Our board is one of the most experienced teams in land management. This is truly your dream team.
david katz
Santa Rosa, California
Over the past three decades David has been extensively involved in natural resource management as an entrepreneur, consultant, and land management professional with wide experience in the conservation and agricultural sectors.
He has extensive experience in managing complex real estate transactions. He is well versed in regulatory and management issues related to ranching, food production and processing, timberland management, carbon projects, wetlands, and conservation easements.
David played a pivotal role in the creation of the organic food movement. He was one of the first sustainable farming visionaries to introduce certified organic products to the California market in the early 1970s. He co-founded California Certified Organic Farmers, and was a founding board member of the Organic Farming Research Foundation in 1992.
He served as Executive Director of the Sonoma Land Trust, and as California Director of Trout Unlimited. Earlier he founded Ag Access Corporation, an agricultural book publisher and leading provider of agricultural information services. He served (Governor’s appointment) as President of the California Reclamation Board, and testified to Congress on numerous occasions. David's consulting work includes ecosystem-scale land conservation, farm planning and food systems, business advising for forest and agricultural landowners, and managing and managing complex land transactions.
He has long been active as an advisor, consultant, and active participant in many types of conservation and land related real estate projects. He specializes in conservation transactions that can help landowners protect land resources and also earn income or tax benefits form the conservation efforts. He holds a B.S. in agriculture from UC Davis and a Masters Degree from the Yale School of Forestry. He holds CA Real Estate license 01739519.
Michael Furniss
Arcata, California
Michael is a forest hydrologist and soil scientist, recently retired from the research branch of the Forest Service. He teaches and consults on climate change and ecological approaches to forest management, both regionally and internationally; in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Jamaica, and Israel. Mr. Furniss was the district hydrologist and soil scientist for the Smith River National Recreation Area – Gasquet Ranger District from 1980 until 1991.
Michael is expert in natural/green cemetery development.
He is obsessed with cultivating communities of practice and effective communication. He employs new, old, and innovative media to help people to think, feel, and work together. He is a longtime member of Arcata’s Forest Management Advisory Committee that governs Arcata’s Community Forest. He holds a B.S. in Soil Science and Plant Nutrition from the University of California at Berkeley 1974 and a M.S. in Soil Science, Forest Watershed Management Emphasis from the University of California at Berkeley 1977.
Patty McCleary
Crescent City, California
Patty is the Co-Executive Director of the Smith River Alliance. She functions as the Project Manager on all land conservation projects such as the Lake Earl Wildlife Area expansion and addition of thousands of acres to the Smith River National Recreation Area, and has completed numerous highly complex conservation transactions during the past decades. She is a very experienced non-profit executive and has in-depth expertise in every aspect of financial management and accounting for NGOs.
Patty has over 25 years of experience working on conservation issues and has served as the Pacific Program Director for the Land Trust Alliance; Project Manager for the Trust for Public Land; Executive Director for the Washington Water Trust; and as National Conservation Representative for the Sierra Club. Ms McCleary received her B.A. from U.C. California at Santa Barbara.
Dr. William Olkowski
Fort Bragg, California
Bill is a specialist in Integrated Pest Management and Biological Control of Insects and an active environmental scientist, teacher and author. His books include “Common Sense Pest Control” and “The Gardeners Guide to Least Toxic Pest Control" and the “Integral Urban House," among others. His publications include other books, book chapters, scientific papers, government reports, book reviews, technical pest control manuals, and more extensively, articles in the “IPM Practitioner” and “Common Sense Pest Control Quarterly for over 25 years.
Bill has been a consultant to the N.P.S., A.I.D., N.I.H. and many other government and private organizations. He was the founder of the first recycling center in the U.S. and has served on numerous nonprofit boards and advisory councils. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of CA at UC Davis.
Kendra Johnson
Guerneville, California
Kendra is an expert in small farm preservation, succession and land access for farmers. She has initiated and/or managed projects working with California FarmLink, One Farm at a Time, Yolo Land Trust, The Greenhorns, Agrarian Trust, National Young Farmers Coalition, Felix Gillet Institute, and others. She served as Regional Coordinator, California FarmLink, where she managed the nonprofit’s Central Valley Region activities (trainings/workshops, strategic partnerships, and individual technical assistance) for farmers, ranchers, and agricultural landowners on topics of land tenure, business planning and finance, and farm succession planning.
Her diverse background includes being owner/operator of several landscape and gardening businesses, where she managed design, construction, installation of ecological and edible landscapes. She has extensive knowledge of native plants, water conservation, soil health, non-toxic pest and disease management.
She hold a B.A. inEnvironmental Studies with core emphases in Biology and Anthropology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN. And a M.S. in Community Development, from UC Davis, where she researched potential of agricultural conservation easements to improve land access for farmers. She is the author of numerous publications on farm tenure and opportunities for new farmers.
Vocational certificates:
Horticulture Certificate, Merritt College, Oakland, CA; Permaculture Design Certificate,
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Occidental, CA; Grow Biointensive™ training, Ecology
Action, Willits, CA.