Updated 11/4/19: New video link added for The Cat That Changed America documentary on YouTube.
October 31, 2019 - Beth Pratt, Regional Executive Director of the California Regional Center of the National Wildlife Federation, will give a presentation about local wildlife at the Mariposa Library on Saturday, November 9 at 10:00 A.M. The free interactive program is designed for children, but all ages are welcome. Refreshments will be served.
Beth is the author of the book When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors, which will be available for purchase after the program and can also be checked out at the Library. She will also have copies of P22: The Journey , the beautiful picture book about a mountain lion looking for a new home that found one in Los Angeles. He was tagged and has become famous as “the face” of the movement to build a wildlife corridor in Liberty Canyon.
Beth graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with bachelor's degrees in management and biological anthropology, and a minor in marketing. She also obtained an MBA from Regis University in Denver and earned the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED AP credential. She has worked in both Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks.
“I have the best job in the world,” Beth said. “While advocating for the state’s remarkable animals, I get to travel around California and spend time with condors, mountain lions, porpoises, pika, and foxes, and work with some amazing people who help wildlife thrive.”
Beth serves on the board of the non-profits Outdoor Afro and Save the Frogs!, and she has trained with Vice President Al Gore as a member of his Climate Reality Project Leadership Corps. Her conservation work has been featured by the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, BBC World Service, CBS This Morning, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and NPR. She is the author of the novel The Idea of Forever and the official Junior Ranger Handbook for Yosemite. Her newest book, When Mountain Lions are Neighbors: People and Wildlife Working It Out In California, was published by Heyday Books in 2016 and is available for checkout at the Library. She has given a TEDx talk about coexisting with wildlife called, “How a Lonely Cougar in Los Angeles Inspired the World,” and is featured in the new documentary, (NEW video link added) “The Cat that Changed America.”
Although Beth travels extensively throughout California for her work, she makes her home outside of Yosemite, “her north star,” with her husband, five dogs, two cats, and the mountain lions, bears, foxes, frogs, and other wildlife that frequent her NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat backyard.
For more information about this and other library programs call (209) 966-2140 or visit www.MariposaLibrary.org.
Source: Mariposa County Library
