JEFF N. DAVIS, B.S.
Featuring Our Principal Scientist and COO
JEFF N. DAVIS, B.S.
Jeff has been a student of natural history for as long as he can remember. He spent much of his childhood exploring irrigation canals—the only semblance of wildlands in his suburban Fresno neighborhood—catching crayfish, carp, and bullfrogs; identifying tracks of skunks and raccoons; and marveling at herons and kingfishers. He got his formal educational training at Fresno City College, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, and University of Victoria.
Jeff’s career as an ecological consultant began in the early 1990s when he worked in Alaska studying the effects of petroleum development on tundra-nesting birds and in California studying the effects of timber harvest operations on marbled murrelets, housing development on California tiger salamanders, and a terrestrial oil spill on birds and mammals.
Jeff also managed a wetland sanctuary
in the Sacramento Valley, oversaw operations of a research and education center in Big Sur, and curated a natural history museum at UC Santa Cruz. Jeff has been a member of an oil spill response team since 1995. In connection with that role, he conducts bimonthly aerial surveys of marine birds and mammals throughout California continental shelf waters through UC Santa Cruz under contract with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Jeff and other team members have responded to more than one dozen oil spill incidents along the Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic coasts of the United States, providing response and natural resource damage assessment support to trustee agencies. Jeff’s perennial passion is birds. He is a Northern California regional editor for North American Birds, eBird editor for Fresno and Madera counties, and bird records compiler and science advisor for the Fresno Audubon Society. In his spare time, Jeff enjoys cycling, cooking, recreating with his family, and birding with friends.