Mel Preston

Ecologist, Working Lands

I am an ecologist for the Working Lands Group and I primarily work on data analysis and science communication products for our Rangeland Monitoring Network (RMN). I grew up in rural San Diego county, CA with a menagerie of animals including horses and a parrot. I received my degree in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley and got my first field job as a point counter and nest searcher with Point Blue (then PRBO) in the postfire habitats of the Northern Sierras. After four years working with amazing field crews in difficult but stunning terrain, I was totally hooked on bird work, ecology and conservation and never looked back.

While I was a full-time staff with Point Blue for over a decade, I am currently part-time remote from northern New Mexico. I love spending time in my studio working on art projects, gardening, and hiking with my heelers in the mountains.

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