Changing of the Guard at the SF Bay NERR - NERR Manager Retires, Interim Manager Appointed

Mike Vasey, the Director of the SF Bay NERR since 2013, is retiring! Mike has had a long and highly engaged career working in the San Francisco Estuary, plying his botanical expertise in the region’s wetlands along with his deeply rooted conservation biology focus. Lest he be pigeonholed, Mike also is an expert on California’s Manzanita chapparal, taking him nearby yet above his beloved wetlands. Mike’s unbridled enthusiasm and dauntlessness has found expression in many regional initiatives that will live on as part of his legacy, including his instrumental role in the NERR’s 2003 designation. Though his family is reclaiming Mike from us and we wish him great adventures, we will miss him. Yet, we all know that he will continue engaging in efforts of enduring interest. We bid him a fond farewell on August 18th.

Stuart Siegel will be stepping into these oversized shoes as the Interim Manager of the SF Bay NERR. Mike brought Stuart into the NERR in 2015 as the country’s first NERR Coastal Resilience Specialist. Mike’s foresight has since been replicated around the NERR system. Stuart brings 35 years’ experience working in the SF Estuary, restoring its tidal marshes, weighing in on regional ecosystem restoration planning, policy and adaptive management grounded in management-relevant science, pursuing nature-based strategies to address climate change and sea level rise, and bringing his strong belief in the role of communities being active participants in preparing for the effects of climate change. Stuart is very excited to step into this new role and luckily has Mike’s super secret phone number.