Chris Frissell

Chris Frissell began teaching at SKC in spring of 2020. He holds a B.A. in Zoology from the University of Montana, and MS and PhD degrees in Fisheries Science from Oregon State University. His graduate studies concerned stream classification and the relation of watershed and stream channel processes and management of land and water to stream biota to declining and endangered salmon populations.

He later worked as Assistant, Associate, and Affiliate Research Professor at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station. There he and his graduate students studied thermal ecology, conservation ecology, and implications of climate change for fishes and amphibians in the intermountain West and Pacific Northwest, and taught upper-division field courses in conservation and ecology. Around 2000 he began work as Senior Scientist and later Director of Science and Conservation for the Pacific Rivers Council, a public interest NGO serving the greater Pacific Northwest and California.

Later he established an independent consulting firm, working on hydrological, fisheries, and freshwater conservation projects around the region. His work has spanned the gamut from basic research, to scientific review of government environmental and planning efforts, preparing endangered species petitions, conservation design research for agencies and tribes, expert work in environmental litigation, instream flow cases, and Congressional testimony. He has numerous professional publications and presentations on these topics.