Ed Amador, age 52 is an Insurance Executive in Orange County and a resident of Silverado for the past 15 years. His wife Leslie and son Robert hike with their dogs and ride their horses throughout the Santa Ana Mountains. Ed was an Aide to Assemblyman Peter Chacon (D-San Diego) and worked on many local, state and congressional elections in San Diego. He has put his experience in business and politics to network the Canyons with local and regional environmental groups to permanently protect the western edge of the Cleveland National Forest. Ed said that “Working with Canyon folk is different, they really don’t have much ego involved in their conservation work, they just stick to one goal, to save the last wild lands in Orange County!”

Chay Peterson, age 46, is a wife, mother of two, teacher, a Christian, and
psychology major, who co-founded the Canyon Land Conservation Fund, along with Ed Amador in March of 2002. Chay and her family moved to Silverado Canyon in1987 to be a part of the natural environment and rural community they adored. Chay is active in wild land issues of the Santa Ana Mountains and is a member of the Sierra Club. She has taught for 7 years at the Silverado Children’s Center and for 8 years has been a volunteer director of a non-profit community summer camp. Chay is a fundraiser for all sorts of community needs, particularly Holtz Ranch and the Silverado Children’s Center. Her environmental activism stretches beyond her backyard to affiliations with groups who are fighting the Irvine Company for East Orange, saving San Onofre State Park, stopping Mountain Top Removal of Coal in West Virginia, and protecting her family’s surf culture by supporting the Surfrider Foundation and Friends of the Foothills.