Women Leaders of the Central Coast Public Lands

The Los Padres ForestWatch (LPFW) nonprofit organization announced their 2024 Women Leaders of the Central Coast Public Lands. The LPFW selection focuses specifically on each woman’s groundbreaking work protecting public lands and waters.

The women are Gloria Brown, Marlene Braun, Lois Capps, Jan Hamber, Kathleen Goddard Jones, Linda Krop, Mary Looby, Janine McFarland, Anne McMahon, Joy Parkinson, Sally Reid, Nancy Sandburg, Julie Tumamait, Anne Van Tyne, Violet Sage Walker, and Patricia Weinberger. 

From this list, the MJ salutes the women from Santa Barbara County as follows:

Gloria Brown (1951-2021) was a Supervisor of the Los Padres National Forest and the first Black woman forest supervisor in the agency. She held a B.S. in Journalism and Communications from the University of Maryland and studied forestry at Oregon State University. She co-authored Black Woman in Green: Gloria Brown and the Unmarked Trail to Forest Service Leadership with Donna L. Sinclair. Brown started her career with the forest agency in 1974 as a transcriptionist in Washington, D.C. From there, she became a supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest, Oregon and at the Los Padres National Forest in California, where she retired in 2007. During her tenure in SB County, she scaled back a proposal by her predecessor to expand oil drilling in the forest, approved the removal of a defunct dam on a tributary to the Sisquoc River, and imposed a policy calling for environmental assessments before timber and vegetation could be removed (a policy that has since been revoked). Her remarkable work and her book bring into focus much needed valuable insight into the roles that African Americans have in the field of environmental policy, public lands management, and the outdoors.

Lois Capps served as the U.S. representative for California’s 24th congressional district from 1998 to 2017. She introduced legislation that established the Carrizo Plain National Monument, banned oil drilling in the Los Padres National Forest, stopped the Adventure Pass, and expanded the network of wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers in Los Padres National Forest. 

Jan Armstrong Hamber was one of the founders of the SB Chapter of the Audubon Society. She volunteered with the SB Museum of Natural History working as an associate curator of vertebrate zoology. She accompanied Dick Smith on a U.S. Forest Service expedition to study California condors in the San Rafael Wilderness. After Smith’s passing she continued to monitor a nesting pair he had discovered there, and she worked with the breeding of condors from birth to release. Hamber established the largest searchable database of California condors. She was awarded the Trailblazing Women in Science Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for her condor work.

Kathleen Goddard Jones (1907-2001)co-founded two local Sierra Club chapters, where she gave testimony in support of the San Rafael Wilderness, the Ventana Wilderness, and the Santa Lucia Wilderness. Her key work led to the preservation of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes. Her 13-year campaign to preserve the dunes resulted in Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) converting the land to a park in 1974.

Linda Krop is Chief Counsel at the Environmental Defense Center. She specializes in cases addressing the protection of coastal, open space, natural resources, and offshore energy issues. She defeated the extension of 37 federal oil leases offshore in Ventura, SB and SLO counties, and led efforts to pass state legislation opposing new federal offshore oil and gas leasing. She served on the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council from 1998-2013 and teaches Environmental Law and Land Use & Planning Law at the UC Santa Barbara. She was appointed by the U.S. Minerals Management Service as a member of the California Offshore Oil and Gas Energy Resources committee and High Energy Seismic Survey task force.

Janine McFarland is a Chumash archaeologist who worked with the U.S. Forest Service. She identified and protected sensitive cultural sites and landscapes from damage caused by commercial livestock grazing, with a particular emphasis on the Sierra Madre Ridge. McFarland received awards from the American Rock Art Research Association and the Society for California Archaeology for her significant contributions to the conservation and protection of rock art in Los Padres National Forest.

Joy Parkinson (1924-2013)was a founding member of Santa Barbara Audubon where she served several terms as its president, notably during the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Parkinson served on the SBC Parks Commission and was instrumental in getting Lake Los Carneros and the surrounding land dedicated as a county park. She was the first Director of the Coastal Information Resource Center. Parkinson campaigned for the passage of the 1964 Wilderness Act and was invited for her input to the National Environmental Policy Act. She was the first director of the Coastal Resource Information Center, advocating for the Channel Islands as a National Park.

Nancy Sandburg was a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service for 20 years on the Mendocino, Tongass, Rio Grande, and Los Padres National Forest. She was awarded a certificate of merit from the Forest Service Chief. Sandburg reported illegal bulldozing by Forest Service employees that destroyed stream habitat and killed hundreds of endangered frogs and toads – a whistleblowing instance which led to her harassment on the job. The LPFW writes, “She left a legacy of accountability and integrity, making personal and professional sacrifices in defense of waterways and wildlife.”

Anne Van Tyne (1904-1993), named theGrand Dame of the Environmental Movementby Robert Easton, for her efforts to protect 65,000 acres of the San Rafael Mountains in Santa Barbara’s backcountry. Her campaign as a Sierra Club member was said to prompt Congress to pass a law in 1984 to establish that area as the Dick Smith Wilderness. Tyne helped to organize the first forest land use committee for the local Sierra Club chapter in 1970 and guided a campaign to stop open pit phosphate mining on Pine Mountain. She opposed the Forest Service’s use of herbicides to clear fuel breaks, addressed damage caused by unregulated off-road vehicles, ended competitive motocross races in the forest, and worked to halt over-development at Zaca Lake.

411: https://lpfw.org/women-leaders-of-central-coast-public-lands