Tracy Hruska

I am primarily a qualitative environmental social scientist specializing in political ecology, but with broad training and professional experience in conservation biology, rangeland ecology, rural community development, and ecological restoration. My PhD included research in the United States, northern Mexico, and western China. Having recently moved from the United States to Finland, my research has now (mostly) shifted to Europe, with particular attention on northern Fennoscandia.

Before moving to Oulu in 2024, I worked for four years as a Habitat Restoration Project Manager for the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce, in the northwestern United States. In that role, I led all phases of development and construction of projects to restore tidal wetlands, riparian habitats, and coastal prairies, and to improve migratory fish passage. I secured approximately 9 million USD in competitive grant funding from private, state, and federal funders for that work, in addition to directed funds from Bonneville Power Administration. Project partners included federal and state agencies, county and city governments, Chinook Indian Nation, Clatsop Community College, and numerous private landowners.

Current, Primary Research Project: MOTIVATE (Monitoring Of Terrestrial habitats by Integrating Vegetation Archive Time series in Europe) https://motivate-biodiversity.eu/project/ (funded through Biodiversa+, 2024-2027)

Recent/Current Activities

• Regional Engagement: I am now working with regional partners and members of SAFIRE (UOULU's transdisciplinary restoration programme), especially Rebecca Carlson, to build up a major, regional, peatland restoration effort that would leverage public and private funding sources to develop and complete strategically located projects throughout the Pohjois-Pohjanmaa region.
• Teaching: "What is biodiversity in the age of extinction?: Interdisciplinary research approaches for the Anthropocene" (PhD intensive, co-led with Roger Norum, December 2024); "Art in Research: Unlocking hidden potentials" (PhD intensive, co-led with Erich Berger, September 2025).
• Network: I co-organized (with Selen Eren, Anni Piiroinen, and Mirella Karppinen) the 2025 Fall Colloquium of the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS), held at University of Oulu for the first time in the 31-year history of the event. I now serve as Board Member for YHYS for the year 2026.
• Rangeland Collaboration: I participate on the Science Team of the US Sheep Experiment Station Rangeland Collaboratory, a transdisciplinary, long-term experiment designed to build regional collaboration while answering critical questions about the ecological impacts, economics, and animal health aspects of rangeland sheep grazing in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (United States).