Featured Scientist

Dave Lancaster is an environmental scientist covering Humboldt and Del Norte counties for the Northern Region’s Wildlife Management Program. He has been a unit wildlife biologist for the past 13 years, covering a variety of issues involving birds and mammals including hunting program management, human-wildlife conflict, wildlife disease and welfare, habitat restoration, special-status species protection, population monitoring, research and providing technical assistance to other CDFW programs, agencies and the public.

Dave grew up in eastern Oregon and graduated from Oregon State University, earning Bachelor of Science degrees in both Wildlife Science and Fisheries Science. He has worked as a biologist for more than 20 years, the last 17 of which have been with CDFW.

What led you into a career as a wildlife biologist?

Hunting is a part of life out in rural eastern Oregon, and you start young. This early introduction to game quickly grew into a much wider appreciation for the land and wildlife in general. While there are a number of different jobs that allow a person to satisfy their desire to work out on the land, being a wildlife biologist provides an opportunity to work for the benefit of wildlife and the people who appreciate it.

It is interesting that you have degrees in both Wildlife Science and Fisheries Science. How did that come about?

I wanted to have a career in wildlife management, but most of the work was in fisheries, so I was hedging my bets.

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

Early in one’s career as a biologist, it is often necessary to be flexible and willing to go where job opportunities take you. Like many people in other states, my image of California was crowded freeways and urban sprawl. I never imagined I would make a career here, but when a job came up, I took it, figuring I would not be here long. It was a nice discovery for me that California still has a wealth of wildlife and wildlands, and diverse opportunity to work toward making a material contribution to conservation.

What is a typical day like for you at work?

Unit wildlife biologists have such a wide variety of duties that we typically work on several distinctly different issues in a day, and frequently have our plans changed by new developments occurring in any one of the many tasks we cover. I may on a given morning start to design a study, do a survey or prepare a management plan. Then the phone rings and I am being told a bear broke into a chicken coop, a deer is tangled up in barbed wire or a group of birds has been found dead on the beach – and the day just changed.

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

There are so many rewarding moments in a biologist’s career, it is difficult to pick out one particular thing. There are those projects that are not enjoyable to work on in the moment, but are very rewarding in the end because of the benefit to wildlife they produce. For example, developing habitat improvement projects and mitigation for impacts from development projects involve a lot of time at the desk, in meetings and conferring with folks with differing opinions and goals. Then there are the days when you are out in woods, grasslands or marshes doing surveys or tagging wildlife. You also get personal satisfaction and thanks from the public for helping a particular animal in some form of distress, such as when a deer or an elk is tangled up in barbed wire and you are able to free it up and send it on its way. On other days, you get the opportunity to help a person who is having some type of problem with wildlife. Of course, for wildlife biologists, any day improving the outlook for wildlife constitutes a good day, but if doing so happens to involve watching, handling or tracking animals, then all the better.

What is your favorite species to interact with or study?

The groups of species that I interact with most frequently are game birds and mammals, typically through managing hunting programs, helping landowners who are having conflicts with wildlife and responding to disease outbreaks. I do not have one particular favorite species. It is a diverse and fascinating world out there, with each one having its own appeal.

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

Figuring out how to restore and maintain native grassland habitats while accommodating commercial livestock ranching in the shrub steppe of the Great Basin and in coastal montane prairies would be high on the list in terms of landscape-scale conservation priorities. These areas provide important wildlife habitat but the livestock industry is important as well to these rural communities. Providing for both is the key to success in the big picture.

What is it about the work you do that you would most like us to know?

Unit wildlife biologists, as with staff from most of CDFW’s programs, work every day to find practical, effective solutions to complex problems, and try when doing so to satisfy a diverse range of constituents. We have to be practical because the decisions we make and the work we do often directly affects both our constituency and conservation actions carried out on the ground. We have to come up with solutions that actually work, not just in theory; they must work for wildlife, be compatible with landowners’ desired use of their property and be implemented in a cost effective manner. Take hunting as an example: you need to provide for the ecological integrity of the wildlife population being hunted and the habitats and other species that interact with it, and provide for use by the public both in the form of hunting and viewing opportunity, and use hunting as a tool to minimize property damage the hunted species may be causing on private property.

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

Get out in the field and read all the quality scientific literature you have time for. The university and on-the-job training are key components to building knowledge and competency, but a lifelong habit of self-education is indispensable. A broad familiarity with the collective knowledge compiled by those that came before us, tempered with extensive and considered first-hand observations from the field, are what make a good biologist.

