Specializes in community social organization and agroecology within a watershed context. Ongoing research projects include:

• Sugar Creek Watershed (located in Holmes and Wayne counties of Ohio) biocomplexity linking social and natural ecosystems. See the Sugar Creek Method website for details.
• Participatory rural community social structure and learning communities in headwaters streams
• Water quality trading in Sugar Creek, Upper Scioto Watershed, and the U.S.
• Japanese rural social structure
• Grants: USDA SARE, USDA Water Quality, EPA, National Science Foundation