Jonathan O'Connell
Jonathan is a Hydrologic Technician for the Studies Section and has been with the WY-MT WSC since 2020.
Jonathan received his Bachelors of Science in Geology from Humboldt State University in 2013 and started his career in 2014 with the US Forest Service as a seasonal hydrologic technician at the Rocky Mountain Research Station (Boise, ID) conducting forest road infrastructure inventories to enter into the USFS GRAIP model to calculate road sediment production and delivery to forest streams. The following year Jonathan took another seasonal hydrologic technician position with the Stanislaus Nation Forest in California working on post-fire monitoring and alpine meadow restoration projects.
After 2 seasons of federal employment Jonathan took a position in Northern California on the redwood coast with a private logging company running their Turbidity Threshold Sampling (TTS) program; monitoring 12 remote forest creeks; computing annual sediment loads from time-series data and automated water samples. After 4 years of TTS work in the redwoods, Jonathan found himself in Helena, MT working for the USGS WY-MT WSC where he supports project-based water-quality work.
His interests include python programming, statistical regression analysis, working with real-time water quality data, and site construction and maintenance. In his free time, he can be found backpacking in one of Montana’s many mountain ranges in the summer and Nordic Falling (skiing) in the winter.