About the Event

Our monthly Science on Tap event encourages intentional collaboration among our local natural resource advocates. We hope to build a platform for idea sharing to inspire generational resilience for regional environmental restoration. Along with this, we wanted to create a space to welcome people of all backgrounds into the environmental community and increase accessibility and access to knowledge in a fun and casual setting. 

We want to thank our supporters and partners for all their help in keeping this event going, especially the Mad River Brewery, Low and Slow BBQ, and Maddy Rifka who works for the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department and is a conservation filmmaker and photographer. We could not do it without them! 

August 2024 Event

Ravens and Plovers
Friday, August 30th talks start at 6:00pm
​Mad River Brewing Co
195 Taylor Way
Blue Lake, CA 95525

Janelle Chojnacki
Presentation Topic - Local Research, Ecology, and Fascinating Behaviors of Two Species at Odds.
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Janelle is a recent graduate from the Wildlife Department at Cal Poly Humboldt and has spent over a decade studying wildlife, mostly songbirds, and their ecosystems. She has studied Humboldt wildlife for over six years working in the redwoods, national forests, on beaches and farms, and for studying ravens specifically, parking lots. She's an avid birder, soccer player, whitewater kayaker, and gardener and loves being part of the incredible local outdoor and environmental community.

You can check out her work here!

Suggest a Speaker/Topic 
Each month we work to select speakers that represent a broad range of experiences and backgrounds. If there is a topic you want to hear about, someone you want to hear from, or if you yourself are interested in speaking at our event please let us know in the comment box below. 

July 2024 Event

Listening to the River
Restoration and Renewal on the North Coast

Sam Flanagan
Presentation Topic - Culverts = Problems: Floods, Failures and Fixes
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​Sam is a geologist with the Bureau of Land Management. He currently serves as the state lead for BLM Caliornia's Fish, Water and Riparian programs. Sam is involved with several stream restoration projects locally, as well as assisting in various roads removal and upgrading projects.

Wes Smith
Presentation Topic - If a tree falls in the creek and no one is listening, does it make an impact?

Wes is a geomorphologist and Registered Professional Geologist with California State Parks' North Coast Redwoods District and the Statewide Cannabis Watershed Protection Program. He works with a team of resource specialists, planners, and engineers on watershed restoration projects implementing river corridor restoration (e.g., large wood loading), road removal, and forest restoration. He also runs streamflow and bedload transport monitoring stations, survey large wood, river corridor morphology, landslides, and other activities in support of restoration actions. Wes spends his free time playing in the ocean and rivers. 

Past Speakers 

June 2024 Event

Innovative Strategies in Forestry and Restoration

Lucy Kerhoulas 
Presentation Topic - Botanically Crafty: Tricks of the Trade for Tall Trees

​Lucy grew up in San Rafael, CA and moved to Humboldt in 2003 to study Botany. After her BS, she stayed on at Humboldt to earn her master's degree studying redwood tree physiology. She then moved to Flagstaff, AZ to study ponderosa pines for her PhD work. In 2013, she was thrilled to get a job back at Humboldt and settle down here to live on the North Coast. Lucy is now an Associate Professor of Forest Physiology in the Forestry, Fire, and Rangeland Management Department at Cal Poly Humboldt. She enjoys teaching classes and researching various aspects of this amazing region. When not doing science, Lucy loves being mellow with her family. You can also check out Lucy's website!

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Lathrop Leonard
Presentation Topic - Feel Good Forestry and Restoration Challenges

​Lathrop has worked for California State Parks for 20 years where his primary focus has been restoring second-growth forests and conducting prescribed burns. He is a Registered Professional Forester and a type 2 Burn Boss. He currently runs the vegetation management program for the State Parks’ North Coast Redwoods District. Prior to Parks, he did similar work in Western Washington and spent 2 years in Peace Corps, Kenya.

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May 2024 Event

MEGA Restoration on the Lower Eel River

Doreen Hansen
Presentation Topic - Salt River Restoration: Will Fish and Wildlife Come if You Build It?
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​Doreen has been working in the restoration arena for 16 years and has been with the Humboldt County Resource Conservation District for nearly 13 years. She coordinates project development, planning, environmental compliance, construction, and monitoring on large watershed scale restoration projects.

