Search - Dr. H. Scott Butterfield

Led by Pacific Union College Scientist in Residence, Dr. Scott Butterfield, a new grebe monitoring project has literally taken "flight" over Clear Lake. Funded by a multi-year grant from the California Natural Resources Agency, and in collaboration with the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake, Redbud Audubon Society, Robinson Rancheria, Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Lake County Land Trust, Anderson March Interpretive Association, California State Parks, and Upper Lake, Lower Lake, and Clear Lake High Schools, the project is focused on developing new drone-based methods that will allow Dr. Butterfield and high school students from across Lake County conduct annual monitoring of grebes, their nests, eggs, and hatchlings at Clear Lake and to help tell the story about how restoration efforts currently happening at Clear Lake are impacting these iconic bird species.This year, like many in the past, the grebes of Clear Lake are tucked into channels and within and behind wetland vegetation that is hard to access, even with kayaks and boats. Over the Memorial Day weekend, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Board members Gae Henry and Henry Bornstein used their pontoon boat to carefully guide Dr. Butterfield and his collaborator Donna Mackiewicz from Redbud...

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...

Pacific Union College Professors Drs. Scott Butterfield and Floyd Hayes from the biology department were awarded two grants totaling over $300k from the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake and the National Audubon Society's Audubon in Action program to develop a monitoring program for grebes, a bioindicator of ecosystem health, at Clear Lake. With this project, they will collaborate with partners from the Redbud Audubon Society, Upper Lake High School, Lower Lake High School, Robinson Rancheria Environmental Center, Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, and Lake County. Grebes are aquatic diving birds that serve as bioindicators of the lakes' overall ecosystem health, allowing biologists to monitor complex systems more cost-effectively and sustainably. If the lake is healthy, the number of grebes increases while decreasing if it is unhealthy. In 2022, Hayes published a review of grebe monitoring in Clear Lake that showed the rise and fall of grebe numbers over the past 70 years.Hayes's review inspired him and Butterfield to consider how grebe monitoring could be improved with new technologies, such as those being developed and tested in PUC's conservation technology and data science programs, including drones, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. In the new...