Grassland Restoration Practitioners

This page highlights practitioners working in grassland restoration. Each profile includes a short description of their work and a photo library of typical projects and field activities.

Marcela Tayaba

Habitat Restoration Specialist - Enviromental Department • Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians

Marcela Resultay-Tayaba is a member of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and serves as the Habitat Restoration Specialist for her tribe. After serving as a youth intern for the tribe’s Environmental Department for five years Marcela went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences with an emphasis on Ecological Restoration as well as minors in Forestry and Natural Resources from Cal Poly Humboldt. Since graduating she has returned to work for her tribe’s Environmental Department and has dedicated her efforts to the revitalization of her ancestral language and traditional food practices. She hopes to inspire tribal youth and others to connect and honor nature through traditional practices and bringing tribal community together for cultural burning, and land/water conservation. Marcela’s main role is to oversee the implementation of restoration projects lead by state, federal, and private agencies both on and off Tribal Lands. Her main duties include creating restoration plans and managing the tribal nursery, including collecting seeds and growing plants to be used in restoration projects. She is also responsible for grant management, overseeing the tribal community garden and managing various Clean Water Act projects on tribal land. It is important to her that every project incorporates culture, revitalizes traditional practices, provides education to the public, and provides Native youth the opportunity to learn and take ownership and pride in restoring our lands.

  • Tribal Restoration
  • Nursery Operations
  • Land and Water Conservation
  • Interagency Projects
Marcela Tayaba

Scott Butterfield

Lead Scientist at The Nature Conservancy in California • Land Program

In The Nature Conservancy’s California Chapter, Scott serves as a Lead Scientist in the Land Program, overseeing science, stewardship, including, cattle grazing, and land protection across TNC’s more than 400,000-acre grassland and oak woodland conservation estate. Scott is also the lead scientist for the Strategic Restoration Scientist in the San Joaquin Valley and TNC’s lead for participation as a management partner at the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

  • Rangeland Restoration
  • Remote Sensing
  • Wildlife Monitoring
H. Scott Butterfield

Joshua Scoggin

Associate Ecologist • Hedgerow Farms / Pacific Coast Seed

Joshua Scoggin is a production and collections data manager with NativeSeed Group, supporting Hedgerow Farms’ native seed production and wildland collections. Hedgerow Farms supplies native seed for large-scale conservation and habitat restoration. His work focuses on managing production and collection data so that restoration teams receive genetically appropriate and source-identified seeds matched to project needs.

  • Seed Supply & Logistics
  • Production & Collections Data
  • Restoration Project Support
Joshua Scoggin