Rich Block has been the President and CEO of the Santa Barbara Zoo since 1998.  He has had the privilege of playing a role in North American wildlife conservation for the last 40 years.  He taught at UM-Flint for the Extension Service and later was on the staff at SEAS between 1979 and 1985. His career includes a number of years at World Wildlife Fund in DC (1988-95) and management positions in four US zoos.

 

In Santa Barbara, Block’s favorite endeavor has been developing the Zoo's locally focused conservation programs. “After several years of courting the California Condor Recovery Team/US Fish & Wildlife Service, the Santa Barbara Zoo was invited to become a member of the Recovery Team in September 2002. The Zoo opened a California condor exhibit in 2009;  it was only the second zoo exhibit of California condors in the world at the time (second only to the San Diego Safari Park). Our work continues with a full-time team of field conservationists, a fleet of Toyota 4Runners, and a growing involvement in field conservation programs for the condors, red-legged frogs, island fox, southern sea otters, Western snowy plovers, Western pond turtles, and monarch butterflies. Our condor conservation work is chronicled in the latest book from noted natural history author Sy Montgomery” (Condor Comeback). Over the years, the Zoo's conservation programs and team members have been honored by the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Park Service.

 

Block explains that “it’s difficult getting the general public to recognize the Zoo's role in conservation. Undeterred, we just keep putting the story out there. I think it's the most important aspect of our work, along with animal welfare. Sy's Condor Comeback is helping us tell this story”.

 

Block explains that SEAS was the “launch pad for the rest of my career. Teaching a landscape architecture studio with Professor Ken Polakowski in 1985 on 'Zoo Master Planning & Exhibit Design' got me started as a zoo professional.  Later, working with a number of other SEAS graduates at World Wildlife Fund, I could see the many roles that UM students played in saving wildlife and wild places around the world."