JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK ASSOCIATION - Key Persons
ALESSANDRO GRIPPO, Ph.D., Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, has done research and taught geology, oceanography, stratigraphy, environmental geology and field classes at Santa Monica College and several California State University campuses. Alessandro has a keen interest for the geology of the American southwest and loves being out there exploring, learning, and sharing his passion for Earth and its history.
Amanda began professional work as a facilitator, teacher and guide in 1995. She became interested in Life-Long, Experiential Learning teaching in public schools, facilitating social service programs and by guiding the Montessori method. She has continued to deepen her understanding of the journey to connect with The Creative Nature of The True Self as a Therapeutic Yoga Teacher. Amanda is honored to be a student of Dr. Amy Wheeler, Optimal State Yoga Therapy. Amanda lives in Joshua Tree, California alongside a menagerie of cats, dogs, birds, lizards, snakes, humans, bunnies, insects and flora of all kinds.
Job Titles:
- Desert Institute Assistant
Benazir (Benny) Lopez is the mother of three beautiful children and one Weimaraner. She is currently obtaining her Associate in Science in Administration of Criminal Justice. She has always been outdoorsy and her love for the outdoors has only grown due to JTNP being in her backyard. She is mostly found outdoors when the opportunity presents itself, and her typical adventures include but are not limited to hiking, kayaking, shooting, archery, bowling, VR gaming, Seaworld, and random road trips. She started with JTNPA in July of 2021 working in the visitor centers as an Information Specialist. She is excited about her role as the Desert Institute Assistant continuing to work alongside her wonderful colleagues and DI volunteers.
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Job Titles:
- Founder and Director of BoxoPROJECTS
BERNARD LEIBOV is the Founder and Director of BoxoPROJECTS, a residency and programming initiative based in Joshua Tree, CA. He is also co-founder and co-curator of the Joshua Treenial. Prior to moving to California, Bernard was Deputy Director of Judd Foundation in New York and Marfa. He also operated a non-traditional gallery space in New York City which featured artists from Joshua Tree and other non-urban areas.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Current Board Member
Current Board member Bill Truesdell is a retired National Park Service employee. Beginning in 1962, his NPS career included assignments in Shenandoah, Everglades, Virgin Islands, Dinosaur, Denali, and Joshua Tree, where he retired from the position of Chief Interpreter in 1994. After retirement he continued to be involved with Park activities as a volunteer, instructing Elderhostel classes, guiding Field Institute classes, and later Desert Institute classes in the Park. About 2005 he was invited to join the Board of Directors of the Park Association.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
- Treasurer of the Executive Board
Bob Zimmerman retired from the practice of law in Chicago in early 2011. He lives in both Palm Springs and the Chicago metro area, although he is emphatically not a snowbird: he'll be in Chicago in January and sometimes be in the desert in August. He is an active volunteer with Wildlands Conservancy and with the Desert Institute of the Association, and is a volunteer and a former member of the Board and immediate past President of Mojave Desert Land Trust. He and his children have been visiting Joshua Tree National Park since the mid-1980's, during its "national monument" days, and considers the Park one of his family's special places. He appreciates the opportunity to work with the Association in enhancing the experience of visitors to the Park.
Brandy Dyess joined JTNPA in the spring of 2021. Prior to moving to Joshua Tree, Brandy worked as the administrative director at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Photography & Imaging, as a grants analyst for The California Endowment and in the ABC Entertainment finance division of The Walt Disney Company. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University and a certificate in fundraising from UCLA.
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Brendan Cummings joined the Center for Biological Diversity in 1998, where he currently serves as Conservation Director. A graduate of Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, Brendan has litigated dozens of Endangered Species Act cases, as well as cases under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Clean Water Act, and numerous other state and federal statutes. Prior to working for the Center, Brendan was in private practice specializing in environmental and civil-rights litigation.
In addition to his new role at the museum, Brian is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Coordinator of the Central Coast Information Center of the California Historical Resources Information System. Flintknapping and replicating traditional technologies have long been his passion, eventually leading him toward his current career path. Brian's dissertation research focuses on shell bead production and exchange, using experimental replication to understand the bead production traditions in the Chumash region.
