Published Writings

Retrofitted Houseboat IDs Fish in the Shallows.
Estuary News Magazine, September 2020. Fish monitoring in the San Francisco Bay Delta can be tough: net surveys are all but impossible in shallow riverbanks and intertidal wetlands where dense aquatic plants choke nets and propellers, and levee rip-rap bruises boat bottoms. But a crew funded by the California Department of Water Resources has the solution: a pontoon boat tricked out to video fish as they pass under the boat, combined with an algorithm to identify the species and DNA analysis of what’s out there. To read the full article, click here.

Big Projects, Wet Feet: Mega-Developments Hedge on Sea-Level Rise
Estuary News Magazine, June 2020.
Over the past decade a wave of shoreline “mega-developments” have hit the Bay Area. Since 2010, developers have sunk $22 billion into more than a dozen waterfront projects less than eight feet above today’s high-tide line. But how is it possible they use such different sea-level-rise numbers?

San Francisco Prepares for Water From All Directions
Estuary News Magazine, June 2020.
San Francisco faces three-to-ten feet of sea-level rise this century, a sharp increase in extreme heat days, and more severe floods and drought. But perhaps no challenge is bigger than reinforcing the city’s 7.5-mile bayside shoreline, where a sagging century-old seawall built atop unstable, muddy fill is all that stands between the rising San Francisco Bay and $22 billion worth of real estate.

Bay Area’s Massive Marsh Restoration Project Takes Root
Sierra Magazine, April 2019.
In the South Bay Area, an ambitious $1 billion 50-year plan is underway to return salt ponds to marsh habitat for the first time in 150 years. As thousands of acres are converted back into wetlands, restorationists and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers strive to balance flood control and restoration.  Click here to read the full article.

Calculating the Cost of Adaptation
Estuary News Magazine, December 2018.
What makes a bond green? The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission knows, having issued $1.4 billion in green bonds since 2015. But can green bonds cover the estimated $35 billion cost of sea level rise adaptation in the San Francisco Bay? Click here to read the full article.

Constellation of Climate Events Lifts State Spirits
Estuary News Magazine, September 2018.
At California’s third Climate Adaptation Forum, climate change workers from all over the state reflect on how far California has come, and how far we have to go, in preparing our state for climate change.

Common Ground on a Grand Bayway?
Three Cities Confront a Common Estuary
Estuary News Magazine, June 2018.
Teams attempt to tackle flood vulnerabilities around the San Francisco Bay region using architectural design, with no shortages of obstacles in their path. Click here for articles on San Pablo Bay and the Oakland/Alameda estuary.

Communities Confront Water and Gentrification in the Coliseum Zone. AcclimateWest.org, 2018.
Historical redlining and discrimination have led to profound inequalities in East Oakland today. Near the Oakland Coliseum stadium, rising water threatens to magnify East Oakland’s already deeply-rooted vulnerabilities. To read the full article, click here.

Wet or Dry Winter? Flood Managers Prepare for Both  (2017)
After devastatingly strong winter storms in 2017, what are the odds of another winter deluge in 2018? As conditions similar to last year brew in the Pacific, flood control managers race to be ready for whatever may come. Click here for the full article.

High Road for the Wettest Highway?  (2017)
After severe winter flooding, transportation planners and conservationists weigh the costs and opportunities involved in saving a key north Bay Area roadway from rising waters. To read the full article, click here.

Forest Guardians (2016). On one of the Philippines’ most densely-forest islands, a small team of dedicated park staff struggle to fend off illegal loggers and miners. To read the full article, click here.

Fisheries regulatory regimes and resilience to climate change (2016). Different styles of fisheries management can support or hinder the climate resilience of a fishery.

Citizen science as an approach for overcoming insufficient monitoring and inadequate stakeholder buy-in in adaptive management: criteria and evidence (2015). Citizen science offers the chance to overcome two of the largest barriers to environmental adaptive management.

Fauna of Sibuyan Island & Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park (2014). A guidebook of the unique and threatened species found in the forests of Sibuyan Island. To see photos of some of the species in the guidebook, click here.

Life in the Unemployed Lane (2011).
Searching for employment in the barren, post-Recession landscape. Published in the Muir Beach Beachcomber.

Untapped Wealth: Offshore Wind Can Deliver Cleaner, More Affordable Energy and More Jobs Than Offshore Oil (2010).
Report website
Coverage of the report

Globalization, Development, and Poverty (2008). Witnessing first-hand the effects of globalization in Peru. Published in Progressive Populist magazine.

Beehive in Muir is Stage for Interpretive Dance Performance (2004). UC San Diego researchers uncover how bees communicate – and it involves dancing. Published in Biosphere magazine.