About the Class
| Taught by Jeff Jensen |
Washington State has a tremendous number of salmon-bearing streams. Surveying them is time consuming and many streams are difficult to access. Detecting salmon, even in accessible streams, can be very difficult because of variable conditions, water clarity, and low abundance. This class will provide an overview of citizen scientist recruiting and management, multiple modes of detecting salmon presence (including walking surveys, drones, and environmental DNA sampling), and biological sample collecting (permitting, genetic sampling, otolith extraction). These techniques will be illustrated with Dr. Jensen’s research on kokanee and sockeye salmon, but are applicable more broadly to salmon in streams.
| About Dr. Jeffrey Jensen |
Jeff grew up in Western Washington in the Seattle area, and his earliest memories include chasing salamanders, spiders and, especially, fish. As soon as he was old enough, he joined his Dad on fishing trips and developed a deep love for the many rivers of our state and the life they nourish. Much of his childhood was spent exploring local creeks. Finding spawning salmon was (and continues to be) a great joy for him. Jeff earned a Bachelor’s degree in Fisheries and Zoology from the University of Washington (UW), Seattle. While at UW, he became increasingly interested in combining his interests in ichthyology and evolutionary biology, and after graduating from the University of Washington, he moved to Boston for graduate school, where he earned a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Harvard University. He carefully chose his research projects such that they required spending summers back in the Pacific Northwest, and he continued his summer research at Friday Harbor during the 13 years he was a faculty member in the Biology Department at the University of Maryland, College Park.
With his heart still firmly in the Pacific Northwest, Jeff kept an eye on west coast job listings, and in 2012 he accepted a position at the newly formed School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at the University of Washington, Bothell campus. He is delighted to be back home – a place where, with proper stewardship, not only the trees but also the streams can fill with color every fall. For the last eight years his research has been primarily investigating sockeye and kokanee salmon in the Lake Washington watershed, with a particular focus on native kokanee salmon. Kokanee were once the predominant species of salmon in the basin, but until recently the Lake Washington population was believed to have been extirpated decades ago. His research includes field surveys, otolith analysis, genetics, and environmental DNA work.
