Meet the Board

Kathy spent her first few years out of college working at the Forest Service in Fire and Wildlife, and in the Peace Corps in the Philippines and Senegal. She first fell in love with working with Mohave ground squirrels at Edwards Air Force Base in 1993 as a young biologist at Tetra Tech, trained by Mark Allaback and David Laabs. Since then, she has worked with MGS throughout the range, from commercial projects such as housing developments during housing boom, to road projects and large-scale camera studies at Fort Irwin, to more recent solar projects. She has worked for large and small consulting firms, and was the founder and President of Ironwood Consulting for over ten years before returning to work on her own at Sunrise Consulting LLC. She has also participated in the MGS Technical Advisory Group for over 20 years and working on volunteer efforts for the species since that time to gain more knowledge of range boundaries and genetics.

  Ed's first trapping studies for MGS were in 1990 with Larry LaPre in Palmdale, but it was not until 1994 that he handled his first MGS with Dave Laabs on Edwards Air Force Base, where he contracted with Don Mitchell and Kathy (Buescher) Simon, then with Tetra Tech. From 1998 through 2004, Ed worked for the BLM, writing portions of the West Mojave Plan, where his responsibilities were drafting conservation strategies for the desert tortoise and MGS. He was identified as an Independent Field Investigator in 2007 as the result of capturing and handling 13 MGS with Mercy Vaughn and Bill Vanherweg at Phil Leitner’s Freeman Gulch study site. In 2010, Ed assisted Phil and Barb Leitner in their long-term Coso studies, where Ed helped process 86 MGS, handle 43, PIT-tag 18, and collect tissue samples from 2 animals, which resulted in issuance of a State MOU in 2012. He has served as the functional-but-unofficial secretary of the MGS Technical Advisory Group since 2014. Since 2016, Ed has completed annual, extensive motion camera trapping for MGS on several mitigation bank properties. Ed is the inaugural secretary of the MGS Conservation Council, which conducted its first open meeting in November 2022. He is currently in partnership with wife, Sharon Dougherty, having started Circle Mountain Biological Consultants, Inc. in 1994.

Denise is a co-owner of EREMICO Biological Services, LLC, a small, woman-owned firm that offers services in a variety of environmental fields since 1987. Ms. LaBerteaux specializes in wildlife and plant studies in the desert regions of California and Nevada. Her work includes wildlife and plant inventories, T&E and other special status wildlife and plant surveys, baseline botanical studies, vegetation community mapping, population monitoring, habitat evaluations, impact assessments, mitigation planning, and environmental compliance monitoring. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Science degree in Biology from Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. Her first experience with Mohave ground squirrels (MGS) came in 1980 when she was a seasonal biologist at the Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake (NAWSCL), California. She and her co-workers assisted BLM biologists with a trapping study for MGS east of Cuddleback Lake in San Bernardino County. Later, she conducted several presence-absence trapping surveys on NAWSCL for project-related biological resources assessments. From 1992-1994, Ms. LaBerteaux was a member of the MGS Working Group and continues to participate at the MGS Technical Advisory Group meetings. As a consultant, Ms. LaBerteaux has conducted live-trapping surveys since 1987 and camera-trapping surveys since 2015. She currently serves as a Board Member at Large with the newly formed Mohave ground Squirrel Conservation Council.

Mark earned a B.A. in Environmental Biology from the University of Montana in 1996. Shortly after, Mark began working as a contracted biologist at Edwards Air Force Base. As part of his duties as a wildlife biologist at Edwards AFB, he would routinely escort and assist researchers conducting Mohave Ground Squirrel (MGS) studies. He would also routinely record MGS sightings during his normal job duties at Edwards. Over his career he has had the pleasure of working with and assisting the following MGS researchers and organizations: Kathy Simon; Ed Larue; Lehong Chow; and the Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee. In addition to working at Edwards he has also worked south of Edwards, Ridgecrest, Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area, Pilot Knob, Victorville, and Barstow areas conducting MGS habitat assessments or camera trapping.  

With 27 years of experience, Mark is currently the lead biologist at National Aeronautics and Space Administration Armstrong Facility at Edwards AFB. He is responsible for ensuring NASA complies with all Federal laws concerning natural resources.  Examples include burrow owls, desert tortoises and MGS.