Mehmet McMillan – WildPlaces Director

Mehmet was born in Sinop, Turkey, his mother is Turk and father American. He grew up in Louisiana and now lives in the southern Sierra Nevada in the Giant Sequoia National Monument of California. Educated at Louisiana State University, Mehmet earned a B.S. in Zoology in 1989. After being employed as a Hazardous Waste Remediation Consultant for two years by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and concurrently volunteering for local greening organizations in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Mehmet resigned from his position with hopes of effecting change through grassroots activism.

In 1992, McMillan opened Bean Tree Coffees and Teas, a small business and coffee shop/performance art theatre offering Baton Rouge a forum for independent thought. Operating for two years, this endeavor brought business sense and community relations into McMillan’s toolbox.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and took the position of Urban Forestry Manager at TreePeople, a 27 year old urban greening and education organization based In Los Angeles. There, he began his career as a grassroots organizer, working for one year as the Urban Forestry Manager before taking the position of Mountain Forestry Manager in 1995 – 2000.

As Mountain Forestry Manager, Mehmet offered TreePeople volunteers diverse mountain planting experiences while rehabilitating negatively impacted native ecosystems. Projects ranged from upper elevation montane areas down through riparian zones and oak woodland habitat to dune and wetland areas in the Los Angeles watershed. Culture and indigenous protection and education also mark his goals as activist and community organizer in LA, where he advocated strongly through direct action civil disobedience for the rights of the Karen (Burma), MiWuk (Stanislaus NF), Tlingit and Haida (SE Alaska), and others.

In 1998, Mr. McMillan co-founded the Burma Humanitarian Mission (www.burmamission.org) and continues his commitment (and that of the Burma Humanitarian Mission) to provide urgently needed medical supplies to the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP’s) of Burma. By going regularly to the border regions of Burma and negotiating positive relations with the Karen and the Thai people there, he is able to bear personal witness to the Karen’s struggle for freedom, health care and safety.

In January 2001, McMillan launched WildPlaces Ecological Restoration and Education, a 501(c) 3 non-profit volunteer-based effort whose mission is to restore and protect California’s wild and rural places and assist its peoples through volunteer-driven restoration projects, education, cultural identity career development and advocacy. With the WildPlaces’ team, Mr. McMillan coordinates, designs and implements education through restoration projects combined with youth experiential outdoor programs that offer volunteers a window into America’s rich natural and cultural history. It is his desire to offer its peoples avenues of action to ensure a greater, greener and more empowered future for all peoples.

He is also an involved with Soka Gakkai International, Dolores Huerta Foundation, Owens Valley Career Development Center, Rainforest Action Network,LA Unified School District, Lindsay Unified School District, U.S.F.S, CA Dept. of Fish and Game, CA Native Plant Society, Sequoia Mountain Rescue, Tulare County Fire Department, Monache Intertribal Association, Kern River Paiute Council, Greenpeace USA, Audubon’s Kern River Preserve, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Ruckus and many other community and grassroots organizations.

Mr. McMillan is a certified and trained EMT-I and is a Tech 2 Rescue Climber certified through the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office working as a volunteer with TCSO and Sequoia Mountain Rescue (www.sequoiamountainrescue.com), an all volunteer high angle rescue organization serving outdoor enthusiasts living in and visiting Tulare County.

Ian Herdell – WildPlaces Program Coordinator

Ian is the Conservation Project Manager at Sequoia Riverlands Trust in Visalia, CA. Soon after graduating from high school Ian moved to Costa Rica where he lived for almost two years, first as an exchange student with the American Field Service and later studying business at La Universidad Latinamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología. In 2006 he received his B.A. in anthropology from U.C. Berkeley. In Berkeley Ian managed a small after school program in Oakland, CA and taught preschool in Berkeley, CA. Ian joined the SNAP program in 2007 and was the Program Coordinator at WildPlaces through 2008. Ian now lives in Three Rivers.

Ian Herrick – WildPlaces Program Coordinator

Ian Herrick is the new Immersed in the Wild Program Coordinator for WildPlaces in Springville, CA. He was born in California and has lived in the Bay Area for most of his life, except for the years he spent in Arizona, where he earned a BA in Environmental Studies (with an Emphasis in Ethnoecology) from Prescott College in 2004. He also attended De Anza College around the turn of the century, where he was a member of the De Anza Pow Wow Committee and almost gained weight while eating frybread. His interests in how cultures perceive their place in the living world lead him into the environmental education field in 2005. From 2007 to 2008 he participated in another Americorps program with Our City Forest in San Jose, where he specialized in Urban Forestry. As a member of this group helping to plant, prune, and teach about trees, he received a commendation from Mayor Chuck Reed. Mr. Herrick’s interests include natural and cultural history, old guitars, languages, and fresh seafood. He loves hilly country and local agriculture and thus is exited to be involved with the community of the southern Sierra and the Central Valley. Mr. Herrick is also an accomplished blues singer who performs under the name Coyote Slim.

Laura Linton

Laura Linton is an environmental educator at Circle J Norris Ranch, a Springville parent and sits on the WP Board of Directors.