Seth White – Principal Investigator
seth.white@oregonstate.edu
Dr. Seth White is an Associate Professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University. He is a fisheries scientist specializing in river ecosystems and Pacific Salmon, and currently serves as an invited member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He was previously a Senior Fisheries Scientist at Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission for 13 years where he established and continues to foster relationships with tribes. He has been a Conservation Science Fellow at the Wilburforce Foundation and COMPASS, a Fulbright Fellow to Czech Republic, and a founding member of the Grande Ronde Atlas Science Advisory Committee that developed a habitat restoration prioritization method that has been widely adopted in the Columbia River basin. He is an enthusiastic angler and supports sustainable recreational, commercial, and tribal fisheries
Kayla Kelley – MS Student
kayla.kelley@oregonstate.edu
Kayla’s research is focused on investigating juvenile Chinook salmon dispersal patterns based on spawner origin and riverscape conditions, and juvenile abundance at habitat restoration sites in northeast Oregon. She is also interested in differences in distribution and dispersal patterns between wild and hatchery origin fish. Her project aims to better understand the spatial ecology of both adult and juvenile life stages, and the population-level benefit of restoration actions for Chinook salmon in Catherine Creek.
Kayla graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2018 with a bachelor’s in biology and a minor in environmental sciences. Prior to starting at Oregon State University, Kayla focused on native lamprey conservation in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on occupancy at restoration and superfund sites. She has also worked on management efforts for razorback sucker and Colorado pikeminnow in the Southwest, with a primary focus on fish passage research and predator-prey interactions. Kayla enjoys hiking and camping with her husband and four dogs!
Mimi Obley – PhD Student
obleym@oregonstate.edu
Mimi’s research is part of the Olfactory Imprinting Project and focuses on hatchery-reared salmon and their navigation back to their natal streams. Our current project focuses on testing different olfactants by adding them to the hatchery environment and analyzing the effects on homing behavior. She is also interested in other factors that influence straying such as hatchery location, geography, and climate change.
Mimi graduated from Asbury University in 2020 with a bachelor’s in biology. In 2021, she started a master’s degree at Oregon State University in the Integrative Biology department studying domestication selection in hatchery-reared steelhead. She is interested in fish behavior and the intersection between conservation of salmon populations and the utilization of those populations as resources. Mimi enjoys working with different art mediums and hiking with her dog!
Ashley Sanders – Faculty Research Assistant (FRA)
ashley.sanders@oregonstate.edu
Ashley’s role in the lab is to organize project logistics, assist with study design and implementation, and is here for general problem-solving capacity. She recently finished a master’s degree in the College of Forestry working with cutthroat trout populations in the headwaters of the Oregon Coast Range and before that, worked for the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) initiating a large-scale riparian buffer project. In her spare time she enjoys learning about history, botanizing, and convincing people that Corvallis is the best place in the world.
Emily Treadway – MS Student
emily.treadway@oregonstate.edu
Emily graduated from Appalachian State University in 2021 with a bachelor’s in biology. She spent her early career in outdoor education and outreach and later moved into biological research with a focus on salmonids. Emily is also an avid outdoorswoman with backpacking and rock climbing at the top of the list.
Emily currently works for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in the East Region Fish Research office. Her research is investigating straying of adult hatchery spring Chinook in the Wenaha River in Northeastern Oregon. It will encompass the temporal and spatial distribution of both hatchery and natural fish through intensive spawning grounds surveys and inform future management practices on how best to mitigate hatchery fish impacts on natural spring Chinook populations.
