April 18 Speaker Series – Ongoing Journey Towards Equity
“Ongoing Journey Towards Equity” Presentation by Craig Anderson, Executive Director of Landpaths
Presentation: LandPaths or “LAND PArtners THrough Stewardship”, is an environmental education and conservation leader with the mission is to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County. Craig will discuss the journey that LandPaths has been on since he joined the organization in August of 1997. For the past 25 years, LandPaths has been working with community members across the diverse geographic, socio-economic, and cultural palette that comprises Sonoma County to reawaken a ‘land ethic’ that includes not only stewardship of wild lands, but also cultivating a sense that all people belong to this place and have a responsibility to care for it.
Bio: Craig Anderson (he/him/his) joined LandPaths in 1997 as it was forming to manage a new state park addition at the headwaters of Santa Rosa Creek. As Executive Director, he leads nature preserve acquisitions, assists with “new routes” connecting LandPaths’ preserves by trail through its TrekSonoma initiative, and serves as a liaison with other nonprofit and public agency heads.
The son of a landscape architect and an art history tutor, Craig supported his college study through summer painting and carpentry jobs in Southern California and rafting and mountaineering schools across the western states. He holds an M.S. in Range Ecology from UC Berkeley, a Life Science teaching credential from UC Santa Barbara, and a B.S. from Principia College.
Craig was profoundly influenced by nature as a child and found solace in the fire roads crossing the Santa Monica Mountains and starting in his teens, California’s Coast Range and Sierra Nevada. He is a student of both music and life sciences, co-leading science-focused semester programs in New Zealand, the Caribbean, and in the Colorado Rockies.
Following shoestring-budget surfing and “mountaineering lite” travels in Asia and Central and South America, Craig worked for Nature Bridge in Yosemite, The Nature Conservancy, University of California Berkeley, and the Ojai Valley and Thacher Schools. In 2014, Craig was honored as Bay Nature Magazine’s Local Hero for Conservation.
He has worked at “re-wilding” himself as an aspiring front-yard farmer, kayak fisherman, musician, hunter and father. Craig believes he must “pay his rent to nature” as he follows in the footsteps of north coast ancestors dating to the 1860s.
We are resuming the before meeting dinners at the Kirin Restaurant, 2700 Yulupa Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 We will meet there at 5:45 p.m. Please contact Liz Parson (707) 508-8345, or lizpar8993@aol.com if you plan to go.