Mike Williams , PhD

I am currently working part-time as a research affiliate and instructor in the Biology Department at Western Washington University in Bellingham since December 2015.  Previously I was employed from 2006 to 2015 as a full-time member of the Biology faculty at Butte College in northern California, a two-year public institution.  For the previous seven years, I served as the reserve director for a 6,000 acre research natural reserve for the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Previously, I was the principal ecologist in my own firm located in Seattle with projects throughout the western United States including Alaska.   My research interests include plant systematics, restoration ecology, and plant reproductive biology.   My technical specialties include riparian-wetland inventories and assessments, restoration, mitigation and monitoring designs from master planning through site construction, vegetation surveys, inventories of endangered, threatened, and sensitive plant species, population distributions, and forest composition characterizations.  I was actively involved in master planning, background studies for regional planning projects, watershed and landscape analysis for habitat restoration, and in all aspects of permitting, design and implementing mitigation and restoration projects.  

Monographic treatment of the western North American barberries, Berberis (Berberidaceae). 

Environmental triggers inducing selfing vs. outcrossing individuals of a California annual, Tetrapteron graciliflorum (Onagraceae).  

Restoration biology. 

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. Botany, emphasis Plant Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle, 1995.
• M. S. Botany, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1980.
• B. A. Botany, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1976. 

HONORS AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY INVOLVEMENT

President of the Society for Ecological Restoration-Northwest Chapter (SER-NW)  1997-1998

Conference Co-chair: Turning the Tides: Ecological Restoration from a Watershed Perspective, 27-30 October 1998, Tacoma, Washington.

Current Peer Reviewer for Conservation Biology, Madroño, and Northwest Science.

Astragalus yoder-williamsii Barneby, Brittonia 32:30-32, 1980.

National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant,  Fall 1986 through Fall 1988.

Sigma Xi Science Society, Elected as Member, 1985.

President of the Northern Nevada Native Plant Society, 1982-84.

Task Force Member, Urban Soil and Water Conservation, Society of Soil and Water Conservation.

Waterfront Centre Award, 1997, Golden Gardens Park Shoreline Restoration with Bruce Dees & Associates.

Excellence in Scholarship, Research & Sustainability, February 11, 2010.

Excellence in Teaching Award, National Society of Leadership & Success, May 12, 2012.

Excellence in Community Service, Books In Common Committee, April 22, 2013.

Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Butte College Commencement, presented by Phi Theta Kappa, May 28, 2014

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND CERTIFICATIONS

Botanical Society of America, 1985 to present.

California Botanical Society, 1975 to present.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

(Used surname of Yoder-Williams from 1979 to 1989.)

Williams, M. P.  2012.  Berberidaceae [family treatment], revised. In B. Baldwin, D. H. Goldman, D. J. Keil, R. Paterson, T. J. Rosatti and  D. Wilken (eds.) The Jepson Manual of Vascular Plants of California, 2nd Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Endler, J. (Chair),  S. Mazer, M. Williams, C. Sandoval and W. Ferren. 2001.  Problems associated with Introductions of Non-Native Genotypes on NRS Reserves.  University of California, Natural Reserve System,  Committee to evaluate introduction of exotic genotypes into UC Reserves.

Noss, R. F., R. Graham, D. R. McCullough, F. L. Ramsey, J. Seavey, C. Whitlock, and M. P. Williams.  2000.  Review of Scientific Material Relevant to the Occurrence, Ecosystem Role, and Tested Management Options for Mountain Goats (Oreamnos americanus) in Olympic Mountain National Park.  Contract report No. 14-01-0001-99-C-05,  U.S. Department of the Interior. 

Reichman, M., M. Williams, and T. M. Hinckley.  1999.  Citizens Water Quality Monitoring Guide for Puget Sound Parks.  Michael P. Williams Consulting, Inc. 

Chapin, D.M. and M.P. Williams, 1996.  Applying ecological concepts:  assumptions of ecosystem dynamics, scale and function.  In:  The Role of Restoration in Ecosystem Management, Pearson, D.L. and C.V. Klimas (eds.)  Society for Ecological Restoration, Parks Canada.

