WILLIAM LEMOS

The impact that Lemos has had on others, as well as his own adventures, makes him California's greatest outdoor educator. Lemos has led more than 50 national and international wilderness excursions for high school students, college students and adults.

His passions span the range of the outdoors. Lemos is an avid hiker, biker, scuba and skin diver, kayaker, natural historian and fisherman. In 1992, he earned a doctorate in education and his dissertation documented the curriculum and benefits of his wilderness experience courses. In 1999, he helped win a grant to start the advanced placement ecology and eco-literacy course at Mendocino High School, now considered a template for environmental education.

Lemos now devotes his time to land conservation and education as a monitor for the Mendocino Land Trust's conservation easements. Additionally, he is a founding member of the land trust's Big River committee, providing stewardship for Big River, one of California's longest undeveloped river estuaries.