Casey Kiernan teaches Landscape and Nighttime photography in Joshua Tree, Death Valley and Iceland - through his company "Joshua Tree Workshops" . Casey has been a professional photographer for over 2 decades. He previously managed a studio in Arizona which focused on automotive/motorcycle photography for print and advertising. Casey has won numerous awards, including 2nd place in the annual Joshua Tree National Park Arts Exposition - 2022 / Photography group. Casey also manages the "Joshua Tree Visitors Guide" an on-line resource for all things Joshua Tree!
Mr. Bouscaren received his bachelor's degree in Anthropology from the University of California, Riverside and has been a professional archaeologist for over 30 years. He has participated in dozens of Archaeological projects in California and Arizona. He excavated the Manzanar National Historic Site; surveyed large areas of San Bernardino County including Fort Irwin, Silverwood Lake, and areas along the Colorado River; participated in pedestrian surveys and excavations in the Colorado Desert; recorded numerous historic and prehistoric archaeological sites; and conducted the analysis of flaked-stone and ground-stone artifacts in a laboratory setting.
Christine Grimes is a Joshua Tree native, wife, and mother of two. Growing up here, she spent a lot of her outdoors, exploring and becoming familiar with the desert's unique landscape. Prior to working with JTNPA, Christine worked for a prestige cosmetic company for over 11 years, where she developed her management, marketing, and merchandising skills. She takes great pride in working to protect and spread awareness about the importance of preserving sacred places like Joshua Tree National Park and is thrilled to be apart of JTNPA!
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Cindy Cunningham is the Assistant Buyer for Joshua Tree National Park Association, and has been with the organization since 2014. Part of Cindy's job is to bring in new and exciting products to our visitor centers. She also runs the JTNPA main Instagram account. "Making our visitors happy is our number one priority."
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Craig Fucile, B.A., Physical Geography, has taught photography for the University of California Extension programs of Irvine, Riverside and Santa Cruz. He has also taught for University of La Verne, the Sierra Club and Friends of Photography. He is a long-time workshop instructor, leading workshops in the western landscapes he enjoys photographing Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Mojave Preserve, Owens Valley, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Anza-Borrego, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia. During Fall 2017 Craig was an artist in residence for Angeles National Forest/ San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. He received the Fall 2010 Instructor Excellence Award from UC Riverside Extension and the 2007 Distinguished Instructor Award from UC Irvine Extension.
Edgar Enciso has been part of JTNPA since February of 2017. He began his affiliation with us during the busiest time of the year as an Information Specialist at Joshua Tree Visitor Center. As Joshua Tree National Park's popularity continued to grow and business operation's needs arose, Edgar's role developed to the Merchandiser of the park's six retail stores that directly provide support to the park. He is a desert native and loves the outdoors. Edgar's passion for the preservation and conservation of the desert made him the perfect fit for our newest position, Outreach Coordinator where he assists with donor cultivation, events and fundraisers that benefit the park.
Pronouns: He, Him, His
Emily Nielson and Mai-Yan Kwan, along with their partner Aimee, started Dirty Gourmet in 2010 after a bike tour across Canada and years living and working in the wilderness. The goal was to provide a resource for delicious camping recipes online, which was something the world lacked at the time. Since then, they have grown the business to include camp catering, camp cooking workshops, and a bestselling cookbook, Dirty Gourmet: Food for Your Outdoor Adventures. They are now working on a second book and continuing to provide tips and tricks to get more people excited about making food a part of their outdoor adventures.
Erin Alvarez fell in love with Joshua Tree during a visit in 2018. She and her husband were so drawn to the area that they immediately relocated and made a home in Landers. Erin is a wife to Joe Alvarez and has 5 daughters and 5 grandchildren. She is a retail expert with over 25 years of experience in her field. She is also a fashion designer and is heavily involved in the local artist community. Her passion for wildlife and nature gives her a strong calling to help protect our beautiful surroundings. Erin is extremely honored to be a part of the JTNPA team.
