Mark has been with the Land Conservancy since May 1997. He is currently involved in the removal of invasive plants from the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes and San Luis Obispo Creek. The worst of the weeds are grasses: Veldt grass (from South Africa), Beach grass (from Holland), Pampas grass (from Argentina) and Giant Reed (from India). In the Dunes we are protecting rare plants from being overrun by weeds. On San Luis Obispo Creek we are preventing the spread of Giant Reed (Arundo). A great deal of ecological restoration can take place simply by removing invasive plants.
Mark has a background in Landscape Architecture ('84 Cal Poly), composting (holding compost workshops for the Terra Foundation 1990-1997) and native plant gardening. His other interests include social activism (anti-nuclear, pro conservation and renewable energy, pro leadership in energy, CO2 management and foreign policy), feng shui, Jungian psychology, travel, wave riding, bio diesel and cooking. He enjoys watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and 60 minutes. He enjoys fiction by Tom Robbins and TC Boyle and non-fiction by Amory Lovins and subjects such as geography, psychology, philosophy and food. His favorite websites are Friesian.com, enwikipedia.org., favorite bloggers are Virgina Postrel (dynamist.com/weblog) and Andrew Zolli (zpluspartners.com), favorite 'zines are Harper's, the New Yorker and Business Week.