To recognize the Yolo Basin Foundation’s 25th anniversary in 2015 and to honor its founder Robin Kulakow, the Kulakow-Julian Family established the “Yolo Basin Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship Fund.” The gift provides support for selected graduate students from University of California, Davis and California State University, Sacramento who are working in the areas of environmental education, public use, environmental sciences, or environmental/conservation policy related to the 16,800-acre Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area or the 60,000-acre Yolo Bypass. The Fellowship includes an annual stipend, as well as mentoring, for the student’s research. Each fellowship is overseen by a committee of professionals associated with the Yolo Basin Foundation. Recipients are required to give quarterly reports on their research and, at the end of the fellowship, provide a written final report and make a presentation of their findings.

2020-2021 Fellowship Program

The 2020-2021 award will go to a student or students doing graduate research
that is directly related to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area or the larger Yolo Bypass.

Awards: $5,000 -$15,000 annually
Application deadlines: June 30, 2020
Fellowship(s) awarded: September 30, 2020
Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in Masters or PhD programs at the University of
California, Davis or Sacramento State University

• Potential Research topics:
  • Environmental science related to wetlands ecology, restoration or management of wildlife
    habitat, pasture, rice production, vernal pools, water quality, or biology of wetland related
    plant/animal species (including both terrestrial and aquatic species)
  • Environmental education, especially evaluating an aspect of the Discover the Flyway school
    program
  • Public use of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area such as wildlife viewing, fishing, hunting, hiking
    and art as well as visitor counts, statistics, or surveys
  • Policy research related to long-term resource management at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area or
    the larger Yolo Bypass
    

    photo by Paige Mundy

• Fellowship Application Requirements
  • Written application – download application
  • Description of the proposed project including statement of purpose, research methods,
    schedule, brief budget and how it will benefit resources in the Yolo Bypass (800 words)
  • One letter of recommendation from a professor overseeing the research project
  • College transcript (copy from most recent)
• Students are encouraged to contact Robin Kulakow, robin@yolobasin.org, if they have
  questions or would like to discuss research projects before applying.

Yolo Basin Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship Topics 2016-2020

• Does “wilding” juvenile Chinook Salmon on agricultural floodplains boost survivorship in California’s Central Valley?
• Bats in the Basin: Tracking bat ecology in time and space. Phase II in assessing population, health and ecosystem services of the Yolo Basin bats.
• Establishing a long-term, citizen-science population monitoring program for the Yolo Causeway Bats: Phase I in evaluating the pest-control services of the largest colony of Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) in Central California.
• Non-invasive analysis of bat diets in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area using DNA.
• Evaluation of environmental health through quantification of cyanotoxins and toxic cyanobacteria in the YBWA.
• Linking riverine exports from Yolo Bypass inundations to the Delta food web.
• Isotope tools to track floodplain rearing of native fishes.
• Illuminating estrogenic effects in fish: Determining seasonal estrogenicity and water quality in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area.
• Determining Chinook salmon passage at Lisbon Weir: a paired camera approach
• Genetic techniques enhance biodiversity monitoring in the Yolo Bypass.
• Morphological and behavior differences among Daphnia from vernal and permanent ponds in relation to UVB exposure.
• Analysis of plant community heterogeneity and its effect on aquatic invertebrates in vernal pools.