Meet the San Francisco Bay Area Network’s 2025-2026 Watershed Stewards

By Watershed Stewards Program Corpsmembers Aidan Shell and Fanny Sanchez Villarreal, San Francisco Bay Area Network Salmonid Monitoring Program

Fanny Sanchez Villarreal

NPS

Aidan Shell

Courtesy Aidan Shell

December 2025 - Since 2012, the San Francisco Bay Area Inventory & Monitoring Network fisheries crew at Point Reyes National Seashore has hosted Watershed Stewards Program (WSP) Corpsmembers. Let’s meet our two newest members! They began their service in October 2025 and will be with us until mid-August 2026.

Hi, I’m Aidan Shell, one of the new WSP corpsmembers serving at Point Reyes. I am originally from Charlottesville, VA and studied conservation biology and geographic information systems (GIS) at the University of Mary Washington in northeast Virginia. During school, I conducted research on oysters and stream fish ecology. In the summers, I worked on an oyster farm and spent a semester at sea, diving and sailing, which really sparked my interest in fisheries conservation. I recently worked as a fisheries technician with Idaho Fish and Game sampling resident fish species including lake trout and kokanee. Now, I am beyond excited to start my next chapter with the San Francisco Bay Area Network’s fish crew helping monitor coho salmon and steelhead trout in Marin County watersheds! I also can’t wait to get involved with the community, as I hope to inspire the next generation's passion for fisheries. In my spare time, I enjoy playing soccer, hiking, fishing, and getting to know California!

Hi, everyone! My name is Fanny Sanchez Villarreal, and I’m the other new WSP corpsmember at Point Reyes. I graduated in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science from Arizona State University with a concentration in Conservation Biology and Ecology and a Spanish minor. I am originally from the Bay Area, CA, where my love for green and blue spaces emerged. This connection pulled me back from Arizona to pursue work in Redwood ecosystems. During my undergraduate degree, I did research on a range of taxa, from bottlenose dolphins to the discovery of new termite protists! I am excited to embark on a new journey into the world of aquatics, having never worked with salmonids or stream ecology before. I’m also very eager to foster community engagement throughout my term while teaching school groups about watersheds and leading volunteer groups in restoration!

What’s  the Watershed Stewards Program (WSP)?

In partnership with the California Conservation Corps, AmeriCorps, and California Volunteers, WSP is dedicated to improving watershed health by engaging in restoration science, civic service, and community education. Since 1994, WSP has partnered Corpsmembers with placement sites at the local, state, and federal level throughout California.

There are three distinct areas of work that define a Corpsmember’s term of service. The majority of work falls under the category of watershed recovery and protection. Corpsmembers work alongside professionals at their placement sites aiding in watershed data collection and analysis, fish surveys, restoration work, and other projects. Secondly, each Corpsmember hosts a Watershed Awareness Volunteer Event (WAVE) during their term of service. These hands-on restoration projects aim to engage communities in watershed recovery and educate volunteers about the watershed’s needs. A third element of WSP focuses on youth education. Corpsmembers teach the Wonders of Watersheds (WOW!) curriculum education series to 2nd-6th grade classrooms in their host community. This involves delivering a series of lessons about water usage, the salmon life cycle, human interactions with watersheds, water conservation, solutions to pollution, and the importance of biodiversity in nature.

Learn more about the Watershed Stewards Program.

For more information

• San Francisco Bay Area Network Salmonid Monitoring webpage
• Pacific Coast Science & Learning Center Coho & Steelhead webpage
  • San Francisco Bay Area Coho and Steelhead Blog
• Contact Fishery Biologist Michael Reichmuth

---

See more from the Bay Area Nature & Science Blog