After graduating with a B.S. in Environmental Biology From Humboldt State University in 2002, I have been working locally in the field of watershed rehabilitation. Over the last 14 years, I have worked for a consulting company, a state agency, a non-profit conservation organization, and a large timber company’s conservation and planning department. A couple of recent injuries have led me to conclude that my days of extensive field work in the rugged and beautiful forests of the North Coast are coming to an end. My interest in geospatial science arises from a desire to continue in the same field, albeit in a less physically taxing role.
While I have no previous formal training in geospatial science, I have been using ESRI software in some professional capacity since 2002 including most releases from ArcView 2.2 to ArcMap10.4. Some of the geospatial work I have done in the past 14 years includes geomorphic mapping of watercourses for habitat restoration and mapping access points for heavy equipment to construct instream habitat structures. I have analyzed successive series of stereoscopic air photos for a riparian vegetation historical report and for road construction historical reports, as well as digitized an aerial photo library. I have geo-rectified scanned paper maps and digitized the line and point work contained in them. I have made maps for project planning and to accompany project reports. I have joined tables to existing spatial datasets and used queries, selections, and buffers to find relevant subsets of data. I have processed my own GPS data and used orthorectified air photos and LiDAR to verify and correct points and linework. Finally, I have helped in lesser roles to develop multiple spatially linked databases.
In doing all these things, though, I only learned what I needed to know in order to accomplish the task at hand, no more, no less. I am excited to finally gain a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of geospatial science that I can use to pivot my career to a more indoor role. I look forward to doing more data analysis, now that my data collection days are mostly behind me. I am particularly interested in the applying what I am learning about geospatial science to the field of watershed rehabilitation.
Here is a copy of my most recent resume:
Davin R. Peterson 