Darren serves as the Southwest Oregon Conservation Director for The Nature Conservancy and has worked in the region since 1987. He collaborated on the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project, guiding the Conservancy’s partnership role there and in the Rogue Forest Partners. The Conservancy brings science to bear on project design, multi-party monitoring, community engagement, and a landscape approach. He coordinates the Rogue Basin Fire Learning Network and the Ashland Prescribed Fire Training Exchange. Darren secured grants to research and publish regional fire histories, and ongoing work on stand reconstructions. Darren has published on the ecology and botany of Southern Oregon, a biography of C.B. Watson, southern Oregon’s first conservationist, and is a co-author of the Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Restoration Strategy. He earned both his B.S. and M.S degrees in biology and ecology at Western Washington University.