Birdy Hour with Nathan Van Schmidt Jan. 28, 2025

Water has always been the heart of California, providing essential habitat for both waterbirds and people. After the Gold Rush, California experienced rapid and widespread destruction and modification of natural hydrological ecosystems and wetlands. This included the rapid conversion of Delta wetlands to peat farmland, development of many North Bay and San Francisco wetlands, and the conversion of much of south San Francisco Bay to commercial salt production ponds. To recover endangered tidal marsh birds and protect communities from sea level rise, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is now restoring large swaths of tidal marsh habitat--but they are faced with a new dilemma: many bird species that had used wetlands lost or degraded elsewhere in California have come to use the salt ponds as accidental habitat. Drawing connections across a decade of research on waterbird use of anthropogenic habitats in California and beyond, Dr. Van Schmidt will discuss the contemporary challenges and promising paradigms for conservation of waterbirds in ecosystems that have already been grappling with repeated dramatic transformations over the past 175 years.

Nathan Van Schmidt, Ph.D., is a science director at SFBBO who specializes in waterbird research and conservation. After getting a B.S. in Zoology at University of Wisconsin-Madison, he moved out to California to pursue a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. His dissertation focused on understanding how human-created wetlands allowed rails to persist through California's droughts. He has held a variety of other positions at the U.S. Geological Survey, U.C. Santa Cruz, and the International Crane Foundation, where he has researched cranes, sage-grouse, and water sustainability and policy. Nathan has lived in the Bay Area for over a decade and is excited to be working at SFBBO and finally studying the landscape he lives in. His interdisciplinary research approach focuses on understanding how waterbirds, their habitats, and human decision-making around those precious natural resources co-evolve over time. He combines field research with simulation models that forecast those changes into the future, with the aim of identifying effective long-term conservation strategies that can allow birds to adapt to the pressures posed by ongoing climate change and development.