Rate My Professor Arica Crootof

Arica Crootof is an Associate Professor of Environmental Sustainability in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Montana Western. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography and Development from the University of Arizona (2019), with a dissertation titled 'Nepal’s Hydropower Boom and its Implications for Water Resources: Challenges and opportunities at the intersection of food and energy production in the Gandaki River Basin.' She also earned an M.S. in Hydrology from the University of Nevada, Reno (2011), with a thesis on assessing water resources in Khorezm, Uzbekistan for aquaculture development, and a B.A. in Environmental Science from Colorado College (2007), focusing on human impacts on suspended sediment loads in Puerto Rican mountain streams. Her career includes serving as Assistant Professor of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Montana Western from 2018 to 2022, Project Hydrologist II at Lidstone and Associates, Inc. from 2011 to 2014, where she coordinated water resources projects including monitoring and stream restoration, and various graduate research roles at the University of Arizona's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Nepal.

Crootof's research specializations encompass water management, human dimensions of global change, and science communication, blending physical and social sciences. She investigates social perceptions of water quality and contamination in Montana's Upper Clark Fork River Watershed and irrigator decision-making during drought in the Upper Missouri Headwaters, involving undergraduate students in action-oriented studies. Her international work examines hydropower development's effects on river flows and dependent communities in Nepal's mountain basins. As Principal Investigator, she has secured grants including Montana Water Center Faculty Seed Grant (2023–2024, $37,356), NSF EPSCoR CREWS awards (2019–2023), and SARE Western Professional + Producer Grant (2024–present, $73,097). Key publications include Albrecht, Crootof, and Scott (2018), 'The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: A systematic review of methods for nexus assessment' in Environmental Research Letters, which received the 2019 Best Review Article award; Ptak, Crootof et al. (2022), 'Critically evaluating the purported global “boom” in small hydropower development' in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews; and Crootof et al. (2021), 'Sacrificing the local to support the national: Politics, sustainability, and governance in Nepal’s hydropower paradox' in Energy Research & Social Science. Awards include Outstanding Service in Making A Difference for Water, Trout, and Habitat from Chuck Robbins Trout Unlimited (2025) and multiple American Association of Geographers student research awards (2018). She teaches courses such as Environmental Sustainability, Sustaining Water Resources, Human Dimensions of Global Change, and Environmental Policy.