Meet The Team: Annie Kent, SYRCL’s Headwaters Science Program Manager

Annie Kent, SYRCL’s Headwaters Science Program Manager, has been with SYRCL since January, 2024. Growing up in the foothills of the Cascades along the Skagit River, Annie developed a sense of home and belonging along the shores of the Salish Sea and amongst the canopies of the temperate rainforests. Enjoying outdoor sports and recreation brought a strong sense of responsibility to protect and enhance the resources that sustain such activities.

Since graduating in 2019 from Skagit Valley College, Annie has dabbled in fisheries, environmental planning, environmental chemistry, and forestry work. Spending three seasons traveling with the Enterprise Program of the US Forest Service, she has worked on ten national forests in eight states! Annie is working towards an MS in Natural Resources from Oregon State University. Falling in love with the piney foothills of the Sierras through work, climbing, biking and paddling, she is so excited to put her effort towards enhancing the watershed that sustains the lives and cultures of those living and past along the Yuba. She is honored to be a part of SYRCL and work to advocate for and steward the ancestral lands of the Nisenan, Mountain Maidu, Konkow, and Washoe peoples.

As Headwaters Science Program Manager, Annie focuses on managing projects that enhance wet meadow habitat, increase water storage, improve water quality, and contribute to watershed health and fire resiliency. She does this by working on a team that develops high priority projects that align with the goals of the Tahoe National Forest and SYRCL. Part of her role is seeking funding for restoration planning, implementation, and monitoring; this enables work to expand in the Yuba River Watershed.

The work Annie does at SYRCL contributes to the watershed and world at large by enhancing sensitive ecosystems that are powerhouses at sequestering and storing carbon and that provide premier wildlife habitat and refuge. By restoring meadow habitats, more water is retained in the soil which creates a natural fire break and provides clean and cool water later into the dry season. Our team at SYRCL helps to protect water quantity and quality to downstream users, protects and enhances wildlife habitat, provides sustainable recreation opportunities, and serves as a natural fire break that protects the surrounding communities.