How did I get here?

I have always been curious about the impact humans have on our environment. Running through the redwoods and oak woodlands of northern California as a kid, I believed the world would always be like it was. I spent the summer of 1973 sleeping in a tent on the quiet African savannas beneath the bright Kenyan skies surrounded by lions, elephants, wildebeest and giraffes. But upon our return to California, I began to develop an awareness of the difference between the vast emptiness of east Africa and the increasingly suburban nature of my rapidly developing surroundings.

I ended up studying forestry as an undergrad because although I loved seeing the wildlife in east Africa, forests were everywhere and I loved being in the woods. I also believed it gave me a number of options within the major so I could find some other facet of forestry to do if it turned out I didn't want to manage timber or wildlife habitat. Early on as a forester, I realized I was actually more interested in evaluating the effects of logging on the environment than I was on becoming an actual forester. I learned how to use GIS and make maps of old growth forest and wetlands from satellite data and spent a decade providing data and decision-making tools to help federal and state agencies and private landowners make better land management decisions. Whether searching for old growth in a sea of clearcuts in the Pacific Northwest, or assessing the value thousands of linear feet of stream for another mountaintop mine in the ancient and biodiverse forests of Central Appalachia, I love being outside and have made it my life's purpose to study the impacts humans have on the environment and protect and/or restore impacted watersheds to as close to their "natural" state as possible.

Twenty-five years in the field mapping old growth forest and reviewing permits to fill thousands of feet of headwater streams have focused my interests and research on assessing and understanding the interrelated effects of large scale human disturbances on watershed integrity. The more we understand the effects of disturbance on stream flow and water quality, the better we can apply this knowledge to maintain and, where we can, restore natural flow regimes, water chemistry and a healthy ecosystem.

After 13 years as a regulator, including nine years reviewing and enforcing Clean Water Act permit applications for mountaintop mine and valley fill activities, I realized I wanted a better understanding the effects of these practices on water chemistry and streamflow generation in order to do my job effectively. That's how I found myself in grad school again, this time to investigate a suite have been effective in maintaining water chemistry below mountaintop and valley fill mine sites.