Kam Bezdek is CalTrout’s Policy Associate. She provides policy support to the CalTrout regions and works with her team to build and advance CalTrout’s policy portfolio.
She spends her time advocating for CalTrout’s projects and broader environmental restoration to key decision makers in the State and Federal legislature and agencies. Kam has directly provided policy expertise and advocacy for dam removal and fish passage barrier remediation, key water rights modernization legislation, and aquatic species monitoring programs. Kam’s primary focus is to assist CalTrout’s regional directors and managers in securing the necessary funding and regulatory change needed to implement large-scale, long-term freshwater restoration projects throughout the state.
Kam works closely with the CalTrout Central Valley Team and is active in the Floodplain Forward Coalition, working within long-standing partnerships to build policy solutions for multi-benefit and nature-based solutions. She also attends and provides support to the members of the California Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout.
Kam currently lives and works in Sacramento, and enjoys visiting her family in Maryland.
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Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.