Rich focuses chiefly on inventory and conservation of rare vascular plants across New York State, particularly on State Park lands. Since joining NYNHP in 2006, he has worked on projects ranging from rocky summit grassland community assessment, to boreal forest passerine bird distribution, to vernal pool ecology. Rich also coordinated the assignment of Coefficients of Conservatism to all NY native vascular plants (for Floristic Quality Index analyses) in 2015, and continues to collaborate with NatureServe in developing Ecoregional Coefficients.