Cascadia Genetics Laboratory
Noninvasive genetic surveys and environmental DNA — designing field protocols, processing challenging samples, and delivering population-level genomic inference for management and conservation.
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Technology for
Wildlife Ecology
A collaborative research group mobilizing genomics, artificial intelligence, modeling, and field ecology to advance wildlife science and evidence-based conservation
Three Integrated Facilities
Our Laboratories
Three specialized labs working in concert — from molecule to landscape scale — to produce rigorous, publication-quality wildlife science.
Cascadia AI Lab
Custom computer vision and bioacoustics AI for camera trap and acoustic monitoring — in partnership with the Pacific Northwest Bioacoustics Lab.
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Cascadia Analysis Lab
Density estimation via spatial capture-recapture, animal movement analysis, occupancy modeling, and LiDAR-based habitat characterization for rigorous ecological inference.
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What We Bring to the Field
Capabilities Across Taxa & Methods
From boots-on-the-ground data collection to cutting-edge computational analysis — a complete toolkit for wildlife research at any scale
Traditional Wildlife Trapping & GPS Collaring
Large-scale mammal capture programs using box traps, snares, and telazol immobilization. We deploy GPS and VHF collars to generate telemetry datasets that underpin home range, movement, and survival analyses.
Noninvasive Genetics & eDNA
Hair snares, scat transects, and water/sediment filtration for environmental DNA — extracting individual identity, species composition, and population parameters without ever handling an animal.
Camera Trap Networks & Computer Vision AI
Deployment and management of large camera trap arrays paired with deep learning classifiers trained for your species and your cameras — turning millions of images into detection data at scales impossible with manual review.
Passive Acoustic Monitoring & Bioacoustics AI
AudioMoth, Swift, and Song Meter deployment for continuous acoustic monitoring of owls, murrelets, and other forest birds — combined with custom neural network detectors built for the target species.
DNA Metabarcoding
High-throughput sequencing of bulk environmental samples to characterize multi-species communities — dietary analysis from scat, aquatic biodiversity from eDNA, and diet reconstruction from gut contents.
Quantitative Ecology & Spatial Analysis
Spatial capture-recapture, occupancy modeling, Bayesian hierarchical models, movement analysis, and LiDAR-based habitat characterization — rigorous inference from any combination of field data streams.
Our Approach
A Collaborative
A Collaborative
Approach
The Cascadia Wildlife Lab brings together faculty, research biologists, and computational scientists from Oregon State University, the USDA Forest Service, NCASI, and partner institutions — each leading their own programs, and each contributing specialized expertise toward a shared goal: evidence-based conservation.
That goal shapes how we work. Conservation decisions are only as good as the evidence beneath them, and the evidence is only as good as the methods that produced it. So we pair large field datasets with molecular, analytical, and computational capabilities strong enough to get real answers out of them — and we document those answers to standards that hold up under scientific and regulatory scrutiny.
We offer the analytical depth of a research university and the logistical capacity of a wildlife consulting program — serving agencies, tribes, NGOs, and academic partners across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Meet the Team
Pacific Northwest — Cascadia Region
Pacific Marten — Camera Trap, Pacific Northwest
Pacific Marten — Martes caurina
Mountain Lion — Puma concolor
Collaborating Scientists
Our Team
Faculty, research biologists, and computing scientists who together form the Cascadia Wildlife Lab — each bringing deep expertise in their own discipline and research group
Avian Ecology & Forest Ecology
Matt Betts
Professor, Oregon State University
Forest Landscape Ecology Lab →
Partner
Wildlife Genetics & Ecology
Joel Ruprecht
Research Scientist
Wildlife Genetics
Claire Goodfellow
Research Scientist
Research Computing
Chris Sullivan
Director, Research & Academic Computing, OSU
OSU Research Computing →
Support This Work
Better Data, Better Decisions
Every capability described on this site — the genetics lab, the AI models, the analytical methods — exists because someone funded its development. Partners and supporters make the next set of hard-to-study species and hard-to-answer questions tractable.
Get In Touch
Get In Touch
Start a Conversation
Tell us about your study system and what you need to learn from it. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right group for the work, and who else to talk to if we are not.
Project Inquiries
Study design, method selection, cost estimates, and timelines — for agencies, tribal nations, NGOs, industry, and academic partners across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
info@cascadiawildlifelab.org