Rodrigo Sierra Corona

Dr. Sierra Corona is a conservation scientist with over 20 years of experience researching and implementing conservation practices on endangered landscapes and biodiversity. He is a native of Queretaro, Mexico and completed his Ecosystem Management doctorate in 2016 at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, working in the Chihuahuan Desert native grasslands. There he took part in the designation of the Janos Biosphere Reserve, protecting one million acres of grasslands and forest in Northern Mexico. His PhD project describes the ecological interaction of black tailed prairie dogs and domestic cattle, challenging the longstanding view of prairie dogs as an undesirable species. Rodrigo has worked on the recovery of black footed ferrets, American bison, prairie dogs and jaguars and is currently involved in the understanding of the US-Mexico border wall effects on wildlife. 

Rodrigo is the executive director for Borderlands Restoration Network and the former director of ecological management at the Santa Lucia Conservancy in Carmel, California. At the Conservancy, he brought both an academic and in-practice perspective to the Santa Lucia Preserve with the objective of safeguarding and improving its ecological integrity through the development and implementation of science-based adaptive management strategies. Designed around climate change adaptation and resilience with special attention to wildfire patterns, drought scenarios, ecosystem connectivity, and biodiversity, Rodrigo was responsible for overseeing their biological monitoring and research, restoration, and conservation grazing programs.

Dr. Sierra Corona did his bachelor dissertation at Cuenca lands 20 years ago, following black bears and mountain lions, and setting camera traps all the way to the Mexico-USA border line. It was during this time that he heard the call, loud and clear to work with nature to improve the ecological conditions of degraded landscapes.