Why Ecology?

One of the most common questions I get when people hear that I am undertaking my 4th graduate degree is entirely understandable…why? In fact, my ‘interview’ with my major professor involved just one question. He told me I was going to have to convince him that I was not a crazy person for wanting to start another degree immediately after finishing a seven year Phd.[1] The truth is, I discovered that UCD was the #1 ecology program and offered a non-thesis masters about half way through the PhD and I was so excited about it that the program kind of became the ‘carrot’ to finish the dissertation. But, the truth is, though I find ecology thrilling and would probably want to study it even if there was not professional benefit for me…it coheres remarkably well with my skill set and who I am trying to become vocationally. So, by way of prologue[2] here is an abbreviated version of the statement of purpose I submitted to get into the program.

It has been just over a decade since I started my career as a river scientist. Mostly that work has revolved around geomorphology and numerical modeling of physical river processes. I have acquired an MS and a PhD in these fields and am the sediment transport specialist the U. S. Amy Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) hydrologic center of expertise (Hydrologic Engineering Center - HEC). But I have come to believe that in order to do this work well in the coming decades it will be imperative for me to understand rivers as ecological, in addition to, physical systems.

My position at HEC gives me a unique vantage point on the trends and direction of the sediment transport field and I have come to believe that it is in the midst of a dramatic transition. I have found that the sediment issues my agency and others are trying to understand are increasingly interdisciplinary and, in particular, ecological in nature. Thirty years ago, sediment modelers were employed primarily to compute dredging volumes or determine how long it would take for a reservoir to fill. But the field has undergone something of a renaissance. Over half of the sediment related questions agencies are asking relate directly to the interactions of the physical and biological systems.

With the explosion of interest in river restoration and augmenting the ecological functionality of our nation’s waterways, it has become more important than ever that federal decision makers and quantitative analysts pursue rigorous, multidisciplinary understandings of the complex interactions of the physical and biological processes. USACE engineers in my cohort sometimes nervously joke that we are making careers undoing what previous generations did (restoring channelized rivers and removing dams). My goal is that future generations will not have to spend their careers fixing our misguided attempts at ‘restoration.’

This is my primary purpose for applying to UCD’s Ecology program. I find myself in an era of interdisciplinary decision making and feel the need, as a designated agency expert, to become more interdisciplinary myself. Interdisciplinary teams are imperative, but those teams perform much more effectively when composed of individuals with broad interdisciplinary backgrounds. It is exhilarating to be part of a field undergoing such a paradigmatic upheaval. But I am left feeling that if I am to be a meaningful contributor to this transition, I need to cultivate an ecological expertise on par with the physical sciences education I have acquired.

As an agency funded, non-thesis Master’s student, you will find me to be a highly motivated, low maintenance learner. I will be eager to collaborate with students or professors if my existing skill set proves valuable but should not be substantially burden department resources. Accepting my application would be a strategic way for UCD to infuse[3] a controversial but greening agency with rigorous ecological tools.

When my co-workers have asked why I want to peruse this degree my response has often been, “There is a vast collection of some of the top ecological minds in the world five blocks from our office. It seems irresponsible NOT to utilize that resource.”
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[1] It is worth noting, that I worked full time during this degree, making 7 years a pretty good pace.
[2] Or post-script, since, though this will be the first post, it will show up at the end of the blog.
[3] I like to think of myself as a USB port between the academy and the agency.