Education:

B.S. in Forestry and Wildlife Management from Virginia Tech, 1977

M.Sc. in Environmental Planning and Natural Resources Management from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, 1981

High School Science Teaching Certification from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1990

Professional:

Career includes stints with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, University of Washington, University of New Mexico, and Orange County (California) Environmental Management Agency. 

Also served as vice-president of Carrying Capacity Network, a small Washington, DC-based population advocacy organization, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Central America, promoting conservation of tropical rainforests and wildlife.  While a PCV in Honduras, I co-led scientific and fact-finding expeditions into Pico Bonito National Park and the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve. Also helped delineate the park boundaries and edited the first-ever management plan of Parque Nacional Pico Bonito. 

Have worked as a senior environmental manager for the same small environmental consulting firm in McLean, Virginia for the past 13 years.

I have written two books and more than 100 articles and technical reports, contributed to about 50 comprehensive conservation plans (for U.S. national wildlife refuges), environmental impact statements, and environmental assessments, as well as written other book-length monographs on population, immigration, and the environment.

Have been interviewed many times on radio and TV, including NPR’s “The Morning Edition,” Public Radio International’s “The World”, and PBS’s “To the Contrary.” Have been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine, and other newspapers and magazines.

Personal:

After Pennsylvania, I lived in Virginia, Maryland, British Columbia (Canada), Alaska, Washington State, Honduras (Central America), New Mexico, California, and Virginia again, coming almost full circle. 

Spent 18 years living in the West and/or out of the USA. In 1989, I married a Honduran, Ana Veronica Castillo Gutierrez, I met during my Peace Corps service in that country.  Although we have been separated for many years, we continue to be “partners in parenting” of our two sons, Leon Jr. and Lars, 19 and 15 years of age, respectively.

I continue to be an avid outdoorsman, especially into hiking, bicycling, and wilderness exploration.    At the moment I am preparing for a week-long canoe trip in September into the fabled Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota and Ontario.