Dr. Lin specializes in Watershed Modeling and Management, Ecological Engineering. He will be a visiting scholar for the Road Ecology Center in 2006-2007

Dr. Jaeger specializes in measuring the effects on roads on habitat fragmentaion. He was recently awarded a grant to work with the UC Davis Road Ecology Center to apply new GIS-based metrics of habitat fragmentation due to road networks in California, and assess the implications of those metrics for 10 endangered animal species in the state, and to apply the resulting tool in transportation planning.

Dr. West specializes in applied ecological research and management of rare, threatened, and endangered wildlife, ecosystem conservation, and mitigation planning. He is a Senior Environmental Scientist with Jones & Stokes in Sacramento and a Research Associate in the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis. His current research focuses on bioacoustics analysis of highway noise impacts on wildlife, particularly how noise impacts vocal communication and associated behaviors in birds. Dr. West is a member of the Bioacoustics Working Group at the UCD Road Ecology Center where he teaches courses in Bioacoustics Ecology.

I am an assistant professor at the Department of Construction Engineering of National Kinmen Institute of Technology in Taiwan. Kinmen ( Quemoy) is an island that used to be a battle field during the Chinese civil war in the 1950s and a hot spot during the Cold war, but it's now a peaceful and beautiful island. Living in Kinmen is pleasant but worrisome since there are too many roads and improper developments that are degrading the island’s ecosystem and environment. We don't have the luxury for experiments or wrong doings but until now, no one has in-depth study about the relations between roads and small island ecosystem. To stop the continuing deterioration of our environment I want to do something for Kinmen. The subject of my visit is "The impacts of roads on an island's ecosystem and environment". The impacts of improper development and redundant road constructions on precious island ecosystem are so severe such that this research is much in need. The results of this study will be applied not only to stop deteriorating the ecosystem of Kinmen Island but also to improve other small islands' conditions. This visit is sponsored by the National Science Council of Taiwan (grant no. NSC 43138F) for three months.

My research interests are in the fields of Road Ecology, Ecological Engineering, and Island Study. In Taiwan, I have been involving researches related to sustainable development, constructed wetlands, island study, and recycling construction wastes. I am anticipating taking part in the activities with the Road Ecology Center in (1) Studying the impacts of roads on island ecosystem, (2) Taking part in on-going researches at UC Davis, (3) Visiting ecological mitigation sites, (4)Meeting road ecology specialists, (5) Collecting road ecology research materials, and of course (6) Making friends!

The ecosystem and natural resources of small islands are limited; they are especially vulnerable to invasion by alien species. Because there is no tolerance for experiments or mistakes on developing small islands, the planning of development must be very delicate and advanced compared to large islands or continental areas. Through the research at UC Davis, I hope to find out the most destructive factors of roads to the island ecosystem and environment. The goal of this visit is to try to develop models from ecological point of view in road policies for small islands.