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Jeremy Svehla
Presentation Topic - Landscape-Scale Ecosystem Restoration in the Lower Eel River
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Jeremy is a registered civil engineer with over 20 years of experience in the planning, permitting, design, and construction management of landscape-scale estuarine and riverine restoration projects. As a Project Director 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.

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April 2024 Event

Wild Foraging on the North Coast 

Allison Poklemba
​Presentation Topic - Wild Foods of the Forests, Fields, and Tide Pools

Have you made tea from the conifers in your neighborhood or pesto from the "weeds" in your lawn? How about pickles from seaweed you found at the beach? An abundance of tasty, nutritious, and medicinal plants (and algae!) surround us. Allison Poklemba is a teacher, botanist, herbalist, environmental educator, Co-director of Dandelion Herbal Center, Co-founder of Backcountry Press, artist, mother, friend, and always curious student of nature. She has been concocting potions since childhood and teaching about plants (and seaweed!) since 2002.

You can follow her work on Instagram @backcountrypress, @dandelionherbalcenter, or on her personal account @earth2allison. Additional information can be found on her websites backcountrypress.com and dandelionherb.com. 

March 2024 Event

Mapping Land and Sea for Conservation 

Featured Speakers

Felicity Cross
​Presentation Topic - Remote Sensing: Tools for Topographic Monitoring and River Restoration

Felicity is from Blue Lake and is a Yurok Tribal member. She graduated from Humboldt State University with a B.S. in Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE) and a minor in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). She is employed as a Restoration Engineer and UAV pilot for the Yurok Tribe’s Technical Services Program. Felicity collects and processes large Lidar and imagery data sets to aid in river restoration projects throughout Northern California.

Greta Goshorn
​Presentation Topic - A Window to the Seafloor: Using ROVs to monitor deep-water ecosystems
​
Greta is a Biologist and Outreach Coordinator with Marine Applied Research & Exploration (MARE). She has been working and playing above and below California’s coastal waters for over a decade in her biologist role at MARE and as a faculty SCUBA instructor at Cal Poly Humboldt. Raised in Colorado, Greta is a formerly landlocked ocean enthusiast and holds a B.S. in biology with a marine emphasis from Humboldt. Her work at MARE has spanned a variety of projects, including both baseline and long-term monitoring of California’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

You can check out more work completed by the Marine Applied Research and Exploration (MARE) on their website or follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

February 2024 Event

Beavers!
Rebuilding Nature’s Balance​  

Featured Speakers

Eli Asarian
​Presentation Topic: North Coast Beavers in Motion: Past, Present, and Future

Eli is an aquatic ecologist/hydrologist at Eureka-based consulting firm Riverbend Sciences. He has studied river flow, water quality, salmon, and beavers in local rivers for over 20 years. Learn more about Eli's work on his website!

Garrett Costello
Presentation Topic: Bringing Back the Beaver
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Garrett is a restoration practitioner that has been designing and implementing low-tech process based restoration with his team at Symbiotic Restoration since 2017: nudging landscapes toward health and preparing them for beaver reintroduction. You can follow Symbiotic Restoration's great work on Facebook and Instagram or check out their website to learn more about their process!

January 2024 Event

Wild Waters Film Festival   
Dive into a year of celebration at the 1st Anniversary of Science on Tap! Join us for a captivating mini-film festival highlighting the voices of aquatic conservation.

​​ November 2023 Event

Fish and Frogs 
Reversing widespread legacy impacts of introduced sportfish on declining amphibians in glacial lake basins of the Klamath Mountains.

Featured Speakers

Justin Garwood
​
Justin is an Environmental Scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Northern Region Fisheries where he has worked on landscape-level population monitoring for coastal salmonids and Klamath Range amphibians over the past 20 years to inform species recovery. He grew up in Trinity County and holds a B.S. in Fisheries and an M.S. in Wildlife at Cal Poly Humboldt. Justin is co-editor of the book: The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History.
Justins Research: ResearchGate

