Fall 2022 ForestLife

Meet Our Summer Interns:

Michelle Chen, Photo Archives

Michelle Chen came to Pacific Forest Trust seeking to explore the intersection of art and environmental advocacy. A rising junior at UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice, Michelle wanted to learn more about the current issues surrounding forest conservation and climate change. Her summer internship assisted PFT in gathering content for an upcoming documentary film project on the impact of PFT’s stewardship on the van Eck Forests.

She tenaciously sorted through PFT’s digital archives to find, identify, and organize photo and video files that would visually tell the story of natural forest management and its benefits to climate, wildlife, and communities, based on the van Eck experience.

Michelle found it particularly rewarding “to help PFT expand its visual communication tools and bring more awareness to these critical conservation issues.”

Julia Chen, Policy

Policy intern Julia Chen put her research skills to the test this summer updating and expanding the data behind PFT’s 2018 Risk Assessment of California’s Key Source Watershed Infrastructure. A recent graduate of UC Berkeley’s Ecosystem Management and Forestry Program and an incoming first-year graduate student at Yale’s School of the Environment, Julia was a perfect fit for the project.

She searched diligently through state and federal databases, academic papers, literature reviews, and media to update PFT’s analysis of the costs and benefits of proactive watershed restoration and conservation to better understand how these compare with other water security approaches, like dams or desalinization plants.

Julia was grateful for the opportunity “to gain real-world experience using data to effectively convey restoration ideas and influence public policy.”

Katherine Dillon, Policy

A chance meeting at a Boonville beer festival introduced Katherine Dillon to PFT’s work, where she met Paul Mason, VP of Policy & Incentives. As a graduate student at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs, Katherine was eager to get hands-on experience in the policy-making world and inquired about opportunities to get involved.

She worked on a California budget proposal to enhance investments in wildfire resilience programs to better address the health impacts of wildfire smoke. She also analyzed the impacts of California’s Timber Production Zone classification on the retention of prime timberlands.

As a California native, Katherine connected personally with this work, sharing “I’m excited to have contributed to such a pressing issue for vulnerable populations here and statewide. It’s truly meaningful policy work that will impact lives.”