Featured Scientist

1994, Henkel performing work with Bald Eagles


1995, Henkel performing work with Tufted Puffins


2010, Henkel performing research on Western Grebes


2010, Henkel works on Rhinoceros Auklet restoration project

Laird Henkel is a senior environmental scientist-supervisor with CDFW’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), where he serves as director of the department’s Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center (MWVCRC) in Santa Cruz. Laird joined OSPR in 2007 as the statewide oiled wildlife response coordinator. He moved to his current job in 2010. The MWVCRC is the primary care facility for oiled sea otters and serves as a center for research on the health and pathology of sea otters and marine birds.

Laird grew up in Connecticut and moved to California to attend UC Santa Cruz, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology. He subsequently earned a master’s degree in marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where he studied the spatial distribution of marine birds on Monterey Bay. Prior to working for CDFW, Laird worked on a variety of research projects with birds including marbled murrelets and snowy plovers.

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

I’ve always been inquisitive, and enjoyed science books as a kid. I also spent quite of bit of time with other kids checking out critters living under rocks, and – probably like most kids – thought  Jacques Cousteau (a famous marine explorer in the 70s and 80s) was awesome. But when I left for UC Santa Cruz, I was not necessarily planning on studying science. A variety of factors led me to major in biology and once I was in, I was hooked. 

What got you interested in working with wildlife?

In college, I took some great natural history classes, including one working with elephant seals at Año Nuevo State Reserve, and an ornithology class, which led me to become fascinated with the lives of animals. The summer before my senior year, I assisted on a project assessing mountain goat behavior related to population size in Idaho, and right after graduating I had a great volunteer job working on a remote island in Alaska monitoring diet and growth of tufted puffins. Field biology was fascinating and a great way to see some amazing places, from Alaska to Maine to Costa Rica.

Who or what brought you to CDFW? What inspires you to stay?

I first worked for CDFW as a scientific aid for Senior Environmental Scientist Rob Titus in 1995, working with winter-run Chinook salmon. That was a short-term position. Then I moved back to Santa Cruz and had a variety of other field jobs with birds, earned a master’s degree in marine science, and worked at an environmental consulting firm for several years. One of my other jobs included conducting aerial surveys for marine birds and mammals under a contract with OSPR. Through that work, OSPR seemed like a great place to work and was in the right place at the right time when my current dream job opened up. I feel lucky to have it. I am inspired to stay because of the great work we do!

What is a typical day like for you at work?

I typically deal with various logistical issues—I’m responsible for my staff and for a complicated (and aging) facility. The facility is set up for oiled wildlife response including pools plumbed with seawater and a state-of-the-art necropsy facility (necropsies are the equivalent of autopsies but on non-human animals—here mostly sea otters and seabirds, but we’ve had an occasional great white shark or leatherback sea turtle). But all this logistical work can be rewarding. Planning projects and providing strategic vision for staff allows our team to respond effectively to oil spills, and allows my staff to work on exciting scientific work investigating health of sea otters and seabirds.

What is the most rewarding project that you’ve worked on for CDFW?

Our primary role at OSPR is response to oil spills and although we never look forward to them, the experience can be rewarding (albeit stressful). Spill response allows an opportunity to put our training to use and have a positive influence, hopefully making a bad situation better. My first big spill response was the Cosco Busan incident in the San Francisco Bay in 2007, only a month after I started. That was a great learning experience for me. Since then there have only been a few spills affecting substantial numbers of animals, most recently the Refugio spill in Santa Barbara in 2015. All of this work on oil spills is rewarding, especially to see cleaned and rehabilitated wildlife released back into the wild.

If you had free rein and unlimited funding, what scientific project would you most like to do?

There are many projects that would be intellectually stimulating and fun, and also a lot of conservation projects in desperate need of funding. But I think one way to have a big influence on recovery of threatened species would be to put more funding into investigating ways to minimize the impacts of corvids (ravens, crows and jays) on threatened species. Through our work on oil spill restoration projects, I’ve seen corvid impacts (corvids eating eggs or young of threatened species) as a common theme limiting recovery of multiple species. Corvids are very smart birds and they’ve done a great job of adapting to and benefiting from humans. Because humans are responsible for huge population increases in corvids, it would be great if we could do something to minimize their impacts on other species. But this is not an easy issue to address – thus the need for more funding.

