Quamash EcoResearch
Ecological research in support of restoration and conservation
PEOPLE
Susan Waters, Ph.D.
Senior Research Ecologist
Susan founded Quamash EcoResearch in 2020 to apply her research interests and expertise - pollination ecology and plant community ecology - to Pacific Northwest conservation. Susan earned her doctorate at the University of Washington, where her research focused on how native and exotic plants interact through shared pollinators and how flowering phenology shapes those interactions. Her research led her to the Cascadia prairies, where she was charmed both by the beautiful native forbs and their suites of visiting insects. Currently, Susan is especially interested in:
- How plant-pollinator communities respond to species introductions
- How restoration strategies (prescribed fire, replanting native wildflowers) can influence plant-pollinator network robustness ("resilience")
- The role of rare wildflowers in supporting pollinators
Marisa Fisher
Pollinator Specialist
Marisa joined Quamash in 2022. Her field and lab/taxonomic experience spans multiple projects, with emphases as diverse as primary succession on Mt. St. Helens, benthic macroinvertebrate diversity, pollinators of rare wildflowers, and effects of an invasive bumble bee.
Cody Blackketter
Pollinator Specialist
Cody joined Quamash in 2022 and discovered a possion for pollinator taxonomy that has been honed by working on insect collections from diverse ecosystems of Washington state. His field experience ranges from arid shrub-steppe to montane, prairie, and island sites.
David Cappaert
Taxanarchist
David is an entomologist with a research background in biocontrol of crop and forest pests. His interest in pollination began in 2019, with field work for the Institute for Applied Ecology (Oregon) and Quamash EcoResearch. These pollination projects accumulated a few thousand specimens that the team had to put names on. Engaging in that process, David became interested in the tools of bee taxonomy, and the barriers to their use: unillustrated keys and technical jargon. He maintains several taxonomy resources that address these shortcomings, including:
- Andrena deconstructed: guide to the characters
of the DiscoverLife Andrena key - Glossary of terms that describe bees,
a guide for the non-taxonomist.