Matt Preston

Matt Preston is the Acting Utah State Director. Previous to this role, Preston served as the Deputy State Director for Resources for the Bureau of Land Management in Utah. Matt also has experience as Field Manager for the Salt Lake Field Office, where his worked touched all aspects of land management in northern Utah. He has filled a variety of roles in BLM Headquarters, where he provided leadership on sage-grouse conservation, mitigation, wildlife migration, threatened and endangered species recovery, aquatic restoration, greenhouse gas emissions, the remediation of abandoned mine lands and hazardous material sites, National Conservation Lands, and scientific integration. Preston started with BLM in 2011 as a Presidential Management Fellow. He has a Bachelor’s degree in biology (Univ. of Colorado), and a Master’s degree and PhD in evolutionary anthropology (Univ. of California-Davis). During his academic career, he spent several years in Tanzania and other tropical countries studying wild primates, examining forest conservation issues, and working with local communities to help implement sustainable conservation practices.