Robert E. Bilby is the manager of the National Marine Fisheries
Services Watershed Processes Program at the Northwest Fisheries Science
Center in Seattle. . He received a B.S. in zoology from the University of
Rhode Island and a Ph.D. in aquatic ecology from Cornell University.
Bilby was an aquatic ecologist with Weyerhaeuser Company from 1980 through
1998. He is an affiliate faculty member at the University of Washington
Center for Streamside Studies and currently serves as President of the
Western Division of the American Fisheries Society. Bilbys research has
focused on the response of stream ecosystems and salmon populations to
human actions. This work has included investigation of the role of large
wood in streams and the impact of forestry on this material, response of
stream trophic systems to disturbances, production of sediment by logging
roads and its effect on stream biota and the effectiveness of instream
habitat enhancement efforts. Over the last 8 years Bilby has used stable
isotope analysis to quantify the important contribution that spawning
salmon make to the nutrient capital and productivity of streams.