Presenter bios
Sean Baumgarten
Sean Baumgarten is an environmental scientist in the Resilient Landscapes Program at the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI). His research focuses on the historical ecology of California ecosystems, using archival data to reconstruct the form and function of past landscapes and understand how they have changed over time. Sean has conducted research on coastal, riverine, and terrestrial ecosystems throughout the Bay Area as well as in southern California and the Central Valley. Sean earned a master of environmental science and management degree with a specialization in conservation planning from the Bren School at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a bachelor of science in wildlife, fish, and conservation biology from the University of California, Davis. Sean lives with his family in Berkeley, CA, and in his free time enjoys running, hiking, cooking, and playing music.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST
Colden Baxter
Colden Baxter is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University. He grew up on a ranch and spending time in and on rivers, principally in northwest Montana, and received training in biology and geology (BA, Univ. Oregon), ecology (MSc, Univ. Montana), fisheries science and philosophy of science (Ph.D., Oregon State Univ.), and food web studies (postdoctoral fellowship, Colorado State Univ. & Hokkaido Univ., Japan). At ISU he leads the Stream Ecology Center and directs the cross disciplinary and partnership-focused Center for Ecological Research and Education (CERE). With many students, collaborators, and partners, his research focuses on rivers and streams, ecological linkages between water and land, and connections between people and rivers. He and his wife Lenny are parents to two daughters. He enjoys time with his family (including their help with field work!), as well as long trail runs, skiing the backcountry, reading long books in places without internet service, and playing and listening to all sorts of music.
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Mark Beardsley
As an ecological scientist and restoration practitioner, Mark has been working to restore and protect Rocky Mountain riverscapes since the mid-1990s. In Mark's view, restoration is not about controlling nature or manipulating it for specific human purposes, goals, or objectives—it’s about preserving ecological health, biotic integrity, and natural processes. If we can do that, we enjoy the full suite of ecosystem services that support human society and the rest of the natural world. This view aligns with the modern concepts of “process-based” and “biomic” restoration which have become the focus of his small company, EcoMetrics, which embraces low-tech approaches and thoughtful site selection. The restoration benefit is one thing that motivates Mark to go to work every day, but he also finds inspiration in his love for being in the mountains, exercising, and splashing around in creeks with friends. Mark spends a lot of time climbing mountains, skiing, wandering around the backcountry, reading, pondering, and listening to heavy metal music.
ECOLOGICAL SCIENTIST
Nick Bouwes
Nick Bouwes has been working on salmon and steelhead issues in the Pacific Northwest for the past 20 years. Nick started Eco Logical Research (ELR) in 2000 and has contracted with several agencies to develop and implement large scale monitoring programs, design and implement watershed scale restoration experiments, and provide analytical frameworks to evaluate and provide context to the enormous data sets generated from such projects. He provides oversight on ELR projects and coordinates with state, federal, tribal, NGOs, and other consulting firms on regional salmonid issues. Nick works on biometric and data analyses, modeling, experimental and monitoring design and implementation, stream restoration, fisheries research and aquatic ecology, and has detailed knowledge of the salmon, steelhead, and bull trout issues. Nick cofounded Anabranch Solutions with Joe Wheaton and Steve Bennett to design and implement stream restoration. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Watershed Science at Utah State University where he shares the Fluvial Habitat Center with Joe, advises graduate students, and teaches fish habitat, ecology, and ecohydraulic modeling. He holds a doctorate in ecology from Utah State University.
ECOLOGIST
Amy Bowers Cordalis
Amy Bowers-Cordalis is a mother of three boys, a fisherwoman, an attorney, and a member of the Yurok Tribe. She is the co-founder/vice principal of Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation. She was formerly general counsel of the Yurok Tribe, and a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund. Amy’s family is from the village of Rek-Woi at the mouth of the Klamath River in Northern California. Since colonization, every generation of Amy’s family has fought for Yurok Rights. Her family’s Supreme Court case, Mattz v. Arnett, reaffirmed the status of the Yurok Reservation as Indian country, laying the foundation for the exercise of the Tribe’s sovereignty and the enjoyment of its federally reserved water and fishing rights. Amy continues her family legacy by focusing her work on Klamath River restoration, including dam removal, water rights, and fisheries issues.
