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Meet the 2024-2025 San Francisco Bay Area Network Watershed Stewards

Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods National Monument, Point Reyes National Seashore

By Watershed Stewards Program corpsmembers Justing Jang and Val Kostelnik, San Francisco Bay Area Network Salmonid Monitoring Program

Jang in gray waders and a blue WSP shirt holding a large, silvery salmon in a hatchery. — Justin Jang graduated in the spring of 2024 from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Biology.
Courtesy of Justin Jang

November 2023 - Hi! I’m Justin Jang, a Watershed Stewards Program (WSP) Corpsmember who just began a 10.5 month term with the salmonids monitoring team at Point Reyes National Seashore. Originally from Pasadena, California, I fell in love with the outdoors from backpacking the San Gabriel Mountains. I recently graduated in the spring of 2024 from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Biology. For my senior research project, I created an ArcGIS solution to predict which areas of the UCSC campus are most likely to cause bird-window collisions. I have volunteered for labs involving human-microbe relations, computational genomics, and freshwater ecology. This summer, I completed a field study with the National University of Singapore investigating the impacts of development on coral health and fish diversity in Pulau Tioman, Malaysia. I have no prior salmon experience but I am excited to learn all about them throughout my term. I look forward to meeting the wider community and working together to preserve local natural resources!

Kostelnik in a gray AmeriCoprps fleece and a black rubber apron, sitting at a table in a hatchery with equipment for netting, weighing, and tagging small fish. — Val Kostelnik, a graduate of the University of Vermont with a degree in natural resources, grew up exploring Pine Gulch Creek in Bolinas CA.
NPS

And I’m Val Kostelnik, also a WSP Corpsmember, and Justin’s site-partner at Point Reyes. I grew up exploring Pine Gulch Creek in Bolinas CA, and now, after graduating from the University of Vermont with a degree in natural resources, I am overjoyed to get back to splashing around in the creeks near and dear to my heart! My college studies emphasized soil ecology and forestry, and though the world of salmonids is relatively new to me, I’m already fascinated by both the fish and techniques we use to monitor them. In my spare time, I’m studying the effect of fire on soil nematodes (teeny tiny worms), playing a lot of pickleball, and hiking around Point Reyes. I’m excited to bring the West Marin and greater Bay Area communities to see the salmon in their backyard through volunteer events, school field trips, and more.

Please stay on the lookout for events posted through the park’s social media!