Talaya Rachels

Biologist

Talaya Rachels is a biologist with over seven years of experience in biological surveys, restoration monitoring and weed mapping. She joined Nomad Ecology in 2020. At Nomad, Ms. Rachels contributes her expertise to vegetation mapping, rare plant surveys, restoration monitoring, wetland delineations, and weed mapping throughout the Bay Area, and has a strong background in rare plant monitoring and surveys for federal, state, and California Rare Plant Inventory listed plant species. She is a skilled wildlife biologist who has conducted protocol-level surveys for listed wildlife species, including California red-legged frog, California tiger salamander, arroyo toad, desert tortoise, flat-tailed horned lizard, Quino checkerspot butterfly, fairy shrimp, coastal California gnatcatcher, least Bell’s vireo, and burrowing owl. Her responsibilities include processing and analyzing geospatial data and creating maps and figures to support land management efforts for Nomad’s clients.

Prior to her work at Nomad, Ms. Rachels was part of a restoration effort to create and maintain California red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake habitat within the 180-acre West-of-Bayshore property. She gained extensive experience with California red-legged frog surveys and monitoring. She was also involved with a large-scale vegetation mapping and rare plant survey of 1,770 acres within the Tijuana River Valley Regional Park in coordination with the County of San Diego’s rare plant inventory. Her background includes rare plant surveys and invasive weed mapping for the U.S. Forest Service, restoration and greenhouse management with Back to Natives Restoration, and vernal pool habitat conservation with the City of San Diego’s Natural Resource Management Team. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany from the University of Hawaii, Manoa.