About.

This site is a working notebook for independent research on Western water, public lands, infrastructure, extraction, and the obligations that follow from them.

I came to this work by an unusual path. I studied biochemistry and molecular biology, then spent years in biotechnology and lab automation working with volumes measured by the microliter, roughly 12 orders of magnitude smaller than an acre-foot. I still love instruments, finicky systems, messy source material, and the strange satisfaction of coaxing physical reality into something you can actually measure, chart, and understand.

Here, the units are larger: acre-feet, reservoir elevations, stream gauges, snowpack, legal decisions, public records, and landscapes changed by infrastructure. The work still asks for the same patience with source material, assumptions, uncertainty, and evidence.

The current case studies are the Colorado River and Glen Canyon Dam and Mono Lake and LADWP Exports, places where climate, hydrology, law, engineering, public lands, and public obligation become impossible to separate.

I kept a photoblog ostensibly about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2025, at walkingaway.us.

You can reach me at [email protected].