An Ecologist in the National Park Service’s Upper Columbia Basin

 

Tom Rodhouse ’88 lives at the intersection of nature and science, wandering the woods while also performing vital research to protect the flora and fauna of the country’s national parks for today and the future.

      An ecologist, Rodhouse spends his days with the National Park Service’s Upper Columbia Basin Inventory & Monitoring Network. He is working to prepare plant and animal species for the coming climate crisis, which is already affecting the parks. His work involves “biogeography,” the study of the patterns of geographic distribution of plants and animals and the factors that determine those patterns, including habitat loss, climate change effects, and human encroachment. He studies these elements in many of the country’s national parks and monuments, concentrating in the Columbia Basin of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

      “The Park Service is tasked with stewarding, protecting, and preserving resources for future generations,” he says. “We have a strong sense that we’re doing this for others, for our kids and grandkids. I have really taken that to heart.”

      The NPS is trying to get ahead of “really big and devastating events,” he adds, such as the fires that have decimated landscapes in the Western United States, caused by our changing climate.

      “The idea that climate change isn’t really a thing—that’s no longer an interesting conversation,” Rodhouse says. “It’s not really a question. It’s more about what do we do now. We’re trying to build a more resilient and adaptive society. We have a suite of species we know through observation and study are hardier and tend to compete well with nonnative [species].”

      His life’s work has been to determine what species are at risk of extinction from climate changes in landscapes that may push both plants and animals out of their usual habitats. While today Rodhouse spends much of his time in front of computers instead of exploring in nature, he’s always been fascinated by the natural world surrounding him. His father and grandfather were avid birdwatchers, and they passed that love of ornithology to him. He says he learned to recognize birds by their calls while sitting on his father’s lap, listening to vinyl recordings of different birdcalls.

      Birds, in particular, he says, are a “great measure of how [species] can recover and respond” to efforts to protect them. “There are reasons for hope and reasons to motivate collective action.”

      Rodhouse is no stranger to the often-contentious battle between those seeking to exploit the natural world for profit and those who seek to ensure the survival of species. After college at Lewis & Clark University, he spent three years researching the spotted owl, which was at the time being considered for addition to the Endangered Species List. Federal attempts to protect the bird were at odds with the Pacific Northwest’s timber industry, and the struggle between commerce and environmentalism was playing out on a national scale. Lessons from that battle have informed the way the National Park Service approaches listing of species.

      “It’s been a paradigm shift,” he says. “The Park Service has very deliberately and with some visionary leadership” sought to respond to these competing interests more collaboratively.

      Rodhouse has been involved in a series of protective efforts that involve species ranging from the spotted owl to pikas, a relative of the rabbit. He works to develop protections that get buy-in from other entities, from Native tribes to state and local governments and private landowners.

      What really appeals to Rodhouse now is mentoring the next generation of “citizen scientists.”

      “It all goes back to my experience at Taft,” he says. “I’ve long had an interest in mentorship. I’ve benefited from mentorship. Those sorts of experiences are so important. I started out working as an environmental educator and taught kids. I really liked seeing kids’ eyes light up and share that wonder of the natural world.”

      Later, Rodhouse put together van-based programs in the summer, bringing research to the national parks, where laypeople could help with studies such as Rodhouse’s work with bats that are increasingly affected by white nose syndrome, a fungus that has rapidly spread across the country and decimated bat colonies.

     “We had kids help with the bat study. We have them even write papers and reports. They learn what it’s really like to be a scientist and design a study and go out and figure it out and then report their findings,” he says.

      Ultimately, the goal is to find a way to be proactive to prevent further loss of species without resorting to the politically fraught Endangered Species List.

      “How can we be proactive to prevent further loss of [species] without listing,” he says. “Can we put a dollar-and-cents value on ecosystems? To speak in more economic terms, what are people willing to pay for the societal benefit?”