Recent Activities

Awards (since 2008)

US Fish and Wildlife Service – for collaboration with the Stepping Up to Leadership Team to honor Dr. Shigeru Nakano as a USFWS Conservation Hero.  July 2018.

Leopold Conservation Award – for outstanding contributions to fisheries and land ecology.  Fly Fishers International.  August 2017.

Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for Adult Literature – the book For the Love of Rivers: a Scientist’s Journey was chosen from among more than 50 entries as the 2016 winner of this award, presented at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute of Northland College in Ashland, WI in October 2016

American Fisheries Society Award of Excellence – this award, the highest honor given by the American Fisheries Society, was presented at the Annual Meeting in Kansas City, MO in August 2016

Best Informational Paper Award – Colorado-Wyoming American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Laramie, WY. March 2016

ISI Highly Cited Researcher (Thomson Reuters) – Plant and Animal Science Category – among the top 250 most highly cited researchers worldwide in this category – May 2010

Award of Excellence – Lifetime achievement award from the Western Division of the American Fisheries Society, Salt Lake City, UT.  April 2010.

Outstanding Alumnus – College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. March 2010.

Award of Excellence – Lifetime achievement award from the Colorado-Wyoming Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Laramie, WY.  March 2010.

Distinguished Alumnus – inducted into the Academy of Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, MN. October 2009.

International Fisheries Science Prize – World Council of Fisheries Societies, Inaugural Prize – World Fisheries Congress, Yokohama, Japan. October 2008.

Rise to the Future National Award for Research Achievement, U.S. Forest Service – award to Peterson, Fausch, Rieman, Dunham, and Young for developing analytical tools for management of native salmonids threatened by nonnative salmonid invasions (see Fausch et al. 2006 USFS GTR and Peterson et al. 2008 CJFAS). September 2008.

Presentations (2016-2020)

Below are invited presentations to scientific and public audiences on our research, and themes from the book

For the love of rivers: a scientist’s journey

  • Pennsylvania State University – Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, and Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, University Park, PA – April 2016
  • Colorado Association for Career and Technical Education (CACTE) Collaborative Summit, Steamboat Springs, CO – July 2016
  • Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland College, Ashland, WI (on the occasion of receiving the 2016 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award) – October 2016
  • St. Croix River Association, Marine on St. Croix, MN – October 2016
  • Roundout Neversink Anglers Symposium (3rd annual), Claryville, NY – October 2016
  • Oregon Water Watch Banquet and Auction, Portland, OR – November 2016
  • University of Nevada–Reno – Graduate Program of Hydrologic Sciences (GPHS) and the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology (EECB) Graduate Program, Reno, NV – December 2016
  • Fort Collins Audubon Society, Fort Collins, CO – February 2017
  • Western Division American Fisheries Society annual meeting banquet – Missoula, MT – May 2017
  • Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, Vail, CO – August 2017
  • Fly Fisher’s International (upon receiving the Leopold Conservation Award), Livingston, MT – August 2017
  • Honor’s Program Freshmen Welcome Seminar, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO – August 2017 (book was selected as the summer read for all entering Honor’s Program freshmen)     
  • Michigan Technological University – Great Lakes Research Center, Houghton, MI – September 2017
  • Rocky Mountain Flycasters chapter of Trout Unlimited, Fort Collins, CO – March 2018
  • Society for Freshwater Science, Annual Meeting, Detroit, MI – May 2018
  • Foothills Rotary Club and Rotary Club of Fort Collins, Fort Collins, CO – September 2018 and March 2019
  • Invited Annual James Karr Lecture in Aquatic Biology, University of Illinois and Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, IL – April 2019
  • Adams Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Traverse City, MI – May 2019
  • Friends of the Mt. Evans and Lost Creek Wilderness, Evergreen, CO – December 2019
  • World Fisheries Congress, Invited plenary presentation, Adelaide, Australia – September 2021

What is essential about rivers for fish, and humans?

