MONTHLY SPEAKERS
MONTHLY SPEAKERS
JANUARY 2024 - "CALIFORNIA CONDORS IN THE LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST:
A BRIEF HISTORY AND CURRENT TRENDS"
Speaker: Bryant Baker
Date: January 9, 2024
Program Description:Learn about how the Los Padres National Forest has played an outsized role in the natural history and ongoing recovery of the famous California condor. This presentation will go over some of the fascinating and lesser-known history of condors in the region, how they were saved from the brink, and how their current local populations are faring. You'll also get to see never-before-seen maps showing how and where condors have been spending their time over the last decade in the Los Padres National Forest and surrounding areas.
Speaker Bio: Bryant Baker is the Director of Conservation & Research at Los Padres ForestWatch, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Barbara, California dedicated to protecting the Los Padres National Forest and other public lands in the region. His research focuses on fire ecology and management in shrubland and forest ecosystems in California. Bryant is a GIS analyst and cartographer, and his maps on land use and wildfire have been published by the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Tribune, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Montana Free Press, Mother Jones, and other media outlets. In addition to his conservation work and research, Bryant is a plant and landscape photographer—specializing in post-fire habitats and native plants in California—whose work has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers across the region. He also provides educational information about native plants and ecosystems of California on Instagram as @bryant.the.shrublander.