Delta Conservancy’s Campbell Ingram

An Analog Guy Who Likes Catfish, Collaboration, and Caddyshack

Campbell Ingram is executive officer of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy, where he works on restoring both the ecosystem and the economy of one of California’s major water sources. Before participating in a panel on the Delta’s future, he offered his itinerary for a coastal interloper’s perfect day in the Central Valley and told us what fish he’d want to be in the Zócalo green room.

Q:

What inspires you?


A:

Right now I’d say it’s working with diverse interests to solve complex problems.


Q:

Digital or analog?


A:

Analog.


Q:

What was your first pet’s name?


A:

Gus. He was a schnauzer.


Q:

What word or phrase do you use most often?


A:

Collaboration.


Q:

Showers or baths?


A:

Showers.


Q:

How would you advise a coastal interloper to spend a perfect day in the Central Valley?


A:

I would say go to the Delta and go to the Delta Farmers Market, and then go out and kind of go on the wine tour—visit some of the wineries, the sugar mill.


Q:

If you could be any fish, what would you be?


A:

Gosh, everything I can think of is prey—gets eaten in the end. I would be a blue whale. [That’s not a fish.] Oh, it’s a mammal. I’d be a catfish.


Q:

What’s your most prized material possession?


A:

I guess I would say my Les Paul guitar.


Q:

What film are you most likely to quote?


A:

Probably Caddyshack.


Q:

What keeps you up at night?


A:

State process, state bureaucracy—navigating it.