Jeff Adams
Environmental Researcher/GIS Specialist

As an Environmental Researcher/GIS Specialist with the National Ocean Service (NOS), one of the five offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jeff  focuses primarily on conducting spatial analyses examining the relationship between environmental quality and marine mammal health.  Jeff is also working towards the completion of his dissertation from the Department of Forestry at Virginia Tech (VT), which focuses on the impact of terrain complexity, data resolution, and parameter perturbation on the output of a GIS model designed to assess risks associated with steep terrain harvesting.

In addition to becoming proficient in the use of a variety of GIS (ArcInfo, ArcView, ArcGIS, and IDRISI) and remote sensing (ERMapper and ERDAS Imagine) software packages, Jeff has acquired a host of supporting skills, which include computer programming (Visual Basic, MapObjects, ArcObjects, Java, and VBA), database design and maintenance (Microsoft Access), and 3-dimensional visualization techniques (World Construction Set). He has served as a teaching assistant for a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, and has provided instruction and assistance for GIS workshops to natural resource professionals. He has also amassed a very strong statistical foundation through the completion of a variety of undergraduate and graduate level coursework.

He first developed an interest in GIS and remote sensing technologies while working on his Masters of Science degree in Forestry at Humboldt State University (HSU).  After the completion of his Masters degree, Jeff obtained a position at the Supervisor’s Office of the Lincoln National Forest, where he worked as a Cartographic/GIS Technician. His major responsibility at the Lincoln National Forest was the maintenance of the GIS data associated with the Lincoln’s Forest Range Program. Additional duties included providing cartographic and analysis support to the Lincoln’s Land Management Planning Group for both short-turnaround and long-term projects, which included participation on the Wildland-Urban Interface I.D. Team and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Assessment I.D. Team. During his stint (May 1998-August 1999) at the Lincoln National Forest, he was awarded two USDA Forest Service Certificates of Merit.

Jeff was later reunited with the Forest Service during a research effort for Representative Rick Boucher’s Advisory Committee on Flood Events and Forest Management Practices (April-July, 2002). The committee was comprised representatives from local environmental groups, governments, academic institutions, and the Forest Service. It was formed to address concerns arising from debris slide activity and flooding that followed a significant rain event on July 29, 2001 in southwest Virginia. At the request of the committee and with the assistance of Gary Kappesser (Forest Hydrologist) and Tom Collins (Forest Geologist) of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest, Jeff constructed a GIS model designed to assess the hazard of debris slides for a proposed timber sale located in a watershed that had experienced recent flooding and debris slide activity.

Other professional experience includes consulting work for The Sampson Group, a collection of natural resource experts directed by Neil Sampson, the former executive vice-president of American Forests. His work for The Sampson Group involved producing 3-dimensional landscape visualizations depicting proposed management scenarios for the Chesapeake Forest Project, a sustainable forest management plan for 58,000 acres located on eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia. He was also briefly employed (September – November 2001) as a white paper coauthor by Questerra, Inc., a company that provides spatial management information services to both private and public organizations. The paper, entitled "Creating and Communicating Business Knowledge using Computer-Generated Visualization Techniques" details the technology and application of different visualization techniques.

Jeff also has an interest in web design.  Other duties have included the development and maintenance of a GIS database and custom tools to facilitate research staff, direction of a joint research project and staff member between NOAA and the University of South Carolina tasked with developing a database and products characterizing the environment in the Charleston, SC area.

Jeff is currently working together with HAMER staff to implement his database program known as FinBase to manage marine mammal stocks in Hawaii.  This sophisticated program conveniently supports the entry, storage, visualization, and integration of dolphin photo-identification data. A modification of this database is also being used to assist in managing Hawaii's manta ray populations. 

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