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
- President of the Executive Board
Erin Golden Adams grew up in central Pennsylvania along the Appalachian Mountains where she first fell in love with public lands. She spend her college years in Washington state, spending her free time rock climbing, hiking, and as a wildland firefighter. After earning her degree in Biology, she began her career as the Director of the Desert Institute at JTNP in 2004. In the past 15 years, Erin has worked for the Department of the Navy all over the world in the fields of natural resource management, cultural resources, environmental science, and most recently in government affairs. She is currently the Director of Government and External Affairs at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, overlanding, and cooking.
Jacqueline Guevara has nearly 30 years experience in non-profit management. Her passion for the desert, coupled with her extensive background in social services, makes her a strong advocate for protecting public lands while promoting education of diverse audiences about the lands and their historical, cultural, and recreational values. A 42-year desert resident, Jacqueline lived in the Morongo Basin for 20 years before relocating to Desert Hot Springs, where she currently lives with her family.
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Jason Wallace began his career at the Desert Studies Center back in 2007. As Field Station Manager, he is responsible for overseeing and participating in all aspects of facility operations and guest services. Before joining the DSC, Jason was a part-time faculty member at California State University, Fullerton and Orange Coast College, teaching classes in biology, zoology and ecology. He was also a zookeeper for seven years, caring for a wide variety of Central and South American animals, most of them primates. Jason earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology from California State University, Fullerton. His Master's thesis examined population dynamics of desert reptiles in the East Mojave/Soda Springs area. In 2008, after joining the staff, he resurrected this research to establish a long-term study of our local herpetofauna. This ongoing study is now among the most comprehensive herpetological surveys in the western deserts of North America. Jason's other research experiences include studies on Mojave fringe-toed lizard, Mojave Desert tortoise, Mohave tui chub, green sea turtle, and desert willow. Jason has an extensive understanding of desert organisms and desert ecology and regularly collaborates with federal, state and local agencies such as NPS, BLM, NASA, USFWS, USGS, and CDFW. In his spare time, he enjoys music, traveling, chasing lizards, and spending quality time with his wife and two dogs.
Jeanne Day Binning, Ph.D., Senior Cultural Resources Specialist, California Department of Transportation. Dr. Binning has been a professional archaeologist for over 50 years. She is a specialist in the lifeways of hunters and gatherers of the western contiguous United States. Within the discipline of archaeology, Dr. Binning has focused on the economics of lithic technology including the manufacture and use of flaked-stone tools. She has been flintknapping for over 40 years and has received flintknapping instruction from Jeff Flenniken, Jacques Tixier, Jacques Pelegrin, Mark Newcomer, Errett Callahan, Gene Titmus, and Tim Dillard.
Jim Lowery is a nationally known tracker and author of The Tracker's Field Guide , Walk with the Animal, and many monographs, workbooks, webinars and articles about tracking technique. He has taught tracking to thousands of students, including many specialized trainings for field biologists, universities, naturalists, and park rangers. Some of his specialized field workshops have focused on tracking individual species including bighorn sheep, badgers, mountain lions, kit fox, elk and black bears.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of the Executive Board
Originally from Maryland, Joe Zarki retired in 2013 after a 38-year career as a National Park Service ranger he had stints at Death Valley, Denali, Tuzigoot National Monument, Yellowstone, and he served as Chief of Interpretation at Badlands National Park and at Joshua Tree (1995-2013). Joe was very active in fostering curriculum-based education in the parks and was a co-creator of the Expedition: Yellowstone! residential environmental education program. In 1999, he obtained a grant that led to the creation of the Desert Institute at Joshua Tree National Park. Since retirement, Joe has authored a number of publications including the popular history, Images of America, Joshua Tree National Park. Long active in citizen activities, Joe coordinates Christmas Bird Counts at Joshua Tree National Park and Morongo Valley. Together with his wife Marilyn Lutz, he helps organize butterfly counts at Joshua Tree National Park and at Big Bear Lake. Joe volunteers as a bird walk leader at the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve and also plays guitar with a local band, Nobody's Station.
