Ernesto Chavez-Velasco

Ernesto Chavez-Velasco is a fourth year student at UC Santa Cruz. Before attending UCSC, he studied at UC Riverside and Santa Barbara City College where he began his naturalist career. He took Human Geography, Ecology and Zoology classes which introduced him to the Environmental Science field by helping him understand the roles of society, the environment, and those that are most vulnerable with it. He became interested in continuing to learn more about Ecology and how to restore different ecological processes of ecosystems. 

Ernesto moved on to study Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz with a main interest in Conservation Biology, Restoration Ecology and Public Policy. During his time at UC Santa Cruz he has made strong connections with mentors, such as Karen Holl, while also participating in internships at the Forest Ecology Restoration Plot (FERP) and Younger Lagoon Reserve at the UC Natural Reserve System. 

More recently, he has received a grant to restore land that has been affected by agriculture. His research will be focused on analyzing different variables that affect the restoration of agricultural land with the goal of developing new restoration methods. He hopes to one day pursue resource management or potentially become a researcher. 

When he isn’t studying, he enjoys learning through community interactions by volunteering, meeting with docents, and going to natural history museums. Not only does he maintain a nature journal but he also is an active user of iNaturalist to document his nature experiences and communicate information. To Ernesto, being a naturalist means being actively curious about your surroundings while continuously expanding your understanding of the environment and the way you interpret it.