Urban Conservation Awards
The people making a difference for wildlife rarely receive the recognition they deserve. That’s why, in 2025 we launched our Urban Conservation Awards. The event aims to honor conservation heroes at the local, state, and national level.
about the event
In a metropolitan area as vast as Los Angeles, protecting wildlife and keeping natural habitats connected is a complex battle. This event celebrates the leaders, scientists, community advocates, and artists tackling that challenge every day.
The Urban Conservation Awards honor five individuals whose work embodies AFC’s mission to protect and connect open spaces, restore native habitat, and educate people of all ages about the nature that surrounds them. We have five categories for awards:
Monarch Award: in recognition of an honoree who has worked to connect communities, land, nature, or ideas in support of urban conservation.
Wild Voices Award: in recognition of someone who has worked to support wildlife.
Sunrise Award: in recognition of a young person working in urban conservation.
Oak Leaf Award: in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in conservation, awarded to honorees with a long legacy or history of meaningful work in conservation.
President’s Award: Selected by the AFC Board of Directors, for special recognition in the field of urban conservation.
Sponsorship Opportunities
become a sponsor
We invite you to join us as a sponsor of this inspiring evening. Your partnership will not only honor the individuals and organizations making a difference, but also directly support AFC’s ongoing mission to protect and connect natural habitat for wildlife.
People paying attention to who’s supporting conservation! This year, AFC’s content reached more than 1 million people on social media, with an average reach of 84,000 per month. Over 1,000 community members volunteered with us and we engaged more than 3,000 people at education and community events. AFC was
featured 22 times in earned media in local publications, including the LA Times, Colorado Boulevard, and Pasadena Star News.
As a sponsor you can broadcast your support for wildlife, natural habitats, and the unsung heroes of conservation.
Want to sponsor next year’s event? Click the button below to contact our Development Coordinator.
sponsorship levels
Connector: $750
Includes up to four guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website and social media promotions.
Partner: $1,000
Includes up to six guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website, email newsletter, and social media promotions.
Advocate: $2,500
Includes up to eight guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website, email newsletter, and social media promotions.
Host: $5,000
Includes up to ten guest tickets to the Awards, placement in the program, and recognition on website, email newsletter, and social media promotions.
Presenter: $10,000+
Includes up to twelve guest tickets to the Awards & name or logo on awards as a presenting sponsor plus all benefits as detailed in Host level sponsorship:
The 2026 Urban Conservation Awards
2026 Recap
On September 18th, 2026, 160 community members joined AFC at our second-annual Urban Conservation Awards. This year, we held the event at the Autry Museum of the American West, located in Griffith Park, an island of habitat within our conservation region. Together we recognized five incredible people working to protect urban wildlife and habitats.
We reflected on how urban conservation can be a slow process, sometimes taking decades, or even generations, to complete an ecological study, protect and restore a piece of land, or to see monumental change across a region. But what each of our honorees knows well, is that in tandem with this long-term commitment, there are small impactful choices we can make every day to support wildlife. Whether it’s turning off a light at night, planting one native buckwheat, or attending a restoration event, these actions have a tangible impact on our urban ecosystems and wildlife.
The event was a celebration of those actions and the people taking them every single day.
For photos of the event, click here!
2026 President's Awardee
Beth Pratt
Selected by AFC’s Board of Directors in recognition of her instrumental role in the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing and her advocacy for wildlife across California
A lifelong advocate for wildlife, Beth Pratt has worked in environmental leadership roles for over 25 years, and in two of the country’s largest national parks: Yosemite and Yellowstone. As the California Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation, Pratt leads the #SaveLACougars campaign to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which broke ground on Earth Day in 2022. The largest wildlife crossing of its kind in the world, it will help save a population of mountain lions from extinction.