Cynthia Catton is an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Region. Based in the Bodega Bay field office at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, her main responsibilities are in Marine Invertebrate Fisheries and Conservation Research. She works primarily in kelp forest ecosystems throughout the state, with a particular focus on abalone populations. She conducts research to inform the management of the recreational red abalone fishery in northern California and the restoration of endangered species in southern California. She also contributes to research on Dungeness crab, sea urchins and sea cucumbers.

Cynthia earned her Bachelor’s degree in Zoology with a Marine Emphasis at the University of Washington, Seattle. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Biological Oceanography and a doctorate in Biological Oceanography, both at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

In 2012, she joined CDFW as an environmental scientist. Here, she represents the U.S. and Canada for the International Abalone Society, has served on the CDFW climate change working group and developed curriculum for the CDFW marine Climate Change College. Previously, Cynthia conducted marine life research in Washington, Australia and California, including work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Research Council.

What inspired you to become a scientist?

I was one of those unusual people who knew I wanted to go into marine biology at an early age. Originally, I wanted to be an underwater photographer. I learned to dive when I was 16 and joined two Explorer Scout troops, one sponsored by a local dive club and another sponsored by NOAA. In the latter, I met marine biologists and got to ask all about their work.

I was fascinated by marine invertebrates early on, because they’re such odd, beautiful creatures, so I was searching for a way to be involved in the marine environment. In college, I decided to be a science major to support my photography interest, then discovered that I really liked research. So now, my photography supports my scientific research! I think that art and science are very complementary fields, and that using art to explain science can be very powerful.

What is your typical day at work like?

I can’t say I have a “typical” work day; my days are extremely varied and depend on the season. During field season—which used to be summer, but is expanding—I board a boat early in the morning to start a day of SCUBA work, counting and measuring abalone and other species in their environment.

I sometimes spend a lot of time driving to a site far from my lab, even to southern California. I may be outside in rubber boots and foul-weather gear to interview fishers about what they are catching, usually abalone or clams. At other times, I get to look at the data we collected during the field season and identify patterns of changes we’re seeing in populations. We use the data to understand why we’re seeing those changes and what they mean. Then, I can relay that information to the Fish & Game Commission, the public and the scientific community.

What is your favorite species to interact with or study? Why?

I can’t really name a favorite, though I have always really enjoyed marine invertebrates. My first interest was octopus, because they’re just an incredibly unusual species and fascinating to watch move and interact with the world. I’m pretty excited now because we have started a project in southern California where we are studying the interactions between octopus and abalone. We’re collaborating with an octopus biologist to help us with our efforts to restore endangered white abalone populations, because the octopus like to eat the abalone. We are learning about how to minimize octopus predation on the juvenile abalone that we are introducing to the ocean.

What is it about your work that you find the most interesting?

I really enjoy the variety in my work days. I appreciate being able to get out in the field and observe the organisms in their environment, collecting the data myself. That gives you important perspective for the analysis of the data later. It’s important to understand the nuances in the data when you are running the analysis, and it is likewise important for those in the field to keep in mind the requirements of the statistics. My work requires many different skill sets, and keeps me challenged.

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

So much of what I do is really rewarding, but I think the most rewarding part is working as a team to solve problems. For example, I’m part of a very large collaboration on restoring white abalone populations in southern California. White abalone was the first marine invertebrate to be federally listed as endangered, and its population has been declining by 12 percent a year for over a decade. Using data from NOAA surveys of wild populations, I have estimated that we will have fewer than 1,000 white abalone in southern California by 2029. That just leaves us a little over a decade to move on re-establishing self-sustaining populations. It’s a complicated problem, but I get to work with people from lots of different backgrounds to come up with some really creative solutions. The first phase of the work has been developing a strong captive breeding program, focused here at Bodega Marine Lab and at partner aquaria in Southern California. We are now starting the next phase and will work to place these abalone into their natural environment. It’s really rewarding when we can work together and see the project grow successfully.

On the north coast, I am pulling together another team of folks to tackle the problems we are facing with the recent severe loss of bull kelp. We are working to understand the potential for the bull kelp to recover and how we can support that recovery. It is a real challenge to the fisheries and our small coastal communities, and I am pleased to lead this problem-solving effort. It’s really empowering and inspiring when we can get a whole community together—urchin divers, citizen volunteers and scientists — to come to the table and contribute their ideas and time. Our blog article on The Perfect Storm has already attracted more than 50 volunteers.

