Ted Beedy

1950 - 2025

Ted (Edward Crosby) Beedy

March 6, 1950 – March 25, 2025

Ted Beedy, an environmental activist and cherished friend to many, passed away suddenly from a stroke. He was born in Piedmont, California, but at age 7 moved to Korbel in Humboldt County, where his father, Josiah Crosby Beedy, managed the town's lumber mill, and his mother, Shirley Okell Beedy, taught fifth grade at McKinley Elementary School. Life in Korbel, on the banks of the Mad River and surrounded by dense forest, was ideal for Ted, who was never a city boy. He showed an early interest in birds and nature, starting as a toddler feeding the ducks at Lake Merritt, receiving his Boy Scout birdwatching/nature merit badge at age 12, to an earnest high school student and undergraduate annotating his Peterson's Field Guide to Birds with new "lifer" birds.

Ted received his Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees in Zoology at the University of California Davis. His Master's and Ph.D. work was on birds of the Sierra Nevada based on studies conducted at Yosemite National Park and at The Cedars, a forest property near Donner Summit where Ted spent every summer. He became an expert on Sierra Nevada birds, and his professional and volunteer work produced many important and long-lasting benefits for birds and their habitats in California. He published several widely read books on the region, including Discovering Sierra Birds (1985) with Stephen Granholm and Birds of the Sierra Nevada: Their Natural History, Status, and Distribution (2013), co-authored with Ed Pandolfino, both illustrated by Keith Hansen.

Ted worked for nearly 40 years as an environmental consultant, first for Jones & Stokes Associates (now ICF International) and later with his own business in Nevada County as Beedy Environmental Consulting. One of his first projects in the 1980s was at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, where he assisted with research assessing the harmful effects of selenium contamination from agricultural wastewater on wildlife populations, including the Tricolored Blackbird. Ted's work on tricolors at Kesterson ignited a lifelong dedication to research and conservation of the species, which is now protected as a Threatened species in California thanks to the work of Ted and other researchers. He authored and co-authored at least 10 publications on Tricolored Blackbirds and was widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts on this species. In the same decade his research and testimony at the State Water Resources Control Board was instrumental in saving Mono Lake from degradation due to water diversions. He maintained his Mono Lake connection through annual participation and field trip leadership at the Mono Lake Chautauqua.

Ted and his friend Steve Chainey were the visionaries behind the establishment of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area when they proposed a plan to use floodwaters to create managed wildlife habitat in the Yolo Bypass near Davis. The Wildlife Area, dedicated in 1997 by President Clinton, has grown to 16,000 acres. It hosts a diverse array of waterbirds and other wildlife, and is visited by thousands of birders, wildlife enthusiasts, hunters, and school children each year.

Ted provided biological resource expertise to major conservation planning efforts in Placer and Nevada counties and was the lead author for the Natural Resources Conservation Reports for both counties. In more recent years, in addition to continued work on tricolors, Ted served on the boards of the Bear Yuba Land Trust and of Sierra Foothills Audubon Society, to which he added much-valued knowledge, insight, opinion, and action. He taught bird classes at Sierra College and workshops for The Wildlife Society, regularly led birding field trips for Sierra Foothills Audubon, the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua and the Central Valley Bird Symposium. He was a highly skilled birder and bird photographer, traveled extensively and organized birding trips in Central America.

Ted was dedicated and disciplined, but also fun-loving and with a great sense of humor. He was a collaborator, a natural and skilled teacher and mentor, and a caring and supportive friend to many. Those who knew Ted were given a great gift. Many others who didn't know him have benefited from his life's work - his impact on California conservation has been enormous. His legacy continues in the places he saved and helped create and in those he taught and inspired.

Ted was always the happiest outside in nature and loved birdwatching, wildlife photography, The Cedars, pickleball, his little Chihuahua mutt Tealy, and the Grateful Dead (he attended at least 188 concerts). Most of all, he loved his friends and his family: his wife, Susan Sanders, children Katrina and Josiah (Abby Oas), grandchildren Lacey and Leo, and his sister, Tish Sandos (Jim).

A celebration of Ted's life will be held on Sunday, July 13 at 11:00 a.m. at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City. For those wanting to make a contribution in memory of Ted, please consider the Sierra Foothills Audubon Society and the Bear Yuba Land Trust.