Warner Chabot's picture

Warner Chabot

Executive Director
510-746-7396

Warner Chabot brings over 30 years of executive experience in the private, public and non-profit sector, focused on science-based, environmental planning and policy issues. Warner has specialized in California coastal, ocean, water, land use and energy issues at the local state and federal level. Between managing his own environmental consulting firm Warner also served as the CEO of the California League of Conservation Voters. Prior to that, Warner was a Vice President of Ocean Conservancy, a national ocean policy organization.

Related Projects, News, and Events

The State released its SLR projections, and SFEI's Warner Chabot is featured in the comments (News)

Future projections for sea level rise have been slightly reduced by the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) in a report released by the agency today. Still a draft, the report projects an average rise of 9.6 inches by 2050, with the benefit of new data and expert interpretation. However, the very modest adjustment still depicts a dire picture when it comes to the risks faced by California's coast. Sea level rise still presents a monumental challenge for current and future generations.

Four New SFEI Board Members (News)

The SFEI Board of Director’s has evolved and grown in recent weeks.  One member has transitioned and four new leaders have joined the Board.  Two will represent BACWA (the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies), and two will serve as “At Large” members.

Annual Policy Summit: How the SF Bay Area Will Become a National Model for Climate Adaptation (News)

Warner Chabot presented to the Annual Policy Summit, hosted by the Bay Planning Coalition.

Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals Project (Project)

SFEI's Letitia Grenier served as lead scientist of the Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals Project, which yielded a report called The Baylands and Climate Change: What We Can Do. The report is an update to the 1999 Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals, which for the first time set comprehensive restoration goals for the San Francisco Bay estuary. Produced by a collaborative of 21 management agencies working with a multi-disciplinary team of over 100 scientists, it synthesizes the latest science—particularly advances in the understanding of climate change and sediment supply—and incorporates projected changes through 2100 to generate new recommendations for achieving and sustaining healthy baylands ecosystems.

Resilient By Design: Science Advisors (Project)

The challenges of accelerating sea level rise and aging shoreline infrastructure are creating a once-in-a-century opportunity to redesign the Bay shore. Originally constructed with little regard for the Bay, the future shoreline can more successfully integrate the natural and built environments to make a healthier shore for both the Bay and local communities. New shoreline design approaches must incorporate the complex ecological and physical processes of our urbanized estuary while anticipating the future challenges of climate change and extreme weather.

Care in the Time of Corona (News)

We offer you a simple tool that we created for our 75-person “work community” to help each other that yours might also find helpful. This is a mapping tool, which we call Care in the Time of Corona. It helps us locate and efficiently provide the support that our SFEI staff might offer one another. Quite simply, it facilitates assistance within our organization so that people can help their colleagues deal with challenges of this unprecedented situation. The errands, food, medicine, or even compassionate discussion they need can be addressed through a convenient and filterable map. We hope this guidance and the spirit behind it will help support your community and sustain a sense of well-being as we meet this challenge head on together.

Russian River Watershed Atlas helps track and coordinate post-fire activities (News)

Fire recovery in the Russian River Watershed will benefit from a common online platform for compiling, visualizing, and interpreting many kinds of environmental data available from diverse federal, state, regional, and local sources. Providing such a platform is one objective of the Russian River Regional Monitoring Program (R3MP).

What might be missing from the stories on leopard shark deaths in SF Bay? (News)

Many news outlets are reporting on a spike in leopard shark deaths and bat rays in S.F. Bay.  Several theories related to pollution have been offered, but we want to offer an additional factor that is missing from the discussion...

Warner Chabot details the value of wetlands in an appearance on American Public Media's Marketplace (News)

Interviewed by Molly Wood, host of Marketplace, SFEI's Executive Director Warner Chabot describes how the San Francisco Bay Area must work with natural processes, rather than against these processes, to ensure the health and safety of coastal environments. This emphasis on restoring natural processes to, in turn, restore habitats dovetails with some of the primary messages in the Baylands Goals Update, issued late in 2015 to great impact among the media, the public, and decision makers.

Editorial in SF Chronicle: Work to save San Francisco Bay only just begun (News)

The San Francisco Chronicle features SFEI and Senior Scientist Letitia Grenier in their latest editorial advocating for renewed attention on SF Bay restoration. The editorial staff argues that the Baylands Goals provides a solid roadmap to guide restoration of the Bay's habitats and critical processes.

SFEI science informs state policy on microplastic pollution (News)

Last week, the Governor signed AB 888, a bill that bans microplastic beads in personal care products. Companies have until 2020 to phase out the use of these "microbeads." California now has strongest state law in the nation on this issue. 

SFEI science played a key role in informing policymakers about microbeads and microplastic pollution. Media stories on a Regional Monitoring Program study of microplastics in San Francisco Bay water and treated wastewater broadcast the latest findings to a wide audience. The study indicated that our Bay had higher levels of microplastic pollution than the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay. Clearly identifiable microbeads derived from personal care products were detected at all nine sites examined in San Francisco Bay.

Baylands Goals and Climate Change: What Can We Do? (Event)

On November 17th, the Exploratorium will co-host with the San Francisco Estuary Institute an event to address what can be done to adapt to climate change in the San Francisco Bay Area. The recently released report, Baylands Goals and Climate Change: What Can We Do?, offers innovative and sustainable ways to work with, rather than against, the imminent challenges such as sea level rise and extreme weather events.

From 6pm to 8:30pm at the Exploratorium (Pier 15, Embarcadero and Green St, San Francisco), the following panelists will discuss the report's findings:

Baylands Goals Report Released to a Flurry of Media Attention (News)

An update to the 1999 Bayland Ecosystem Habitat Goals, the new report called The Baylands and Climate Change: What We Can Do urges swift action to restore our wetlands as a buffer against rising seas and associated flooding. Sea-level rise will increase in a few decades. If we do not act swiftly to restore our Bay Area wetlands, our cities will be in greater peril for increased flooding and infrastructure impairment. Our highways, airports, utility services, pipelines, water treatment plants are all threatened by rising tides.

The report synthesizes the recommendations of 200 scientists and government experts on climate change, sea level rise, watershed systems and urban engineering.

The SF Chronicle features the release of the Pulse of the Bay (News)

On September 9, the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted some of the environmental strides and challenges revealed in the latest Pulse of the Bay, a comprehensive water quality summary that ranks San Francisco Bay’s water quality as “fair to good.”

SFEI featured in 5 major newspaper articles over two weeks (News)

Articles featuring the Pulse of the Bay, the State of the Estuary Report, and SFEI's work on microplastics saturate the news media since Sept 9, 2015.

Recent weeks have demonstrated the tremendous value that SFEI brings not only to the domain of environmental science but also to resource management and the public landscape. The deluge of articles covers a wide breadth of subjects, each with great urgency and relevance to issues of public importance.

SFEI Executive Director Warner Chabot consulted by the San Francisco Chronicle on the urgency of adapting to sea level rise (News)

San Francisco Chronicle writer John King wrote a part-story / part-commentary that challenges local leaders to address sea-level-rise issues. The article highlights SFEI's concept of the need for a 100-year vision for the SF Bay region and Estuary. The need to act is upon us, and we must act regionally, argues Chabot: