MICHELLE MARTIN

Southern Chapter Chair; Chair-elect

Michelle is a forest ecologist working for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in the Division of Forestry's Ecological Classification Systems Program in St. Paul.  She's held this position since early 2008 after completing a Master's degree at the University of Minnesota studying tree regeneration and plant diversity in harvested riparian management zones.  Michelle first became a member of SAF in 2006 when she joined the UMN's student chapter.  Michelle moved to Minnesota in 2005 for graduate school and was born and raised in Metro-Detroit, Michigan.  She completed a bachelor's degree in Natural Resources in 2003 from the University of Michigan, and took temporary positions collecting vegetation data in hardwood swamps in SE Michigan, inventorying a 100 year old German-style plantation, and working in a forest soils laboratory conducting chemical analysis and measuring soil microbes.  She also had several internships and volunteer opportunities studying prairie dogs in Colorado and Utah and inventorying small watersheds in remote villages in Ecuador.