coming to The Nature Conservancy, Travis worked as a faculty research assistant for the College of Forestry, Oregon State University, designing and implementing research projects examining a variety of forest health issues. Examples of research include snag creation for wildlife habitat, disease environment interactions, old-growth vs. re-growth forest structure, post-fire tree mortality, and bark beetle and fire interactions.

Travis's current projects include: developing innovative and repeatable prescribed fire and managed wildfire monitoring programs, quantitative wildfire risk assessment for landscape-scale restoration and prioritization, Western U.S.-focused treatment tracking and vegetation departure estimation, and monitoring, learning and evaluation programs for TNC’s 2030 Goals.

Davis, K.T., Peeler, J., Fargione, J., Haugo, R., Metlen, K.L., Robles, M.D., Woolley, T. 2024 Tamm review: A meta-analysis of thinning, prescribed fire, and wildfire effects on subsequent wildfire severity in conifer dominated forests of the Western US. Forest Ecology and Management 561. 

Peeler, J.L., McCauley, L., Metlen, K.., Woolley, T……and Chapman, T.B. 2023. Identifying opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western US conifer forests. Environmental Research Letters.

Davis, K.T., Robles, M.D., Kemp, K.B.Higuera, P.E., Chapman, T., Metlen, K.L., Peeler, J.L., Rodman, K.C., Woolley, T…….and Campbell, J.L. (2023). Reduced fire severity offers near-term buffer to climate-driven declines in conifer resilience across the western United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 (11).

Bradford, J.B., Andrews, C.A., Robles, M.D., McCauley, L.A., Woolley, T.J., Marshall, R.M. (2020). Landscape-scale restoration minimizes tree growth vulnerability to 21st century drought in a dry forest. Ecological Applications 31(2).

Cansler, C. Alina, Sharon M. Hood, J. Morgan Varner, Phillip J. van Mantgem…..Woolley, Travis J. 2020. The Fire and Tree Mortality Database, for empirical modeling of individual tree mortality after fire. Scientific Data, Accepted.

Woolley, T., Shaw, D.C., Hollingsworth, L.T., Agne, M.C., Fitzgerald, S., Eglitis, A., Kurth, L. 2019. Beyond red crowns: complex changes in surface and crown fuels and their interactions 32 years following mountain pine beetle epidemics in south-central Oregon, USA. Fire Ecology. 15. 

McCauley, L.A., Robles, M.D., Woolley, T., Marshall, R.M., Kretchun, A., Gori, D.F. 2019. Large‐scale forest restoration stabilizes carbon under climate change in Southwest United States. Ecological Applications. 29 (8), 1-14.

Shaw, D.C., Woolley, T., Kelsey, R.G., McPherson, B.A., Westlind, D., Wood, D.L., Peterson, E.K. 2017. Surface fuels in recent Phytophthora ramorum created gaps and adjacent intact Quercus agrifolia forests, East Bay Regional Parks, California, USA. Forest Ecology and Management. 384, 331-338. 

Agne, M.C., Woolley, T., Fitzgerald, S. 2016. Fire severity and cumulative disturbance effects in the post-mountain pine beetle lodgepole pine forests of the Pole Creek Fire. Forest Ecology and Management. 366, 73-86.

Woolley, T.J., Harmon, M.E., O’Connell, K.B. 2015. Inter-annual variability and spatial coherence of net primary productivity across a western Oregon Cascades landscape. Forest Ecology and Management. 335, 60-70.

Ganio, L.M., Woolley, T.J., Shaw, D.S., Fitzgerald, S. 2015. The discriminatory ability of postfire tree mortality logistic regression models. Forest Science. 61, 344-352.

Shaw, D.S., Woolley. 2014. Vertical foliage retention in Douglas-fir trees and stands across environmental gradients of the western Oregon Coast Range influenced by foliage disease. Northwest Science. 88 (1), 23-32.

Woolley, T.J., Shaw, D.S., Ganio, L.M., Fitzgerald, S. 2011. A Review of Logistic Regression Models Used to Predict Post-fire Tree Mortality of Western North American Conifers. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 21 (1), 1-35.

Woolley, T. Shaw, D., Fitzgerald, S. Kurth, L. 2011. Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) in south-central Oregon: Fuel dynamics and consequences for fire behavior through time. In Proceedings of 3rd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference, October 25-29, 2010, Spokane, WA. Published by the  International Association of Wildland Fire, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Shaw, D., Woolley, T., Fitzgerald, S. 2010. The Canopy as Fuel. International Canopy Network Newsletter.

Woolley, T., Ganio, L.M., Shaw, D., Fitzgerald, S. 2010. A framework to evaluate post-fire tree mortality logistic models. In “The ’88 Fires: Yellowstone and Beyond, Conference Proceedings. Edited by R.E. Masters, K.E.M., Galley, and D.G. Despain. Tall Timbers Miscellaneous Publication No. 16. Tall Timbers Research Station, Tallahassee, FL.

Woolley, T. Shaw, D. 2009. Editors: Swiss Needle Cast Cooperative Annual Report. 103 pages.

Davis, L., Bar-Ness, Y., Woolley, T., Shaw, D., Rolph, D. 2009. Characterization of biological diversity, structure, and composition within old-growth forest refugia and young-managed forests in the Willapa Hills, Washington. Final report to The Nature Conservancy.

Woolley, T. Shaw, D. 2008. Editors: Swiss Needle Cast Cooperative Annual Report. 96 pages.

Woolley, T.J., Shaw, D., and Hagar, J. 2007. Created Wildlife Tree Monitoring Report: Trends and Future Recommendations. Internal report to the McKenzie River Ranger District, Willamette National Forest.

Woolley, T.J., Harmon, M.E., and O’Connell, K.E. 2007. Estimating Annual Bole Biomass Production Using Uncertainty Analysis. Forest Ecology and Management  253, 202-210.