Doug started as a volunteer with Friends of the River several years ago and joined the Board of Directors in January of 2023. He monitors and participates in FOR’s legal and regulatory battles, as well as working on our policy and communication work.

Doug has a lifelong love for all things in nature, especially if they involve water. As a California native and lifelong resident, he has explored most of this state, and a large hunk of Colorado where he vacationed as a child and went to college. He is a retired ski patroller and former surfer who appreciates the exhilaration of dancing at the intersection of gravity and water.

He has been passionate about the environment all his life and worked with environmental law societies in high school and law school. In addition to his work with FOR, Doug is on the executive committee of the Yokuts group of the Sierra Club, Mother Lode chapter, and hike leader for the Truckee Donner Land Trust.

In what now seems like another life, Doug enjoyed a forty year career as a litigation attorney with over one hundred jury trials and thousands of court hearings. He is happy to now focus his adversarial skills on protecting and restoring California’s rivers in this challenging regulatory and legal environment.

He has lived on or near the banks of the Stanislaus River for the past three decades, and is committed to preserving and improving our environment, particularly as it relates to water use and conservation. If he’s not at home, you can probably find him hiking or skiing in the Sierras, exploring our local waterways, or somewhere on the coast.