University of New England

Michelle Steen-Adams, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Phone: 207.602.2515
Email: msteenadams@une.edu
 
Education
Ph.D. - Forest Ecology and Management and Environmental Studies (joint degree program), University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.S.  - Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.Ed. - Middle School Education, Lesley University
B.A.  - Art History, Swarthmore College
 
Courses
ENV 104: Introduction to Environmental Issues
ENV 150: Introduction to the Green Learning Community
ENV 200: Population and the Environment
Anticipated: Environmental History of New England
 
Research Interests
Environmental History
Forest History
Landscape Ecology
Historical Ecology
Forest Ecology
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
 
Selected Publications
Steen-Adams, M.M. and N.E. Langston. September 24, 2004. A Comparative Forest Landscape History of the Bad River Reservation and Private Land in the Lake Superior Clay Plain, Pre-EuroAmerican Settlement to 1987. Proceedings of the Twnety-ninth Annual Meeting of the Forest History Association of Wisconsin, Inc. Ashland, Wisconsin. Pp. 10-13.

Hale, B.W., M.M. Steen-Adams, K.A. Predick, and N. Fisher. 2005. Ecological conservation through aesthetic landscape planning: A case study of the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway. Environmental Management 35(4): 381-395.

Steen-Adams, M.M. 2002. Applications of environmental history to restoration ecology: A case study from Zion National Park. Ecological Restoration 20 (4): 252-261.

Steen-Adams, M.M. 2002. Book Review: Edmund Russell. 2001. War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK and New York, USA. Conservation Ecology 6 (2): 1. URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol6/iss2/art1/

Publications in preparation

Steen-Adams, M.M., N.E. Langston, and D.J. Mladenoff. In preparation. Applications of landscape ecology to environmental history: A comparative environmental history of the Bad River Reservation and private land in the northern Wisconsin cutover (Pre-European settlement - 1987). Target journal: Environmental History

Steen-Adams, M.M., D.J. Mladenoff and N.E. Langston. In preparation. Transition analysis of white pine (Pinus strobus L.) decline since EuroAmerican settlement on a northern Wisconsin, USA, landscape. Target journal: Journal of Biogeography

Steen-Adams, M.M., N.E. Langston, and D.J. Mladenoff. In preparation. A forest history of the Bad River Reservation.

Steen-Adams, M.M., D.J. Mladenoff, N.E. Langston, and J. Zhu. In preparation. Legacies of land ownership patterns on land cover transitions (Pre-Euro-American settlement – present) in Wisconsin, USA. Target journal: Landscape Ecology

Personal Interests
I am interested in relationships between people and their environment through time. My research investigates questions like “How have human activities altered the landscape?”; “What has been the influence of politics on land use practices and in turn on ecological change?”; “How do traditions and customs shape land use decisions?” In particular, I focus on forest ecosystem change. My past research has investigated the ecological history of the transitional mixed forests in the upper Great Lakes region and riparian forests in the American southwest.

Here in Maine, I anticipate focusing on forest communities near the coastline, including riparian forests and upland forest ecotones near estuaries. I am also interested in the ways that culture shapes environmental relations. My recent work has investigated forest history in relation to the Great Lakes Ojibwe.