(Illustration by Max-o-Matic; image credits: Frank Schulenberg via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; simpylmare55 via iNaturalist, CC 4.0; Andrea Laue; deehimes via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0; Anan Kaewkhammul, Shutterstock; courtesy John Muir Laws; alan_rockefeller via iNaturalist, CC by SA 4.0; courtesy Tanya Henderson; Vickie J Anderson via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 4.0; brian.gratwicke via Flickr, CC by NC 2.0; Glenn Price, Shutterstock; Andrea Laue (2x); arlenedevitt via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0; GGB w rocks, Shutterstock; Pacific Southwest Region USFWS via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; Nick Bossenbroek; Bob Hines; USFWS; ouzel via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0; Neuchâtel Herbarium via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; benjchristensen via iNaturalist, CC BY-SA 4.0; alex_wentworth via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0; joergmlpts via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0; alan_rockefeller via iNaturalist, CC BY-SA 4.0; Justin Meissen via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0; courtesy Canopy; Christopher P. Michel via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; benjchristensen via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0; Jack Uhalde; Andrea Laue; heathermarie via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0; Anton Starikov, Shutterstock.)

Read more about the 2025 Local Heroes:

Avroh Shah, Young Leader

Susan Schwartz, Community Hero

Annie Burke, Conservation Action

Mirella Ramos, Environmental Educator

This is Bay Nature magazine’s 25th year in print and our 15th year bestowing Local Hero Awards to people whose outstanding work benefits the San Francisco Bay Area’s natural world. The awards grew from a desire in 2010 to recognize elders who helped create a culture of conservation in the Bay Area, a culture whose shoulders Bay Nature has sat on, says David Loeb, Bay Nature’s co-founder and emeritus executive director and publisher. “It was a generation that felt underrecognized.” 

The plan was for a one-time event, celebrating North Bay conservationist Marty Griffin, geologist Doris Sloan, and environmental journalist Harold Gilliam, to be attended by about 200 people in January 2011 at the Oakland Museum. But a severe November storm flooded the event space, leaving Bay Nature staff scrambling for a new location. The Kaiser Center on Lake Merritt was available, but it held twice as many people, a space Bay Nature staff thought they would never fill. But then, the event sold out.

“That was when we realized we had the standing in the community to hold a ‘local hero’ award. There was an appetite for recognizing people,” Loeb recalls. And a 15-year tradition was born. 

This year, like every year, the Bay Nature Institute board and staff have spent months receiving and considering nominations for Local Hero Awards. The 2025 recipients will be recognized at the David Brower Center in Berkeley on April 6. To join the party, visit BayNature.org/local-hero-awards-2025.

Past Local Heroes

Conservation action

Marty Griffin, 2011

Ellie Cohen, 2012

Seth Adams, 2013

Craig Anderson, 2014

Ralph Benson, 2015

Andrea Mackenzie, 2016

David Lewis, 2017

Walter Moore, 2018

Robert Doyle, 2019

Sejal Choksi-Chugh, 2020

Wendy Eliot, 2021

Nonette Hanko, 2022

Stu Weiss, 2023

Kellyx Nelson, 2024

environmental educator

Doris Sloan, 2011

Harold Gilliam, 2011 (journalism)

Robin Grossinger, 2012

Mia Monroe, 2013

Liam O’Brien, 2014

Julia Clothier, 2015

Allen Fish, 2016

Rebecca Johnson &

Alison Young, 2017

Lisa Micheli, 2018

Anthony Khalil, 2019

John Muir Laws, 2020

Clayton Anderson, 2021

Megan Isadore, 2022

Blanca Olivia Hernández, 2023

Katharyn Boyer, 2024

Young leader

Sean FitzHoward, 2012

Cindy Moreno, 2013

Cheyanna Washburn, 2014

Javier Ochoa Reyes, 2015

Naftali Moed, 2016

Uriel Hernandez, 2017

Sandra Corzantes, 2018

Tina Cuevas, 2019

Avalon Qian, 2020

Emma Lewis, 2021

Solwazi Allah, 2022

Alexii Sigona, 2023

Naji Lockett, 2024

Community hero

Lennie Roberts, 2019

Vincent Medina, 2020

José González, 2021

Richard Tejeda, 2022

Omar Gallardo, 2023

Yakuta Poonawalla, 2024

bay nature local hero

Malcolm Margolin, 2016

Doug McConnell, 2021