Endangered Species Law & Policy

On October 20, 2024, I published a post on the Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management’s DeltaCurrents blog discussing early lessons from the Klamath Dam Removal Project. The removal of four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River is the most ambitious dam removal effort in the history of the United States.

While the jury is still out with respect to the effort’s success when measured in terms of increased salmonid abundance, there are lessons to be learned now regarding characterization of science pertaining to policy both by scientists in the ...

On December 21, 2023, I published a post on the Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management’s DeltaCurrents blog discussing integration of resource optimization into endangered species policy to improve conservation outcomes. Resource optimization is the allocation of finite resources in the most efficient manner possible. In the context of wildlife management, it is a structured process to select a management action from among available alternatives intended to result in the most efficient allocation of resources to achieve a specified objective. … 

On February 28, 2023, I published a post on the Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management’s DeltaCurrents blog discussing Species Status Assessments (SSAs) as a tool to facilitate implementation of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) describes the SSA framework as “an analytical approach developed . . . to deliver foundational science for informing all [ESA] decisions.” The Service has explained it intends SSAs to provide “focused, repeatable, and rigorous scientific assessment” that results in ...

Recently, I authored a post for DeltaCurrents, the Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management's blog. The focus of the piece is on science and humility. It is a topic of broad importance in society though I focus on it in the resource management context, and, specifically, as it pertains to California's Bay-Delta.

For the past three decades, the federal and California governments and diverse stakeholders have looked to scientists to explain the causes of the long-term population declines in fish species native to California’s Bay-Delta in an effort to chart a ...