Water for People and Nature
Hello! I’m Brad Wolaver. I’m a hydrologist based in New Mexico. Developing science to support conservation of aquatic and water-dependent terrestrial ecosystems is my passion. For 25 years, my career has focused on the western U.S. My interest in water started while growing up in Austin, Texas, where I hiked and observed seasonal changes in stream flow, vegetation, and wildlife on Barton Creek. During the mid-1980s, I spent two summers living in the shadow of the Mogollon Rim in Arizona and my family traveled extensively throughout Arizona and the Colorado Plateau region. We visited national parks, hiked, got lost—and more than once stuck—on forest roads, and I fell in love with the Southwest’s beautiful natural environment. I returned several years later to complete my graduate studies at the University of Arizona, where I earned a Master’s degree in Hydrology and Water Resources. My thesis studied snowmelt processes that support many of the West’s streams and forests. This project was an extension of my research as a Fulbright Scholar in Chile, where I worked with government water managers. Later during my PhD leading an interdisciplinary hydrogeology project on groundwater-dependent aquatic ecosystems of Cuatrociénegas Biosphere Reserve, Coahuila, Mexico, I applied my hydrologic experiences in Chile to studies of New Mexico’s water supply at Sandia National Laboratories. Now, I collaborate with biologists, state and federal agencies, irrigation districts, water lawyers, and engineers integrating science and water rights to assure adequate water for the conservation of native species and habitats where arid lands meet the flowing waters of the Southwest.