Forum Members

  • Bonneville Power Administration: Bill Maslen, Ben Zelinsky
  • Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership: Catherine Corbett
  • Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: Dan Rawding
  • Dan James
  • US Fish and Wildlife Service: Doug Olson
  • NOAA: Elizabeth Gaar, Lynne Krasnow
  • PEW Environmental Trust: Steve Marx, Eric Robinson
  • Yakama Nation: Dave Fast
  • Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission: Doug Hatch
  • Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde: Lawrence Schwabe
  • NOAA Fisheries Science Center: Kurt Fresh
  • Department of Fisheries and Oceans: Marc Trudel
  • University of Washington: Jan Newton
  • Idaho Department of Fish and Game: Pete Hassemer
  • Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife: Rich Carmichael
  • Northwest Power and Conservation Council: Phil Rockefeller

Staff

  • Patty O’Toole, Northwest Power and Conservation Council
  • Jim Ruff, Northwest Power and Conservation Council

Catherine A. Corbett, Chief Scientist

Catherine joined the Estuary Partnership in 2008. She leads the science team and manages the habitat restoration, data management and monitoring programs.  Catherine manages the Science Work Group and coordinates research, monitoring and restoration activities for the lower Columbia River. She served as the Senior Scientist for the Charlotte Harbor NEP for eight years where she facilitated the development of resource-based water quality targets and managed an interagency monitoring network. Prior to that Catherine was a wildlife biologist in a national park in Morocco’s Middle Atlas Mountains. She has published multiple manuscripts on seagrass and water quality targets in southwest Florida. Catherine has a BS in Zoology and Physical Geography Minor from Miami University of Ohio and a Master’s degree from Clark University, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Holmes Gaar

Ms Holmes Gaar is a Senior Policy Advisor for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. Her present responsibilities include, Chair of the Columbia Basin Federal Caucus, Columbia Basin intergovernmental liaison, and multiple recovery initiatives, including Snake River salmon Endangered Species Act (ESA) recovery, and work on a national team that is revising the ESA recovery planning guidance.  In her 25 years with NOAA Fisheries, Ms Gaar developed and led many aspects of its ESA programs.  She served as the first Chief of Endangered Species in the early 90s when petitions to list Pacific salmon under the ESA first emerged and as Assistant Regional Administrator for Habitat Conservation, where she established the region’s ESA section 7 habitat consultation program.  Ms Gaar recently served several years as the Chief of Salmon Recovery, responsible for developing and implementing the ESA salmon recovery plans that the Region has completed to date. Prior to attending Lewis and Clark’s Northwestern School of Law, Ms Gaar worked for the Forest Service as a District Fisheries Biologist with tenures on both the Siuslaw and Mt. Hood National Forests.  She earned her Bachelor’s of Fisheries Science degree from Oregon State University in 1983.

Lynne Krasnow

Lynne Krasnow is a fisheries biologist in the Portland office of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Since joining NMFS in 1997, she has contributed to development of the FCRPS biological opinion, biological opinions for various hydropower projects licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and recovery plans and programs for lower Columbia salmon and steelhead. She studied Wildlife and Fisheries Biology at the University of California, Davis, and earned a Masters in Biological Science from the California State University marine lab at Moss Landing and a Doctorate in Oceanography from Oregon State University.

Doug Olson

Doug Olson, Supervisory Fisheries Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Columbia River Fisheries Program Office, Vancouver, Washington.  Doug graduated from the University of Washington in 1982 and has worked for various fisheries management and research agencies in the Columbia River Basin for nearly 30 years.  For the last 20 years, Doug’s primary area of interest has been working with others on planning and assessment for our National Fish Hatcheries in the Columbia River.  Recent focal topics include clarifying the benefits and risks of hatchery production, and conducting research on the ecological interactions between hatchery and wild fish.

