Kris Tompkins

For the most part, Tompkins grew up on her family ranch south of Santa Barbara, California, centered in Ventura County although she spent some early years in Venezuela, where her father worked for an oil company.[5] At age 15, she met and befriended rock climbing legend and equipment manufacturer Yvon Chouinard; he gave her a summer job working for Chouinard Equipment. After finishing college at the College of Idaho in Caldwell,[6] where she ski-raced competitively, she started to work full-time for what later became Patagonia, Inc.

Beginning in 1973, Tompkins helped Yvon Chouinard turn his fledgling piton business into Patagonia, Inc.[7] In 1980, Patagonia started to donate 10 percent of their profits to environmental organizations such as Earth First! In 1984, the company formed the "One Percent for the Planet Club", which donates either 1% of sales or 10% of profits—whichever is greater—to environmental causes.[1]

In the early 1990s, Tompkins retired from Patagonia, married Douglas Tompkins (founder of The North Face and Esprit), turned her entrepreneurial talents to saving natural beauty and diversity in Chile and Argentina. Together, they protected more land than any other private individuals—more than 2 million acres (800,000 hectares).[8] Their first project was the creation of Pumalin Park, a public-access 800,000-acre (320,000-hectare) nature reserve in Chile’s Los Lagos Region.

The park, a project of the Conservation Land Trust, is a private initiative to create a public-access nature preserve in the threatened Valdivian temperate rainforest. The Tompkinses later launched conservation efforts in the Iberá Wetlands of Northeastern Argentina. In the wetland ecosystem, they have launched projects to reintroduce extirpated species, such as the giant anteater.[9]

In 2000, Kris founded Conservación Patagónica (CP), an NGO focused on creating new national parks in Patagonia that protect and restore wildlands, biodiversity, and communities. CP's first project was the establishment of Monte Leon National Park, Argentina’s first coastal national park. In 2001, CP purchased Estancia Monte León, one of the oldest sheep ranches in the Argentine Patagonia, located on the southern Atlantic shoreline a few hundred miles north of the Strait of Magellan. Monte León had long been one of the priorities for Argentine National Parks because of its richness and diversity of species, including Magellanic penguins, sea lions, elephant seals, leopard seals, and several migratory seabirds.[10] CP purchased this 155,000-acre (63,000 ha) estancia, crafted a master plan for its transition to a national park and, in 2002, donated the property to the Argentine National Parks Administration, creating the Monte León National Park, the first coastal national park in Argentina.[11]

In 2003, CP had the opportunity to purchase Estancia Valle Chacabuco, a historic sheep ranch in Chile's Aysén Region. The Chilean National Parks had made this ranch their number-one conservation priority for more than 35 years because it sits between two existing National Reserves, namely Jeinimeni and Tamango, together 460,000 acres (190,000 ha). This area is prime habitat for the endangered huemul deer, one of Chile's national animals. After developing a public-access infrastructure system, including a trail system, visitor center, campgrounds, lodging, and a restaurant, CP will donate Patagonia Park to the Chilean park service. Along with the two adjoining National Reserves, this will become the Patagonia National Park, a flagship park for Latin America. Stretching between two of the country's largest lakes, Lago General Carrera and Lago Cochrane, the future park contains an impressive diversity of landscapes: arid Patagonian steppe, Southern Beech forests, wetlands, high peaks, alpine lakes, and streams. As the president of CP, Tompkins has been heavily involved in every aspect of this project, from landscape restoration to infrastructure construction.[12]

Kris continues her efforts alongside a team of skilled individuals who work in the areas of South America they have not reached yet. The lands they work to perfect back to their original state were used in the past for animal grazing along with other practices farmers chose to do during that time. This information is presented in a more descriptive way above, but the fact that she and her team are some of the few throughout the world practicing this movement is something of huge environmental impact for the better.[13]