Josh O'Brien

Josh grew up in Oregon and attended college in Minnesota, where he fell in love with the state's prairies and oak savannas. His fascination with plants led him to graduate school in restoration ecology and a career researching native grasslands, rare plants, and climate change impacts on Western forests and butterfly communities. Over the past 15 years, he has worked with federal, state, and tribal wildlife managers on the conservation of wild bighorn sheep populations throughout the West.

Some of Josh's earliest and fondest memories are of backpacking trips (at first riding in a backpack, then carrying one) with his family on the Colorado Plateau. The plateau has pulled him back again and again ever since. Josh is inspired by the persistence of the peoples, plants, and animals of the Colorado Plateau and is thrilled at the opportunity to work full-time on their behalf.

[The old man] said trees are very honest and they don't care much for fancy people...you have to respect that tree or hill or whatever it is you're with. Take a horned toad, for example. If you think you're better than a horned toad, you'll never hear its voice – even if you sit there in the sun forever.

— Byrd Baylor, "The Other Ways to Listen"