David Wappler Field Research Associate
David has an extensive 22 years of experience in biological surveys, biological monitoring and report writing. After graduating from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1986 with a double major in Environmental Studies and Economics, David’s first career was in Environmental Education, working as a Naturalist for The Outdoor School (Santa Barbara County) teaching natural sciences to 6th graders in an experiential education setting. In 1993 David had his first restoration related job working as a Riparian Restoration Assistant on the Kern River Preserve for the Nature Conservancy.
In 1994, David transitioned to construction monitoring, serving as an Environmental Monitor on the state water pipeline project in SLO and SB counties. In 1998, David and his wife Gisele Jones (deceased April 13, 2022) moved to northern California where David served as the Environmental Officer of Lake County, conducting environmental reviews and monitoring of a range of projects, including vineyard expansion, mining, and long-range planning.
They returned to southern California in 2003 and David worked for BioResource Consultants as a Field Biologist, conducting nesting bird surveys, other biological surveys, and monitoring of SCE crews. In 2012 David become a Nesting Bird Biologist on a 151 mile long SCE transmission line project in the Colorado and Mojave Deserts and worked with teams of other avian biologists to find and monitor active bird nests. In 2015 David signed on with Rincon Consultants as an Associate Biologist where he still works today and has had a wide range of assignments from Nesting Bird Biologist on the SCE Santa Barbara County Reliability Project to monitoring a SCG gas pipeline maintenance project in the Santa Monica Mountains, which has required extensive nesting bird surveying ahead of construction.
In 2016 David started volunteering with WFVZ, assisting with bird banding on the Hedrick Ranch Nature Preserve. In 2019, David started working for WFVZ conducting avian point counts, nesting bird surveys, least Bell’s vireo presence/absence surveys, and monitoring vegetation treatment crews along the Santa Clara River. David has written compliance reports for WFVZ summarizing arundo and other non-native plant eradication, nesting bird survey results and making recommendations to reduce the impact restoration projects have on nesting birds and their habitats. David founded his own business (David Wappler Biological Consulting) in 2012. He enjoys birding, bicycling, swimming and keeping up on current events in his spare time and is always looking forward to the next bird nesting season.