What is the best thing about being a wildlife scientist?

Discovery. There will always be new things to discover, and that is the whole point of science. 

The world of science and managing natural resources is often confusing or mysterious for the average person. What is it about the work you do that you’d most like us to know?

The natural world is indeed so mysterious! But I guess one thing for non-scientists would be not to let numbers and mathematical formulas scare you. Ecology as a science has become more mathematical over the years, and even we scientists have a hard time keeping up with new statistical methods and fancy mathematical models. Scientific studies should still be done in a way that makes sense – if you can see past the formulas and understand how a study or an experiment was set up, it is usually not too difficult to understand the results.

Is there a preconception about scientists you would like to dispel?

I think one misconception might be that scientists have all the answers. Any good scientist will tell you there is still a lot to learn, and the better you are at science, the more likely you are to acknowledge that we are not sure about a lot of things. Uncertainty is a big part of science, and properly assessing that uncertainty is important. (To be clear: global climate change is NOT something with a lot of uncertainty).

Any advice for people considering careers in science or natural resources?

Be curious and have an open mind. Science is all about not having pre-conceived biases, and being willing to accept findings that may be surprising or even in conflict with previously-held beliefs.

Photos courtesy of Laird Henkel. Top Photo: In 2010, Laird Henkel participated in the Deepwater spill response.

Wildlife training with a mountain lion at CDFW’s Wildlife Investigations Lab outside of Sacramento.


John climbs redwoods at Hendy Woods State Park in Mendocino County.


Wildlife biologist by day, rock guitarist by night in the band Sticky’s Backyard.


John with wife, Trish, and daughters Phoenix (left) and Sequoia.


Mountain biker John near Lake Almanor.


Snowboarders’ expert runs have the best views

Wildlife biologist John Krause is a 17-year CDFW employee who serves Marin, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. In the heavily populated San Francisco Bay Area, human-wildlife issues often dominate his workday. But his professional pride and joy is the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve near Hayward. John has spent his career overseeing the restoration of 6,400 acres of commercial salt ponds to tidal marsh and other natural habitat while creating access and recreational opportunities for the public.

A native of Carmichael in Sacramento County, John holds a degree in terrestrial plant ecology from UC Davis.

Do you find it ironic that you are a wildlife biologist working in some of the most urbanized communities in the country?

Sure, at times. When I took this job back in 2001, I did not really know how much of the human dimension aspect of things I would be getting into. It’s a regular part of the job, dealing with the public about everything from “Where can I go hunt?” to “I’ve got a problem with a coyote in my backyard.”

How much of your time is spent dealing with human-wildlife conflicts?

It’s every day. A lot of it is depredation-related calls from the public – wild pigs, wild turkeys in the urban-wildlife interface, occasionally deer out in the vineyards causing property damage. There are regular calls about coyotes being perceived as a public safety risk, though coyotes are really more of a risk to domestic animals like cats, small dogs and backyard, free-ranging chickens. The number of these incidents is definitely increasing, primarily because we have open space immediately adjacent to these metropolitan areas. Many of these communities are tucked into the natural landscape so they are inextricably linked to the landscape.

Many people today just don’t have the background or understanding about the behavior of these wild critters. Our general message is to leave these critters be. But when wildlife becomes a nuisance, then it’s time to step up and make an effort to discourage that behavior. That might mean building a coop for your free-range chickens, hazing a coyote out of a neighborhood or thinking carefully about the kind of landscaping you are installing in your yard.

What prompted your interest in science and the outdoors?

I grew up on the American River. I had friends who lived right out there on the bluffs so as kids we were out there all the time biking around and hiking around, swimming in the river, going fishing.

I was a pre-med student originally. I thought I was going to go to professional school to be a dentist. My motivation as a kid was “I’ll be a dentist and I’ll be rich!” But I realized over time that wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to spend my life looking into people’s mouths. So I got into this career by thinking about what it was that I really cared about.

