Rob Buffler, Principle of Buffalo Fish Solutions, is an experienced conservation biologist and restoration ecologist who has worked in fish, wildlife, and vegetation habitat protection, monitoring, reclamation, and management across North American for 25 years. Rob has worked at the watershed and landscape scale on integrated terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem conservation and restoration strategies; and provided environmental consulting services to First Nations, industry, government, and ENGOs. He has served as Executive Director of Great River Greening and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
Buffler is a life-long hunter, angler, forager of wild foods, and cook. Co-author of Fishing for Buffalo (University of Minnesota Press), Rob has led natural history tours, fly fishing and wilderness river trips, and implemented environmental education programs. Selected projects/experience/training follow:
Aquatic ecosystems projects:
- President of Headwaters Trout, focused on protection and restoration of native salmonids (westslope cutthroat and bull trout) in the upper Bow River Watershed, AB.
- Completed Stream Restoration Hydraulics Course, Dr. Robert Newbury, University of New Brunswick.
- Produced report “Improving Ecological Function of the Upper Bow Watershed,” a report focused on recovery of Westslope cutthroat and bull trout in Alberta’s upper Bow River watershed, with Montana State University.
- Designed an in-stream habitat and riparian vegetation restoration plan for Forest Lawn Creek, City of Calgary
- Insured fish passage, fish rescue, in-stream channel restoration, and turbidity monitoring for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout in Jumpingpound, Prairie, Canyon, and other streams in AB, during bridge construction.
- Surveyed trout spawning redds, stream habitat mapping, environmental assessment of streams in Banff National Park and eastslope streams of the Canadian Rockies
- Conducted a riffle/pool and overhead bank cover survey of trout habitat in Bill Griffith Creek and prescription for overhead bank cover restoration for Trout Unlimited.
- Project Manager for the “Y2Y Aquatics Conservation Strategy,” a landscape-scale protection and restoration program for native trout populations in the Y2Y ecosystem, including British Columbia’s Canadian Rockies, for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
- Assessed presence of the listed species southern brook lamprey, Ichthyomyzon gagei, in Boiling Springs and Eagle Creek, for Trout Unlimited, MN.
- Published, Fishing for Buffalo, a natural history and identification guide to non-game species in North-America’s upper mid-west watersheds, University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
- Founder and senior biologist of Great River Greening, an environmental consulting and education company focused on helping communities restore, manage, and learn about their rivers’ fish, wildlife, and plant communities, MN.
Wildlife Projects:
- Commissioned and managed “Affects of Paved Roads on Birds” report (A. Kociolek; A. Clevenger) with Western Transportation Institute, MT.
- Monitored grizzly bear movements through Bow Valley Wildlife Corridors during disturbance, AB.
- Mitigated aircraft bird strikes by restoring mesic tall-grass prairie plantings for Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport Commission.
- Produced an environmental grant making strategy for private land protection for wildlife for the Edmonton Community Foundation
- Restored bottomland hardwood forest for use by neo-tropical migrant birds in brown fields for the Saint Paul Community Foundation
Vegetation Projects:
- Developed a holistic grassland ecosystem management plan to improve native plant communities, hydrological cycle, in-stream flows, bio-diversity, and cattle production in the South Saskatchewan watershed for the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
- Surveyed for rare plants, sensitive wildlife habitat, and noxious weeds for City of Calgary during in-stream channel and riparian habitat restoration
- Reclaimed disturbed floodplain soils and forest vegetation for Xcel Energy, MN
- Restored native oak savannah habitat in a petroleum refinery buffer zone for Flint Hills Resources, MN
- Carolinian and oak/hickory forest invasive species removal, restoration, and management for City of Minneapolis, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US National Park Service, and Saint Paul Port Authority, MN
- Environmental “Field Report” and vegetation assessment for linear trail development for County of Grand Prairie, AB