I was trained in natural history observations at the University of California, Berkeley (graduated 1990), and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, where I attended such classes as Natural History of the Vertebrates (then taught by Harry Greene, Ned Johnson, and Bill Lidicker). I also took Jim Patton's Mammalogy course, and was trained in the Joseph Grinnell method of field observations. For plants, I enjoyed Robert Ornduff's California Flora class (Munz 1973 was our textbook!). I went on to work in the fields of wildlife biology and conservation biology as well as advocacy for species and wildlands. I was a field biologist for California Department of Fish and Wildlife and US Geological Survey--Biological Research Division. I spent some years digging up tortoise burrows on contract as a biologist on development projects in the Mojave Desert, authorized by USFWS. I wrote and illustrated the book, A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California (Heyday: 2010). I co-Founded the desert conservation nonprofit Basin and Range Watch, dedicated to conservation public lands biodiversity and protection of local human communities. I am currently the California Director at the nonprofit Western Watersheds Project. I specialize in grasses, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, but I enjoy trying to learn about all taxa. In my opinion, Natural History is the foundation of science.