In 2023, Beth founded The Wildlife Crossing Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating the building of connectivity infrastructure across California, the United States, and the world, in order to reconnect lands for the future of the wild world. Her books include When Mountain Lions are Neighbors, and I Heart Wildlife: A Guided Activity Journal for Connecting With the Wild World. Beth spent over three decades researching and studying wildlife in the field for her newest book, Yosemite Wildlife: The Wonder of Animal Life in California’s Sierra Nevada (2025), the first book solely dedicated to the park’s wildlife in over a hundred years.
2026 Monarch Awardee
Tina Orduno Calderon
In honor of her work to connect community members to the natural world through education and storytelling
Tina Orduno Calderon is a Culture Bearer and land & water protector of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, Yoeme and Chicana descent. She is wife, mother, grandmother, sister and auntie to many.
Tina is a singer / Song Keeper, poet and storyteller and has composed over two dozen songs in her ancestral languages of Tongvé and Chumash. She strongly believes in honoring her ancestors by sharing their history and educating others about Indigenous truths.
As a public speaker Tina has shared with thousands of people and works closely with many environmental organizations and schools. Tina also serves on several Boards and holds a few Advisory positions all in the educational and environmental fields in order to give voice to the lands, waters and sacred elements and to encourage others to be good relatives.
2026 Wild Voices Awardee
Travis Longcore
For his excellence in scientific research on urban ecology and light pollution
Travis Longcore, Ph.D., studies how cities affect wildlife and how wildlife can thrive alongside people. A UCLA scientist and co-founder of The Urban Wildlands Group, he’s spent three decades researching the impacts of artificial light at night, restoring habitat for endangered butterflies, and helping rebuild populations of plants and animals on the brink. His work bridges rigorous science and real-world advocacy for wild places in our cities and beyond.
2026 Sunrise Awardee
Nina Raj
For her work protecting biodiversity through the founding and operation of Altadena Seed Library
Nina Raj is the founder of Altadena Seed Library, a project dedicated to community stewardship, rewilding urban spaces, and rekindling relationships to the more-than-human world. Her work includes educational programming, environmental organizing, and conservation seed banking.
Through a partnership with LA County, Nina is working to bring to life her concept for a decentralized seed bank at nature centers across the region; by developing a seed banking curriculum designed for cooperative community stewardship, she hopes to build capacity for volunteers and docent naturalists to conserve the hyperlocal genetics of wild seed populations. In the wake of the Eaton Fire, she is also working collaboratively to heal contaminated soils and distribute seeds to fire-affected families. Prior to founding Altadena Seed Library, she spent over a decade in brand development and creative leadership for environmental and purpose-driven brands.
2026 Oak Leaf Awardee
Mickey Long
In honor of a lifetime spent studying and protecting the natural world and advancing the work of regional conservation organizations
Mickey Long retired as the Natural Areas Administrator over 19 natural areas, nature centers and wildflower sanctuaries for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, based at Eaton Canyon Nature Center. He worked in the Nature Centers system for 39 years.
He obtained his degree in Zoology from California State University Los Angeles and taught college environmental biology and human ecology courses and currently teaches bird identification and ecology classes for the Nature Centers and Pasadena Audubon. Mickey’s research interests are in ornithology, herpetology and botany. He is former Rare Plant Chair for the Ca. Native Plant Soc., San Gabriel Mtns. Chapter, past President and Conservation Chair of the Pasadena Audubon Society, and, for 14 years, Biology Advisor for the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy. He is active with several conservation organizations. He actively contributes to Citizen Science databases, with over 6200 Observations in iNaturalist and 5800 checklists in eBird.
Thank you to our 2026 sponsors!
Aliya & David Coher, Dave Doody, Taylor & Don Hall, Chris & Katie Poole, Mitch M. Tsai Law Firm
The Hon. Congresswoman Judy Chu, Janice DaVolio, Laura & Lou Fleming Jr., Philip & Penny Moynihan, Heidrun Mumper-Drumm & Rick Drumm, Elene Phleger & Tom McHenry, Aron Potash & Lisa Hadjinian, Jonathan Treffkorn, Amy & Richard Wohl, Amanda Zellmer & John McCormack
The 2025 Urban Conservation Awards
RECAP
On October 16th, 2025, over 150 community members joined AFC at our inaugural Urban Conservation Awards at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Together we celebrated the winners of our Nature Photography Contest and honored five individuals making waves in urban conservation — from a local level to the national stage.
