Robin M. Grossinger

Robin M. Grossinger
Senior Scientist
Historical Ecology Program Manager
robin sfei.org
510-746-7380
Robin Grossinger is a Senior Scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, where he directs SFEI’s Resilient Landscapes program. For over twenty years, Robin has analyzed how San Francisco Bay and other California landscapes have changed since European contact, using these data to highlight opportunities and guide landscape-scale restoration strategies. The innovative work of Robin and his colleagues to synthesize history and science has been acclaimed for helping scientists, managers, and the public appreciate both the dramatic transformation and the impressive resilience of the state's ecosystems. In 2012, Robin’s Napa Valley Historical Ecology Atlas was published by the University of California Press and he received a Local Hero award from Bay Nature magazine.
Publication List
Curriculum Vitae

News and Notables:

"Changing Shores: What the Bay’s Past Can Tell Us about Its Future"
Sep-24-13 | Events and Appearances

Robin Grossinger presentation at the Commonwealth Club. Panel discussion will include Grossinger, John Gillis, Susan Schwartenberg, Gray Brechin

"Shaping San Francisco" hosting presentation on historical ecology
Mar-27-13 | Events and Appearances

Ruth Askevold and Robin Grossinger will present: 'Designing Resilient Landscapes: What history teaches us about San Francisco and the Bay-Delta Estuary'

SFEI Scientist honored at Berkeley Public Library Foundation's Authors Dinner
Feb-09-13 | Events and Appearances

Join Honorary Co-Chairs Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon for a celebration of our libraries and the Bay Area literary community.

SCVWD publishes 'Watching Our Watersheds' interactive map layers using data from SFEI's historical ecology studies
Jan-02-13 | Coordination and Collaboration

The Santa Clara Valley Water District has published a series interactive maps depicting the streams and historical habitats of the South Bay and the Santa Clara Valley. Interactive maps and points of interest are viewable in Google Earth.

Historical Ecology Presentation at the Delta Stewardship Council
Nov-15-12 | Events and Appearances

Robin Grossinger and Alison Whipple presented the Delta Historical Ecology Report

Return of the Alma
Nov-01-12 | Events and Appearances

SFEI scientist Robin Grossinger has been invited to sail on the Alma, a historic schooner that was built at a shipyard near Hunter's Point in 1891. On November 1, the Alma will sail from Aquatic Park to the historic shipyard where the scow was built in India Basin.

NPR Story on Delta Historical Ecology featured nationally on Weekend Edition
Oct-07-12 | Media

Restore The California Delta! To What, Exactly?

This detective story begins on a sunny day in a dry field of corn, about an hour east of San Francisco.
Alison Whipple and Robin Grossinger are looking through a pile of maps, trying to piece together the path of William Wright, a man who got hopelessly lost somewhere nearby...

Delta Historical Ecology Study Released
Sep-30-12 | Publications and Reports

Press for the Delta Historical Ecology Study: access the report, maps, press release, and media coverage, including Public Radio story and KQED-Stanford Interactive Map

UC Davis' California WaterBlog: "Knowing the Delta’s past offers new ideas forward"
Sep-26-12 | Media

"Little did Sherman know that more than 150 years later his testimony and maps would help reveal what the Delta looked like and how it worked back then..."

"New Study Examines How Delta Ecosystem Once Worked" - Delta Historical Ecology on Valley Public Radio
Sep-14-12 | Media

The Delta Historical Ecology Study is part of an effort to allow scientists to better understand how to restore the Delta, by examining how the massive freshwater estuary functioned, before the gold rush and agriculture transformed the region with levees, shipping channels and dredging.