Charles (Si) Simenstad’s career as an estuarine and coastal marine ecologist originated with his B.S. and M.S., both in Fisheries, from the University of Washington. Since then, he has conducted research on Puget Sound, the Washington coast, and Alaska for over twenty-three years, focusing on: ecological mechanisms whereby estuarine and coastal wetlands and other shallow habitats to support fish (especially juvenile Pacific salmon) and wildlife; basic ecosystem-, community- and habitat-level interactions, with emphasis on predator-prey relationships; the sources, organization and flow of organic matter through food webs; restoration, creation and enhancement of estuarine and coastal wetland ecosystems; and using ecological approaches to evaluating the success of anthropogenic stressors, such as the introduction of exotic species, and ecosystem manipulations, such as freshwater flow alteration. Since 1990, he has been particularly dedicated to: (1) coordinating the Wetland Ecosystem Team, a small team of research scientists, educators, and graduate students that conducts both basic and applied research on these topics; (2) acting as Principal Investigator of the Columbia River Estuarine Turbidity Maxima (CRETM) Land-Margin Ecosystem Research (LMER) program, a NSF-supported ecosystem-scale study of ecological couplings between physical, geochemical and biological processes in the lower Columbia River and estuary; and, (3) coordinating the University of Washington-US Environmenatal Protection Agency, Region 10 Cooperative Agreement for Coordinaton of Wetland Ecology Studies.