Explore the 360° photo sphere below, capturing one of the serene restored livestock ponds in Contra Costa County visited by the CCRCD for eDNA monitoring. Click and drag with your cursor—or swipe on a touchscreen—to look around. Zoom in and out for a closer view of the landscape.
Skills: Permitting, conservation on agricultural land, illegal dumping prevention.
Fun Fact: Eagle Scout, former member of the University of California Marching Band, aspiring birder, and a Contra Costa native raised in Southern California.
Ben started working with Contra Costa RCD in January 2017 after receiving two Masters degrees from Indiana University in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Policy following undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley. Ben manages the Voluntary Local Program, the EcoStewards Program, and other conservation programs focused on agricultural lands.
Skills: Environmental stewardship, relationship building, community composter & gardener, aspiring homesteader, native grasslands enthusiast, loves working with animals, grazing systems, tree hugger, watershed restoration steward.
Fun Fact: She grew up in Connecticut and although once partial to the Autumn season, understandably so having grown up surrounded by vibrant colors and foliage, has since made the East Bay her main home for the past 10 years, and has grown to appreciate every season, and the diversity of biomes present throughout California with vibrant colors of its own.
Genna comes to Contra Costa Resource Conservation District (CCRCD) as an early career professional who’s background in environmental sciences and food systems gives her a holistic lens in which to assist land managers across Contra Costa county. She recently completed serving in a Sustainable Agriculture & Water Technician role at Mendocino County Resource Conservation District through a UC-Berkeley AmeriCorps program called GrizzlyCorps, and also worked on rangeland carbon monitoring with Point Blue Conservation Science based in Petaluma, CA and Quivira Coalition based in Santa Fe, NM, where she partnered with farmers & ranchers across the continental Southwest. With CCRCD’s growing Agriculture team, Genna is the point person working on livestock and rangeland conservation projects including the Voluntary Local Program to restore habitats and protect the state threatened California Tiger Salamander and Alameda Whipsnake and federally threatened California Red-Legged Frog, and many additional rangeland management projects.
