Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Toone.
Bill, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I had a very fortunate childhood growing up in Poway in the 60’s and early 70’s. It was very rural with far more wildlife than people. As a very small child I collected snakes and lizards and was fascinated by everything wild.
My parents took all four of us kids to the zoo when I was 6 years old. On that visit I fell in love with a family of day old red jungle fowl chicks. I wrote to an amazing man, KC Lint who was the curator of birds for the zoo and told him how much I enjoyed the little chickens. He followed up with a phone call to my parents and invited them to bring me back to the zoo where he presented me with four baby chickens. It was an early turning point for me. By the time I was 8 years old, I wanted his job and wrote to Dr. Charles Schroeder, the zoo’s executive director and told him I wanted Mr. Lint’s job.
He did not fire KC Lint and he did not offer me his job. But he promised that if I was still interested when I turned 16 years old, that he would give me a job. I saved that letter. He kept his word. Because of that I was able to later play a key role in the recovery of the California condor and afterwards to travel the world workin on conservation programs.
Just recently, thanks to Josef Harold Lindholm III a photo of me with KC Lint on one side and Dr. Charles Schroeder on the other came to light. I had no idea this photo existed until Josef shared it with me.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Life has its bumps, and from a career standpoint mine had more than a few. As one of the leaders of the California Condor Recovery Program in the 1980s, we faced the heartbreak of losing birds when there were too few to lose, along with lawsuits and political maneuvering. My friend and colleague Dr. Noel Snyder taught me the value of meticulous preparation for every possibility. Dr. Art Risser honed my skills in public debate, and Tom Hanscom showed me how to shape a story for maximum impact. Without those struggles, there would have been far less learning.
Ultimately, from the smoke and ashes, condors flew again in California—then in several other states and Baja California. That remarkable recovery opened the door to extraordinary opportunities in Mexico, Costa Rica, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, and beyond. I eventually reached my dream job as Curator of Birds…only to discover I didn’t enjoy it. Newly married, Sunni supported my change of heart as I realized that curators are, above all, collectors—and after the condor program, collecting no longer held much appeal.
A tragedy in Madagascar ultimately led me to leave the zoo world and launch ECOLIFE Conservation, allowing me to follow my heart with true passion. Still, challenges continued. A major health crisis arrived in the form of open-heart surgery, followed not long after by the shared ordeal of COVID. Recovering from surgery and then confined by lockdown gave me ample time to reflect on the journey. For years I had struggled—and failed—to write, but with time to focus I completed my first (and likely last) book, On the Wings of the Condor, a memoir that explores not just the successes but also the failures that shaped who I am today.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
For many years, I failed to see conservation as a creative profession. Science had been taught to me as a disciplined march of critical thinking—a narrow, precise path forward. Buoyed by the community support that arose from the condor years, I kept moving confidently along that path, relying on what I had learned and experienced.
With the condor program behind me, what I no longer had were the constant challenges and inspirations that once came from people like Noel Snyder and Art Risser.
Then came the crisis in Madagascar. For more than sixteen years, I believed a young boy I loved had died. That loss forced me to stop. To question not just my work, but the very foundations of my approach—even those built during the condor recovery program. What began as grief became a creative reckoning, a complete reconstruction of my professional life.
I have loved animals since childhood. I worked in the zoo world for more than thirty years. Yet this period of reflection shattered long-held assumptions I believed were set in stone. In fairness, the world had changed dramatically as well. Overpopulation was consuming resources at an unsustainable pace. Climate change had finally been recognized not only as a driver of habitat loss, but as a threat to our own survival. All of this reshaped how I saw conservation.
Where I once focused on rescuing individual species—and later, their habitats—I came to realize the threats are now systemic. Conservation must confront the root causes of habitat loss directly. At the top of that list are climate change, agriculture, and the harvesting of wood for fuel. It took the perceived loss of someone I dearly loved to make me stop, examine my work, and ultimately transform what I believed mattered most.
Today, sustainable agriculture and permanent, fuel-efficient stoves define my mission. These simple interventions have measurable impacts on agriculture, habitat protection, climate resilience, and human health. And this transformation unlocked something else in me: a renewed creative drive to share a different vision for how we can safeguard both people and the natural world we share.
That journey led to my book—On the Wings of the Condor—and to a new chapter in my life rooted in purpose, creativity, and love.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Follow your heart but always ask yourself the hard questions. Define how you will measure success in whatever you choose to do. Whatever you do, do it with pride and to the highest standards.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ecolifeconservation.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecolifeconservation/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecolifeconservation
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecolifeconservation/?viewAsMember=true
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ECOLIFEConservation
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100078538832927
Image Credits
Josef Harold Lindholm III – Old photo of myself, KC Lint the man who gave me my first chickens and Dr Charles Schroeder who promised me a job when I turned 16.
Other photo Credits ECOLIFE Conservation, Sunni Black and Bill Toone
