Ricardo D Lopez Author & Editor

Ricardo D. Lopez, PhD, has provided leadership on diverse environmental science issues over the last four decades. During his tenure in both academia and public service with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ric has inspired scientific research teams and natural resource managers across a variety of geographic areas, from Asia and Indo-Pacific Regions to the Americas, focusing on shared learning and public service among the diverse communities of the world. A natural thread woven throughout his life and career and writings is the importance of sustaining all of the planet’s ecosystems and the people who rely upon them. Among the first areas of research Ric focused on was the wetlands of the Laurentian Great Lakes, and he is proud to have contributed to that particular "community of science and conservation" during the past several decades, a time when wetlands have been recognized for their critical role in maintaining life on our changing planet. Ric earned a BS in ecology, behavior, and evolution at the University of California, San Diego, and a master’s and PhD in environmental sciences at the Ohio State University, with an emphasis on landscape ecology and wetland ecology. He is currently Administrator of the Pacific Islands Area of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, conserving and serving ‘āina (Hawaiian language meaning the land, earth) among the 22 national wildlife refuges and 4 marine national monuments of the Pacific.