ABF in Action: Bri Fordem, Executive Director
ABF in Action is our monthly spotlight series highlighting the people who bring Anza-Borrego Foundation’s mission to life. Each month, we introduce you to a member of our dedicated team—the people working behind the scenes (and in the heart of the desert!) to protect the Park, inspire visitors, and connect our community to California’s largest state park.
This month, we’re featuring Executive Director, Bri Fordem, whose leadership is guiding ABF through one of the most complex and consequential chapters in its history. With deep roots in Anza-Borrego and a clear-eyed view of the challenges ahead, Bri is helping position the Park not just as a place worth protecting—but as a model for California’s future.
What excites you most about ABF’s goals for the year ahead?
“Our fundamental goals remain unchanged: to protect and preserve California’s largest, most biodiverse state park. But these are unique times, and our mission feels more relevant than ever.
On paper, we educate, acquire inholdings for preservation, and provide direct financial support to the Park. But what truly excites me is the opportunity to elevate Anza-Borrego as a living example of what’s possible—how humans can coexist with wild spaces, how conservation and community can thrive together, and how protected lands are essential infrastructure for our future.
This year, our goals center on three words: efficiency, resilience, and impact. We’re streamlining operations to maximize every dollar, strengthening partnerships to weather uncertainty, and focusing on work that truly moves the needle.
The proposed Golden Pacific Powerlink—a 500kV transmission line through the Park—has given us a platform to tell a bigger story. Anza-Borrego isn’t just a park; it’s a solution. Intact ecosystems support local economies, build climate resilience, and offer models for living differently. Despite the challenges, we have a fight worth fighting and a story worth telling.”
When you look back at last year, what makes you proudest of the team?
“Our team’s ability to maintain excellence despite immense challenges. This work isn’t for the faint of heart. Yet our staff continued to deliver high-quality education programs, keep both retail locations thriving, maintain strong donor and volunteer relationships, and nurture our partnership with the Park—even amid difficult budget realities.
Each person here is inspired by this place in a deeply personal way. This isn’t just a job. It’s where we live, work, and play—and that dedication shows in everything we do.”
What are the biggest challenges ABF faces right now?
“We’re facing a convergence of pressures. State budget cuts, rising costs from inflation and tariffs, and reduced visitation—down nearly 50% last year—are all impacting revenue, awareness, and memberships.
At the same time, our advocacy work has never been more critical. California’s push for utility-scale renewable energy is increasingly targeting protected lands. We’re once again fighting a massive transmission line proposal that would industrialize the heart of Anza-Borrego, ironically in the name of fighting climate change.
The paradox is exhausting: aggressive conservation goals alongside policies that treat protected lands as available infrastructure space. We’re being asked to do more with less, while defending the Park and sustaining the programs that build public support for conservation.”
How do you see ABF’s role evolving in protecting Anza-Borrego?
“Our role has always evolved. Since 1967—when volunteers were asked to help acquire the last private inholdings within the Park—we’ve grown into the Park’s advocate, educator, and increasingly, its financial backstop.
As the state faces funding and legal constraints, ABF can move faster, speak more freely, and mobilize resources when opportunities or threats arise. We’re building two capacities at once: becoming financially resilient enough to respond to crises without compromising core work, and becoming more sophisticated advocates—educating decision-makers before policies threaten the Park.
We’re shifting from defense to offense. Not just fighting bad proposals, but advancing solutions that align conservation with California’s broader goals.”
Can you share a personal story about a time you felt especially connected to the Park?
“My connection isn’t one moment—it’s a lifetime of them. I’ve been exploring Anza-Borrego since I was 14. It’s my backyard, my home.
It’s sunrise behind the Santa Rosas, the smell of creosote before rain, walking meetings with staff through the desert to solve problems inspired by the very place we protect. It’s concerts under the stars, frogs in Coyote Creek with my kids, learning from our educators about Kumeyaay and Cahuilla history, and standing at Font’s Point feeling the weight of geological time.
All those moments blur together into one feeling: resilience, history, and raw wilderness. There is no other place like this for me.”
How does ABF balance conservation, education, retail, and community impact?
“These aren’t separate pillars—they’re interconnected parts of a living system.
Our retail stores are education centers. Our education programs create lifelong advocates. Retail revenue supports programming. Land acquisition completes the Park when opportunity and funding align. And because the Park wraps around Borrego Springs, our work naturally bridges wilderness protection and community sustainability.
Balance isn’t about equal time—it’s about recognizing what needs attention when, knowing that everything ultimately supports the same goal: protecting this landscape.”
What do you hope supporters understand about ABF’s role?
“Without ABF, more than 60,000 acres would still be unprotected inholdings. Wildlife corridors would remain fragmented. Sunrise Powerlink might run through the Park. Thousands of children would never experience their first desert sunrise.
But we’re more than our accomplishments. We’re the voice in rooms where agencies legally cannot sit. We’re the rapid-response team for urgent land deals and funding gaps. We turn curiosity into advocacy, passion into protected acres, and community support into political will.
ABF isn’t just supporting the Park—we’re essential to its survival and integrity.”
What motivates you to keep leading in a field that can be tough?
“There’s a difference between being exhausted by work that doesn’t matter and being exhausted fighting for something you love.
Every day, I’m fighting for 650,000 acres of wilderness, for bighorn migration corridors, for children to have wild places that make them whole. It’s exhausting in the best way. This work matters deeply—to me, to my children, and to everyone who deserves to inherit a living, intact landscape.”
What’s your favorite “wow” moment in the Park?
“During a visit with the Director of California State Parks, we stopped at a fifth-grade group camp area. As we talked, a family of bighorn sheep appeared—lambs cascading down the hillside while the ram stood watch above us. We stood silent for an hour, completely in their world.
The Director left that day understanding something I could never have explained in words. It was a reminder of why we do this work—and what’s at stake.”
Why does protecting Anza-Borrego matter to you personally?
“Nature has always made sense to me. Our disconnection from it doesn’t.
Now, raising my children here, the desert is where they learn resilience—watching ocotillo bloom after years of drought. It’s where I find clarity after hard days. It’s one of the last places in California where natural processes unfold uninterrupted across 650,000 acres.
These intact ecosystems aren’t luxuries. They’re libraries of survival wisdom. Protecting Anza-Borrego means preserving the possibility that humans can remember how to live as part of nature—not apart from it.”
Through Bri’s leadership, ABF is meeting unprecedented challenges with clarity, courage, and conviction. This work isn’t easy—but it’s essential.
When you support Anza-Borrego Foundation, you’re not just protecting a park.
You’re helping safeguard a future where wild places—and the wisdom they hold—still have room to thrive. Want to join us? Become an Anza-Borrego Angel with your monthly recurring gift.