Kurt Fresh

Kurt Fresh is a Research Fisheries Biologist and the Estuarine and Ocean Ecology Program Manager at the National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) in Seattle, Washington.  He has worked there for the last 11 years.  Prior to that, he worked 23 years as a scientist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.  He holds a M.S. in Fisheries from the University of Washington.  His primary research interests are the life history and ecology of juvenile salmon in the stream, lake, estuarine, and nearshore habitats of the Pacific Northwest.  Most recently, he has worked on developing and evaluating protection and restoration strategies in estuarine environments that support recovery efforts for salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest.  At the NWFSC, Kurt manages work being conducted by the NWFSC in the coastal ocean off Oregon and Washington, in the Columbia River estuary, and in Puget Sound. 

Marc Trudel

Dr. Trudel is a Research Scientist and head of the Salmon Marine Interactions Section at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia. He is responsible for the direction, supervision, and delivery of Canada's West coast research program on the marine biology of Pacific salmon. His multidisciplinary research program is focused on determining the long term effects of climate change on salmon productivity and the limits to marine ecosystems productivity for Pacific salmon and associated species. He has extensive experience in designing and managing large-scale field programs in coastal waters of British Columbia, and in studying the migration behaviour of juvenile salmon. He actively collaborates with research scientists from academia and government agencies throughout the Pacific Northwest. His research program has contributed to the development of leading indicators of marine survival that are used to forecast adult salmon returns in southern British Columbia. He obtained his Ph.D. from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and his M.Sc. from the Université de Montréal (Montreal, Canada). His graduate studies focused on the ecology of freshwater fishes and mercury accumulation.

Selected publications:

Tucker, S., M.E. Thiess, J.F.R. Morris, D. Mackas, W.T. Peterson, J.R. Candy, T.D. Beacham, E. Iwamoto, D. Teel, M. Peterson, and M. Trudel. Ocean distribution and consequent factors influencing marine survival of endangered Snake River sockeye salmon. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. (submitted in October 2013).

Fisher, J.P., L. Weitkamp, D.J. Teel, S.A. Hinton, J.A. Orsi, E.V. Farley, Jr, J.F.T. Morris, M.E. Thiess, R.M. Sweeting, and M. Trudel. Early ocean dispersal patterns of Columbia River Chinook and coho salmon. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. (in press).

Thomson, R.E., Beamish, R.J., Beacham, T.D., Trudel, M., Whitfield, P.H., and Hourston, R.A.S. 2012. Anomalous ocean conditions may explain the recent extreme variability in Fraser River sockeye salmon production. Mar. Coast. Fish. 4: 415-437.

Tucker, S., M. Trudel, D.W. Welch, J.R. Candy, J.F.T. Morris, M.E. Thiess, C. Wallace, and T.D. Beacham. 2012. Annual coastal migration of juvenile Chinook salmon; Static stock-specific patterns in a dynamic ocean. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 449: 245-262.

Tucker, S., M. Trudel, D.W. Welch, J.R. Candy, J.F.T. Morris, M.E. Thiess, C. Wallace, and T.D. Beacham. 2011. Life history and seasonal stock-specific ocean migration of juvenile Chinook salmon. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 140: 1101-1119.

Tucker, S., Trudel, M., Welch, D.W., Candy, J.R, Morris, J.F.T., Thiess, M.E., Wallace, C., Teel, D.J., Crawford, W., Farley, E.V. Jr., and Beacham, T.D. 2009. Seasonal stock-specific migrations of juvenile sockeye salmon along the west coast of North America: Implications for growth. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 138: 1458-1480.

Trudel, M., Fisher, J., Orsi, J., Morris, J.F.T., Thiess, M.E., Sweeting, R.M., Hinton, S., Fergusson, E., and Welch, D.W. 2009. Distribution and migration of juvenile Chinook salmon derived from coded-wire tag recoveries along the continental shelf of western North America. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc.138: 1369-1391.

Morris, J.F.T., Trudel, M., Thiess, M., Sweeting, R.M., Fisher, J., Hinton, S., Fergusosn, E.A., Orsi, J.A., Farley, E.V., Jr., and Welch, D.W. 2007. Stock-specific migrations of juvenile coho salmon derived from coded-wire tag recoveries on the continental shelf of western North America. Am. Fish. Soc. Symp. Ser. 57: 81-104.

Also see publication list with pdf