ATTORNEY, GENERAL COUNCIL YUROK TRIBE
CO-FOUNDER, RIDGES TO RIFFLES
Paul Burns
As a fisheries biologist, Paul coordinates a nationally and internationally recognized watershed restoration program which includes upland, riparian, and in-stream projects that focus on watershed processes. He has worked for the USDA Forest Service for 31 years in Utah and Oregon. He has a bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point and a master’s from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
FISHERIES SCIENTIST
Janine Castro
Janine Castro is the project leader for the Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (CRFWCO) in Vancouver, Washington. It is the mission of the CRFWCO to assist in determining the status of imperiled natural fish stocks, to evaluate management measures for recovery and assist in the recovery of these stocks, and to prevent future Endangered Species Act listings. As the project leader, Janine provides leadership to a highly diverse technical staff that addresses a wide variety of
fisheries issues, including: fish passage and aquatic habitat restoration; bull trout recovery and lamprey and mussel conservation; marking and tagging nearly 40 million hatchery fish annually to support tribal, recreational, and commercial mark-selective fisheries; mark-recapture studies of wild fish to determine occupancy, distribution, abundance, trends, and population growth rates, and; providing analytical support to project design, evaluation, and information management. Janine also provides national and international training on stream restoration, river science, geomorphology, and public speaking for scientists. She has worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service for 22 years, and spent the preceding 10 years working for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Janine is one of the five founding members of River Restoration Northwest and is the technical director for Portland State University’s River Restoration Professional Certificate Program. Janine holds a doctorate in geosciences from Oregon State University; a master of science in interdisciplinary studies and environmental geomorphology from California State University, Chico, where she also earned a bachelor of science in geology and a bachelor of arts in geography.
GEOSCIENTIST
Damion Ciotti
Damion Ciotti is a restoration biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and manages the Coastal Program for the San Francisco Bay and outer coast in California. He works to restore streams, floodplains, and tidal wetlands. Much of Damion’s work is focused on applications of ecological engineering to restoration. He has experience in the implementation of process-based and beaver restoration and working with public and private landowners to apply these techniques. He has a bachelor’s in soil science from Penn State University and a master’s in environmental science from Oregon State University.
RESTORATION BIOLOGIST
Rebecca Flitcroft
Rebecca Flitcroft is a research fish biologist with the United States Forest Service at the Pacific Northwest Research Station, Oregon, USA. Rebecca has always loved water and is fascinated by the creatures that live within it. Her family has always lived near water, and she grew up paddling her toes in the Singapore Strait, as well as the North Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. As a fish research biologist, Rebecca seeks to better understand how people interact with forests and fish in the complex riverscapes of the Pacific Northwest. As part of this work, she is interested in facilitating the development and translation of science into information that supports applied conservation, protection, and understanding of freshwater habitats and biota. Rebecca holds a doctorate in fisheries science and a master of science in natural resource geography from Oregon State University, as well as a bachelor of science in both environmental science and economics from Willamette University.
RESEARCH FISHERIES BIOLOGIST
Hannah Gosnell
Hannah Gosnell is a professor of geography in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University who studies biodiversity conservation, water resource management, climate change, and environmental governance in the context of rural working landscapes in the U.S. West. Her research addresses the human dimensions of natural resource management from a social-ecological systems perspective. She is particularly interested in innovative approaches to Endangered Species Act implementation and strategies for engaging agricultural landowners in riparian/aquatic ecosystem restoration, including beaver-related restoration. Her work reflects a belief that collaborative and interdisciplinary solutions to conservation challenges involving all affected stakeholders are likely to be more durable and equitable than ones that are top-down or purely technical. Hannah earned a bachelor’s from Brown University, and both a master’s and doctorate in geography from the University of Colorado.
PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY
Katrina Harrison
Katrina Harrison, PE, is an engineer and project manager with McBain Associates, Applied River Sciences. She has more than 13 years of experience in habitat restoration in California, and balancing our competing demands for water between humans and the environment. She currently is working on restoration and fish passage projects on the Tuolumne, Carmel, and Eel Rivers, and formerly worked to re-wet the San Joaquin River. She loves problem solving and conducting stakeholder engagement for large, complex, controversial, and time-sensitive projects. Katrina has performed hydraulic modeling, channel and floodplain restoration design, operations modeling, and has built water operations analysis tools. She holds a master’s and a bachelor’s in civil and environmental engineering from U.C. Davis and U.C. Berkeley, respectively.
