Research

Compensatory Mitigation

Citations

Pausch, R., Alexander, T., Howard, E., & Garske-Garcia, L. (2024). On-site and in-kind: Compensatory mitigation of California Coastal Zone habitat impacts between 2010 and 2018. Journal of Environmental Management, 366, 121674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121674

Alexander, T. (2020). Evaluating the Success of Compensatory Wetland Mitigation in the California Coastal Zone. Master’s Projects and Capstones, 997. https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/997

Background

Compensatory mitigation is a practice wherein a government agency requires the creation, restoration, enhancement, or preservation of ecological resources to offset unavoidable adverse impacts to environmentally sensitive habitat caused by some form of development. My compensatory mitigation research investigates the use and success of compensatory mitigation in the California Coastal Zone, with a particular focus on wetland and riparian habitats.

Spatial Analysis

I have used ArcGIS Pro, ArcMap, ArcGIS Online, QGIS, MapBox, Fusion, LAStools, and other programs to analyze and manage spatial data in an academic and professional context, with a focus on applied ecology, climate change, land use, and low-carbon transportation. See selected examples on the Maps page.

Public Records Research

In a professional context, I have performed web-based and on-site public records and archival research using tools and resources including:

  • LexisNexis, Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), web-based court records, and physical court archives
  • Public record requests pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the California Public Records Act (CPRA), and other state freedom of information laws
  • State business registration records
  • Campaign finance data and ethics filings maintained by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), California Secretary of State, etc.
  • Online pollution and labor databases such as those maintained by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
  • County assessor-recorder archives
  • Geographic information system (GIS) tools (see Spatial Analysis section above)

Citizen Science

I am an active contributor to iNaturalist, a citizen science app which functions as a crowdsourced species identification system, an organism occurrence recording tool, and an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature. Recording, sharing, and verifying species observations helps create research-quality data to support ecological study and conservation efforts.

Follow me on iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/i-am-tommy