INSTRUCTORS

The course is taught by leading researchers and practitioners, who are applied scientists focusing on bringing science together with practice to solve typical environmental problems. The course brings cutting-edge expertise and methods to bear on planning, design, and evaluation of river restoration. Collectively, the instructors have broad experience on rivers in North America, Europe, and Asia, including analysis and project design in the Lake Tahoe Basin and throughout California.

Professor of Environmental Planning and Geography at UC Berkeley, with experience in planning and evaluating river restoration, sediment management in regulated rivers, and habitat needs for spawning by salmon and trout.  [more info]

Professor of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University, an authority on sediment transport and integration of fluvial geomorphic analyses in river restoration design and planning, leader of the Stream Restoration program at the National Center of Earth-Surface Dynamics. [more info]

Peter also leads the Sediment Transport in Stream Assessment and Design course held in Logan, Utah, which will take place from July 29th to August 2nd, 2024. This course is intended for those who wish to understand and apply the principles of sediment transport to alluvial channel assessment and design. Open channel flow and sediment transport principles are combined with watershed-scale, hydrologic, and sediment source analysis to place channel assessment and design in the appropriate context. Tools for estimating sediment supply at the watershed to reach the level are applied in-class exercises. The course balances advanced reading, lectures, fieldwork, and hands-on exercises for estimating sediment supply, calculating sediment transport rates, and forecasting channel response to water and sediment supply. This course builds upon the principles of river geomorphology taught in the Sagehen course; you can find more info here.

Professor of Biological Science at Cañada College, Ph.D from UC Berkeley.  Research focus on hydrologic and hydraulic controls of food webs, carbon and nutrient pathways, and the influence of food web composition on ecosystem processes.

Geomorphologist, a leading designer of stream restoration projects, who has conducted analyses of stream processes and implemented successful stream and meadow restoration projects throughout the Lake Tahoe basin, the Russian River, and elsewhere.

Principal of McBain Associates, has led restoration efforts on large and small rivers in California and elsewhere in western North America, including the Trinity, San Joaquin, and Tuolumne Rivers, emphasizing restoration of geomorphic and ecological processes.

Principal and founder of FlowWest in Oakland, CA, Mark is a civil engineer and geomorphologist who has led major studies of sediment transport and channel geomorphology on the Klamath River and designed restoration projects on urban streams across the US, including the Sacramento River and Silver and Deer Creeks, California, Trinity River, Texas, and Four-Mile Run, Virginia. Mark also serves on Technical Advisory Committees for the San Joaquin River Restoration Program and the Cache Creek Improvement Program, and is a leader in the application of advanced “Big Data” analytics and visualization tools to water resources and aquatic ecosystem management.

Principal hydrologist/geologist at Balance Hydrologics, Truckee. Stream gauge, sediment sampling, and surveying extraordinaire.

Kristen is an East Bay ecologist and Master of Forestry with 14 years of experience in ecological research and restoration. A student of Professor Joe McBride, Kristen received her MF in 2013. Her thesis focused on the use of reference information in riparian forests and its applicability to restoration. Kristen is an Ecologist with the East Bay Regional Park District serving as the project coordinator for the District’s Fuels Management Program. Her favorite fish is Cottus asper.

Jen is a PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley studying the connections between geomorphology, hydrology and ecology of meadows in the Sierra Nevada.  Her research includes a review of eight 'Pond and Plug' meadow restoration projects across the region.

Fluid Concepts, design of Wingfield Park in Reno, among other whitewater parks. Owner of Reno Fly Shop.

Geologist, Desert Research Institute. Expert on geology of the Tahoe region.

Smokey is a fluvial geomorphologist at McBain Associates of Arcata, California. His areas of specialty are stream restoration and geomorphic monitoring with an emphasis on sediment-related issues. He has helped design numerous restoration projects including several on the lower Truckee River.

Hannah is a recent graduate of the MLA-EP program at UC Berkeley, where she joined Matt Kondolf's RiverLab and focused on geomorphology and river restoration. Prior to her graduate studies, she earned her Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University and worked for four years as an assistant project manager in the construction of large site development projects in the Bay Area. She now works as a Landscape Designer/Engineering Specialist at Restoration Design Group in Berkeley.

Ph.D., Director of Natural Resources Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians 

Carrie has designed and directed research to fill critical data gaps around the impacts of the California Gold Rush on water quality, hydraulic mine remediation, meadow restoration and forest health since 2007. She earned her Ph.D. in Forest Resources and Hydrology in 2004 from the University of Washington. Dr. Monohan is a Lecturer at California State University Chico where she teaches courses in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department. Her research efforts include; sediment and mercury loads from hydraulic mines, groundwater hydrology in meadows and process based restoration principals for degraded lands. She is working on an inventory of hydraulic mines and an effort to rank and prioritize mines for remediation, carbon sequestration opportunities associated with mine restoration with biochar, high elevation wet meadow restoration, and volitional fish passage opportunities in the Sierra Nevada. 

Scott Carroll is a Senior Environmental Planner with the California Tahoe Conservancy, where he has been planning and implementing river and wetland projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin for over 20 years.  He has a Masters in Watershed Management from Humboldt State University.

Christoffer Sega is the Stewardship Manager for the Nature Conservancy’s Nevada Field Office where he supports staff and partners working to preserve and restore Conservation lands in preserves in Nevada and at Independence Lake in Northern California. Chris Started working at TNC in 2007 as a restoration specialist and preserve manager on the Conservancy’s Truckee River Project.  Working in that capacity, he managed the construction and maintenance of 7 restoration projects on the Truckee river that encompass 11 miles of river and floodplain restoration.  Prior to this, he worked at the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas as a research assistant and field manager.  He is an Alumni of the University of Nevada Reno and has been engaged in the natural resources management since graduating in 1997.  

Giovanni De Cesare is a hydraulic engineer who applies fluvial geomorphology and hydraulics to river restoration. He teaches fluvial hydraulics, river eco-morphology, and hydraulic structures at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he also serves as the operational head of the Platform of hydraulic constructions PL-LCH. He has over 30 years of experience in physical and numerical modelling in all domains of hydraulic structures, fluvial hydraulics, morphology and river restoration. Giovanni serves as president of Swiss Association for Soil Bioengineering, Council member of the Swiss Natural disaster Prevention Foundation, Board member of the Swiss Association for Water Management, and member of the Swiss Commission for Flood Protection KOHS.