Aelna Sakamoto is a first year ESE student interested in ecosystem restoration and wants to help improve conditions at the Salton Sea. Aelna received her BS in Biology and her MS in Environmental Studies from California State University, Fullerton and works as a wildlife biologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers and works on Civil Works Projects in the planning division.
She is currently the lead biologist on the Imperial Streams Salton Sea Feasibility Study conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers, a study approved by congress to evaluate different alternative solutions for the Sea, in partnership with California Department of Water Resources and the Salton Sea Authority.
Working for the Department of Defense and growing up in California, she has noticed a gap in resources related to West Coast ecosystems and is motivated to fill that gap, starting with ecosystem modeling for Salton Sea, California’s largest inland body of water and a very important stopover for the birds of the Pacific Flyway