It’s October, and fall is upon us. Fall is a season of change. The days get shorter and colder, it’s cloudier and rains more (especially here in the northwest), and the leaves of deciduous trees change from green to brilliant hues of reds, oranges, and yellows.
It only seems fitting to reflect on significant change that’s occurred here at the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC) over the past two years. We have many new, talented, and ambitious staff on our team, ready to guide us through another generation of great fish and aquatic science! Here are two of the newest additions to our research leadership!
Jan Lovy came to our Center in the fall of 2022. Jan is a specialist in aquatic pathogens and disease. He focuses on developing fish health monitoring approaches and then using the information collected to determine how the environment influences the presence and transmission of pathogens as well as the severity of specific diseases. Jan has hit the ground running, establishing collaborations with our federal, state, county and tribal partners to investigate the impacts of diseases and parasites on suckers and salmon in the Klamath River basin in Oregon and Lake Washington and Puget Sound waterbodies of Washington State.
Rachelle (Shelley) Johnson has been part of the WFRC family for some time as a PhD student. She completed here PhD in 2023 and just became a Research Biologist and our newest Principal Investigator in October 2024. Shelley is a food web specialist focused on how much critters eat, understanding who eats whom, and determining what’s happening in the surrounding environment that drives these relationships. Shelley’s currently helping our partners determine whether food webs above impassable barriers are conducive to reintroducing salmon and steelhead in these waters, and she’s looking at how much salmon certain fish and birds eat.
Our science leaders would not be able to complete their work with our growing team of biologists, technicians, and operations staff. We are grateful!
At the same time, we’ve had some of our great science leaders retire.
In April, the omniscient and much revered leader of our Columbia River Research Laboratory, Steve Waste, completed his career. Steve helmed our Columbia River station for 16 years, guiding our science and building lasting partnerships with the many tribal, federal, state, academic and nonprofit players in the region. Lucky for us, Steve will continue supporting Western Fisheries Research Center as an emeritus!
In August, Gael Kurath “retired”. Gael is world renowned for her extensive work on infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV). In her 30+ year career, Gael learned the environmental factors that control IHNV, how it has evolved, and how its transmitted among in salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest. This information has been critical for managing this pervasive virus among the farmed, hatchery and wild fish that support fisheries and cultures, and are just great to eat!
Finally, this October, Ken Tiffan retired after 32 years with our Center. Ken spent his entire career in the Snake River basin. There was not much known about Snake River fall Chinook when they were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1992. In the 32 years since, Ken and his team have dramatically increased our understanding of the biology, ecology, and migratory behavior of this critical population of salmon, informing key management actions taken to support their recovery. Ken’s work in the Snake River extends well beyond fall Chinook, and the information he and his team have generated is one of the most significant fisheries data sets in North America, generating a body of research culminating in over 100 publications. John Plumb, also from our Columbia River Research Lab, will be filling Ken’s large shoes.
I’m very excited, honored, and humbled to work with such a great group of people. Onward!
This United States Geological Survey news article "Directors Message: A Season of Change at the Western Fisheries Research Center" was originally found on https://www.usgs.gov/news
