Personal Statement

Hugh brings over 20 years of experience designing and managing restoration projects throughout the Pacific Northwest. He has managed multiple large scale riparian, grasslands, oak woodland, native plant, and salmonid habitat restoration projects throughout the North Coast of California with multiple private and agency partners. He specializes in bio-engineering and native plant restoration design and implementation in riparian and grassland ecosystems and has managed the installation of over 1.5 million native plants and several miles of willow baffle installation/bio-engineering projects. Over the past couple years he has played a key role in designing forest health and vegetation management projects in the Mattole Watershed and Southern Humboldt County. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Vermont (2002). After attending UVM he worked for a private ecological restoration firm in Montana and California where he managed wetland, riparian, and mine restoration projects throughout the western US. Since then he has worked for the National Park Service, private firms, and as a private contractor designing and implementing various ecological restoration projects. Hugh has served as Ecosystem Restoration Program Director at the Mattole Restoration Council since 2011. He is a certified by the Society of Ecological Restoration (SER) as a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (#1079) and holds a California State Contractors License (C-27 Landscaping, C-61/D49 Tree trimming – No. 1038624). He is also a board member of SER Northwest Chapter.