Ty Wallin

Tyler (Ty) Wallin grew up in Southern Illinois surrounded by corn fields and muddy rivers, but fell in love with fish, specifically salmonids, on weekend fishing trips with his family in Missouri’s spring fed rivers. This interest in the outdoors was bolstered by many family vacations racking up miles on National Park road trips. Ty was interested in science and biology, but living in an agricultural region, believed his only career path in the field would be in medicine.  Thankfully, during his undergraduate program at McKendree University, Ty’s advisor recommended him to field classes at the University of Michigan Biological Station.  Here is where Ty discovered where his passions and a career truly merged. Ty began spending his summers volunteering and working seasonally for the U.S. Forest Service. First surveying for Bull Trout in Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation Area and then assessing barriers for non-native Brown Trout removal in Utah’s Ashley National Forest.  This experience led Ty to pursue his Masters in Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology with the USGS Fish and Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit at New Mexico State University.  Ty’s thesis explored the effectiveness of management strategies for threatened Gila Trout in a fire prone system experiencing the effects of global climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change .  Ty assessed the thermal limits for three lineages of the species and the effectiveness of repatriation stocking of a population extirpated by wildfire. Ty entered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through a Directorate Fellows Program internship collecting baseline habitat data for Rio Grande Sucker and Rio Grande Chub on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado.  Upon completion of this fellowship and his graduate degree, Ty was hired on permanently as a fish biologist at the Arcata Fish and Wildlife in 2020.  Ty was the lead for the office’s Klamath Basin Juvenile Salmon Outmigrant Monitoring team from 2020 through 2023.  Currently, Ty is in the position of Science Liaison for the Trinity River Restoration Program.  In this role he will be focused on establishing a stakeholder advisory committee and coordinating science priorities between the USFWS, Bureau of Reclamation, and other members of the restoration program. Ty is also active in the FWS Pride Employee Resource Group and previously held the position of co-chair and is currently on the leadership team as Intranet & Technology Liaison.  When not at work, Ty enjoys spending time hiking, camping, traveling, and playing board games with his fiancé, Dylan, and their gremlin of a dog, Smudge.