ENGINEER
Paul Hessburg
Paul Hessburg is a senior research ecologist with USDA Forest Service Research and Development, and affiliate full professor at four western United States and Canadian universities, where he mentors rising stars in doctorate and post-doctoral programs. He is the 2022-2024 president of the International Association for Fire Ecology (AFE) and Deputy, International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, Division 4: Forest Assessment, Modeling, and Management. His research explores wildfire and climate change effects on landscape dynamics, and the structure and organization of historical, current, and future landscape resilience. Paul is keenly interested in partnering with managers to advance the work of forest restoration and climate change adaptation, and stronger science and management partnerships. In his off time, Paul enjoys canoeing and rafting western U.S. and arctic rivers, horse packing, fly fishing, snowshoeing, and backpacking. He and his wife Mary also enjoy time with their adult children and seven nearly perfect grandchildren.
RESEARCH ECOLOGIST
Johan Hogervorst
Johan has worked as a watershed restoration specialist for the U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest for more than 27 years, planning and implementing large-scale meadow restoration, in-stream wood placement, road decommissioning, stream protection during forest management, and most recently, valley bottom restoration to Stage 0 condition. Johan is currently in his 17th year as the lead hydrologist for the Willamette National Forest, specializing in collaborative restoration and water resource management. As a member of the Region 6 Restoration Assistance Team, Johan consults with other U.S. Forest Service professionals and their partners on restoration projects throughout Oregon and Washington. Johan earned a bachelor’s in natural resources management from Humboldt State University and a master’s in forest hydrology from Oregon State University. In March of 2023 Johan will return to the United Kingdom with Paul Powers to speak about Stage 0 restoration, and to help implement a Stage 0 project in the Somerset region of England. For fun Johan loves hiking and camping with his wife, Cara, and four kids, Ben, Sam, Evy, and Dan, and their dog, Jasper.
HYDROLOGIST
Damon Holzer
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Damon is a cartographer with NOAA specializing in lidar mapping. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington and his master’s from Texas A&M, where he spent most of his time in the spatial sciences laboratory focusing on GIS, remote sensing, and GPS—both as a teacher and researcher. He returned home to the Northwest to work with NOAA Fisheries on recovery science for Interior Columbia-listed salmon and steelhead. In his free time you can usually find him having seasonally appropriate fun in the mountains.
CARTOGRAPHER
Lisa Huntington
Lisa Huntington, PE, has more than 20 years of experience in water resources engineering working with the public and private sectors. She spent the first half of her career working to restore watersheds in the Great Lakes Region and is now working to restore Portland, Oregon’s watersheds. She currently manages the Surface Water Restoration design section for the City of Portland's Bureau of Environmental Services. Lisa holds a master of science in civil engineering from Lawrence Technological University and a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Michigan State University. She serves on the Board of Directors for a pretty rad Portland-based non-profit, Depave.
CIVIL ENGINEER
Carson Jeffres
Carson Jeffres, Ph.D., is a research ecologist with the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Center for Watershed Science, specializing in better understanding how physical processes and management actions influence aquatic food webs and fish habitat. He has been studying the physical processes and ecology of floodplains in California’s Central Valley for 20 years. In addition to projects in the Central
Valley, Dr. Jeffres has been studying spring-fed systems in the southern Cascades and rivers and estuaries in the Amazon River and Southern Brazil. One of the themes of his research is using rigorous scientific research to help guide management. Dr. Jeffres earned his doctorate from UC Davis.
RESEARCH ECOLOGIST
Jacob Katz
Jacob Katz, Ph.D., was born with gills. Fascinated with what happened below the water line, he grew up fishing every creek, puddle, river, and pond he could find. After guiding in remote Alaska, where he was inspired by the abundance produced in functioning river ecosystems, he was eventually hooked by school, earning a doctorate in ecology at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Center for Watershed Sciences. He is lead scientist at the conservation non-profit California Trout, where his work focuses on developing ways to “pivot towards process,” enhance fish and wildlife benefits from working landscapes, and finding win-win solutions for people and the environment to ensure that California will always be home to wild salmon. As lead scientist at California Trout, Dr. Katz oversees science, planning, and implementation of a portfolio of landscape-scale projects focused on the reintegration of river ecosystems into the operations of California’s flood and water infrastructure. Dr. Katz is co-founder of the Central Valley Salmon Habitat Partnership and the Floodplains Forward Coalition.