Braden Herman
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Braden is an Environmental Scientist with CDFW working in the Klamath Mountains of Northern California. He is from Virginia and obtained his M.S. from Humboldt with a focus in Fisheries Biology. His research interests include applications of eDNA and meta-population genetics for monitoring and managing sensitive species, balancing competing interests of fish, wildlife, and human use in wilderness areas, and understanding how differences in local environments impact aquatic species populations. In his spare time, you can find him gardening, rafting, foraging, fishing, and water fowling on the North Coast. You can find Braden on Instagram @da_ginge10.
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Seaweed Farming 

​​ October 2023 Event

Featured Speaker

Leslie Booher
Presentation Topic: Seaweed Farming in California: Restoration, Remediation, and Regenerative Food Systems

Leslie the is co-founder of Sunken Seaweed, a sea-farming company founded in 2017, and she has been involved with ocean conservation and aquaculture for over a decade. A born-and-raised Californian, she has a keen interest in regenerative food systems, marine ecology, and community outreach. Leslie holds a bachelor of science degree in marine biology from Cal Poly Humboldt, serves as Development Director for the California Seaweed Festival, and is a mentor for several seaweed startups throughout the state.

You can find her on Instagram @sunkenseaweedfarm or you can visit her website www.sunkenseaweed.com to learn more!

​​ September 2023 Event

Marine Mammals 

Featured Speaker

Dr. Dawn Goley
Presentation Topic: Marine Mammal Research on the North Coast – Long Term Studies and Shared Community Stewardship
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Local marine mammals depend on nearshore waters, river mouths, bays and shorelines to feed, breed and rest. Dr. Goley and her students have been studying whales, seals and sea lions along the north coast since she arrived at Cal Poly Humboldt in 1996 as part of the Marine Mammal Education and Research Program (MMERP). Long-term monitoring of marine mammals provides valuable insights into their behavior and habitat use, which is essential for assessing the impacts of climate change and human
activities. Dawn will highlight a few of these long-term projects in her talk. In particular, she will summarize MMERP’s collaborative research on a newly emerging elephant seal colony in the King Range National Conservation Area. Finally, she will summarize recent findings from the Cal Poly Humboldt Marine Mammal Stranding Program highlighting shared community stewardship effort developed with local tribal partners and community groups from northern Mendocino to the Oregon border. You can see more of Dr. Goley's work on her website.

​​August 2023 Event

Rising Tides and Restoration

Featured Speakers

Jason "Jay" R. Patton, Ph.D.
Presentation Topic: Sea-Level Rise along Coastal Northern California: How Tectonics Influences Local Sea-Level Rise​

​Dr. Jason R. Patton is an Engineering Geologist with the California Geological Survey
who has worked studying seismic and tsunami hazards using geospatial
analyses for over 2 decades. Dr. Patton has experience studying active tectonics
both onshore and offshore for fault systems in Cascadia, New Zealand, Lesser Antilles,
San Andreas and sibling systems, as well as the Basin and Range. He utilizes novel
paleoseismological methods and incorporating transdisciplinary techniques.
His recent work includes applying geodetic analysis to locate active faults and mapping
of Quaternary stratigraphic units to constrain late Pleistocene slip rates for active faults.
Dr. Patton prepared the first tsunami hazard maps for northern California in 2006 and
continues this work as part of the Seismic Hazards Mapping Program, Tsunami Unit. He
has an educational outreach program where he voluntarily prepares earthquake
reports for the public at earthjay.com.

Marisa McGrew 
Presentation Topic: Ocean Ranch Restoration & Monitoring Efforts

Marisa has been swimming, boating, and river skating in the Eel River basin for four years now. Her work in the Eel has revolved around installing large wood features, surveying for juvenile and adult salmonids, Sacramento pikeminnow suppression, Pacific lamprey monitoring, and fisheries monitoring at Ocean Ranch. Currently she continues to do all this in her position working for the Wiyot Tribe in fisheries and natural resources in Wiyot ancestral territory from Bear River Ridge to Little River.

Learn more about the Wiyot Tribe and the work they do here!

