A natural resource professional for both tribes and non-profit organizations, Kevin McKernan was hired as executive officer of the San Diego River Conservancy by its governing board in March 2013.

McKernan has a bachelor’s degree in natural resource management from Humboldt State University. He was an environmental planner for the Hoopa Tribe for two years and environmental program director for the Yurok Tribe for eight years, during which time he opened SurfBear Outfitters, an ecotour company that ran boat trips along the Klamath River.

He left the Yurok Tribe in 2007 to become executive director of the Northcoast Regional Land Trust, which covers nearly 5 million acres in three North Coast counties: Del Norte, Trinity and Humboldt. The bulk of the trust’s conservation work was in Humboldt County, where most of the private, non-corporate land exists. McKernan was involved in fundraising, title work, grant writing, easement drafting and appraisal preparation.

He resigned in early 2009 and went to work for the Conservation Lands Foundation (CLF), first as the California program director and then executive director. The CLF, more formally known as the National Conservation System Foundation, was founded in 2007 and is the only organization solely dedicated to conserving 28 million acres of nationally significant landscapes that range from the Carrizo Plain National Monument to the rock cliffs of Arizona's Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument to the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in southern Idaho.

McKernan was hired as executive director of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy in mid-2011 and stayed until moving to the San Diego River Conservancy.

New Executive Officer Appointed (San Diego River Conservancy) (pdf)

Spotlight on Partners (Bureau of Land Management)

Autumn 2008 Newsletter (Northcoast Regional Land Trust)

Kevin McKernan (ZoomInfo)