WATERSHED ECOLOGIST
Erika Lovejoy
Erika Lovejoy is the director of Sustainable Conservation’s Accelerating Restoration Program, where she develops innovative policy and regulatory incentives to increase the pace and scale of habitat restoration in California. Major projects include collaborating with landowners, NGOs, and government agencies on statewide policies and programmatic permits to promote aquatic habitat restoration and related multi-benefit projects. As an established expert in creating regulatory and process efficiencies within government to advance environmental goals, Erika has implemented several environmental programs and been an active contributor to California’s Cutting the Green Tape Initiative. Before joining Sustainable Conservation, Erika served in lead and technical roles as an environmental scientist/planner for California's Water Boards, Coastal Commission, and Department of Water Resources; and San Francisco County. She has also managed a major watershed planning effort for the South San Francisco Bay, helping to mediate stakeholder conflicts and develop lasting water quality protection solutions.
DIRECTOR, SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION’S ACCELERATING RESTORATION PROGRAM
Dorothy Merritts
Dorothy Merritts is the Harry W. and Mary B. Huffnagle Professor of Geosciences at Franklin and Marshall College, where she has been employed since 1987. She worked at the U.S. Geological Survey from 1982 until 1987 while completing an master’s in engineering geology at Stanford University and a doctorate in Geosciences at the University of Arizona. Her work focuses on the history of landscapes and the processes that shape them. She is known particularly for her research on landscapes perturbed by geologic events and climate change during the past ~130,000 years, and by human activities during the past ~400 years. In the western United States and international locations around the Pacific Rim, she has studied the effects of recent tectonic activity on coastal regions.
She was president of the American Geophysical Union Earth and Planetary Surface Processes Section from 2018 to 2020; is a fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA); was a co-recipient of the GSA Kirk Bryan award for outstanding scholarship in 2011; received the Distinguished Career award from the GSA Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division in 2022; and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2022. She has served on five NRC committees which were related to the impacts of human activities and/or climate change at the Earth’s surface.
Dorothy loves most any activity that involves water and soil. Kayaking, rafting, canoeing, and swimming are her favorite activities, but skiing ranks high as well (snow is water). She is also an avid gardener.
PROFESSOR OF GEOMORPHOLOGY
Kate Meyers
As a fisheries biologist for the United States (U.S.) Forest Service on the Willamette National Forest for more than 16 years, Kate Meyer has spent most of that time designing, implementing, and monitoring river restoration projects. During the last 7 years, she has been project co-manager on six valley-scale process-based restoration projects (to Stage 0 and 8) in the Western Cascades of Oregon. Since 2010, she has been a member of the U.S. Forest Service Restoration Assistance Team (RAT) in Oregon and Washington, whose mission is to assist other forests with design and implementation of watershed restoration projects. Kate, along with several other members of the RAT, are part of a cadre of restoration practitioners that are pioneering Stage 0 and 8 approaches, tools, techniques, and monitoring strategies. She has participated in several Stage 0 workshops across the Western U.S., Sweden and the United Kingdom, has co-authored two publications on restoration to Stage 0, and has given numerous presentations and project tours. In 2020, she received the U.S. Forest Service National Rise to the Future Award for Professional Excellence in Fisheries Management for her contribution to the science and practice of valley-scale process-based river restoration. Kate grew up on the banks of the Payette and Salmon Rivers in Idaho but now calls the McKenzie River her home, living in a “can” down by the river (i.e., a shipping container home). She is an avid angler, mountain biker, and snowboarder. She spends a month each year fly fishing in Belize and travels as much as possible in search of bucket list fish. She attributes her surprising luck (certainly not skill) in fly fishing to the good restoration karma she has earned.
FISHERIES BIOLOGIST
George Pess
George Pess has worked in fisheries since 1989. His primary research interest has been the examination of natural and land-use effects on salmon habitat and salmon production. George is program manager for the watershed program at the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC). He is also an affiliate professor at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. George has conducted research on historic and current land use impacts on salmon habitat and production, the influence of wood in forested stream channels, and how landscape characteristics and land use affect salmon abundance. George holds a doctorate in aquatic and fishery sciences from the University of Washington; a master of science from Yale University in forest science; and an A.B. in economics and environmental science from Bowdoin College.