​​July 2023 Event

Intertidal Ecosystems

Featured Speaker

Rosa Laucci
Presentation Topic: Tolowa Dee-ni’: First Stewards

​Rosa is the Marine Division Manager and Marine Biologist for the Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation in northern coastal California.  She received her Masters of Science in marine biology from Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida.  Upon her arrival to Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation in 2012, she established the Marine Division in the Tribe’s Natural Resource department and has managed it successfully ever since. In her program she monitors and conducts research on a variety of cultural keystone marine species, including surf smelt, night smelt, surfperch, mussels, clams, sea stars, seaweeds and plankton.  She also monitors the health of intertidal habitats, the status of biotoxin levels in shellfish, the effects of sea level rise on intertidal species through 3D mapping of the habitat, human use of Tolowa beaches, and was instrumental in establishing the Tribe’s first laws of marine resource management.  She has also just started a program that trains tribal citizens in traditional stewardship techniques that will prepare them to take care of their ancestral territory.  All of her efforts have established a strong foundation for resource management for the Tribe that will ensure conservation and sustainability for generations to come.

​June 2023 Event

Soils!

Featured Speakers ​​​

Susan Marshall
Presentation Topic: Soil Science Evolves!

Susan is an Emeritus Professor of Rangeland Resources and Wildland Soils at Cal Poly Humboldt. She is also a CA Certified Rangeland Manager (#78) Panel Chair. Her research interest include soil physical properties and implications for plant production and survival, improved techniques for identifying Phytophthora in soils, and the comparison of methods to detect available phosphorus in volcanic soils. Susans hobbies include gardening, crochet, reading, and travel.

Kaileigh Vincent-Frazier
Presentation Topic: Listening to and Learning from Soil: a glimpse into the relationships between soil, our food, and us

​Kaileigh is a research engineer by-day and small-scale farmer. She thoughtfully tends land along the North Fork of Elk River using regenerative earth practices focused on building biodiversity and healthy ecosystems above and below ground, growing nourishing foods, and raising happy and healthy animals. ​​

This months sponsor

May 2023 Event

Ancient Fish
The wonder of lamprey and sturgeon

Featured Speakers ​​

Keith Parker

Keith is a Senior Fisheries Biologist for his Tribe, the Yurok Tribe, where he co-stewards the lower 44-miles of the Klamath River, a lecturer at Cal Poly Humboldt, and chairs two graduate student committees at UC San Diego - SCRIPPS Institution of Oceanography.  Keith’s graduate school research focused on Klamath River Pacific lamprey.  Using advanced genetic tools, he discovered two new sub-species of lamprey and used Yurok language words to name them in peer-reviewed publications.  Keith also co-authored the recent locally published book The Klamath Mountains – A Natural History (Backcountry Press).  He is also a National Science Foundation GRFP fellow and a Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation lifetime fellow.

Bill Pinnix

Bill has worked studying fishes in the Humboldt Bay area for over 30 years. His research has focused on juvenile fish use of aquatic habitats, effects of large-scale climate forcing and the resulting impacts on fish populations, and estuary and nearshore habitat restoration.

April 2023 Event

Fish and Geology 
How the geology of the Pacific Northwest has influenced salmon evolution and habitat distribution

Friday, April 21st talks start at 6:00pm

Featured Speaker

Tom Leroy

Tom is an engineering geologist and project manager at Pacific Watershed Associates. He has been conducting watershed restoration in support of salmon recovery for almost 20 years. His interests include multi-disciplinary team building to support aquatic habitat restoration and process-based restoration approaches. His background in geology/geomorphology allows him to bring a unique skill set to restoration design teams. Toms current interests, which bring distinctive contributions to aquatic restoration design projects include: tectonic contributions to observed sea-level, regional landscape evolution and its role in driving the distribution of high quality salmon habitat throughout Northern California, characterizing historic watershed disturbances and their impacts on current watershed processes, and how dysfunctional processes impact current stream channel geomorphology and site specific restoration designs.

March 2023 Event

Condors
California Condor Recovery in Northern California: Prey-go-neesh flies free 

Friday, March 31st talks start at 6:00pm

Three of the condors in the Yurok Tirbe's Northern California Condor Restoration Program.

After a 14-year journey the Yurok Tribe, in partnership with Redwood National and State Parks, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and many others, has successfully brought Prey-go-neesh (California condor) home to the Pacific Northwest. This restores a critical member of our ecological community, promotes reconnection to this amazing species, and cultural revitalization for the tribal people who have long lived in relationship with him. Special guests Tiana Williams-Claussen, director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, and Chris West, the Northern California Condor Restoration Program Manager, will provide a brief introduction to the incredible Prey-go-neesh and discuss the traditional paradigm guiding the Yurok Tribe's efforts to bring them home to northern California and the Pacific Northwest. They will discuss the management approach the Yurok Tribe is taking for reintegrating condors into the region and provide an update on how the newly released population is doing, flying free in Northern California once again.

