Our Staff
Craig Thomas – Executive Director
Craig Thomas, our Executive Director, co-founded Sierra Forest Legacy in 1996 as the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign. Craig oversees all of our programmatic work and coordinates our Forest Conservation Program. Craig has been intimately involved in the protection and restoration of the forests of the Sierra Nevada for over twenty-five years and continues working to find solutions to the threats facing Sierra Nevada forests and communities today.
Craig has a degree in cultural ecology, the study of the ecological, economic and spiritual relationship of people to their landscapes. He has led Sierra Forest Legacy’s efforts to not only defend the Sierra from excessive logging, but to also protect Sierra communities from wildfire and to find environmentally sustainable solutions to reducing wildfire hazard, such as the utilization of small diameter trees and brush removed in forest thinning efforts. Before founding Sierra Forest Legacy Craig was a small-scale organic farmer and often lectured at local universities on sustainable farming practices and holistic agriculture.
Craig is a 28-year resident of the Sierra Nevada and calls the foothills north of Placerville his home. When he is not working hard on behalf of the forests he enjoys organic gardening, playing guitar and mandolin, fly-fishing, backpacking, botanizing and canoeing with his wife Vivian.
Warren Alford – Community Forestry Program Coordinator
Warren began work with Sierra Forest Legacy in August 2005. Warren works with local communities to utilize small diameter wood- byproducts of restoration activities- to enhance local community self-reliance. Warren gets great satisfaction from helping to solve resource conflicts by promoting forest restoration and he currently serves on the board of the Grass Roots Environmental Fund.
Before joining us, Warren was a Regional Representative for the Sierra Club working on state regulated forest issues and he worked as the local chapter coordinator of the Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter. He has helped to protect the American River from the threat of the Auburn Dam and worked to help secure the protection of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Prior to that Warren worked on the campaign to promote the southern Utah wilderness proposal that ultimately became the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Warren attended the University of California at Davis where he spent his summers working as a backcountry guide and packer for the Yosemite Park and Curry Company in Yosemite National Park. Warren is a fourth-generation resident of the Sierra Nevada where he currently resides on his family’s historic ranch in Calaveras County near the giant sequoias of the Calaveras Big Trees State Park.
When not working to protect the forests and communities of the Sierra, Warren can be found hiking, fishing or skiing in the Sierra or at a local park coaching youth soccer and baseball.
Darça Morgan – Conservation Biologist
Darça Morgan focuses on protecting wildlife and old forests in the Sierra Nevada. She tracks Forest Service logging activity and forest plans across 11 National Forests and she advocates for the use of best available science in making land management decisions. Darça enjoys keeping up on the latest research on Sierran wildlife and ecology. Before joining Sierra Forest Legacy in April 2007, Darça spent five years as a district wildlife biologist on the Stanislaus National Forest where she cut her teeth on the National Environmental Policy Act.
Prior to moving to the Sierra, Darça conducted ecological research on San Francisco Bay waterfowl and shorebirds with the US Geological Survey. She earned a Master’s Degree in biology from Sonoma State University 2001, and a Bachelor’s Degree in biology from Mills College. Darça worked seasonally in Oregon, Maine and California conducting wildlife surveys for marbled murrelets, spotted owls, goshawks, snowy plovers, and amphibians.
Darça lives and works near Sonora, California, and enjoys the quiet sanctuary of the Sierra foothills. She enjoys backpacking, swimming holes, and birding. Born and raised in rural Iowa, a landscape dominated by agri-business and a paucity of public land, she developed an appreciation for land conservation at an early age.
Karina Silvas Ballanca – Firewise Communities Program Coordinator
Karina began working with Sierra Forest Legacy in June 2008. Using Firewise Communities / USA principles and concepts, Karina has become a vital link to outreach activities in communities throughout the Sierra Nevada. She also loves working in the fire education field.
Before joining us, Karina attended Humboldt State University where she received a degree in Forestry emphasizing wildland fire management. While Karina was attending school, she worked as a forestry technician for Weyerhaeuser in Goshen, Oregon. After exploring the production side of forestry, Karina became a wildland firefighter for the Mendocino National Forest. While working as a firefighter, she felt the desire to educate landowners on fire prevention and conservation.
Karina lives in Weimar, California with her husband Ryan Bellanca, and their lovable and trusty pit-bull Carmen. Karina enjoys going to the dog park, and finding swimming holes in the American River. She also enjoys other outdoor activities such as gardening, hiking, skateboarding, wakeboarding, and snowboarding.