Damian K. Higgins
Damian serves as one of two Research Managers for the USGS Western Ecological Research Center. In this role, Damian is responsible for managing and participating in cooperative partnerships and works closely with DOI partners, Universities, WERC research scientists and other agency and tribal partners in guiding and managing this collaborative program.
Damian spent his formative years growing up in Texas exploring the unique diversity of his home state where eastern and western habitats combine. He has conducted ecological research and implemented restoration projects in a diversity of western ecosystems from the deserts of the Chihuahuan, Mojave and Great Basin, to the Basin and Range and Sierra Nevada mountains, and to the sandy beaches and rocky intertidal habitats of the California coast, among others. His early work included environmental toxicology and water quality research, with a focus on understanding impacts to sensitive species and habitats from agricultural irrigation, alternative energy development, hard rock mining, and livestock grazing. He later assisted coordinating and leading Natural Resource Damage Assessments and their associated restorations resulting from chemical releases and oil spills throughout California and Nevada, as well as helped lead efforts on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. With the USGS Western Ecological Research Center, Damian helps manage and support ongoing science research for Federal, State, and other partners.