​For more information visit the Yurok Tribe website and to keep up-to-date on the project by following Northern California Condor Restoration Program on Facebook or follow @YurokCondors on Twitter.
 

Featured Speakers 

Tiana Williams-Claussen

Tiana is the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department Director and member of the Yurok Tribe. She comes from the village of Wehl-kwew’ on the Yurok Reservation. She received her BA in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University, returned to serve her tribe, and is currently pursuing a Master of Sciences in Natural Resources from California
Polytechnic State University, Humboldt. She was instrumental to the formation of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, she currently serves as Department Director.

Chris West

Chris is the Northern California Condor Program Manager. Chris began working with California condors as an intern with the Ventana Wildlife Society in 1999; leading to his Masters research at Humboldt State University investigating condor vigilance behavior while feeding. He began working for the Yurok Tribe in 2008, working to set up the first reintroduction site in the Pacific Northwest and is now the Manager of the Northern California Condor Restoration Program.

February 2023 Event

Fish and Fire

Friday, February 24th talks start at 6:00pm
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Featured Speakers

Lenya Quinn-Davidson
Presentation Topic: "California’s Fire Movement: Burning from the bottom up"
​
Lenya Quinn-Davidson is a Fire Advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension. Lenya’s focus is on the human connection with fire, and empowering the use of prescribed fire and cultural burning for ecosystem and community resiliency. Lenya works at various scales, including locally with private landowners to bring fire back as a tool; at the state level, where she collaborates on policy, research, and community-based burning; and nationally, through her leadership on prescribed fire training exchanges. Lenya is passionate about using fire to inspire and empower people, from ranchers and cultural practitioners to agency leaders and young women, and everyone in between.

Toz Soto
Presentation Topic: ​"Restoring Fish, Fire, and Water in the Klamath River"

Toz Soto is a Fisheries Biologist and the Fisheries Program Manager for the Karuk Tribe. He has worked in the Klamath River Basin since 1997. Toz works to monitor fish populations in the Klamath River, study impacts to their success, and design efforts to improve their habitat. Toz was on the frontlines of the August 2022/McKinney Fire fish kill, and is working to understand how the increasing severity and extent of fires impacts fish. 

​January 2023 Event 

Making Dams and Breaking Dams

Friday, January 27th talks start at 6:00pm
​

Featured Speakers 

Brook Thompson​ 
Presentation Topic: "Finally! Klamath Dam Removal Becomes a Reality! - A talk with a local tribal member and engineer"

Brook Thompson (She/Her/They), the granddaughter of 'aawokw Archie Thompson, is a Yurok (enrolled) and Karuk Native. Growing up, she lived and fished on the same land that her ancestors have been on since time immemorial.  Brook fights for water and Native American rights through speaking to groups and frontline activism. She has been an intern for the City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in D.C., the California State Water Resource Control Board Office of Information Management, and Save California Salmon. Currently, she is a restoration engineer for the Yurok Tribe’s fisheries program. In 2017 Brook was awarded the American Indian Graduate Center’s Undergraduate student of the year, and in 2020 she won Unity’s 25 Under 25 award. Brook is a graduate of Portland State University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a minor in Political Science, and an M.S. in environmental engineering at Stanford University with a focus on water resources, and is now attending UC Santa Cruz for a Ph.D. in Environmental Science where she studies how Indigenous Knowledge can be better implemented into California water policy. Thompson’s goal is to bring together water rights and Native American knowledge through engineering, public policy, and social action.

Garrett Costello
Presentation Topic: "Building Dams-Partnering with beavers for restoration success" 

Humboldt Alumni Garrett Costello of Symbiotic Restoration works to implement ecological restoration projects by constructing beaver dam analogs, a process-based restoration technique. Since starting Symbiotic Restoration in 2018, Garrett has designed, planned, and constructed large and small-scale low-tech process-based projects across California. With shovel in hand, Costello hopes that habitat restoration can bring beavers back to California watersheds and return the control of dams to nature's greatest engineers.

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