Dave Herbst

Dave is a native of northern California, grew up backpacking in the Sierra Nevada and decided he liked that so much, found a career that let him explore. Dave studied zoology and entomology as an undergrad at UC Davis and earned a PhD at Oregon State University. He parlayed that into becoming a research scientist with the University of California Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory (Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz) and has studied mountain streams up and down the Sierra Nevada and central coast of California, and saline lakes and springs of the Great Basin desert.  Topics of his research have ranged from effects of climate change on mountain streams, recovery of streams from impacts of abandoned mine metal contamination, and the influences of non-native aquatic organisms, sediment, salinity, water diversions, livestock grazing, and wildfire on aquatic invertebrates and algae. The Sierra Streams Institute feels like a perfect fit to continue these interests and be part of a collective community effort to understand and protect the beautiful watersheds and amazing aquatic life of the Sierra bioregion.  He believes in advocacy through evidence.  Dave helped develop the protocols for assessing stream health in California and written a widely-used guide for citizen monitoring (The California Streamside Biosurvey).  He is so glad to have moved with his nets and microscopes to Nevada City in the summer of 2021 with his water-loving wife Linda.