Mike Kost serves as Associate Curator at the University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum and as a Lecturer in the School for Environment and Sustainability, where he teaches courses on ecology and botany and supervises MS Capstone Projects. As a curator, he focuses on natural areas inventory, monitoring, and stewardship planning. Before joining U-M, he served as the Lead Ecologist and a Senior Conservation Scientist with Michigan Natural Features Inventory at Michigan State University, where he focused on documenting and describing natural communities and rare species and identifying key sites for biodiversity conservation and management. In this role, he coauthored over 80 publications, including three books on the natural communities of Michigan.

TSN Conference 2026

• January 22nd, 2026 (Thursday) // 1:45 pm – 2:10 pm // Room 105 // The Deer Dilemma: Methods of Managing Urban Deer in Southeast Michigan // Managing the impacts of overabundant urban deer populations has become a priority for many municipal governments and land management organizations in Southeast Michigan. This project served to advance current and future urban deer management by producing a standardized guide for new programs and providing technical support for the implementation of the first regional deer management program in Farmington Hills, Farmington, and Southfield. Three pillars of urban deer management were used as a framework for the project: ecological, social, and program development. Project elements included conducting interviews with city employees and land managers, providing recommendations for ecological monitoring programs, and developing a variety of materials to support deer management programs in Southeast Michigan. Moving forward, we offer recommendations for municipalities interested in implementing urban deer management programs.

• January 22nd, 2026 (Thursday) // 3:05 pm – 4:05 pm // Room 106 // Beaver-Human Coexistence: Dam Worth It! // Beaver are ecosystem engineers that alter the physical structure of riparian ecosystems and create new wetland habitats. Humans and other species benefit from the many ecosystem services beaver and their wetlands provide, including increases in biodiversity, water quality, carbon sequestration, and fire and drought resistance. Historically extirpated from Lower Michigan, beaver are now returning and bringing their many ecological benefits with them. However, beaver alteration of the landscape can cause conflict with human infrastructure and land use. Our project seeks to address these conflicts by providing science-based coexistence strategies. We utilized the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool to predict where beavers are likely to colonize, performed a policy analysis to assess current beaver regulations, and engaged with land managers and property owners to understand current challenges and provide recommendations for coexistence strategies.

• January 23rd, 2026 (Friday) // 11:20 am – 11:45 am // Room 103 // Measuring What Matters: A Rapid Assessment Toolkit for Prioritizing Areas for Conservation // Many universities hold undeveloped lands that are critical to maintaining biodiversity in increasingly urbanized landscapes. These fragmented natural areas face threats from climate change, invasive species, pollution, and reduced species diversity. The University of Michigan recognizes both the opportunity and responsibility to be a leader in stewarding its natural areas for ecological and community benefit. To support this goal, we developed a suite of field and GIS metrics for scoring and ranking the ecological integrity of natural areas. The results of our project will enable the University of Michigan to integrate existing natural areas into its sustainability goals and educational experiences. The framework we present can be applied to a wide variety of institutions and landscapes for conservation planning.

• January 23rd, 2026 (Friday) // 11:55 am – 12:20 pm // Room 103 // Ecological Inventory and Monitoring for Biodiversity Conservation // Inventory and monitoring are essential components of adaptive management, providing key metrics to guide management decision-making for biodiversity conservation. For effective management, land managers need to be aware of biodiversity as well as shifts in ecosystem dynamics. However, managers often make decisions with limited data. To rectify this, we designed and implemented a replicable inventory and monitoring protocol based on the needs of Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum (MBGNA). Our protocol includes mapping and monitoring invasive plants, conducting experimental oak plantings, and performing a Floristic Quality Assessment in a prairie managed with prescribed fire. We also utilize bioblitzes and iNaturalist to assist with insect inventory on the properties. Overall, our ecological inventory and monitoring efforts provide crucial data for informing land management decisions at MBGNA and other conservation organizations across southeast Michigan.