The Salmon Recovery Funding Board’s Science Advisory Panel, previously called the Monitoring Panel, coordinates and prioritizes the ongoing assessment of habitat restoration efforts. The goals are to address the following questions developed by the board and the Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office:
- Are restoration treatments having the intended effects on local habitats and their use by salmon?
- Are some treatments more effective than others at achieving specific results?
- Can monitoring results be used to improve the design of future projects?
Panel Members
Bob Bilby, Retired
Dr. Bilby received his doctorate in ecology from Cornell University. He was previously the senior environmental science advisor for the Weyerhaeuser Corporation, managed the watershed program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, and had a faculty appointment at the University of Washington. In addition to his research and numerous publications, Dr. Bilby has been involved with science advisory panels in the Pacific Northwest since the 1990s.
Pete Bisson, Bisson Aquatic Consulting LLC
Dr. Bisson is the principal of Bisson Aquatic Consulting LLC. Previously, he worked at the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station where he studied fish populations, stream habitats and food webs, zones along waterways, and management issues related to aquatic ecological systems. He served as president of the American Fisheries Society’s North Pacific International Chapter (now the Washington-British Columbia Chapter) and president of its western division. Dr. Bisson received a bachelor of arts in environmental biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and master and doctorate degrees in fisheries from Oregon State University.
Ken Currens, Anadromous Analytics
Dr. Currens is a conservation biologist with thirty-five years of experience in conservation planning, population genetics, ecology, and monitoring. He owns Anadromous Analytics and previously worked with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. He has been on technical teams that developed recovery goals and plans for four different Endangered Species Act-listed species. He chaired Washington State’s independent science panel and led its involvement in the development of Washington’s Comprehensive Strategy for monitoring. He helped establish the Puget Sound Partnership Science Program, its development and reporting of socio-ecological vital signs, indicators, and targets for recovery, and the formation of the Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program. He served on the Hatchery Scientific Review Group, Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program Steering Committee, and other scientific panels and journal editorial boards. He has a doctorate from Oregon State University and has published articles on fishery ecology, genetics, phylogeography, and risk assessment.
Tracy Hillman, BioAnalysts, Inc.
Dr. Hillman is a senior ecologist and chief executive officer of BioAnalysts, Inc. With more than thirty-five years of experience, he has studied the effects of hatcheries and land-use activities such as forestry, grazing, mining, and hydroelectric development on streams and fish. He has authored more than two hundred scientific reports, including biological assessments and evaluations, recovery plans, and technical reports for habitat conservation plans and biological opinions. Dr. Hillman has several years of experience designing, implementing, and managing projects on fish and aquatic ecology. He is an expert in monitoring, hatchery evaluations, fish and habitat sampling, population dynamics, winter ecology, experimental design and statistical analysis, and animal behavior.
Jeanette Smith, Pacific Watershed Institute
Ms. Smith has more than twenty years of experience in watershed analysis and evaluation as an aquatic ecologist, with fifteen of those years specifically focused on salmonid habitat analysis, monitoring, and restoration. As principal scientist with Pacific Watershed Institute, she was part of the team that developed the first watershed assessment modules for the Washington Department of Natural Resources and went on to develop and implement further fisheries and riparian habitat modules for assessment protocols for tribal entities via the Environmental Protection Agency. Much of her restoration and assessment work focuses on helping clients coordinate their efforts across ownership boundaries. Ms. Smith holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a master of science degree from the School of Fisheries at the University of Washington, where her research focused on the interactions of riparian and stream habitat in relation to salmonid habitat structure and function.
Micah Wait, Wild Fish Conservancy
Mr. Wait, an ecologist, is the conservation director for the Wild Fish Conservancy. He has developed, managed, and monitored floodplain, estuary, and near-shore research and restoration projects for more than eighteen years at the conservancy. His work has included the restoration of the Dosewallips estuary and floodplain in Dosewallips State Park, the Stillwater floodplain restoration on the Snoqualmie River, and multi-year assessments of near-shore habitat use by juvenile salmonids in Admiralty Inlet, Grays Harbor, and Hood Canal.