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I started my career in Breckenridge, Colorado working on Ski Patrol and studying avalanches, their stability, triggers, and flow down the mountains. I worked summers for the US Forest Service and helped researchers at Colorado State University with geomorphic data collection. I spent time in New Mexico working on the Rio Grande river collecting field data for FLO-2D (two dimensions) erosion and sedimentation models by measure bed load and suspended load above Cochiti Reservoir. It was there I started thinking about water and sand moving through rivers and how it contrasts with humans need for agriculture, drinking water and municipal supply. I think a lot about how we reshape rivers because of those influences.

I then returned to school at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colorado to pursue and receive a masters in Civil Engineering with a focus on hydrology, hydraulics, erosion and sedimentation in rivers. After graduation from CSU, I worked on the San Joaquin River Restoration Project in California as a hydraulic modeler and used bathymetric data to calibrate models (1D HEC-RAS) just to highlight another early career example. I was fortunate to work with very smart people who helped me understand data collection, model calibration, erosion and sedimentation upstream and downstream of large reservoirs. I have learned many lessons over the years and I hope to share those lessons with people willing to listen about water, floods, fires and floods after fires and how these big events are difficult to discuss.

Its been all uphill and downhill since then. The cover photo is a river bend in an alluvial fan north of Boulder, Colorado on Left Hand Creek. After the 2013 floods on the Colorado Front Range I spent a few years working with homeowners restoring process within the constraints of a neighborhood and water diversion structures upstream and downstream. That experience taught me to get up and out from the desk and out with the people to explain what I do in design, how I can reduce flood risk, not eliminate flood risk.

There are places with higher and lower flood hazard. When we choose to live in high hazard areas, we need to understand the risk to ourselves and the property. The world is changing. We need to adapt quickly to those changes and alter where and how we live. Please reach out and schedule a one on one meeting if you have questions about flood hazard in the mountains. I am a licensed professional water resource engineer in Colorado, Utah, Washington and Montana.