FISHERIES SCIENTIST
Karen Pope
Karen is a research aquatic ecologist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. She focuses on nature-based solutions to recover mountain freshwater systems and the biodiversity they support. Current research includes developing modeling approaches to find “lost meadows” in the mountains of California and conducting restoration experiments to examine meadow recovery processes under different landscape disturbance regimes and geological conditions. She incorporates her background and passion in amphibian conservation with studies to understand how amphibian populations are affected by aquatic restoration, pathogens, and climate change. For fun, Karen explores the beautiful beaches, rivers, and trails of Humboldt County with her wife Sherilyn and their dog, Jaz. She stays out of trouble by maintaining a year-round garden, hosting long distance cyclists through Warm Showers, and working on a forever-fixer-upper property in Willow Creek, CA. Karen holds a doctorate in ecology from University of California, Davis; a master of science in biology from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; and bachelor of arts in environmental science from Claremont McKenna College.
RESEARCH AQUATIC ECOLOGIST
Paul Powers
Paul is a fisheries biologist and project manager for the U.S. Forest Service’s Enterprise Programs. Paul was exposed to river restoration in 1995 and has been hooked ever since. During Paul’s career, his approach to river restoration has been shaped and changed by the people he works with, and critical evaluation of his earlier projects and their level of effectiveness. This has helped him learn to recognize degraded river-wetland corridors, their legacy impacts, and how they might have functioned prior to incision/channelization. Paul aims to always be learning, evolving, and applying new ideas to his next projects. He is a member of the United States Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region’s Restoration Assistance Team. He works with an incredible team of professionals, expanding the boundaries of process-based restoration, specializing in restoring the processes within depositional valleys to evolve towards the Stage 0 condition.
FISHERIES BIOLOGIST
Sabra Purdy
Sabra is an aquatic restoration ecologist specializing in meadow ecosystems in the Sierra Nevada. She has worked in hundreds of montane meadows throughout California and Nevada and has an extremely high tolerance for mosquitoes and an extremely low tolerance for instant oatmeal. Her fascination with meadow ecosystems began early in life as she tumbled around the mountains around Bridgeport, CA (known in the early days as Big Meadows) where her family has been since the 1860s. Working with renowned fish biologist Peter Moyle at the University of California, Davis Center for Watershed Science as an undergrad and masters student launched her deep dive into meadow research and a career path as an Apprentice Beaver. She splits her time between a slightly derelict, boat-access-only log cabin in the Sierras in the summertime where she first honed her beaver craft, and runs a rock climbing guide service with her husband in Joshua Tree National Park in the winter. She is a dedicated practitioner of process-based restoration techniques and is a connoisseur of woody debris jams and rootwads. She can usually be found in a meadow with her trusty partner, Willie the Jack Russell terrorist, and she invites you to come get muddy with her. She is learning the accordion and has aspirations of becoming a rodeo clown.
RESEARCH AQUATIC ECOLOGIST
Lenya Quinn-Davidson
Lenya Quinn-Davidson is a fire advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension in the North Coast of California. Lenya’s primary focus is on the human connection with fire, and increasing the use of prescribed fire for habitat restoration, invasive species control, and ecosystem and community resiliency. Lenya works on prescribed fire issues at various scales, including locally in Humboldt County, where she works with private landowners to bring fire back as a land management tool; at the state level, where she collaborates on policy and research related to prescribed fire, and helps inspire and support prescribed burn associations; and nationally, through her work and leadership on prescribed fire training exchanges (TREX). Lenya is passionate about using prescribed fire to inspire and empower people, from rural ranchers to agency leaders to young women pursuing careers in fire management, and everyone in between.
FIRE ADVISOR
Gordie Reeves
Gordie Reeves is an emeritus research fish biologist at the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station in Corvallis, OR, having retired in 2018 after 35 years in that position. His expertise is in the freshwater ecology of anadromous salmon and trout, conservation biology of those fish, and aquatic aspects of landscape ecology. He has studied the ecology of anadromous salmon and trout in the PNW, northern California, Idaho, and Alaska and fish ecology in New Zealand and New York. He has published more than 100 papers on the freshwater ecology of Pacific salmon and trout, effects of land management activities on the freshwater habitats of these fish, conservation plans, and dynamics of aquatic ecosystems in the PNW. He has led committees that developed and evaluated options for managing federal lands in the PNW and Alaska. He was also a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries technical recovery and biological review teams for Endangered Species Act-listed coho salmon in coastal Oregon and Environmental Protection Agency panel on Pebble Mine. His current work focuses on potential effects of climate change on Pacific salmon in Alaska and the PNW, and development of the Elliott State Research Forest in Oregon. Gordie holds a doctorate in fisheries science from Oregon State University; a master of science in fisheries science from Humboldt State University; and a bachelor of arts in biology from State University of New York, Oswego.
