Our team may be small, but they have over 6 decades of combined experience. 

Paul Juergens with falconry bird

Stefan Wachs

Vice President of Conservation—Domestic Programs

Paul Juergens

Paul joined The Peregrine Fund in 2003 and has primarily worked on projects involving the study and management of Peregrine Falcons, Golden Eagles, and Northern Aplomado Falcons but has also contributed to California Condor Recovery, the North American Non-lead Partnership, Gyrfalcon and American Kestrel research, and Orange-breasted Falcon Conservation in Belize. While now spending more time directing, assisting, planning, and advocating for TPF domestic programs and the organization as a whole, he still contributes a significant amount of time and energy towards boots on the ground, hands-on, science-based conservation with an emphasis on building partnerships and working with others to find pragmatic solutions to problems; an approach that he sees necessary to ensure lasting and sustainable outcomes for conservation.

Brian Mutch behind scope with notebook, looking at camera

Paul Juergens

Aplomado Falcon Program Director

Brian Mutch

Brian has been working with The Peregrine Fund since 1988 and has been with our Aplomado Falcon program full-time since 1993. When our involvement in the restoration program started in 1987, there were no known wild Aplomado Falcons left in the United States. But Brian’s dedication to raptor conservation doesn’t stop with Aplomado Falcons. He has been integral to Peregrine Falcon restoration in the western United States, research on multiple raptors in Greenland, the reintroductions of Harpy Eagles in Panama, Orange-breasted Falcons in Belize, California Condors in Arizona & Utah… and the impressive list goes on.

Jeff Grayum
Conservation Field Biologist

Jeff Grayum

Jeff began work with The Peregrine Fund in 2017 with the Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawk Program. In 2018, he shifted over to the California Condor Program and remained there until 2021 at which time he left to pursue a graduate degree. Jeff completed his M.S. at Mississippi State University in 2024, where he researched how prescribed fire influences northern bobwhite resource selection. Jeff was then hired full time at The Peregrine Fund, splitting his time between the Aplomado Falcon Recovery Program and California Condor Program.

Recent Publications

Using camera traps to inform reintroduction success and recovery of the Northern Aplomado Falcon (Falco femoralis septentrionalis)

David R. Bontrager, Jennifer D. McCabe, Brian D. Mutch, Jennyffer Cruz

Temporal Genetic Diversity and Effective Population Size of the Reintroduced Aplomado Falcon (Falco femoralis) Population in Coastal South Texas 

Jeff A. Johnson, Alexandra Stock, Paul Juergens, Brian Mutch, Christopher J.W. McClure

Long-term demography of a reintroduced population of endangered falcons

Brian W. Rolek, Leah Dunn, Benjamin Pauli, Alberto Macias-Duarte, Brian Mutch, Paul Juergens, Tim Anderson, Chris N. Parish, Jeff A. Johnson, Brian Millsap, Christopher J.W. McClure

Persistent organic pollutants in eggs from south Texas Aplomado falcons

Chelsea M. Hidalgo, Miguel A. Mora, Jose L. Sericano, Brian D. Mutch, Paul W. Juergens