With great sadness, GBI mourns the loss of Dr. Rick Sweitzer, our senior wildlife biologist. Rick was a passionate, dedicated team member and he will be greatly missed. He served as superb lead on numerous NEPA projects and worked tirelessly toward species preservation and habitat protection.
Rick earned his Masters and PhD degrees from the University of Nevada, Reno (1990, 1995) and accumulated more than 35 years of research experience, compliance, and teaching experience in the Western United States. He held professional positions at the University of California Davis (Postdoctoral Research, Adjunct teaching), University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Visiting), the University of North Dakota (Assistant and Associate Professor), and the University of California, Berkeley (Research Professional/Associate Professor). Rick first joined The Great Basin Institute in 2013 when he spent several years working on data analyses, and published important work on the population, biology, and ecology of the Pacific fisher in the Southern Sierra Nevada, California. as well as conservation strategies associated with this species. In all, Rick’s bibliography boasted more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in science journals including the Journal of Wildlife Management, Ecology, Conservation Biology, Forest Ecology and Management, Oecologia, Journal of Mammalogy, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Journal of Wildlife Diseases, and others. Additionally, Rick brought extensive experience with NEPA and Endangered Species Act compliance (Biological Assessments/Evaluations, Management Indicator Species Reports, etc.) to GBI.
Our sympathies go out to Rick’s family and friends. He was a quiet hero at GBI.
