RNGR.net is sponsored by the USDA Forest Service and Southern Regional Extension Forestry and is a colloborative effort between these two agencies.

U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA Forest Service Southern Regional Extension Forestry Southern Regional Extension Forestry

Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Home → About → Personnel → Emily Senegal-Thyroff

Emily Senegal-Thyroff

Emily Senegal-Thyroff

Tropical Nursery Specialist
USDA Forest Service
State, Private, and Tribal Forestry

Sacramento, CA
TEL: (916) 342-9782
emily.senegal-thyroff@usda.gov

Biography:

As the Tropical Nursery Specialist, I support tree nurseries in U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands, Hawaiʻi, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nursery support ranges from facilitating regular meetings to create a tropical nursery growers' network, to technical nursery support and site visits, making resources and research more accessible, nursery training workshops, etc.

Prior to starting on the RNGR team I was a postdoctoral scientist with the Tropical Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center. I received my Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. My dissertation was on tropical dry forest restoration, focusing on the regeneration of ʻiliahi (Hawaiian sandalwood). I had projects in the field and nursery, and I engaged with the local community through outreach and extension efforts. My M.S. is in Forest Biology from the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University. My fieldwork was on the barrier islands of coastal Georgia, and my thesis was on maritime forest restoration, focusing on the regeneration of southern live oak. I held positions as a conservation fellow and a stream assessment technician, which broadened my scope of work and geographic range of ecosystem experience. My B.S. is in Biology with concentrations in ecology and environmental biology as well as global studies from James Madison University. My undergraduate thesis was on the restoration of American ginseng with both field and greenhouse components in Virginia and West Virginia. During undergrad, I studied, researched, and volunteered for a semester at the Centre for Rainforest Studies near Yungaburra, Australia. Here is where I first experienced successful tropical forest restoration efforts supported by two local nurseries to supply locally sourced tree seedlings. My roots originate in the temperate forests of Western New York, and I currently call California home.