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John Krist
John Krist is a senior reporter and Opinion-page columnist at the Ventura County Star, where he has worked since 1983. His weekly commentaries on land-use policy, natural resources and environmental issues are distributed throughout the western United States by Scripps Howard News Service, and have been published in numerous magazines and newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee, San Diego Union-Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Denver Post, Seattle Times, Idaho Statesman and Arizona Daily Star.
Mr. Krist also is a contributing editor for California Planning & Development Report, a statewide newsletter for land-use and public-policy professionals, writing the publication's monthly "Environment Watch" column. He is a senior research associate with Solimar Research Group, which specializes in analysis of metropolitan growth patterns, land-use and environmental policy, and economic development. He is a regular contributor to Writers on the Range, a syndicated service of High Country News, which distributes commentaries to more than 70 newspapers in the West.
STORY TOOLS 
More from Other NewsMr. Krist was the 1997 winner of the Pulliam Editorial Writing Fellowship, awarded by the Society of Professional Journalists, which supported his nationwide study of collaborative resolutions to conflict over natural resources and land use. His 1998 report on that research, "Seeking Common Ground," won a Best of the West Award in natural resources and environmental reporting, received honorable mention in competition for the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, and was recognized with an Environmental Leadership Award by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
A former editorial writer and city editor, Mr. Krist is also the winner of awards for writing and editing from United Press International and Scripps Howard Newspapers, which in 2002 inducted him into its Editorial Hall of Fame. His series of stories on mercury contamination as a legacy of California's gold rush won first place in 2002 for environmental and natural resource reporting from the California Newspaper Publishers Association. In 2003, the Web site based on a yearlong multimedia series about the Lewis and Clark expedition bicentennial, "Voyage of Rediscovery," won first place in the EPpy Awards competition sponsored by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek magazines, a Digital Edge Award from the Newspaper Association of America, and a Golden Web Award from the international Association of Web Masters & Designers.
A past winner of Sierra magazine's national nature-writing
competition, he was awarded a journalism fellowship in 2000 by the
National Tropical Botanical Garden to study endangered-species recovery
programs, marine biology and other issues related to conservation of
tropical biodiversity. In 2001, he was awarded a CASE (Council for
Advancement and Support of
Education) Media Fellowship by the University of Minnesota to study
forestry and public-lands recreation policy. In 2004, he was awarded a
fellowship by the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources to
study issues affecting the survival of rural communities economically
dependent on natural resources, including such pursuits as commercial
fishing, logging and agriculture.
Mr. Krist is a 1980 honors graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, with a bachelor's degree in cultural anthropology. Accepted into the doctoral program in anthropology at UCSB, where he was editor in chief of the student newspaper, he was awarded a Regents' Fellowship and completed three years of graduate study before leaving to pursue a career in journalism. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Authors Guild.
Published books:
Voyage of Rediscovery: Exploring the New West in the
Footsteps of Lewis &
Clark
50
Best Short Hikes in California Deserts
50
Best Short Hikes in California's Central Coast
50
Best Short Hikes in Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon
The Livable City: Revitalizing Urban Communities
(co-author)
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