Cate Jaffe's picture

Cate Jaffe, MEM

Associate Environmental Scientist
Resilient Landscapes Program
Urban Nature Lab

Cate joined SFEI’s Resilient Landscapes program as an Environmental Analyst in 2021. She earned her Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, where she focused on using geospatial tools and ecosystem service assessments to guide landscape management and planning. During graduate school she worked with Chesapeake Conservancy to incorporate flood mitigation into the organization's conservation planning. She has also conducted scientific research and review for several environmental justice cases at the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic. Prior to graduate school, Cate worked in stewardship at a land trust in Western North Carolina, collaborating with landowners to protect and manage open spaces and working lands throughout Southern Appalachia. She holds a B.S. in Biology and Environmental Science from University of Oregon.

Related Projects, News, and Events

Sediment Solutions (Project)

Sediment Solutions is a timely and innovative project that builds on SFEI’s past work, operationalizing cutting-edge science to inform management approaches that take advantage of natural processes to provide more creek sediment to baylands, increase climate resilience, and enhance creek health. With study areas in North Bay, East Bay, and South Bay, the project will provide new guidance for management strategies that support flood risk management and ecosystem health benefits throughout the region.

Sunset Natural Resilience Project (Project)

The Sunset Natural Resilience Project (SNRP) consists of six individual but related projects to increase the ability of human and natural communities to adapt to and prepare for the impacts of climate change. The projects will further the biodiversity goals of the City of San Francisco while making a dense urban environment a more livable and enjoyable space. San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), will support the development of each individual project in coordination with project partners.

Suisun Landscapes (Project)

The largest brackish marsh on the West Coast, Suisun Marsh is a unique transitional landscape between San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Marsh supports high ecological diversity and has long been managed for recreational hunting and native species support, yet it is threatened by an uncertain future under climate change. Effective adaptation in Suisun will require coordinated, science-based planning by agencies and private landowners.

Next Generation Urban Greening (Project)

SFEI is working with partners across the Bay Area to design tools to help cities achieve biodiversity, stormwater, and climate benefits through multifunctional green infrastructure.

Making Nature’s City Toolkit (Project)

In partnership with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Urban Alliance, the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) has developed the Making Nature’s City Toolkit

Introducing the Making Nature's City Toolkit (News)

Making Nature’s City Toolkit (makingnaturescity.org) is an interactive, beautifully designed website that guides cities through an actionable, science-based approach to support biodiversity in cities. Based on SFEI’s 2019 report titled Making Nature’s City, the Toolkit is intended to make the report’s core urban biodiversity framework more accessible to actors and decision-makers in cities across the world.