WELCOME

I’ve always loved wildlife. When I was about six years old, I started an “Endangered Species Club” in my backyard treehouse (we had three members), and went door to door and my neighbors for spare change to “save the animals.” When one neighbor asked what I was going to do with the money, I said, “Maybe scientists can build machines or something.” 

 

My passion for wildlife, the outdoors, and environmental conservation inspired me to become a park ranger. I spent the first half of my career working for different land management agencies and non-profit organizations. Regardless of my official title, the ethos of a park ranger has always guided me: protect those less able to protect themselves, including wildlife and the land itself; serve my communities and those in them; and share whatever knowledge and wisdom I’ve picked up over the years with whomever was willing to learn.

 

Truthfully, my vision for my life and career as a park ranger was romanticized in a very narrow, arguably self-centered, way. I’d live in a cabin by a lake in a park in the mountains with my dog (who would be my unofficial deputy), we’d help people and wildlife, and somehow that would save the day. In reality though, being a park ranger is an interdisciplinary calling. At any given time, rangers are naturalists, guides, medics, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and scientists. Even when an individual ranger becomes a specialist, they work with other people. From the American River Parkway in Sacramento, to Yosemite, to the depths of the National Park Service’s administrative backbone, being a park ranger is collaborative.

 

Environmental conservation is also collaborative and interdisciplinary. No single person, organization, or institution is going to solve climate change, the loss of biodiversity and the sixth mass extinction, the collapse of ocean ecosystems, the increasingly severe environmental hazards, or any of the other environmental crises we’re facing. Every institution is important: governments, non-profit organizations, academia and researchers, and the private sector. Likewise, everyone is important and has a role to play, but may be more suited for some roles than others.

 

I found that I love helping people find roles where they can thrive. I like to help people navigate complex systems. I like to help people see how their lives and actions impact others and the world around them and vice versa, and how everything and everyone is interconnected. I like to help set people up for success. And I love building organizations: teams, offices, programs, businesses, etc… I realized I couldn’t do that as effectively as I wanted to while working for anyone else, including the federal government.

 

So in 2025, I hung up my ranger hat, and committed myself to Oso Strategics LLC full-time. Broadly speaking, we’re a community and economic development consulting firm; we’re interested in everything it takes to create sustainable communities. Our focus, however, is helping entrepreneurs and small business owners start and grow sustainable businesses in rural communities, with a special interest in sustainable tourism. We want to create business owners that recognize their business interests are inextricably tied to their people, their communities, and their environments. We want to create business, community, and conservation leaders.

 

I hope Oso Strategics’s work will inspire people to appreciate and conserve the world around them and share it with others. And maybe fund those wildlife saving machines.

Welcome,

Joe, Founder & CEO