Jon Norris is a professional landscape photographer and workshop guide, a JTNPA business member, and a Desert Institute volunteer. Jon offers one-to-one and small group workshops, plus photographic adventure tours, in Joshua Tree National Park. He started taking photos at the age of 14 with his trusty Zenit 10, teaching himself the fundamentals of photography via countless rolls of poorly exposed 35 mm film. Born in the UK, Jon spent 25 years working in aerospace engineering (15 years while living in France and Germany). As a recovering engineer, he now divides his time between marketing and photography and lives in Lake Forest, OC.
Job Titles:
- Secretary of the Executive Board
Laraine has been a nature lover since growing up near Cleveland, Ohio, and is grateful to her parents for instilling that appreciation. After a 29-year career managing student services departments in several California colleges and universities, Laraine spent her final 5 working years at Copper Mountain College in Joshua Tree. In her retirement she eagerly began to volunteer in the service of conservation and the environment in the desert. Among her organizational commitments have been the California Desert Coalition, Morongo Basin Conservation Association, Morongo Basin Dark Sky Alliance, Morongo Basin Open Space Group, the County's 2nd District Night Sky Committee, and the Joshua Tree National Conservation Historic Reserve citizens' group. Laraine is honored to be part of the Association and feels that its work is contributing to the long-term conservation of our very threatened desert environment.
Linda Castro started with the California Wilderness Coalition (CalWild) in 2014, working on the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). Her role then expanded to Desert Organizer, and she now serves as their Assistant Policy Director. She works on state-wide issues related to public lands, but the desert remains her primary focus. Based in Southern California, Linda was a military "brat" who lived in Europe and South America for a significant portion of her childhood before arriving in Texas. She obtained her Bachelors' degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, and then moved to California and obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Whittier Law School. She practiced law for years before making the move to the conservation field. Linda lives with her family and is an avid tent camper, backpacker, and hiker. She also volunteers her time with, and serves on the Board of a Santa Clarita-based non-profit that works to protect and restore wild places and rivers in Southern California.
Lizette joined JTNPA in 2023. She has nearly five years of experience in retail buying and over 20 years of experience in customer service, account management, and retail operations. Frequent visits to Joshua Tree National Park were the catalyst to her becoming a permanent resident of the high desert. Lizette loves music, hiking, and traveling to new places. She is excited about her new role with JTNPA and becoming more involved with the park and her new community.
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Lynn Sweet is a Research Ecologist at the University of California, Riverside's Center for Conservation Biology. She has a B.S. in Biology from Dickinson College, and a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from UCR. In the past, she has worked as a natural history tour guide in the dry forest of Hawaii, as well as on research projects focusing on endangered birds in Arizona, weedy plant species in Wyoming, and native oak and pine establishment in central California. Her current projects focus conservation of desert plant communities in southern California, including research within the Coachella Valley and Joshua Tree National Park.
Mai-Yan Kwan and Emily Nielson, along with their partner Aimee, started Dirty Gourmet in 2010 after a bike tour across Canada and years living and working in the wilderness. The goal was to provide a resource for delicious camping recipes online, which was something the world lacked at the time. Since then, they have grown the business to include camp catering, camp cooking workshops, and a bestselling cookbook, Dirty Gourmet: Food for Your Outdoor Adventures. They are now working on a second book and continuing to provide tips and tricks to get more people excited about making food a part of their outdoor adventures.
Job Titles:
- Noah Purifoy Foundation As Its Project Coordinator
Maria Myrick recently joined the Noah Purifoy Foundation as its Project Coordinator. Working in close proximity with Sue Welsh, Co-Founder of the Foundation, Ms. Myrick helped create an online visual curriculum for the NPF Urban Arts Initiative, which included a teacher guidebook, a student handbook and a comprehensive biography of Noah's life. Using this curriculum as a device to continue bringing the Joshua Tree Outdoor Museum to public school students in South LA, Maria worked with teachers and artists throughout the 2020-21 school year to provide an exceptional educational arts experience. Under Welsh's tutelage, Ms. Myrick has studied texts of Purifoy historians and has a comprehensive understanding of both his assemblage work and his artistic responses to the politics of his time. Maria has fortified her knowledge of Noah's creative process and educational endeavors through first-hand accounts supplied by Los Angeles artists and teachers Purifoy once worked with.