  • Symposium on conservation of Sakhalin taimen (itou), Sarafutsu, Hokkaido, Japan – May 2016
  • The World of Trout: 1st International Trout Congress – Bozeman, MT – October 2016
  • Meijo University – Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Nagoya, Japan – January 2017
  • Kobe University – Symposium on the Ecology and Evolution of Stream Fish – Department of Biology, Kobe, Japan – March 2017
  • Japan National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Nikko, Japan – March 2017
  • International conference on engineering and ecohydrology for fish passage – Invited plenary talk, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR – June 2017
  • Elk River Alliance, Fernie, British Columbia – July 2017
  • Distinguished Ecologist Lecture Series, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI – September 2017
  • River Ecology and Management Group, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden – October 2017
  • Laboratory of Animal Ecology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido – January 2018
  • Keynote presentation, Sapporo Wild Salmon Project Citizen’s Forum, Sapporo, Hokkaido – January 2018
  • Cache la Poudre River Forum, Greeley, CO – February 2018
  • Invited William Main Annual Seminar, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA – May 2018
  • Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykyavik, Iceland – June 2019
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Assembly for Aquatic Science and Hydrology annual meeting, Fort Collins, CO – October 2019
  • Department of Biology, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA – September 2020
  • American Fisheries Society, North Central Rivers and Streams Committee annual meeting – March 2022

Environmental problems in stream ecosystems and potential solutionsInvited international seminar speaker – Student training program in global environmental issues – Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Meijo, University, Nagoya, Japan – January 2017

Crossing boundaries: Shigeru Nakano’s enduring legacy for ecologyEcological Society of Japan annual meeting, Tokyo, Japan – March 2017

The importance of connectivity for stream fish: evidence from 30 years of researchU.S. Forest Service workshop on designing for passage of aquatic organisms at road crossings, Loveland, CO – April 2017

Dolly Varden jaw morphology diverges in sympatry with whitespotted charr versus allopatry in two Hokkaido catchments – 9th International Charr Symposium, Duluth, MN – June 2018

Exploring the mystery of charrs: Relationships among their ecology, zoogeography, and evolution in Hokkaido, Japan – Department of Aquaculture and Fish Biology, Holar University, Holar, Iceland – June 2019

Reconciling ecological interactions across time scales in the Hokkaido stream-forest ecosystem – co-author with A. Marcarelli and five others.  American Fisheries Society and The Wildlife Society joint annual meeting, Reno, NV – September 2019

Shape-shifting charr: Dolly Varden jaw morphology and diet diverge in sympatry vs. allopatry across Hokkaido catchments.  Coauthor with S. Nakano and four others.  American Fisheries Society and The Wildlife Society joint annual meeting, Reno, NV – September 2019

Dolly Varden jaw morphology shifts when together with whitespotted charr in Hokkaido streams: another mechanism for coexistence of close competitors?  Coauthor with S. Nakano and four others.  Colorado-Wyoming Chapter of the American Fisheries Society annual meeting, Laramie, WY – February 2020

Thinking like a trout: What we know about how trout select habitat in streams.  Eighth Annual Workshop on Science for Trout Stream Restoration.  Stevens Point, WI – August 2020.

The power of stories.  Invited plenary presentation, Colorado-Wyoming American Fisheries Society annual meeting, Laramie, WY – March 2021.

Knowing rivers for life: continuing the journey.  The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR – March 2021.

Awe, ethics, and river conservation.  Invited presentation to the World Wisdoms Project, Fort Collins, CO – April 2021.

Food webs in space: how individual fish behavior affects a linked stream-riparian ecosystem.  Invited presentation to Senior Capstone Course, Dept. of Biology, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA – October 2022.

Food webs in space: the influence of individual fish behavior on linked stream-riparian ecosystems.  Invited plenary presentation to the Commemorative Symposium for the 38th International Prize for Biology, given to Dr. Katsumi Tsukamoto, University of Tokyo.  Held at the National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan – December 2022.

The past, present, and a future for charr in Japan.  Invited keynote talk, 10th International Charr Symposium, Nikko, Japan. – May 2023.

Short videos linked to the book: For the Love of Rivers

I collaborated with Jeremy Monroe and Dave Herasimtschuk of Freshwaters Illustrated who filmed and produced six short videos that touch on themes from the book. All are online, along with the book trailer from the RiverWebs documentary, at my website for the book.