Julie Zimmerman, in March 2015, leads a group of first-grade students who joined with agency scientists to experience working as a field biologist on the American River at the location of last year’s habitat restoration project. - Photo Credit: Steve Martarano/USFWS

By Steve Martarano

Julie Zimmerman, a biologist in the Pacific Southwest Region’s San Francisco Bay-Delta Fish and Wildlife Office, has been awarded a 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Environmental Leadership award for her work restoring quality spawning and rearing habitat for harmed species on the lower American River.

Since 2011, Zimmerman has worked as a co-lead with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and a collaborative group of agencies and stakeholder scientists to add thousands of tons of strategically placed gravel at several sites in the lower American River outside Sacramento to improve habitat for Chinook salmon and steelhead, a federally listed threatened species.

“This work has greatly improved the condition of fish habitat for Chinook salmon and steelhead and provided improved spawning conditions for thousands of Chinook salmon and steelhead in California’s lower American River in the past several years,” read the submission nominating Zimmerman for the award.

“The program has been a real team effort; this shows what can be done with a collaborative team of partners working together,” Zimmerman said. “Our monitoring shows that the program is working. We’re seeing the benefits at a time the numbers of fish have been declining because of the drought.”

Earlier this year, Zimmerman led a group of approximately 90 first-grade students from Dewey Elementary School in Fair Oaks who joined with agency scientists to experience working as a field biologist on the American River at the location of last year’s habitat restoration project.

A September 2014 story on Zimmerman’s involvement in the program can be found at http://www.fws.gov/FieldNotes/regmap.cfm?arskey=35264

A total of 12 Service recipients were awarded nationally. This year's awards are in four main categories: Hatchery of the Year, Refuge of the Year, Facility/Office Environmental Leadership, and Individual Environmental Leadership.

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Steve Martarano is the public affairs specialist at the San Francisco Bay-Delta Fish and Wildlife Office in Sacramento, California.