Melanie Davis lives in Joshua Tree CA and is a field biologist and botanist at UC Riverside's Center for Conservation Biology in Palm Desert. She has been working and living in the Mojave Desert since 2017. Her field research brings her to remote corners of the Colorado, Mojave and Sonoran deserts, from Joshua Tree National Park to the Mojave National Preserve, 29 Palms Marine Base, and across the Coachella Valley. She primarily studies the effects of human disturbance on native plants and ecosystems, as well as the distribution of rare native plant species. She is also an artist and has self-published illustrated field guides for several groups of native desert plants. Melanie holds a Bachelor's from The Evergreen State College and the Desert Ecologist and Naturalist certifications from College of the Desert.
Job Titles:
- Leader for the Sierra Club
MISHA ASKREN is an outings leader for the Sierra Club and is an instructor in the Wilderness Travel Course. He leads trips that are "off-trail" in the wilderness in the Sierras, the San Gabriel Mountains and in Joshua Tree.
Neil Xu joined the Joshua Tree National Park Association in 2022. As the Finance Manager, Neil works on the financial analysis and improvement of the association. After graduating from UC Riverside, he enjoys new work and new life in the high desert. Besides his daily work, Neil is also an archer, leather craftsman, and music lover.
Pronouns: He, Him, His
Pam Kersey, Ed.D., MSN, RN is a Desert Institute "lead" volunteer, an archaeological site steward, and has also volunteers as a camp nurse. She has completed four marathon hikes for children's cancer fundraising. She has camped, backpacked, and hiked for many years including summits over 154,000 feet 5 times. She has taught hiking classes for women, and enjoys others learn how to safely appreciate camping and hiking. She recently retired from a career as a nurse and as a science and math dean.
Growing up in northwest Ohio, Pam enjoyed hiking and jogging through the area's tree-filled metro parks. She moved to California in her late 20s and immediately fell in love with the diverse landscape of the Golden State. She has enjoyed hiking and backpacking in the Sierra and the deserts. She also took sailing lessons in San Diego. She started her nursing career at the age of 20, eventually becoming a nursing professor. After completing a doctoral degree in educational leadership, she moved into college administration as a dean for about seven years before retiring. She has enjoyed a variety of experiences during her careers in healthcare and education. Pam has also been an active volunteer for many years including archeology site stewardship, camp nursing, and field classes. She also teaches field classes for several local organizations. She and her husband maintained a second home in Yucca Valley while living and working in the San Diego area. They love the desert and Joshua Tree area so much that they decided to move here full-time when they retired in 2021.
Job Titles:
- Membership Coordinator / Patty Angel
Somerville, a California native and resident of the Morongo Basin, is an animal lover, big sister, and is enamored with the desert night sky. She began working for the Joshua Tree National Park Association as an Information Specialist in 2016. She has been the Association's Office Assistant, Desert Institute Assistant, Office Manager and is now extremely thankful for the opportunity to serve as the Membership Coordinator. Patty loves learning, exploring, and researching ways to make the member and donor experience most pleasant, and enjoys engaging with park supporters on a daily basis.
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Robin Balch is a Desert Institute "lead" volunteer. She has hiked several portions of the Pacific Coast Trail and has been a Forest Service Fire Lookout. Her hiking and camping skills make her a great co-instructor for the Women's "Get-Away" Weekend.
Sandi Wheaton is photography instructor based in Windsor, ON and the Salton Sea, CA. After being downsized from General Motors in 2009, she took a life-changing drive across America on historic Route 66, creating three photography projects and an award-winning travel blog. One of Sandi's greatest passions and long-term photography projects is the ecologically-troubled Salton Sea in southern California. She has been visiting and photographing the Salton Sea since 2004, sharing the work through several solo exhibitions over the years. A true globetrotter, Sandi leads photography tours in Iceland and California, has taught Forensic Photography at the University of Windsor, and travels far and wide with Crystal Cruises as a guest lecturer, teaching "Creative Media Fundamentals".
