Member Spotlight: Ginny Fifield

Sonoma Land Trust volunteer and donor Ginny Fifield can often be found on our preserves strategically placing wildlife cameras in key locations to record videos of the deer, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, mountain lions, and even bears that live in Sonoma County!

Ginny’s fascination with wild animals began in childhood when she was lucky enough to have “behind the scenes” privileges at the Milwaukee County Zoo (the zoo director was a close family friend).

“I grew up in the zoo!” Ginny explains. “I played with baby African leopards and Siberian tigers and got to watch the staff bottle-feeding them. It was just normal to me.”

When she was older, she took a position in the zoo’s education lab for children, introducing them to boa constrictors, flying squirrels, and tarantulas.

In 1972, Ginny set off for Brown University in Rhode Island where she completed an Independent Concentration in Animal Behavior.

Over the course of her career, Ginny has conducted field research with black-footed penguins in South Africa, bats in Tennessee, coyotes in Marin County, and jaguars and puma in Belize.

When Ginny first came to California in 1994, she worked with the California Department of Fish & Wildlife in the Eastern Sierras on a telemetry study that involved capturing mountain lions in the wild, fitting them with radio collars, then releasing them and tracking their movements. The goal was to learn about the impacts of human encroachment by discovering things like where the animals lived and what they ate, to better understand how they could thrive in the future.

For many years, Ginny has worked extensively with nonprofits and government agencies in Marin and Sonoma County setting up and maintaining cameras to document wildlife presence and activity.

After moving from Marin to Sonoma County in 2013, Ginny began volunteering with All Hands Ecology’s (AHE) Living with Lions project, headed by wildlife ecologist Quinton Martins. A long-time partner of Sonoma Land Trust, ACR’s Bouverie Preserve neighbors the Glen Oaks Ranch property near Glen Ellen.

In 2018, Ginny set up the first wildlife cameras at SLT’s Bear Canyon Wildlands. A dedicated volunteer, she has continued her work with Sonoma Land Trust staff over the past five years to document wildlife on our preserves, including Laufenburg Ranch and Live Oaks Ranch.

When Black Bears first started appearing on wildlife cameras in Sonoma County, Ginny joined the North Bay Bear Collaborative, which grew to include Sonoma Land Trust and other nonprofits and government partners. The cameras Ginny placed on the properties provided documentation that Black Bears were crossing through our preserves.

A resident of Healdsburg, Ginny says, “I’m thrilled that there’s an organization like Sonoma Land Trust that recognizes the importance of preserving land for open space and wildlife corridors. The Land Trust is doing an excellent job of acquiring and maintaining these properties, while focusing on the scientific aspect.”

From playing with baby leopards and Siberian tigers at the zoo to studying jaguars in Belize to helping document wildlife corridors in Sonoma County, Ginny brings a lifetime of expertise to her work with Sonoma Land Trust. Thank you Ginny!