Brian H. Collins This is Me

Education

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1. 1. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy:: Trail of the Month:: Bayshore Bikeway, California

   www.railstotrails.org/newsandp - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/1/2008   Last Visited: 6/19/2008

   Thousands of birds, says Brian Collins, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, frequent these fragile ecosystems for resting, foraging or nesting.Indeed San Diego Bay is an important stopping point on the Pacific Flyway, a major north-south artery for migratory birds along the North and South American coastlines.
   
   But sewage discharge from industrial growth in the 1950s, as well as new marinas and urban development, heavily disrupted this habitat and left the bay anoxic (not enough oxygen in the water to support fish).More than 90 percent of the bay's wetlands and mudflats eventually disappeared by the 1970s, as did many of the species dependent on them.
   
   "People don't think much of mudflats," Collins says, "but they're tremendously productive for shorebirds.So what we have left are really precious remnants, habitat islands in a sea of urban development."
   
   The SDBNWR has since reclaimed some of the lost saltwater marshlands and helped restore them as "hotspots" for bio-diversity, says Collins.A great host of endangered and threatened terns, black-necked stilts and black skimmers (both pictured at right), several species of plovers, and other birds as rare as their names are curious,like the light-footed clapper rail,now make at least a temporary, and often boisterous, home here.
   
   "It's kind of an oceanic island in the summertime with all of the nesting sea birds," he says, "but you'd never know it driving by on the freeway."
   ...
   "It's quite an interesting mixture of life out there," Collins says."People have been living in that south watershed for at least 7,000 years, maybe longer."
   
   The museum is located in Balboa Park in downtown San Diego, only a couple miles from Coronado across the bay.

2. 2. ILTF Board Member Biography

   www.indianlandtenure.org/board - [Cached]

   Published on: 11/6/2007   Last Visited: 11/6/2007

   Brian H. Collins ILTF Board Member Biography
   
   Brian H. Collins, ILTF Board of Directors
   
   Brian Collins is an attorney admitted to practice in Washington and Idaho with extensive experience working with Indian tribes. His work primarily involves tribal hunting and fishing rights, land, water, natural resource and environmental matters. He returned to Washington in June 2003 after working thirteen years as a tribal court judge in South Dakota. Brian earned his J.D. from Gonzaga University, School of Law, Spokane, Washington in 1987, earned his M.A. at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion in 1974, and his B.S. from Ft. Hays State in Hays, Kansas in 1969.
   
   During his judicial career, Brian presided over a high volume of criminal, civil and administrative law cases as trial court judge for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Colville Confederated Tribes and Coeur d'Alene Tribe. He served as Chief Judge for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Brian served on the Court of Appeals for the Colville Tribes and a number of his opinions have been published in the Indian Law Reporter.
   
   Brian's private law practice has focused on Indian law. He also served as Sr. Tribal Attorney for the Skokomish Indian Tribe, Special Council for the Northwestern Band of the Shoshoni Nation and was an Associate with Dellwo, Roberts & Scanlon in Spokane, Washington. He has been involved with federal litigation involving Indian lands, jurisdictional disputes, diminishment, Indian water rights, cultural resources and environmental matters.
   
   Brian also has extensive experience as a wildlife biologist, and worked many years for tribes and the State of Idaho, and as a consultant to a number of tribes on environmental and natural resources matters and in intergovernmental relations. In addition, he has teaching experience as an Adjunct Professor at Gonzaga University, School of Law, and as a Life Sciences Instructor/Natural Resources Specialist, Sinte Gleska University, Rosebud, South Dakota.
   
   Brian resides in Tumwater, Washington.

3. 3. Rails-to-Trails Conservancy:: Trail of the Month:: Bayshore Bikeway, California

   www.railstrails.org/newsandpub - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/1/2008   Last Visited: 6/1/2008

   Thousands of birds, says Brian Collins, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, frequent these fragile ecosystems for resting, foraging or nesting.Indeed San Diego Bay is an important stopping point on the Pacific Flyway, a major north-south artery for migratory birds along the North and South American coastlines.
   
   But sewage discharge from industrial growth in the 1950s, as well as new marinas and urban development, heavily disrupted this habitat and left the bay anoxic (not enough oxygen in the water to support fish).More than 90 percent of the bay's wetlands and mudflats eventually disappeared by the 1970s, as did many of the species dependent on them.
   
   "People don't think much of mudflats," Collins says, "but they're tremendously productive for shorebirds.So what we have left are really precious remnants, habitat islands in a sea of urban development."
   
   The SDBNWR has since reclaimed some of the lost saltwater marshlands and helped restore them as "hotspots" for bio-diversity, says Collins.A great host of endangered and threatened terns, black-necked stilts and black skimmers (both pictured at right), several species of plovers, and other birds as rare as their names are curious,like the light-footed clapper rail,now make at least a temporary, and often boisterous, home here.
   
   "It's kind of an oceanic island in the summertime with all of the nesting sea birds," he says, "but you'd never know it driving by on the freeway."
   ...
   "It's quite an interesting mixture of life out there," Collins says."People have been living in that south watershed for at least 7,000 years, maybe longer."
   
   The museum is located in Balboa Park in downtown San Diego, only a couple miles from Coronado across the bay.