Cara NELSON

Cara is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences at University of Montana’s Franke College of Forestry and Conservation. Her research program generates knowledge about ecological processes associated with ecosystem degradation and repair and innovates that knowledge into prescriptions for restorative interventions. Towards these ends, Cara and her students study the effects of large-scale disturbance on vegetation dynamics, the efficacy and ecological impacts of ecological restoration, and the science behind the selection of native plant materials. Cara has contributed to the conceptual basis of restoration by co-authoring principles and standards for nature-based solutions, ecosystem restoration, ecological restoration and rewilding. In addition to her position at the University, Cara leads the Ecosystem Restoration Thematic Group of IUCN’s Commission on Ecosystem Management and is a past Chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration. She received the Excellence in Wilderness Stewardship Research Award from the USDA Forest Service, the John Rieger Award for contributions to the Society for Ecological Restoration, and two Fulbright awards for forest restoration research in Chile.