Personal Summary

Laurel is an aquatic ecologist and river enthusiast from coastal Oregon. Her research focus is on patterns of aquatic plant and algae growth, and the transfer of energy from those primary producers through river food webs. She is especially interested in how humans alter river ecosystem processes, and how these processes respond to restoration efforts including dam removal.

After receiving a BS in Environmental Studies from Southern Oregon University, Laurel worked as a seasonal field biologist and environmental educator guiding natural history hikes with elementary students, surveying understory plants in the Cascade Mountains, chasing passerine birds from Southern Oregon to Arizona, floating rivers to collect water quality data, and guiding sea kayaking adventures in Washington State’s San Juan Islands. In 2013, Laurel completed her MS at the University of Wyoming, where her studies linked ecosystem function to water quality in California’s Klamath River.

After a year of leading university-level field courses in Patagonia and Montana, Laurel dove back into the Klamath River, working as a consulting ecologist for tribal water quality departments and working with Klamath River youth during multi-week exchange programs in their home watershed and in Patagonia, Chile where student learned about the impacts of dams on river ecosystems.