Key Staff
Margot Griswold, Ph.D.
Senior Restoration Ecologist
Dr. Griswold, Senior Restoration Ecologist and Project Manager, leads the NewFields – Los Angeles Office. She has 18 years experience with plant communities in southern California, and specializes in habitat restoration and land management. Margot has prepared restoration/revegetation plans and supervised implementation and monitoring for projects ranging from several acres to several hundred acres. She was the restoration specialist for the team that restored the award winning Coyote Canyon/Bonita Creek wildlife habitat corridor in Orange County and was a key member of the team that implemented the Managed Vegetation Dust Control Measure at Owens Dry Lakebed for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
Margot has comprehensive experience in coordinating habitat restoration and native plant revegetation programs with construction managers, design engineers, and landscape contractors on large and small construction projects. She has managed the design and implementation for over 300 acres of riparian and wetland mitigation projects, 1,700 acres of upland habitat revegetation and restoration, as well as 2,200 acres of land reclamation projects.
Margot’s experience with native habitat restoration and reclamation includes coastal sage scrub, native grasslands, oak woodland habitats, alluvial fan scrub, southern willow-cottonwood riparian forest, and several rare plant species. She has worked with federal, state, and local agencies to plan and implement project-specific ecological programs, including projects involving oversight by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, Caltrans, California Office of Mine Reclamation, California Department of Fish and Game, and California State Coastal Commission.
Currently, Margot serves as the project biologist and restoration specialist for the mitigation lands managed by the Transportation Corridor Agencies in Orange County. She is the habitat restoration specialist for the Upper Chiquita Canyon Habitat Conservation Easement, a 1,200-acre habitat preserve in southern Orange County. She is also managing the Camarillo Hills Drain revegetation and mitigation project in Camarillo, and Jurisdictional Habitat Mitigation Restoration and Monitoring Plan for Heritage Valley Park in Ventura County.
Margot is also committed to public education for ecological restoration. She co-developed the Weeds2Wonder program for “at risk” students, teaching basic scientific principles through native habitat restoration at the new Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook State Park in west-central Los Angeles. She is currently working with Los Angeles Audubon in public education projects including volunteer events at the native plant and wildlife garden at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, and teaching Dorsey High School students about native habitat restoration ecology and natural resources management as part of the Baldwin Hills Outdoor Resources Enrichment Program.