Lesley C. Estes

Lesley lives in the Deer Creek Canyon in Nevada City.  Her 35 plus year career in watershed management and over 40 years of backcountry adventures in the Sierra Nevada led to her interest in serving on the Board of the Sierra Streams Institute.  Lesley spent the majority of her career at the City of Oakland where she created and managed the Watershed Management Division in the Engineering Department.  Her work included stormwater and watershed-based planning and management for water quality improvements, habitat preservation, restoration, stormwater drainage and treatment, and water resource protection for the city’s stormwater infrastructure, creeks, lakes and wetlands.  While at the City of Oakland, Lesley received a national first place award for innovation in stormwater management from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  Prior to the City of Oakland Lesley worked in Washington DC as a legislative analyst for an Interior Subcommittee where she helped with the writing and passage of the Columbia River Gorge Protection Act and in Yosemite National Park as a Ranger Naturalist.  She is happy to be living in her new community and hopes to be an asset to the important work of the Sierra Streams Institute.