Dr. Portz has been the Program Manager for the San Joaquin River Restoration Program for over the last two years. He officially joined the office in 2015 as Lead Fish Biologist but had been working for the Program since 2010 through Reclamation’s Denver Technical Service Center. Dr. Portz has over 20 years of experience working with Bureau of Reclamation on fisheries issues throughout the western United States with particular focus on California’s Central Valley after receiving a doctorate in Fish Ecology from the University of California, Davis. Throughout his career, Dr. Portz has contributed greatly to fisheries research and survival of Chinook salmon and has been instrumental in the effort to reintroduce spring-run Chinook salmon to the San Joaquin River, where they had been absent for over 60 years.