24 to watch in 2024: Rietta Hohman, scientist with Greater Farallones Association
Name: Rietta Hohman
Title or position: Kelp Restoration Manager for the Greater Farallones Association, a NOAA Affiliate
On the job since: April 2022
Age: 37
Hometown: Angels Camp, Calif. Now lives in Jenner
Why Rietta Hohman is someone to watch:
Rietta Hohman is leading the charge to restore bull kelp in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, working with multiple agencies and partners to implement a strategic plan they hope will reverse stunning declines in kelp growth over the past decade. In 2024, she will oversee outplanting of young kelp across up to 40 acres at three test sites on the Sonoma Coast, hoping to create strongholds that contribute to the native plant’s survival across a wider area.
It’s a new field of science. The result is uncertain. And it requires a sizable investment. But the stakes also are high, given the collapse of the bull kelp forest and its value as supportive habitat for fish and invertebrate marine life. The kelp forest is as iconic and important, some like to say, as the North Coast’s redwood forests.
The effort has been in a “research phase” for the past year and a half, as teams assessed the success and scalability of culling tiny, ravenous purple urchins from replanting sites in the Timber Cove, Fort Ross and Ocean Cove areas. They also have been exploring different ways of cultivating young bull kelp and developing mechanisms for introducing kelp spores at different sites in hopes of growing new forest.
“We’re very excited,” Hohman said. “I think in this phase, we’re going to learn even more.”
Hohman, who studied marine ecology and fisheries as an undergraduate and has a master's degree in environmental management, had interned with the Greater Farallones Association in partnership with the national marine sanctuary when she trained as a scientific diver through the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab, where she volunteered. About a decade ago, she found herself helping with red abalone and bull kelp surveys along the shores of the North Coast as a volunteer for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
So she was on the ground floor when a marine heat wave spread down the West Coast and upended ocean life beginning in late 2013. The arrival of sea star wasting disease already had been decimating sea star populations, notably the giant sunflower sea star, a key predator of sea urchins. The kelp forest already was vulnerable to poor growing conditions because of the exceptionally warm water when the urchin population exploded and mowed down what was left. Up to 95% of the kelp canopy had disappeared by 2016, turning the ocean floor into an urchin barren. “It struck a chord,” Hohman said.
Hohman was key to the formation of a kelp restoration working group assembled by the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and its advisory council, along with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. She led development of the Sonoma-Mendocino Bull Kelp Restoration Plan, outlining strategies for kelp restoration, research, monitoring and community agency. The project has been awarded $9 million in funding. She has served as Kelp Restoration Project Coordinator since 2017.
What others are saying about Hohman:
Francesca Koe, program chair with the Greater Farallones Association and a member of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, credited Hohman for her “dedication and steadfastness,” as well as her ”thoughtful and thorough“ stewardship of coastal waters. ”She’s the chief architect of the work happening statewide and, in some cases coastwide, not just in California,“ Koe said. ”And quite frankly, because she cares about the issue … she goes that extra mile.“
“It’s nice that she’s getting credit, because she’s not the kind of person whose pounding her chest or trying to get credit.”
What Hohman says about 2024:
“I really appreciate the consideration and the opportunity to bring attention to our kelp restoration effort. I am very embedded in the community, and we talk about it quite often, but any outreach efforts — speaking with folks who are outside of the coastal area and the Bay Area — are valuable. I feel there’s not as much recognition of the issue of kelp loss on the North Coast. There’s a pretty broad audience that I feel like hasn’t been engaged yet, but I feel like it’s gaining momentum.”
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On X/Twitter @MaryCallahanB.
Rietta Hohman
Kelp Restoration Manager, Greater Farallones Association
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