Jim received the 2014 Dean's Award for Outstanding Achievement as a Faculty Researrch Assistant. This award was given to him for his "outstanding efforts in research, teaching, and mentoring in wildlife-forestry research."
Jim and collaborators received a grant to study wildlife use of created snags from the Fish and Wildlife Habitat in Managed Forests Research Program of the OSU College of Forestry. This investigation will quantify the contemporary characteristics of snags that were created by experimental topping of Douglas-fir trees 25 years ago, and assess how these resources are used by birds for foraging and nesting substrates at the current time.