QUALIFICATIONS SUMMARY RECLAMATION, VEGETATION BASELINE & MONITORING EXPERIENCE
THREATENED AND ENDAGERED SPECIES EXPERIENCE
WETLAND EXPERIENCE
GIS AND COMPUTER SKILLS
ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE
MEMBERSHIPS AND ACTIVITIES
EDUCATION
PUBLICATIONS / PRESENTATIONS (some listed as Vik, C.)
Vik, C. 2010. Use of Performance Standards in Assessing Revegetation Success. Paper and Presentation at the 2010 High Altitude Revegetation Workshop, March 3-4, Fort Collins, CO.
Vik, C. and Buckner, D. 2010. Early Old Men - Erigerons of the Foothills. Presented two-day workshop on Erigeron (daisy fleabane) species of Colorado for the Colorado Native Plant Society.
Vik, C. 2009. Using Reference Areas vs. Technical Standards in Assessing Revegetation Success: a Quantitative Case Study. Paper and Presentation at the 2009 Billings Land Reclamation Symposium, May 30 – June 5, Billings Crowne Plaza Hotel, Billings, MT. Joint Meeting with the American Society of Mining and Reclamation.
Noyes, R. D., Gerling, H., Vandervoort, C. 2006. "Sexual and apomictic prairie fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) in Texas: geographic analysis and a new combination (Erigeron strigosus var. traversii, Asteraceae)". SIDA, Contributions to Botany. 22(1): 265-276.
Vandervoort, C. Geographic parthenogenesis: a case study of sexual and apomictic Erigeron strigosus muhl. Ex willd. (prairie fleabane) in the southeastern United States. Master’s thesis, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2006. Vandervoort, C. 2006. Geographic Parthenogenesis: A Case Study of the Distribution of Sexual and Apomictic Erigeron strigosus (Asteraceae) in the Southeastern United States. Presentation at the 2006 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), March 7-11, Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, IL.
Ms. Vandervoort has over nine years of experience in the areas of plant ecology, soils, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and database development. She is skilled in the identification of native and non-native flora of the Intermountain West. Her experience includes the collection of vegetation data for reclamation and baseline studies at surface coal mines in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming. Ms. Vandervoort has experience in quantitative field vegetation studies, rare plant surveys, vegetation characterization and mapping, tree stand data collection for forest management plans, seed mix calculations, wetland delineations, statistical analysis, soil loss models (RUSLE), spatial ecological data analysis, databases, GIS, and navigation by GPS, aerial photos, topographic maps and compass.
While at ESCO (2004-present) Ms. Vandervoort has collected data including vegetational cover, biomass, woody plant density, and species diversity for reclamation sites in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming. She has experience mapping plant communities in the field and conducting quantitative and qualitative surveys for baseline and reclamation vegetation and monitoring projects. She has evaluated vegetation data for conformance with performance standards as designated by the Department of Environmental Quality in Wyoming and Montana, the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division, the Division of Minerals and Geology in Colorado, and the Federal Office of Surface Mining. Ms. Vandervoort has also compiled data and prepared reports and proposals for submission to clients and the above regulatory agencies. Ms. Vandervoort has collected vegetation data to assess the impacts of prairie dog colonies, livestock grazing and fire on vegetation in Boulder County, Colorado. Ms. Vandervoort has also collected data and prepared reports for biological weed control studies, tallgrass prairie relict ecosystems and the rare bluestem grassland ecosystem in Boulder, Colorado. She has also mapped and removed populations of invasive weeds in Boulder County, Colorado, including Mediterranean sage (Salvia aethiopis). Her oversight experience includes supervising and instructing field crews in the methodology and collection of data on reclamation sites and wetland delineations, coordination of ESCO’s GIS internship and supervising interns, and oversight of contractors for a roadside reseeding/restoration project.
Ms. Vandervoort has assisted clients in determination of the presence or absence of plant species listed as threatened, endangered, or otherwise of special concern by federal, state, or other agencies. She has collected riparian habitat and vegetation data for a report to the Colorado Department of Transportation in relation to the threatened Preble’s Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius preblei). She has conducted inventories of several potential uranium mine sites for the presence of Naturita milkvetch (Astragalus naturitensis) in Montrose and San Miguel Counties, Colorado (June 2008). She has also completed a survey of Harringston’s beardtongue (Penstemon harringtonii) in Eagle County, Colorado as part of a baseline vegetation survey along the Eagle River (September 2008). She has been trained in the identification of many other plant species listed as threatened, endangered, or otherwise of special concern in Colorado and has conducted large scale floral inventories including surveys for threatened and endangered species as part of a baseline assessment for an underground coal mine in Routt County, Colorado. Ms. Vandervoort has also collected vegetation data to assist in the classification and inventory of cultural plants on gold mine property in Cortez, NV (2010).