Job Titles:
- Director
- Resources Manager
Sarah Bliss is the Cultural Resources Manager for the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. Working in the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, she aims to protect and preserve sites, structures, and districts that are within the ancestral territory of the Chemehuevi. While a California native, she has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Ireland and Japan but has always been drawn to the California Desert. From conducting archaeological excavations in the southwest, surveys with the NPS in northern California, working at a local science museum, to working for the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians has enabled her to receive an array of skills both in the world of cultural resource management, but also with education and outreach.
Job Titles:
- Desert Institute Program Director
Sarah is a grassroots educator, artist, and chef who values an exploratory, hands-on approach to how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Sarah moved to the high desert in 2016, and her natural curiosity about the environment sparked several projects that brought people together to explore our relationship to the land through botany, food, and hiking. In collaboration with the non-profit High Desert Test Sites, Sarah founded the monthly community wild-plant dinner and discussion event High Desert Test Kitchen, which later generated Hole in the Sand, her immersive platform for informal desert educational events focused around plant-identification hikes, overnight desert backpacking trips, and seasonal pop-up dinners. Most recently Sarah‘s been teaching culinary arts at Copper Mountain College and College of the Desert, and she‘s so excited to collaborate with the community and broaden her outreach by joining the team at JTNPA as Director of Desert Institute!
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Stephen J. Myers is semi-retired after spending 38 years as a wildlife biologist and ornithologist for private biological consulting companies. He has concentrated his studies on birds, but also has extensive experience with small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, butterflies, and plants. Much of his experience with birds has focused on threatened and endangered species such as the California Gnatcatcher, Least Bell's Vireo, Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, Yuma Ridgway's Rail, and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Mr. Myers has been banding birds since 1985, and has been a federally permitted bird bander since 1990. Bird banding projects have included research of the California Gnatcatcher, Bahama Oriole, Lark Sparrow, Nelson's Sparrow, and Red-winged Blackbird, along with coordinating or assisting with MAPS banding stations (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship). He has taught ornithology classes at Victor Valley College, and bird banding classes at University of California, Riverside Extension. He also leads regular birding field trips and bird walks for the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society and the Wildlands Conservancy. He and his wife enjoy international travel, usually involving birding, to places such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Belize, Mexico, Australia, and Sri Lanka.
Job Titles:
- Editor - in - Chief of Palm Springs Life
Steven Biller, the longtime editor-in-chief of Palm Springs Life, writes and lectures about early and contemporary California art with an emphasis on the Coachella Valley and High Desert regions.
Tara has been exploring Joshua Tree since 2013, and finally became a high desert resident last year. She has over 10 years of experience providing executive and administrative support across multiple industries. Tara loves hiking, camping, animals, and all things outdoors. Prior to settling here, she spent some time traveling on the road with her husband and 2 dogs in their truck camper.
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Theresa Clark is a bryophyte ecologist from Maine, but much of her research has been in the American Southwest studying tiny dryland mosses (which are often a quarter of the size of their mesic Maine relatives). She earned a M.S. at Northern Arizona University researching the diversity and community ecology of mosses in Grand Canyon National Park. During her PhD at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she studied dryland moss survival and the potential for these small mosses to "hide" from climate change in protected microhabitats. After finishing her degree, she has continued in research and science education. At the University of Minnesota, she has been teaching biology and studying long-term desiccation tolerance and functional trait ecology of dryland mosses including characterizing their unique "spongey adaptions" for holding and moving water. In progress is her moss flora of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (Utah) and she has helped develop a photographic moss guide for using California mosses as bioindicators for riparian health. She offers regular moss outreach events, teaching children and adults alike how to "moss hunt" without disturbing these important and sometimes delicate plant communities.
Tom Scanlan is a telecommunication professional and a part-time college educator. He loves the outdoors and has ten years of experience as a Boy Scout Leader. As a hiking enthusiast he has climbed Mount Whitney twice. He has taught others of all ages how to backpack, camp, and hike. Tom is an active volunteer archaeological site steward for the Joshua Tree National Park and Cleveland National Forest and for the Desert Institute.