Monarch Award Recipient
Dr. Amanda Zellmer, for excellence in scientific research and achievement in the field of urban conservation
Amanda Zellmer is an Associate Professor of Biology at Occidental College, studying spatial computation ecology with an emphasis on applications for conservation biology. Her research utilizes species distribution modeling and landscape analyses to investigate how species populations shift in response to environmental change, including global climate change and habitat fragmentation. She is especially interested in how organisms utilize and move through urban environments.
Wild Voices Awardee
Miguel Ordeñana, in honor of his work that led to the discovery of P-22, his advocacy and research on bat species in Los Angeles, and his community education work.
Miguel Ordeñana is an environmental educator and wildlife biologist. He works at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County as a Senior Manager in the Community Science office. As a community science senior manager, Miguel promotes and creates community science projects, and recruits and trains participants. Miguel utilizes his mammal research background by conducting urban mammal research in L.A. and leads NHMLAC’s Southern California Squirrel Survey and Backyard Bat Survey. Miguel serves as an advisor on a jaguar project in southwestern Nicaragua that he initiated in 2012 as well as a Board Member for the Friends of Griffith Park and National Wildlife Federation. Notably, Miguel discovered the first photo of P-22, the famous Griffith Park mountain lion, through a grassroots camera trap study called the Griffith Park Connectivity Study in 2012. Miguel is dedicated towards making science and access to nature more equitable with a goal of increasing the representation and retention of underrepresented communities within the environmental field. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Southern California, and a M.S. in Ecology from the University of California Davis.
Sunrise Awardee
Edgar McGregor, in recognition of his work on behalf of the Altadena community in habitat restoration at Eaton Canyon as well as in his local meteorology that predicted and warned many residents ahead of the Eaton Fire
Edgar McGregor (b. 2000) is a Southern California meteorologist and community advocate dedicated to understanding and mitigating natural hazards in the San Gabriel Valley. After completing 1,992 consecutive days cleaning trash from his local hiking trails, he spent more than a week warning residents of the extraordinary wildfire danger during the January 7–8, 2025 Santa Ana windstorm. After the Eaton Fire destroyed his community and workplace, McGregor began pushing for a national Windstorm Classification Scale to transform how the U.S. forecasts, catalogues, and communicates these powerful events.
Oak Leaf Awardee
Nancy Steele, recognizing her efforts in founding and establishing AFC and a lifetime of working in conservation.
Nancy L.C. Steele has called Altadena home since 1984, when she and her husband Bruce discovered the ideal community to raise their family. Throughout her career, she has dedicated herself to environmental protection and land and water conservation. She was a founding member of the Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy and served as its President and CEO for eleven years, leading efforts to preserve local ecosystems. Alongside Bruce, she operated a beekeeping business since 1980. Sadly, their home and entire beekeeping operation were destroyed in the 2025 Eaton Fire, but they are committed to rebuilding and continuing their passion for conservation and sustainability.
President's Awardee
Congressmember Judy Chu (CA-28)
A member of the Safe Climate Caucus and the Environment Task Force Chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, Rep. Chu has been a strong advocate for combating climate change and investing in a clean energy future. She supports a net-zero economy by 2050 and has consistently voted to protect California’s air, land, water, and wildlife, opposing offshore drilling and new and expanded oil and gas drilling on public lands. She has consistently been a powerful voice for the inclusion of funding to combat wildfires in annual budgets. Since the January fires, she has been pushing for federal support for soil and environmental testing in burn areas, to support long-term remediation and habitat safety.