EMERITUS RESEARCH FISH BIOLOGIST
Brian and Pam Robertson
As a retired couple, Pam’s scientific background and Brian’s mechanical skills guided them toward their so-called “senior project,” which they found right in their own backyard in north Idaho. They enjoy traveling in their camper around the western United States and seeing nature’s wonders, from the mountains to the sea. Upon returning home from these trips, they came to realize that the 12-foot-deep ditch running through their property was not normal, and so their research began. After looking at many process-based solutions they decided that the best approach was to try and return it to a “stage 0” which, for their property, was a historic wetland. That meant finding a solution that would help raise the ground water level and hold water on the land instead of having it flush across the property boundary. They needed to slow and spread the water that was previously in a ditch for the last 90+ years. As they learned from a revegetation specialist, “If you don’t have water on your land, you have nothing.” Brian and Pam are sharing their story in hopes that others with broken watersheds will be encouraged to explore this journey for themselves.
LANDOWNERS
Jeremy Svehla
Jeremy is a registered civil engineer with more than 20 years of experience in the planning, permitting, design, and construction management of landscape-scale estuarine and riverine restoration projects. At GHD Jeremy leads multi-disciplinary teams of scientists, planners, and engineers to deliver multi-benefit projects related to flood management, habitat restoration, coastal resiliency, and public access. Jeremy enjoys working with diverse stakeholders to deliver multi-objective solutions at the landscape scale. As a testament to the quality of his service, Jeremy was named the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) San Francisco Section North Coast Branch Engineer of the Year in 2015.
CIVIL ENGINEER
Colin Thorne
Colin continues his 32-year run as Chair of Physical Geography at the University of Nottingham, England. Having researched, published, and consulted on river science for more than 50 years, Colin’s expertise lies in river hydrology, hydraulics, sediment dynamics, river restoration, and flood risk management. While primarily an academic performing original research, Colin has always considered the applicability and utility of his research and has advised many local agencies and national governments on water sustainability and flood resilience worldwide. His experience includes every continent except Antarctica. His contributions to applied and policy-related research have won awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers and the British Royal Geographical Society.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHER
Laura Van Riper
Laura has over 25 years of academic and on-the-ground experience in collaborative, community-based natural resource management and conflict resolution both within the United States and abroad. Laura received an undergraduate degree in Biology with a co-major in Human and Natural Ecology from Emory University in Atlanta in 1996. As an undergraduate, she spent a semester abroad in Kenya studying community-based resource management and exploring how ecological, economic, political, and socio-cultural factors influence natural resource management.
Laura received a MS (1998) and PhD (2003) in Forestry with an emphasis in Natural Resource Sociology from University of Montana, Missoula. Her dissertation was entitled “Can Agency-Led Initiatives Conform to Collaborative Principles?” and was focused on evaluating and refining the National Riparian Service Team’s (NRST) approach to meeting their mission of Healthy Streams through Bringing People Together.
SOCIAL SCIENTIST
Joe Wheaton
Dr. Wheaton is an associate professor at Utah State University and a fluvial geomorphologist. Dr. Wheaton has helped pioneer the development of new stream restoration approaches using beaver as a restoration agent, building large scale monitoring programs that leverage the latest technologies, and building new analytical software apps and simulation models to help scientists and practitioners alike. Dr. Wheaton’s work straddles the interface between physical and ecological sciences. Follow his work at: http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu
FLUVIAL GEOMORPHOLOGIST
Ellen Wohl
Ellen Wohl is a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on physical processes and forms in river channels and floodplains, and how these interact with biogeochemistry and ecological and human communities. She has conducted field work on every continent except Antarctica. Ellen received a doctorate in geosciences from the University of Arizona and a bachelor of science in geology from Arizona State University. When not doing science, she enjoys reading, hiking, paddling, snowshoeing, and watching movies.