What brought you to CDFW and what inspires you to stay?

I was a biologist for Caltrans for two and a half years before I came to the department. I learned a lot at Caltrans – really useful stuff like reading plans and working with engineers that has served me well over the years with the wetland restoration work I do now. I was out on construction jobs in the Santa Cruz Mountains and there were all these issues coming up with listed species. It was great training. But ultimately, I wanted to work for a conservation agency instead of doing conservation work for a transportation agency.

This job was advertised and I was all over it. Counting deer and elk by helicopter or by driving out to remote areas to survey? Working in and managing wetlands for waterfowl and shorebirds or endangered mice? Counting rails by airboat? Yes, please! The work is really diverse, and I think that’s what keeps me so engaged. And I have this really cool project I get to work on – my legacy project, Eden Landing. I will hand it off to somebody else at some point and they will have a whole career finishing it off.

What is special about the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve?

It’s part of the largest wetlands restoration on the West Coast – 15,100 acres in the South Bay. It’s what I studied in college. Landscape change over time. We are restoring salt ponds to tidal marshes, keeping some managed ponds that birds have come to rely upon. It’s a 50-year project that started in 2003. I’m the guy on the ground working with all of our contractors and partners.

The water birds are the real stars of the show out there. They are the poster species for nature. We manage the ponds for the different seasons and bird species. I will go out and take a dry pond that has been set aside for snowy plover nesting in the spring, flood it up in late summer and watch the bugs come back. And a couple of weeks later the shorebirds show up and are taking advantage of it. And then later in the year we transition from shorebirds to ducks and we start flooding it up a little more for ducks. We’ve got shallower ponds for the dabblers and deeper water for the diving ducks.

Is there public access for birders and others at Eden Landing?

Absolutely. Public access is part of our mandate. We’ve got 4 miles of trails. We’ve got anglers out there. We’ve got kayaking and a kayak launch out there. I started the waterfowl hunting program there and we are just wrapping up our 14th waterfowl season. It’s a success in many ways.

What’s the story behind the waterfowl hunting program? It’s unique in that it is free, for one thing, and you allow hunting on some non-typical shoot days such as Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Hunters have to buy their license and state and federal duck stamps, but they don’t have to buy a lands pass for Eden Landing. San Francisco Bay has a long history and tradition of duck hunting and we wanted to continue that at Eden Landing. When Cargill owned the property, they leased out ponds and hunters built duck blinds and had duck hunting out there for decades. When CDFW took it over, we made it accessible to the public. We now host about 10 hunt days annually.

The South Bay federal wildlife refuges allow hunting on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. I wanted to provide more opportunities for hunters when those wildlife areas are closed so I added shoot days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We get a lot of local hunters, and we see new hunters every year. Eden is getting pretty well-known in the hunting community, and our averages are pretty good for people coming out and getting birds – better than the wildlife areas and refuges a lot of the time. The hunters really appreciate that their dollars are supporting the restoration and enhancement of Bay-Delta wetlands.

Away from work, where are we likely to find you?

My wife and I have two young girls, 13 and 11. I’m an outdoor sports person. I mountain bike all the time. I go hiking. I love snowboarding. I’ve been snowboarding since 1984 – back before snowboarding was even a thing. I love to travel. My wife and I have been all over the world and have visited countries in Europe, Central America and Africa. More recently, my family has traveled in America, Mexico and Canada.

Tell us something about yourself many people would be surprised to learn.

I’m in a band. I play rhythm guitar and sing back-up vocals with friends I met in college. The band is called Sticky’s Backyard – Sticky was the nickname of a guy in Davis and we played our first gig in his backyard. That was 26 years ago, and we are still together. We play all original music. Jam rock is the best way I can describe it. We played the Lucasfilm employee holiday party in December. It’s a fun outlet – scientist by day, rocker by night. Sometimes those days and nights blend together.

John Krause photos
Top photo: John welcomes U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein to the South Bay’s salt ponds in 2010, where native habitat was being restored and public access opened for the first time.