Matt Hudson

Matt Hudson has an extensive background in freshwater science and management, serving in jobs within government, non-profit, and academia over the past twenty-plus years. He began his professional career in 2004, serving as Environmental Biologist with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC). Over five-plus years at GLIFWC, he led efforts ranging from monitoring environmental contaminants in fish to responding to emerging aquatic threats on behalf of eleven upper Midwest Native American tribes. He also participated in lake-wide endeavors to manage and protect Lake Superior and efforts that eventually became the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) in 2010. The GLRI is the largest-ever federal investment aimed at restoring and protecting the largest surface freshwater system on the planet. 

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Following his work with GLIFWC, he spent three years serving as Watershed Action Director with the Bad River Watershed Association, now the Superior Rivers Watershed Association. While there, he led multiple efforts to engage citizens and professionals to improve and maintain the health of streams and rivers in the Chequamegon Bay area. He helped to coordinate a multi-year watershed planning effort and was primary author of the Marengo River Watershed Action Plan, one of the first EPA-approved watershed plans focused on watershed protection in Wisconsin.

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In 2012, he joined Northland College to help build freshwater science and applied undergraduate research programs that are now key pillars to the work of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation at Northland College. Now the Associate Director-Great Lakes at the Burke Center, his work focuses on understanding physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of streams and lakes in the Chequamegon Bay region of Lake Superior, using that work to help facilitate restoration solutions, and involving undergraduate students in hands-on research and restoration experiences. 

 

While at the Burke Center, he has led a multi-year, multi-partner watershed-scale restoration project in the Fish Creek watershed, the largest sediment contributor to Chequamegon Bay. With over $1 million in funding from the GLRI, restoration projects to date have reduced excess sedimentation to the creek and Chequamegon Bay, while improving habitat for fish and other aquatic life in a signature Wisconsin Class 1 trout stream. He participates in a collaboration of scientists studying the surprising emergence of blue-green algae blooms in Lake Superior. He has been a lead coordinator of a long-term water quality study in Chequamegon Bay and was lead author of a recent publication in the Journal of Great Lakes Research summarizing nine years of Chequamegon Bay research by the Burke Center. 

He has authored or co-authored four peer-reviewed publications, nearly twenty technical reports and management plans, and his work has been featured in publications including the Chicago Tribune, Wisconsin Public Radio, and the Wisconsin Great Lakes Chronicle.

 

He has a bachelor’s degree in Water Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a master’s degree in Water Resources Science from the University of Minnesota.