Lisa Parsons has spearheaded efforts on land conservation, restoration, and parks development in King County. She founded a nonprofit to preserve and enhance the Middle Green River watershed. She also spearheaded an effort to create a 119 acre park between Covington and Maple Valley Washington. Through her documentary photography and activism she has helped conserve thousands of acres of land and promoted community involvement in conservation issues. She has had numerous public presentations, exhibitions, and has had articles and photographs published in magazines, websites, and newspapers.
She served on the King County Conservation Futures Committee from 2005 until 2017. The committee evaluates projects in King County for grant funding to protect open space and parks, develop trails, and protect waterways. Her passion for conservation and the outdoors has led her to volunteer her photography skills to other nonprofits and projects.
She served on the WRIA 9 Watershed Ecosystem Forum as an alternate representative of the Washington Environmental Council and an advocate for the Green-Duwamish watershed.
She served on the board of the Blue Earth Alliance (blueearth.org), a nonprofit dedicated to “supporting visual storytelling on critical environmental and social issues through direct assistance to photographers and a collaborative community of professionals”. Joining the board was an incredible opportunity to become part of larger community of photographers using documentary photography to inspire change and to support others in telling their important stories.
When not acting locally she loves to travel across the globe discovering new adventures, landscapes, and cultures from Mongolia to New Zealand to South America and in between. While traveling she documents the places she visits. Her photographs have been used by businesses and individuals all over the world for print and web.
When Lisa and her husband were not traveling they hosted young internationals from Earthcorps bringing the world into their home and mentoring the next generation of environmentalists. Earthcorps (earthcorps.org) hosts young people from all over the planet to learn about environmental leadership, trail building, and restoration. They now have, what they call their international children, from Bolivia, Kenya, Morocco, India, Romania, and Czech Republic. They share their American life and learn more about the lives and cultures of the young people they host. "As a result our world both larger and smaller. Our connections to others on the planet who share our passion for the environment makes us part of a international community".
The bucket list of places to visit grows every year as they host new internationals and learn about their homes. Lisa and her husband are still in high adventure mode. Saving the credit card bicycle tour of Europe for when they are old and need a little less “extreme“ in their adventures. For now they prefer to mt. bike, hike, climb, and whitewater raft.
Besides travel and conservation photography she has started photographing the end result of Greenwave Construction's high end remodels in the Puget Sound region.
Lisa graduated from the Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts. She also attended paramedic training at the University of Washington School of Medicine and worked as a paramedic in King County for 27 years.
The photo in the background is from an airplane overlooking the Pacific Ocean around the Galapagos Islands.