Habitat Program Manager

paul@thurstoncd.com
564-250-6234

Paul Cereghino serves as the Habitat Program Manager at Thurston Conservation District. He brings over three decades of experience in environmental horticulture, restoration planning, design and implementation, ecosystem service quantification, industrial site restoration, spatial analysis, urban park restoration, landscape construction, farm work, and environmental education.

Paul writes grants and works on projects, while supporting the habitat team. He is the founder of the Salish Sea Restoration Platform (a peer-to-peer learning resource managed by the Society for Ecological Restoration) and the Skykomish Bio-Cultural Restoration Field Station (AKA “Restoration Camping”). He has a passion for stewardship community development through bold prototyping and continuous incremental improvement.

Paul earned a Master’s in Ecosystem Sciences from the University of Washington in 2004 following a dual degree in Ecosystem Science and Environmental Design from The Evergreen State College in 1992 (his first stint in Thurston County). He is a cartographer, go player, boomerang thrower, lover of sharp tools, and second-generation organic gardener from Italian immigrant and English Oregon trail stock. He lives in Olympia but retreats to the mountains when he can. He dreams of building a regional network of restoration field stations as an apprenticeship-based “finishing school” for new ecosystem practitioners.

Degrees & Continuing Education:

  • Master of Ecosystem Sciences from University of Washington College of Forest Resources
  • Bachelor of Arts & Sciences from The Evergreen State College
  • 10-Day Intensive Farm Design Course and Case Study, Darren Doherty, Regrarians Ltd. Corvallis, OR
  • Using the Revised Washington State Wetland Rating System for Western WA – Washington State Department of Ecology, Lacey, WA
  • Wetland Identification and Delineation – University of Washington Wetland Science and Management Program, Seattle, WA
  • Stream Mechanics, Erosion Control BMPs and Biotechnical Erosion Control – International Erosion Control Association Professional Development Training, Seatac, WA

Recognition:

  • 2022 National Marine Fisheries Service employee of the year
  • Byron and Alice Lockwood Endowed Fellowship
  • Xi Sigma Pi – National Forestry Honor Society – Alpha Chapter Financial Officer