Hello everyone! My name is Kayla…
This summer is my last semester at The Ohio State University (finally), and I am so excited to spend the first half of it studying plants with you all. I am a Forestry, Fisheries, & Wildlife Major with a specialization in Forestry and Wildlife Management and a completed minor in Spanish! With that being said, since I am almost done with my degree, I have taken most of the required classes for my degree and have had a good bit of field experience. In addition to the three classes I am taking this summer, I am also working as a Turkey Field Technician under Dr. Robert Gates in the Terrestrial Wildlife Ecology Lab. In this position, I am going out to various locations across Ohio to track turkeys using radio telemetry. I have also been allowed to work on a grouse project – which mainly consists of variable radius plots (vegetation surveys) – thanks to my previous experience in forestry.
While I love everything botany-related, my main focus throughout my college career (and hopefully post-college career), has been with birds. I have had a lot of experience working with Dr. Chris Tonra in the School of Environment and Natural Resources and banding passerines and near passerines. While birds hold my heart, I have a passion for forestry and would love to continue my academic career by studying avian landscape ecology for my Master’s degree.
My Coat of Arms pictured below on the right shows my love for plants and birds. I am originally from Camarillo, California, so the flora and fauna I grew up with are quite different from what we find here in Ohio!
