Matt Duarte

After serving as a Restoration Corps member during 2009-10, it's a thrill to return to the desert as a project leader. This program draws incredible participants, and once again, I am eager to contribute in building a community of crews resolved to positively influence the health of our lands.

My roots extend to the Tar Heel State of North Carolina, although I've had the fortune of traveling far and wide in the past several years. This past spring, among other joys in the Portland-area, I taught sixth-graders about the natural history of the Douglas Fir forests surrounding Mount Hood, Oregon.

This season I'm stoked to multiply talents as a backcountry kitchen wizard, as well as enrich an ethnobotanical perspective of the Mojave. I'd also like to climb mountains and laugh...a lot.