Joshua Cohen has worked for the past 26 years with Michigan Natural Features Inventory. His primary duties as the Lead Ecologist involve refining and revising the natural community classification through ecological inventory and sampling, literature research, and data analysis. He is responsible for classifying conservation targets and prioritizing areas for conservation and restoration; creating and delivering biodiversity and ecosystem management trainings; and designing and conducting vegetative sampling, ecological mapping and modeling, monitoring, and surveys for natural communities and rare species. Cohen is the lead author of A Field Guide to the Natural Communities of Michigan and recent articles in Diversity and Ecological Modelling entitled “Assessing the Ecological Need for Prescribed Fire in Michigan Using GIS-Based Multicriteria Decision Analysis: Igniting Fire Gaps” and “Using GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis to prioritize invasive plant treatment: A creative solution for a pernicious problem,” respectively. He earned a BA from Amherst College and a Master’s of Environmental Management at the Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. He is inspired by the words of Baba Dioum: “In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.”
