Where are they now: Mollie Ogaz

“Where are they now:” is the first in a new blog series on the California WaterBlog, written in the voices of our alumni. The series will celebrate the many alumni who got their start at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) and have now gone on to bigger and better things. Blog posts from the “Where are they now:” series will be peppered throughout our regularly scheduled line up blogs, and they will highlight both former students and past employees of CWS. We hope you enjoy their stories in their own words.

First up is Mollie Ogaz, who was at CWS intermittently from 2013 – 2021.

Mollie Ogaz holds an American shad on the Lower Yuba River. Photo Credit: CFS Staff

Remote electrofishing on Piru Creek in Ventura County, CA. Photo Credit: CFS Staff

My career in fisheries began at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) with the Tuolumne River undergraduate Ecogeomorphology class in the spring of 2013, led by Josh Viers (now Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at UC Merced), Carson Jeffres, and Sarah Yarnell. In that class I discovered my love for rivers (and rafting)! After graduation, I stuck around and volunteered to help Sarah on the creation of the Tuolumne Meadows virtual field trip. From there, I was paid as an undergraduate, then a Junior Specialist. And when Carson needed fyke netting help on the Cosumnes River, I jumped at the chance. After a year away from CWS, at the Department of Water Resources (DWR), I returned and spent the next 3 years leading field work and managing lab tasks for Carson in the Johnson & Jeffres (JJ) Lab. In 2019, I returned to school where Carson supported me through my Master’s degree in Ecology. All in all (including my time as a Master’s student), I worked at CWS for 7 years. A favorite memory of mine is spending a day on the McCormack-Williamson Tract in 2017 with Miranda Bell Tilcock, Carson, and Luna (the famous boat dog), singing ridiculous songs, cracking Arrested Development jokes, and attempting to set fyke nets from the jet boat in the flooded tract.

Boat Captain Mollie Ogaz with Miranda Bell Tilcock and best dog Luna on the McCormick Williamson Tract sampling. Photo Credit: Miranda Tilcock

Leaving CWS was a hard decision, but I now work as a Fisheries Biologist at Cramer Fish Sciences (CFS), implementing many of my skills honed at CWS to support fisheries management and habitat restoration in Central Valley rivers, lakes, and the Delta. Specifically, a few of my main projects include a mark-recapture growth study of juvenile Chinook Salmon on the Lower Yuba River, monitoring dissolved oxygen levels on the lower American River to support spawning Chinook Salmon, and operating Cramer’s Sampling Platform to assess fish assemblage changes in restoration areas, such as levee setback sites.

“I spent many hours in the field with Mollie while she piloted the boat, so I am very familiar with how she looks while piloting a boat even if it’s from a distance. One day while at the Nimbus Hatchery with my son’s class on a field trip, I saw a boat jetting along the American River and immediately recognized Mollie, even though she was really far away. I yelled “that’s my friend Mollie!” which made all the 2nd graders scream with excitement. The kids were super excited that I knew the scientist on the boat. I even text messaged her and got her to wave at all the kids, and I was basically the coolest mom for the rest of the day because I knew the person on the boat and got her to wave at us. All thanks to Mollie and Cramer Fish Sciences sampling along the American River on the day we were there for school. Thanks Mollie!”
– CWS Deputy Director Miranda Bell-Tilcock.

Mollie Ogaz and Jamie Byrne measuring susbstrate permeability in artificlal redds on the Sacramento River. Photo Credit: Jasmine Williamshen

About the Author

Mollie Ogaz is currently a Fisheries Biologist at Cramer Fish Sciences. Throughout her fisheries career, Mollie has led backpack electrofishing surveys, rotary screw trapping, beach seining, fyke trapping, gillnetting, and macroinvertebrate and zooplankton collection throughout California. She is an expert at identifying California’s diverse freshwater fishes, as well as being an experienced boat operator in lakes, rivers, and deltas. Mollie also has extensive experience in analyzing fisheries diet and growth data and using linear models to explore migration cues. Learn more about Mollie’s work here.

Further Reading

Ogaz, M., A. L. Rypel, R. Lusardi, M. Peter, and C. Jeffres. 2022. “Behavioral Cues Enable Native Fishes to Exit a California Floodplain While Leaving Non-Native Fishes Behind.” Ecosphere 13, no. 12: e4293. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.4293

Support experiences like this

If this story resonated with you, consider making a gift to the Center to help us create more meaningful opportunities for students across our programs. Want to support the specific experience featured here? You can do that too, by supporting the CWS Ecogeomorphology Fund and CWS Fishes, Floodplains, and Springs Research.