Tag: Andrew Rypel
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Walling off nature: Exploring the consequences of our urge to claim ecosystems
By Andrew L. Rypel . . . [This article first appeared on Tangled Nature.] It’s one of the first memories. Getting into the little v-hull aluminum boat with Dad on the shoreline of a small sandy lake. It’s summer in northern Wisconsin and water lilies surround the deep parts of the lake like ancient ecological…
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Where the sturgeon go: how age-related differences in habitat use shape exposure of white sturgeon to population risks
By Jon Walter, Gabriel Singer, Scott Colborne, Andrew L. Rypel, and Erin Tracy . . . White sturgeon are a prominent member of the sturgeon family in North America. They are generally considered the largest fish found in North American freshwaters (up to 12 feet long) and are quite long-lived (reaching 100 years or more).…
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Being the Lorax
By Andrew L. Rypel “Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean, and the song of the Swomee-Swans rang out in space…one morning, I came to this glorious place. And I first saw the trees! The Truffula Trees! The bright-colored…
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Change at the Center for Watershed Sciences
By Karrigan Börk Readers of the California Water Blog (Blog) may have noticed some changes over the past year. The Blog is a product of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS), and after many years of dedicated service, longtime CWS leaders Dr. Andrew Rypel (Director) and Dr. Cathryn Lawrence (Assistant Director) are transitioning…
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Build it, and they will come: Early evidence for establishment of Chinook salmon in Putah Creek, CA
By Lauren G. Hitt, Malte Willmes, Mackenzie C. Miner, Max Stevenson, Carson A. Jeffres, Robert A. Lusardi, Nann A. Fangue, and Andrew L. Rypel For the third year in a row, regulators have canceled California’s commercial Chinook salmon fishing season.Poor spawning salmon returns in 2024 and low predicted numbers of salmon in the ocean during 2025…
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A Conservation Footprint for Multiple Species of Wildlife in California Rice
By John M. Eadie, Daniel S. Karp, and Andrew L. Rypel Picture a farm. Only one crop type is grown over a vast field stretching to the horizon. Signs of modern agriculture are everywhere— tractors slowly driving by, fields engineered in neat squares, with millions of precisely spaced plants. All cues indicate much food will…
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Dear Santa: A California Water Holiday Wish List
by folks at UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences: Karrigan Börk, John Durand, Jay Lund, Christine Parisek, Andrew Rypel, Kathleen Schaefer, Jonathan Walter (authors listed alphabetically, and all are now PhDs. Congratulations to Doctors Parisek and Schaefer!) ‘Tis the season of gift-giving (and gift-seeking). So we thought a California Water Holiday wish list might be…
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Black Bass Diversity in California
By Peter B. Moyle and Andrew L. Rypel When both of us began studying the freshwater fishes of California, we independently discovered most fishes found in reservoirs and other highly altered habitats belonged to non-native species. Anglers and many fishery managers had pretty much accepted the reality that freshwater recreational fisheries are focused on non-native…
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Watching native fishes vanish
By Andrew L. Rypel and Peter B. Moyle It’s an odd, disturbing feeling – watching populations of native fish species collapse and then disappear. Sometimes it happens quickly, other times it’s a series of slowstep change events. The end result is the same though – smaller populations, extinctions, less biodiversity. We put up a little…
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Mornings at the Duck Pond
By Andrew L. Rypel Each morning is similar, but different. As we approach the pond on the wooden catwalk, you can hear the birds calling, eventually you start to smell the freshness of the ecosystem, the glitters and splashing ahead gives some indication of bird activity on the water. Sometimes an alligator lizard scoots past…
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Seven conservation lessons I learned in government work
By Andrew L. Rypel *this is a repost of a blog originally published in 2020. Before joining the faculty at UC Davis, I spent the previous five years as a research scientist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in Madison, Wisconsin. Apparently this experience is somewhat rare among academics. A peer even once described…
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Schooling Fish: Behind the Scenes of Putah Creek Fish Sampling
By Christine A. Parisek, Peter B. Moyle, Joshua Porter, and Andrew L. Rypel It’s a curious thing, teaching a classroom of future fish conservationists about revitalizing degraded ecosystems. Putah Creek was an unconventional place to teach ecology. After the creek turned bad, it stayed that way for decades – deteriorated habitat, nonexistent flow, garbage, rusted cars,…
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Dispatches From the Deep Pacific
By: Sophie R. Sanchez, Christine A. Parisek, Andrew L. Rypel Monsters are lurking… Off the coast of California, down in the chilly depths of the Pacific Ocean, there lie the most unsettling denizens that appear summoned from the nightmares of Mira Grant. Here in the inky blackness, where nature spawned these most otherworldly configurations, inhabitants…
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Wetlands on the Edge
By Andrew L. Rypel It’s really easy to overlook and undervalue wetlands. Some are small or just don’t look very important. Others are enormous, and cause flooding issues for homeowners and growers. Some might even think wetlands are gross, worry about mosquitos and vector borne illness, or have never experienced what it’s like to be…
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Shell-shocking Details About Freshwater Mussel Reproduction
By Andrew L. Rypel, Miranda Bell Tilcock, and Christine A. Parisek One of our favorite aspects of teaching is (occasionally) being able to really surprise a student. Many of the fun nature facts folks pick up nowadays come from TV, YouTube, social media, and other media outlets. But these outlets have an inherent bias: they…
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Putah Creek’s rebirth: a model for reconciling other degraded streams?
By Emily Jacinto, Nann A. Fangue, Dennis E. Cocherell, Joseph D. Kiernan, Peter B. Moyle, and Andrew L. Rypel It’s hard to look at native fishes in Putah Creek and not grin a little. Be it a Sacamento Pikeminnow (below), a Sacramento Sucker, a Tule Perch, or even a Chinook Salmon – Putah Creek has…
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Facing the Dragon: California’s Nasty Ecological Debts
By Andrew L. Rypel “Every time you borrow money, you’re robbing your future self.” ~N. Morris When I was younger, a close friend of mine struggled with a crippling debt. It was during that unique period shortly before and after college graduation. He had, in relatively short order, maxed out three credit cards, plus taken…
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What’s the dam problem with deadbeat dams?
by Andrew L. Rypel, Christine A. Parisek, Jay Lund, Ann Willis, Peter B. Moyle, Sarah Yarnell, Karrigan Börk *this is a repost of a blog originally published in June 2020. Damming rivers was once a staple of public works and a signal of technological and scientific progress. Even today, dams underpin much of California’s public…