Hello there!
I’m an assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University. I received a PhD in environmental conservation, with an emphasis in forest resources and arboriculture, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2020.
I study the trees and forests cultivated amid communities to benefit people. I am interested in the persistence and preservation of large, mature trees facing various disturbances in cities, and I work to identify the natural adaptations and management interventions conferring longevity to individual trees and, at broader scales, limiting mortality rates in urban forests.
I also teach courses on the science and practice of urban tree and forest management, and I work with practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders to improve community trees and forests for the health, well being, and safety of nearby people.
Selected Projects
Peer-reviewed journal articles
Identifying modal properties of trees with Bayesian inference. Burcham, D.C. and Au, S.K. 2022. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 316:108804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2021.108804
After pruning, wind-induced bending moments and vibration decrease more on reduced than raised Senegal mahogany (Khaya senegalensis). Burcham, D.C., Autio, W.R., Modarres-Sadeghi, Y., Kane, B. 2021. Urban Forestry and Urban Greening 61: 127100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2021.127100
Can sonic tomography predict loss in load-bearing capacity for trees with internal defects? A comparison of sonic tomograms with destructive measurements. Burcham, D.C., Brazee, N.J., Marra, R.E., Kane, B. 2019. Trees: Structure and Function, 33(3):681-695. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-018-01808-z.
Software packages
zloss | Estimating the reduced strength of decayed trees from sonic tomograms | 2017