Williams, M. P.  1995.  Inhibition of conifer regeneration by an herbaceous perennial, Wyethia mollis.  Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.

Williams, M. P.  1993.  Berberidaceae [family treatment]. In D. Wilken and J. Hickman (eds.) The Jepson Flora. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Parker, V. T. and M. P. Yoder-Williams.  1989.  Reduction of survival and growth of Pinus jeffreyi by an herbaceous perennial, Wyethia mollis, and montane chaparral.  American Midland Naturalist 121:105-111.

Folt, C. L., M. J. Weaver, M. P. Yoder-Williams, and R. P. Howmiller.  1989.  Field studies comparing growth and viability of a population of phototropic bacteria.  Appl. and Env. Microbiology 55(1):78-85.

Erman, D.C., E. D. Andrews, and M. Yoder-Williams.  1988.  Effects of winter floods on fishes in the Sierra Nevada.  Can.  J. Fish.   Aquat. Sci. 45:2195-2200.

Raphael, M. G., M. L. Morrison, and M. P. Yoder-Williams.  1987. Breeding bird populations during twenty-five years of post-fire succession in the Sierra Nevada.  Condor 89:614-626.

Yoder-Williams, M. P. and V. T. Parker.  1987.  Allelopathic interference in the seedbed of Pinus jeffreyi in the Sierra Nevada, California.  Canadian Journal of Forestry Research 17:991-994.

Morrison, M.L., M.F. Dedon, M.G. Raphael, and M.P. Yoder-Williams.  1986.  Snag requirements of cavity nesting birds:  Are the U.S.D.A. Forest Service Guidelines being met?  Western Journal of Applied Forestry 1:38-40.

Morrison, M.L., M.F. Dedon, M.P. Yoder-Williams, and M.G. Raphael.  1986.  Distribution and abundance of snags in the Sagehen Creek Basin, California.  U.S.D.A. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station Res. Note PSW-389, 4p.

Yoder-Williams, M.P., M. Liverman, and K. With.  1985.  Burned pine-forest, and mature pine-forest.  In W.T. and A.C. Van Velzen (eds.), Forty-eighth breeding bird census.  American Birds 39:114.

Morrison, M.L., M.P. Yoder-Williams, D.C. Erman, R.H. Barrett, M. White, and D.A.  Airola.  1985.  An annotated species list of vertebrates of the Sagehen Creek Basin, Nevada County, California.  University of California Agricultural Experiment Station Special Publication, 16 p.

Yoder-Williams, M.P. and K. With.  1984.  Burned pine-fir forest, and mature pine-fir forest.  In W.T. and A.C. Van Velzen (eds.), Forty-seventh Breeding Bird Census.  American Birds 38:91-92.

Morrison, M.L. and M.P. Yoder-Williams.  1984.  Movement of Steller's Jays in western North America.  North American Bird Bander 9:12-15.

Patterson, R. and M.P. Yoder-Williams.  1984.  Leptodactylon glabrum, a new intermountain species of the Polemoniaceae.  Systematic Botany 9:261-262.

Yoder-Williams, M.P.  1983.  Burned pine-fir forest, and mature pine-fir forest.  In W.T. and A.C. Van Velzen (eds.), Forty-sixth Breeding Bird Census.  American Birds 37:89.

Yoder-Williams, M.P.  1982.  Research natural areas and rare plants in Nevada, p. 89-95.  In N.S. Van Pelt, (ed.), Research Natural Area Needs in Nevada and Utah:  A First Estimate.  The Nature Conservancy, San Francisco.

Yoder-Williams, M.P.  1980.  Vernon Orlando Bailey (1864 - 1942):  A self-taught biologist who became the Chief Naturalist for the U.S. Biological Survey.  Mentzelia 5:2-4.

Williams, M.P.  1980.  Studies of Elymus mollis directed towards its use in revegetation of maritime tundra.  Masters thesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 123 pp.