MONTHLY SPEAKERS
NOVEMBER 2020 - "THE LAND OF MANY THREATS: ONGOING ISSUES AFFECTING LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST"
Speaker: Bryant Baker, M.S. - Conservation Director, Las Padres Forest Watch
Date: November 10, 2020
Presentation Summary: For our November program, Bryant will talk about the Trump administration’s attempt to push through a logging and chaparral removal plan along 6 miles of a prominent ridge known as Pine Mountain, deep in Ventura County's backcountry, using a loophole that will allow it to skip environmental review normally required for projects of similar breadth and scope. This is part of a concerted, nationwide effort to increase logging on public lands and dismantle environmental protections. We will also be talking about the Los Padres Forest Watch and its efforts to protect the Los Padres Forest, Carrizo Plain National Monument, Hopper Mountain and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuges.
Speaker Bio: Bryant Baker has over nine years of experience in land and water conservation, community outreach, and soil and water research. He holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s in Environmental, Soil, and Water Science from the University of Arkansas. Bryant worked for several years in an aquatic ecology laboratory where he conducted ecological experiments and published peer reviewed scientific papers. He later went on to work as a program manager for a watershed conservation organization. As the Conservation Director, Bryant analyzes technical documents, writes comments on projects undergoing environmental review, pens articles in local news publications, monitors the latest scientific literature on ecology and land management, develops and coordinates volunteer field projects, and gives community presentations on topics such as wildfire mitigation. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Ventura-based nonprofit, Runners for Public Lands. Bryant is also a naturalist and photographer, spending most of his free time hiking the rugged public lands of the Central Coast region with his dog, Leela.