PUC's Biology Department Engages Students to Study the Impact of Rehabilitation of Clear Lake

The Pacific Union College biology department is proud to announce that its student education and monitoring program for grebes, also known as aquatic diving birds, has been fully funded by the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) in November 2025.

Scientist in Residence Dr. Scott Butterfield  leads this program alongside Biology Professor Dr. Floyd Hayes and Chair of the School of Sciences, Aimee Wyrick. Together, they will collaborate and engage with PUC and Lake County high school students to participate in this novel scientific monitoring project, where they will use drones and AI to study the recovery of Clear Lake’s ecosystems.

“Our hope is that by building a monitoring program collaboratively with local high school students that is grounded in new and emerging technologies, we can create something that is sustainable for many years to come,” said Dr. Butterfield.

After being approved by the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake, the department received the full funding of $288,988 and officially launched the project with CNRA in November 2025. The project is valid until June 2028.

While the department waited for the funding’s approval, they have been diligently working to establish partnerships with the Redbud Audubon Society, Upper Lake High School, Lower Lake High School, Robinson Rancheria, and other local community members to foster student participation in the drone-based grebe monitoring program. To support this portion of the project, the department raised $7,000 through their partnerships with Redbud Audubon Society.

“We plan to launch drone clubs at Upper Lake High School and Lower Lake High School in Winter 2026, focused on teaching the students about how drones work, how we will use drones to monitor grebes, how AI may be used to analyze the drone data, and why grebe monitoring is an important indicator of overall Clear Lake ecosystem health,” said Dr. Butterfield. “We also plan to build paid internship programs at both high schools to provide students even more opportunities to participate in the project.”

This project will be integrated into classes at PUC, including those in Conservation Technology, Environmental Science, and Conservation Biology. These courses will provide PUC students the opportunity to participate in real-world scientific investigation, plan data collection and drone flights, collect monitoring data with drones, process and analyze drone data, create AI-based algorithms to process and analyze drone data, participate in local community and high school outreach, and produce peer-reviewed scientific journal articles – all parts of the scientific method. This grant will also fund PUC student interns to participate across various areas of the project.

The biology department is excited to offer high school and PUC students a real-life experiential learning opportunity through PUC.