Featured Scientist

Vicky Monroe is an environmental scientist with the Wildlife Management Branch in CDFW’s Central Region. Based in Bakersfield, she is the unit wildlife biologist for Kern County. Her work has included resource assessment surveys of deer, elk, pronghorn, upland game birds and San Joaquin kit foxes by vehicle, fixed-wing airplane and helicopter. She has captured black bears, elk and kit foxes and assisted with deer captures. Other critical aspects of her work include addressing the human-dimensions of wildlife management and wildlife conflicts, providing technical expertise and assistance and educating the public.

Vicky earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Animal Behavior and a Minor in Biology from Colorado State University. She also earned a Master’s degree in Zoology from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia and is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in Environmental Conflict Resolution and Collaboration from George Mason University in Virginia.

What is a typical day like for you at work?

That depends on the time of year. During the spring, summer and fall, I have a steadily increasing volume of resource assessments, wildlife conflicts, phone calls, emails, meetings, office work, field responses, and sometimes extensive travel throughout the county. Kern County, at 8,100 square miles, is larger than many states. When I am in the field, the diversity of calls that I may respond to never ceases to amaze and thrill me.

In one week in my first year, I provided field responses from the Mojave to Maricopa, agricultural to oil fields, and throughout the Sierra Nevada and Transverse mountain ranges. I responded to calls regarding an injured condor, human-black bear conflicts, mountain lion depredation, urban kit foxes and desert tortoises, and conducted an elk calf capture. I also work closely with our wildlife officers, Natural Resources Volunteer Program participants, non-governmental organizations and local, state and federal government staff.

My relative slow season lasts about two to three months each winter. During that time I respond to emails and phone calls from the public, work to better organize file documents and reports and update data files. It is a good time to strategically assess wildlife management and conservation priorities, provide outreach to stakeholders and maintain and strengthen working relationships.

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

One of the most challenging, rewarding and unexpected “projects” that I’ve worked on for CDFW occurred my first year (2014) managing Kern County, and it was not so much a project as a call to action! Kern was experiencing an unprecedented increase in reported black bear activity, sightings, depredation and wildlife conflicts due in part to extreme drought. Some of us jokingly called it “Bearmageddon” and it certainly made for an intense year or two. Department wildlife officers and I captured and relocated numerous bears from Bakersfield and other areas. My two most unusual field responses were for multiple bears wandering into Bakersfield city limits in a single 12-hour period, and the night capture of a sow and cub stuck in a solar panel facility in Boron.

Providing increased public information, community outreach, media response and “Bear Aware” public meetings were a critical component of our strategy to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts and to educate and serve the public. CDFW’s Office of Communications, Education and Outreach staff was instrumental in supporting this effort. It was rewarding to collaborate so effectively to transform human-bear conflicts into an opportunity to empower residents with greater knowledge about wildlife, our department’s mission and values, responsible stewardship and co-existence.

What is most challenging about working with wildlife?

Probably the knowledge of the profound responsibility we have to each animal with which we come into contact. With each field response or capture effort, we become stewards of that individual animal. Its life is literally in our hands and it is difficult knowing that we cannot control every condition in the field. Whether capturing black bears in the desert, kit foxes in the city, elk in an enclosure or deer in the mountains, the focus, intensity and level of preparation remain the same. As biologists, we are armed with the expertise and experience to respond where others may not. That responsibility is not to be taken lightly. Another major challenge is balancing people’s expectations about when a field response, intervention or capture effort is necessary versus inappropriate.

What is the most challenging aspect of your career as an environmental scientist?

Trying “to do it all” in a 40-hour work week. As a unit wildlife biologist, I am on the front line and often in the public eye. It can be challenging to address everything that comes my way in the order and manner in which I would like to address things. Another challenging aspect is serving members of the public through education and outreach in a manner that empowers them to co-exist with wildlife, drives science-based management and conservation and balances the expectations people may have about how wildlife “should” act or behave.

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

There are almost too many areas of scientific interest, management and conservation to narrow the scope. Kern County has the most diverse range of habitats of any county in the state; it is a remarkable place. I would love to conduct a study to assess genetics, disease, predation, fecundity (reproductive rates and success) and recruitment (fawn survival) of migratory and resident deer herds. I would love to conduct a study to assess genetics, survival, mortality and disease impacts on mountain lions and black bears. A study on the abundance, fecundity, and mortality of lesser studied species or species of special concern in Kern, such as fishers, would also be valuable. In particular, conducting a study to further assess genetics, disease impacts and mortality of the urban kit fox population in Bakersfield would be incredible. Really, I would love to do it all… I guess I would need a whole stable of research scientists on my team!

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

Be bold, be serious, be focused, and never lose faith that you can end up exactly where you were meant to be with a career in science or natural resources. Serving as a professional scientist (such as a wildlife biologist) is a true calling, and the path is not always direct or clear. Do not limit yourself -- be open to pursuing different opportunities and unique experiences and never stop trying to gain new skills, diversify your skill set and cultivate deeper expertise. Remember that a college degree is critical and an advanced degree is valuable, although not vital. And finally, taking initiative is non-negotiable. Do not be passive. Show a willingness to acquire experience (either paid or volunteer) as readily as you attain your education, rather than waiting to graduate with a degree and then hoping to find career-relevant work. Building a career is a lifetime process, a journey, and no one can start it for you except you.

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.