Helen Payne

Island Scientist
Terrestrial
[email protected]

Helen is a botanist and evolutionary ecologist on TNC’s California Island Science Team, where she provides guidance and support for conservation and restoration on Santa Cruz Island Preserve and across the California Islands. Her research includes developing effective strategies for invasive plant removal, conserving rare or threatened plant species, and promoting ecosystem resilience. By applying principles of evolutionary ecology and population biology, Helen quantify population dynamics and informs science-based conservation and land management decisions.

Helen recently completed her Ph.D. at UC Santa Barbara, where she studied how California native wildflowers adapt to changing environments. Her research focused on the annual wildflower baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii) and combined field ecology, quantitative genetics, and natural history collections to better understand the evolutionary potential of wild plant populations. Helen has also collaborated with restoration practitioners at UC Santa Barbara to develop conservation plans for native bees at open spaces around campus. Prior to UCSB, she worked as a botanist with the U.S. Forest Service Ecology Crew in the Lake Tahoe Basin and spent four months on Palmyra Atoll helping restore native ecosystems through invasive coconut palm removal.

What Helen is working on now:

Helen is currently working to identify the most effective strategies for controlling invasive plant species, including fennel, while developing restoration protocols and long-term monitoring programs to conserve rare, threatened, and endangered plant species on Santa Cruz Island.