Melissa Wilder

Melissa Wilder is the wildlife program coordinator with Los Padres ForestWatch, an organization dedicated to protecting public lands in California. She is an advocate for reintroducing top-tier predators like grizzly bears into California's ecosystems, emphasizing their critical role in maintaining ecological balance and health. Wilder finds the potential for grizzly bear recovery not only exciting from an environmental standpoint but also symbolically significant for California's cultural heritage.