Team Member Candid Photo

Mr. Woyshner is a principal engineer/scientist at Balance with more than 35 years of experience in surface and groundwater investigations, spanning a variety of projects primarily related to water resources and habitat needs. With an academic background in hydrogeology, soil behavior, forestry, and physical geography, Mark generally focuses on the technical and interdisciplinary aspects of a project, comprising a blend of traditional analyses and innovative field and modeling work. On a regular basis, he directs stream-gaging and sediment-transport projects for water-rights and/or anadromous-fish habitat compliance, evaporation and evapotranspiration studies for water-balance calibration, and a number of surface-groundwater interaction projects, mainly involving natural and managed recharge of sensitive habitat areas, or assessing the effects or large wells or wellfields on streamflow and riparian habitats. His talent for water-well siting, particularly in bedrock aquifers, has benefited public agencies, private-sector clients, and non-profit groups, not only in the evaluation of potential water-well sites, but also in field recommendations of where not to drill and when to stop drilling. In addition to applying relatively standard techniques to source or ‘fingerprint’ groundwater and stream baseflows, Mark has particular expertise in isotopic age-dating techniques. He is also a bit of a closet geek when it comes to dataloggers and monitoring instrumentation, deploying advanced soil-moisture, reference-evapotranspiration, and energy-balance systems, as well as standard stream-gaging and groundwater-monitoring techniques. Mark has considerable experience with CEQA and is especially skilled as a project manager with very good report writing and communication skills. He is co-founder of Balance Hydrologics in 1988. When he is not in the office or the field, Mark has a passion for old growth forests and wilderness areas, and now that his two children are grown young adults, he is finding more time in the evenings to play guitar and an occasional open mic.

  • M.Sc. Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, 1992.
  • M.Sc. Graduate Diploma in Waste Management and Groundwater Contamination (non-thesis masters program), McGill University, Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics, 1990.
  • B.S. Forestry, University of California, Berkeley, 1979
  • Groundwater investigations and management, Montara Water and Sanitary District, San Mateo County, CA
  • McEvoy Ranch water rights compliance, Marin County, CA
  • Surface and groundwater investigations and monitoring, Big Sur Land Trust, Monterey County, CA
  • Woyshner, M.R., Heldmaier, C., and Hecht, B., 2013, Planning for increased climate extremes and strategies for managing groundwater withdraws from high-yielding bedrock wells in Coastal California: 29th Biennial Groundwater Conference & 22nd GRA Annual Meeting, Sacramento, California, October 8-9, 2013.
  • de Berry, B., Woyshner, M., Porras, G., and Burck, A., 2008, The occurrence and environmental fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products from treated wastewater percolation ponds, City of Ukiah, California: 21st Symposium Groundwater Resources Association of California, Emerging Contaminants, San Jose, California, November 2008.
  • Woyshner, M.R., Hecht, B., Yurovsy, T., and Irving, G., 2005, Spring-supported wetland and riparian habitat, a core for managing bedrock groundwater: State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference, 7th Biennial, Oakland, California, October 2005.
  • Brown, S., Woyshner, M.R., and Hecht, B., 2004, Sources and pathways of groundwater flow to granitic canyon streams as inferred from variations in dry season baseflow, Carmel River watershed, California: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Groundwater Resources Association Meeting, September 23-24, 2004

I get to work with smart, kind people, and there is a pretty good sense of humor in the work place; the projects can be quite interesting and challenging too.

At Balance there tends be a high standard of excellence and level of professional ethics, and at times there is a sense of achieving results that help out at a water supply or habitat level, or with the understanding of a site or resource.

A couple of novels that come to mind are Young Men and Fire by Norman McClean; he also wrote A River Runs through It, which was equally enjoyable. Going back a few years, the John McPhee books were a favorite, and Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach. I’m currently enjoying Fatal Passage by Ken McGoogan.