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Alecia has worked in meadow and lake ecosystems for over 12 years. She managed the Castle Lake Limnological Laboratory in Mt. Shasta during her graduate program. Her graduate research had two facets: 1) she investigated community respiration rates in near-shore and open-water habitats in lakes across a trophic gradient, and 2) she studied the response of community respiration to nutrient loading in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. Earning her MS degree in Hydrology, Alecia received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award in 2014. From there, Alecia began working at the South Yuba River Citizens League, applying her knowledge of aquatic ecology to meadow ecosystems. Focusing on hydrology, soil carbon, and vegetation dynamics, Alecia studies how restoration can be used to repair ecosystem processes. In addition to managing SYRCL’s Watershed Science Department—supporting aspen, forest health, and meadow restoration projects—Alecia sits on the Sierra Meadows Partnership Management Board, which aims to increase the pace, scale, and efficacy of meadow restoration across the Sierra Nevada.

Why are you interested in your research focus?

Meadows are teeming with life, and their ability to produce ecosystem benefits is outsized compared to other ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada. An estimated 60% of meadows in the Sierra Nevada are degraded due to Euro-American land uses, such as roads, overgrazing, reservoir development, and mining.  Alecia is fascinated by the intersection of hydrology and ecosystem processes in meadows. She enjoys learning how restoration can be used to reset the ecosystem processes that result in a healthy functioning meadow. Using effectiveness monitoring and ecosystem restoration, Alecia studies how restoration affects the meadows’ ability to store carbon, retain peak flows, recharge groundwater, improve water quality, and provide enhanced climate-resilient habitat for various flora and fauna.

What is one of your favorite moments in the field?

I am truly grateful to get to work in such majestic places. One of my favorite sites is Van Norden Meadow, which we restored in 2022. In 2023, we were eager for the snow to melt to see if the restoration actions achieved our target floodplain connectivity. Once the snow melted, we visited the site to find the whole meadow full of water flowing through a complex web of relic swales and channels. This type of inundation indicated that the floodplain had been reactivated due to the restoration efforts. A few weeks later, we began to witness an abundance of amphibian eggs, tadpoles, and juveniles and started recording groundwater data that showed shallow groundwater levels through late summer. Seeing the site respond to restoration and collecting quantitative data to measure the project’s effectiveness has been one of the most rewarding endeavors of my life.