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

That’s fairly easy: save the kelp forest! It needs a lot of funding and experts to address different aspects of it. The issues we’re seeing with the kelp forest are a combination of really large-scale stressors to the system, hitting the kelp forest from many different angles. These kinds of compounding stressors on a system are what we expect to see more of with climate change. There are many large-scale changes to ecosystems that we are seeing occur around the world. The recent mass mortality of corals in the Great Barrier Reef is one example. The loss of the bull kelp forest in northern California is another huge issue, and I see this as our responsibility to respond to it. I am currently working on forming a broad collaboration of researchers to expand our understanding of the large-scale kelp forest dynamics, reaching up the coast into Alaska. If we can bring people and data together, we can work on fully understanding the problems we are facing and identifying the most effective solutions.

Do you have any advice for people considering careers in science or natural resources?

Follow your passion. Science, and natural resource management in particular, is a challenging career choice. Your passion will help motivate you to overcome those challenges, and it will inspire others to join you in your work.

Sara Borok is an environmental scientist with the Klamath River project. She is responsible for counting the sport harvest on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers and for gathering natural spawner escapement data (which involves counting deceased fish which have finished spawning) on the Salmon River and approximately three dozen tributaries of the Klamath River above the Trinity River. She is also the co-coordinator of the Klamath Fish Health Assessment Team.

Borok initially studied forestry at Humboldt State University before changing her major and earning a Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife management. She jokes that she also “majored in minors” by earning minors in forestry, fisheries, art and music.

She has worked her entire CDFW career in the Klamath Basin, striving to “bridge the desires of our constituents and protecting the health of the fishery” as she counted live fish going out of the river and the dead fish that returned and spawned.

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

Even when I was young I knew I wanted to work in the outdoors. I am from the era of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” and I always wanted to be the assistant, “Jim.” He always had the cool jobs! I grew up in Southern California, and when I started high school, there was a wonderful summer school class, Outdoor Biology, that taught basic sampling techniques. We went to Catalina Island to do some marsh sampling, and I got hooked. I used to seek out wild places, often riding my bike up to Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades and then hiking in four miles to find some solitude.

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

When I was 16, I worked for the Youth Conservation Corps, and later at Will Rogers State Park, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve and at Ft. Clatsop, which is part of Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. I started out with CDFW in 1985 as a seasonal aid working the Klamath Creel Crew for Jim Hopelain, a wildlife biologist who at that time served in my current position. I fell in love with the idea of getting paid to do this job out in the woods. I still cannot believe that I get paid for what I get to do.

What is a typical day like for you at work?

During the “creel season” in April through November, I help the crew at busy spots on the Klamath River by interviewing anglers about their effort and catch of salmon and steelhead. We keep track of the numbers because they dictate size restrictions. Once a certain number of fish have been caught, anglers can’t keep the big ones anymore.

I also help out during the “carcass season” in October through December by organizing crews with individuals drawn from CDFW as well as other state agencies, tribes, volunteer groups and schools. Those crews then are kept quite busy counting dead fish to determine the “floor escapement,” or the number of fish that are returning to the river to spawn in natural areas. We need to meet a minimum number before we can allow any kind of harvest.

I field a lot of complaints from anglers, typically regarding our regulations! It is helpful that I have a great group of people working for me and with me who do a lot of the hard work.

What is most challenging about working with fish?

I would say that wading through large amounts of swift-moving water is the most challenging aspect. In years such as this past season, when we had such heavy rains, we had a hard time getting out on the tributaries to get good counts of the few spawned-out fish that were out there. Other challenges, ones that have nothing to do with the weather, are gaining access to specific areas from private landowners and the simple matter of having to cover such a large geographic area.

What is special about working in the Klamath Basin?

The Klamath kind of grows on you. I have been working in the basin for 32 years (wow, it doesn’t seem that long!). Working with live fish is the best, but even during spawning season the beauty out on the rivers makes up for dealing with dead fish. There are also really wonderful people living and working up here. I have worked every Labor Day Weekend for the last 20 years, and I get to see some of the same families that come up to fish then. It is like a big family reunion.

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

I work with a huge cooperative group of agencies, tribes, non-government groups, volunteers and school kids. We all get along and work hard to get the work done. What is really rewarding to me is that we have school kids who come out and do the spawner surveys with us. The students are actually walking through the water along with CDFW staff, counting carcasses. Their enthusiasm in being out in the fields is always refreshing and amusing. There have been a few who fell in love with this type of work and went on to school in this type of field and then came back to work on this very project.

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

Learn basic accounting, people management, vehicle repairs, public relations and logistics, as you will be spending more time on this kind of stuff than on the science.

I have been thinking of teaching a short class at Humboldt State University on all the other stuff like this that you will need to be a biologist/environmental scientist. People should also learn to work without the aid of fancy gadgets, as there may not be cell reception when you are out in the river or woods, and gadgets tend to fail when you need those most. Learn to improvise!