Our Team
At Mitsui Ranch Preserve we are lucky to employ experts in our field to help manage this large property. Jeff Wilcox, our managing ecologist has led management efforts at Mitsui Ranch Preserve since 2011. In recent years, our staff has expanded to include local experts from the Sonoma Mountain Institute (SMI), a group that helps connect community members with nature by providing education and guidance about sustainable ecosystem management. The Sonoma Mountain Institute helps Mitsui implement our annual cattle grazing program, prescribe burns, and facility management. Our most recent hire, local ecologist Victoria Brunal-Byrd, is helping expand our research efforts to better understand the changing landscape at Mitsui as management efforts continue.
Jeff Wilcox – Managing Ecologist
Jeffery T. Wilcox is the Managing Ecologist for the Mitsui Ranch Preserve. He has worked with landscape-scale properties to manage sites for endangered species, native grasses, and compatible uses such as organic cattle grazing, education, and research. Jeff has decades of experience working collaboratively on projects that include pond management and construction, native grasses restoration, and species-level projects with California red-legged frogs (Rana draytonii), wild pigs (Sus scrofa), American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbieanus), California tiger salamanders (Ambystoma californiense), and foothill yellow-legged frogs (R. boylii).
Cory Brush – Ranch Maintenance/Infrastructure Specialist
Cory’s role is focused on installing and maintaining ranch infrastructure. From fences and gates to water systems and utilities, he strives to install components that will function smoothly and last a lifetime. He believes that well-built systems will support the ecological and community-based goals of the organizations for which he works. With over 15 years of farm and ranch experience, Cory has a unique blend of skills that allow him to prioritize environmental sustainability while keeping the buildings and equipment in good condition.
Since he began working at an organic produce farm in 2008, Cory has done most of the jobs that occur in sustainable food production. Seven years at the farmers’ market provided an opportunity to tell the story of organic crop production to residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. Working with poultry and dairy goats in Sonoma County began to shape his belief in humane animal husbandry. Helping raise hogs, chickens, and turkeys on pasture allowed him to engage with electric fence and livestock housing/shelter systems. These experiences led to the creation of his own business raising quail for meat and eggs, which were sold in several restaurants in the Bay Area. That business did not survive the pandemic, but it helped shape the perspective that Cory brings to work every day.
As an employee of the Mitsui Ranch Preserve, Cory has found a place where he can utilize all his experiences to support the goals of the ranch. From managing invasive plant species to renovating utility infrastructure, he thrives in the challenge of finding the balance between practical project management and the myriad goals we have set as an organization. Cory hopes his legacy will be the seamless blending of robust ranch infrastructure and ecological sustainability.
Byron Palmer – Ecological Collaborator
Byron Palmer works to regenerate the grasslands of Sonoma and Marin counties through thoughtful grazing and ecological stewardship. Before joining Sonoma Mountain Institute (SMI), Byron co-managed a diversified, direct-market ranch that provided beef, pork, chicken, eggs, and vegetables to more than 1,000 families across the Bay Area until 2013. During this time, he also co-founded and operated Grounded Grassfed, a direct-marketing effort that built strong connections between local ranchers and families seeking high-quality, regeneratively raised beef. This experience deepened his understanding of both the ecological and community benefits of transparent, local food systems. Since 2013, Byron has served as a land manager with SMI, where he has helped expand the organization’s managed acreage from 450 acres to more than 6,300 acres. His work focuses on balancing livestock production with ecological outcomes, using grazing as a tool to improve soil health, restore biodiversity, and enhance watershed resilience. At Mitsui Ranch, Byron collaborates closely with Jeff Wilcox and other partners to integrate sustainable grazing into a broader ecological management plan that supports rare and special-status species. Byron also helps lead the collaboration between SMI’s and Mitsui Ranch Preserves' robust science monitoring program, which tracks outcomes through more than 120 vegetation monitoring points and 25 soil sampling sites across ten properties. This data-driven approach ensures that management decisions are grounded in evidence and adaptive over time. Through his role at SMI and his collaboration with the Mitsui Ranch Preserve, Byron is committed to demonstrating how working lands can regenerate ecological function while supporting communities, wildlife, and future generations.
Victoria Brunal-Byrd — Research Ecologist
Victoria joined our staff in July 2025 after volunteering at the property since 2020. She received her M.S. in Biology at Sonoma State University in 2022, where she researched California tiger salamander (Ambystoma californiense) movement patterns by identifying unique individuals through spot pattern analysis. During her M.S. research, she was an avid volunteer at Mitsui Ranch Preserve, assisting with our California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) and foothill yellow legged frog (Rana boylii) demographics project as well as several graduate student projects. In 2022, she started collecting data on our population of California giant salamanders (Dicamptodon ensatus) and has been working to develop her own research questions on this understudied cryptic species. She currently works part time at the ranch assisting with our amphibian research program and rangeland management practices. When she’s not at the ranch, she works part time as a research coordinator at local zoo Safari West, and she has worked in environmental consulting in the Bay Area since 2019. Her research interests include movement ecology, land use effects, sustainable grazing practices, noninvasive research techniques, and conservation management.