Linda Barker was appointed to the board in May 2019, and was formally elected in February 2020.  She is currently a member of the Friends Finance Committee. Linda graduated in 1978 from Humboldt State University with a Master’s Degree in Biology. She spent her career with the US Forest Service on forests in California, Oregon and New Mexico where she served as Forest Botanist, District Resource Officer, and Natural Resources Planner/Interdisciplinary Team Leader prior to her retirement in 2010. She took a mid-career break to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer working in agroforestry in Rwanda in 1988-90. She has served on several non-profit boards in New Mexico including the Alamogordo Public Library Advisory Board, the Native Plant Society of New Mexico State and Chapter boards and the Southern NM Wellness Alliance/Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program board for Otero and Lincoln counties.

Linda enjoys travel for natural history and cultural studies, reading, and birding. Her most exciting trip was a 30-day overland safari in East Africa which visited several of the important refuges for wildlife, the Serengeti National Park known for excellent birding and mega-fauna viewing, Gombe Stream Preserve where important research on chimpanzees has been conducted and the Volcanos National Park in Rwanda which protects mountain gorillas and other important flora and fauna. She has enjoyed visits to the Bosque del Apache every year since she moved to New Mexico in 1993 and is now enjoying visits in each season to observe seasonal changes in the vegetation and bird- life. She appreciates the opportunity to help support the resources and managers of Bosque del Apache.