Ms. Vandervoort received Wetland Delineation Training from the Wetland Training Institute in 2009 (Laramie, WY). Ms. Vandervoort has performed general wetland vegetation surveys and wetland mapping in Boulder, Eagle and Routt Counties, Colorado including the preparation of a wetland permit per the City of Boulder, Colorado wetland regulations. She has performed wetland delineations in accordance with the 1987 U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Wetlands Delineation Manual (including several Interim Regional Supplements) and has also prepared Clean Water Act Section 404 Nationwide permit applications including wetland delineation reports and supporting maps. Her projects include delineating a ~3 mile stretch of riparian and palustrine wetland in Routt County, Colorado (2009), delineating wetlands along a forty-mile long pipeline right-of-way in Nacogdoches, San Augustine and Shelby Counties, TX (2010), delineating wetlands as part of a coal mine baseline study in Campbell County, WY (2010) and delineating wetlands along ~13 miles of a transmission (electrical) line and ~25 miles of a reclaimed water line for coal gasification project in rural agricultural areas of Christian and Macon County, Illinois (2010). Ms. Vandervoort has also prepared functional assessment documentation following the Ohio Rapid Assessment Method for Wetlands Version 5.0 (ORAM 5.0) and Colorado Department of Transportation FACWet Version 1.0. She attended a two day CDOT FACWet training course in Denver, CO (2010).
Ms. Vandervoort is skilled in the use of ArcGIS 9.3, ArcView 3.2 and AutoDesk Map 3D (AutoCAD) and is familiar with GIS and mapping concepts and the implementation of specialized scripts and add-ons for ArcGIS 9.3. She has provided vegetation mapping for monitoring and baseline investigations, wetland delineations and forest management plans. Ms. Vandervoort has experience using the USDA NRCS Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) database and integrating these data into maps using the NRCS/USDA Soil Data Viewer Application. She has experience creating random sample designs, field mapping and digitizing vegetation communities. She is skilled with Garmin and Trimble Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, differential correction and post-processing of GPS data using Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office software and GPS integration with GIS. Ms. Vandervoort has spearheaded a project to create an Access database to house over 20 years of ESCO’s vegetation data, complete with forms, queries and reports. For her Master’s thesis, she used GIS overlay analyses to explore relationships between environmental correlates and plant distribution. Ms. Vandervoort has instructed recitation courses in GIS (2006). In addition, she has performed statistical analyses with MS Excel (Analyse-it) and SAS. She has calculated soil loss using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) program, version 1.06. She has experience with relational database concepts, design and development. As an intern for the Association of Zoological Horticulture (2003-2004), Ms. Vandervoort created a relational database with data entry and reporting functionality using MS Access. As a Data Analyst for DPRA, she worked extensively with EPA Superfund databases (1998-1999).
Ms. Vandervoort has experience collecting soils in the field and analyzing soil samples in the lab for pH, organic matter and texture (2005-2006). As a volunteer, she has collected native plant seeds with the Colorado Native Plant Society (CONPS) for use in restoration projects (2005), and removed noxious weed species as a Wildland’s Restoration Volunteer for the Nature Conservancy’s Phantom Canyon Preserve (2003). She is an active member and volunteer with the Colorado Native Plant Society (CONPS) and participates regularly in workshops and meetings (2004-present). While a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, (2004-2006) Ms. Vandervoort instructed undergraduate and graduate level recitations of up to 30 students for Introductory Geography, Soils and GIS. Ms. Vandervoort has volunteered as a Horticultural Assistant at the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center in Westminster, Colorado where she worked closely with the Director of Horticulture while gaining experience in plant conservatory work and plant conservation (2003). She volunteered at the University of Colorado, Boulder Greenhouses, where she propagated plants using air layering and cuttings techniques and assisted in the maintenance and management of greenhouse plants (2003-2004). While a Research Assistant at the University of Colorado Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, she assisted in maintaining and studying live plant collections and gained familiarity with basic herbaria practices including vouchering, cataloging, and specimen annotation as well as laboratory techniques and practices. She mapped plant populations using ArcGIS 9.1 and herbarium specimen locality information. She also assisted in field research documenting social behavior and nest-mate recognition in sting less bees (Trigona fulviventris) in Monteverde, Costa Rica. (2004).
CDOT Functional Assessment of Colorado Wetlands (FACWet) Training, 2010
Wetland Delineation Training, Wetland Training Institute, 2009
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) Training, 2004 to 2010
Colorado Native Plant Society (CONPS) (member and volunteer), 2004 to present
GIS Colorado (GISCO) (GIS user group), 2008 to present
Society for Conservation GIS, 2006 to present
High Altitude Revegetation (HAR), 2004 to present
B.S. - Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, James Madison Univ., 1997
M.A. - Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2006
Vik, C. 2010. Use of Performance Standards in Assessing Revegetation Success. Presentation at the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) Mountain States Chapter general membership meeting, June 18, 2010, CDOT, Denver, CO.