Read more about the 2025 Local Heroes:
Susan Schwartz, Community Hero
Annie Burke, Conservation Action
Mirella Ramos, Environmental Educator
An American avocet dives into the silt and emerges beak open: “I think it got something!” Avroh Shah says. Out at the Baylands Nature Preserve, the sweep of sky over these shimmering mudflats opens a view to the horizon. “Every time I come here, there’s a smile on my face,” Shah says. Now a sophomore at Palo Alto High School, Shah has explored these nearly 2,000 acres in Santa Clara County since childhood: boating at Shoreline Lake, biking along Coyote Creek, walking on the Bay Trail with friends.
This past year has cemented the importance of the Baylands for Shah. As expansion plans for neighboring Palo Alto Airport threatened the wetlands, he gathered thousands of signatures in a grassroots campaign to protect the preserve. In just a few weeks, he taught himself obscure federal aviation regulations, spent hours talking to pilots to understand the opposition’s perspective, and built a region-wide coalition of organizations to fight the expansion. They’re now waiting for the Palo Alto City Council staff to present an alternative for the council to review.
To Shah, the Baylands symbolize what’s at stake with climate change. He’s watched the sea creep in over his short lifetime: a bench moving upslope, increased flooding with king tides and big storms. These real-time markers of loss drive his work. And protecting the preserve is only the latest chapter in his decade-long journey. As he watched the 2014 drought wither California, Shah recognized how climate change would devastate the outdoor spaces he loved. With a friend, he began organizing cleanup efforts in parks and wrote a 16-page essay to advocate for better waste management in his school. He was nine years old.
His work continued, focusing on stewarding places both near and far. For years, he organized cleanup efforts at San Francisquito Creek. In 2020, he knocked on more than 1,000 doors in Palo Alto to raise awareness of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline’s impact in Minnesota and its link to big consumer banks. When the banks renewed their contracts with Enbridge, it was “disheartening,” he says. “But it just really instilled that [if] you’re going to lose 10 more times than you win, then you’re going to take that win.” Shah kept going—organizing a final stand against Line 3, starting regional organizing chapters, and serving as a plaintiff in Genesis B. v. EPA, the children’s climate lawsuit—all while starting high school.
In his lowest moments, Shah walked the trails in the Baylands. Giving up isn’t an option, he’s realized: climate change won’t stop just because he does. “Rarely have I met a young leader with Avroh’s talent, maturity, and humility,” says Shani Kleinhaus, an environmental advocate with the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, who worked with Shah on the Baylands campaign. “Avroh will change the world.”
Shah’s planning his next move already: he picks his campaigns with care, spending his energy where he thinks his voice can make the biggest difference. “I love nature,” he says. “And we have to fight for the things that we love.”
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