Congratulations to Shawn Snyder, recipient of the 2025 Rising Star Award! Shawn is a recent PhD graduate now working with the Penebscot Indian Nation as their GIS specialist including for planned river restoration projects such as the impending improvement for two road crossings on tribal lands. As part of his PhD studies, he made
substantial gains related to groundwater protection. As a postdoc, he was able to apply his extensive spatially explicit computational modelling skills to river herring.
Shawn’s tremendous strengths in mapping and hydrology are of critical importance to fish. Shawn embodies the AFS Fish Habitat Section’s objective “to encourage the advancement of knowledge and exchange of information
on the broad scope of multidisciplinary fish habitat issues”, as evidenced by his published dissertation work on groundwater influenced ecosystems, by his pending publications on habitat for migratory herring, and by his current work on restoration activities and planning. Shawn has already developed mapping techniques to identify groundwater areas at risk (threat mapping), creating an essential tool for watershed and fisheries management, and bringing expertise from hydrology to the field of fisheries. The intimate linkages between groundwater and the surface water ecosystems, and fishes that groundwater supports, position Shawn’s work as critical for the effective conservation of fish habitat because it not only identifies connections between groundwaters and surface waters but also informs management by clarifying vulnerability in a framework that can be broadly applied.
Shawn’s award includes a donation from the Fish Habitat Section to a Fish Habitat Partnership of his choice. He chose the Brook Trout Initiative Joint Venture. Thank you and congratulations!
