Lab Members

 The Lesmeister Predator-Prey lab includes a diverse group of contributors and collaborators. 
DAMON LESMEISTER, PHD
​Dr. Lesmeister is the Principal Investigator of the lab. He is a Research Wildlife Biologist with USDA Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station and holds Courtesy Faculty appointments with Oregon State University in the Departments of Fisheries and Wildlife, and Forest Engineering, Resources and Management. Dr. Lesmeister co-advises graduate students with OSU faculty. He has studied avian and mammalian predators, and their prey in a variety of forest ecosystems.
JIM SWINGLE, MS
Jim has been with the Pacific Northwest Research Station since 1988. He has conducted research on raptors (northern spotted owls, barred owls, northern pygmy owls, peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons, and northern goshawks), mammalian predators (American martens), and prey (red tree voles). Jim is currently conducting studies on the arboreal red tree vole, specifically, how young forest (<80 years old) contributes to tree vole persistence at the landscape scale for this late-successional and old-growth associated species. Jim also assists researchers as a tree climbing biologist and teaches a tree climbing methods class at Oregon State University and the Forest Service.​ ​
JULIANNA JENKINS, PHD
Dr. Jenkins is a Wildlife Biologist with the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. Julie's current projects include incorporating remotely sensed forest structure metrics into models of resource partitioning by Northern Spotted Owls and Barred Owls and investigating breeding dispersal in Northern Spotted owls.
MARK LINNELL, MS
Mark is a US Forest Service wildlife biologist with a research focus on forest-dwelling mammalian predators that climb (short-tailed weasels, Pacific martens), and their occasional prey that live in the forest canopy (red tree voles). He is currently assisting with projects examining limitations on occurrence of an old-growth associated species, red tree voles, in young forest. Specifically, he is examining habitat relationships of this species at multiple scales, including experimental addition of artificial nest sites to young trees. ​
ZACK RUFF, MS
Zack is a research assistant working primarily on the northern spotted owl bioacoustics project. His Master's work at Iowa State University focused on the breeding behavior and demography of mountain plovers, and he has also previously worked with sage-grouse, blackbirds, and macaws. His research interests mostly center around avian and population ecology.
RITA CLAREMONT
Rita Claremont is a senior faculty research assistant for Oregon State University and has worked on the Northern Spotted Owl Demography study since 1996.  She spends half the year working on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains monitoring spotted owls and the other half of the year as the Lesmeister Lab Manager.  Rita also specializes in identifying prey remains from owl pellets.
STAN SOVERN
Stan studies the population dynamics of Spotted Owls on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains, Washington.  This study involves mark-recapture analysis of banded Spotted Owls, occupancy analysis, and spatial analysis of Spotted Owl habitat from radio-telemetry data.
CHRIS McCAFFERTY
Chris is a faculty research assistant at OSU and is the crew leader for the Coast Range spotted owl demographic study area.
ALAINA THOMAS, MS
Alaina Thomas is a US Forest Service wildlife biologist. She joined the Northern Spotted owl demography study in 2015 and works in the Siuslaw National Forest within the Oregon Coast Range.
MATT WELDY - PhD Student
Matt Weldy is research assistant focusing on demography of small mammals in late succesional forests.  He is estimating the abundance of northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus), Townsend's chipmunk (Tamias townsendii), western red-backed voles (Myodes californicus) and deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). He has also quantified the effects of spatial and temporal covariates on annual survival and recruitment of northern flying squirrels and Townsend's chipmunks.
MARIE TOSA - PhD Candidate
Marie is a PhD student at OSU and is co-advised by Taal Levi. For her PhD research, she is investigating the terrestrial food web dynamics of the Pacific Northwest Forests. During her master's work at Southern Illinois University, she investigated the impact of localized removal on white-tailed deer behavior with implications for chronic wasting disease management. Most recently, Marie was analyzing bighorn sheep movement and behavior patterns in and around Glacier National Park. She also has a variety of field and lab experience with carnivores, prey species, and predator-prey interactions.
CARA APPEL - PhD Student
Cara is a PhD student at OSU and is co-advised by Taal Levi. She is studying wildlife community dynamics using passive bioacoustic monitoring, remote camera traps, and deep learning technologies including the development of convolutional neural networks for automated species identification. Previously, she studied habitat ecology and regional distribution of North American porcupines for her master’s thesis at Humboldt State University.
JEREMY ROCKWEIT - PhD Candidate
Jeremy is a PhD student at OSU and is co-advised by Drs. Lesmeister and Katie Dugger. His research centers on the interplay between forest ecology, fire ecology and northern spotted owl demographics. He is examining how wildfire burn characteristics influence the vital rates of spotted owls and whether the type of forest structure used by spotted owls for nesting and roosting can also serve as refugia from higher severity fire. He completed his master’s degree at the University of Minnesota using biophysical models to assess how variation in weather conditions and nest structure influences the microclimate of spotted owl nests.
ASHLEE MIKKELSEN - MS STUDENT
Ashlee is a master's student at OSU and co-advised by Katie Dugger. Her project is quantifying relationships between stress hormone levels in juveniles and long-term demographics of northern spotted owls. Her research is providing insights into the linkage between stress levels of individual owls and population change, which is increasingly important information needed for making sound management decisions.

Lab Alumni

Shane Pruett, Faculty Research Assistant 2016-2019
Preston Durham, Graduate Student, 2019 MS from Oregon State University
Janice Reid, USFS Wildlife Biologist, retired 2019
Leila Duchac, Graduate Student and Research Assistant, 2019 MS from Oregon State University
Jordan Rodriguez, Research Assistant 2018-2020
Ashlee Mikkelsen, Graduate Student and Research Assistant, 2021 MS from Oregon State University​
Lesmeister Predator-Prey Lab
USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station
Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratory
Oregon State University
3200 SW Jefferson Way
Corvallis, OR 97330
​541-750-7250