Polly is part of the part of the science team at Earthshot, focusing on carbon projections. She is a wildlife biologist/terrestrial ecologist/ecosystem modeler.  In her career she has enjoyed doing fieldwork in the Rocky Mountains, on mountain lions, grizzly bears, frogs, sheep, and forests; and quantitative analyses modeling wildlife habitat, predation rate, mountain pine beetle outbreaks, and the carbon cycle.  Most recently she's been using a land surface model, CLM-FATES, to attribute the effects of climate, CO2, fire suppression, and harvest on the 20th century changes in forest structure and composition in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Since awakening, as a teenager, to the reality that we humans have an inordinate effect on the Earth, she's wanted to contribute to making the world a better place.She lives in Montana with her two awesome kids, Hazel and Linden.  She grew up (mostly on a horse) in Pennsylvania, but was drawn to the west early on. She came to Montana, by way of Colorado and Wyoming, over 30 years ago and it’s felt like home ever since.  She gets out as much as she can, on foot, on bike, or on skis. Being out feeds her soul and helps her remember we’re all connected, animal, vegetable and mineral.