Around the Office, Spring 2010

The snow and ice storms that buried the east coast just floated right by Missoula, leaving us with an extremely low snowpack and a mild winter. Perhaps that’s why some people call it climate change, instead of global warming… The warm weather here was a good partner to the busy winter we’ve had – preparing all sorts of things for the spring and summer.

Welcome

In our last issue, we thanked two departing board members, Amy Atwood and William Geer. In this issue, we’re pleased to introduce you to our two newest board members, Susan Jane Brown and Marion Hourdequin. Some of you may recognize Marion’s name, as she and Bethanie were co-directors of Wildlands CPR in 1995 before Marion went back to school for her Master’s and PhD. It’s a treat to have her back with Wildlands CPR!

Susan Jane Brown works for Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) on public lands and natural resources and has worked with Wildlands CPR on several motorized recreation cases already, in addition to helping out with our advocacy work on Federal Highways issues. Prior to joining WELC this year, she spent two years as Natural Resources Council for Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) in Washington, DC. Before that, she spent three years as a staff attorney with the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center, Lewis and Clark Law School’s environmental law clinic. She also spent three years as Executive Director of the Gifford Pinchot Task Force, a group that’s been at the forefront of promoting road reclamation on Forest Service lands. Susan Jane graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1997 and graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School in 2000.

Marion Hourdequin is an assistant professor of philosophy at Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, CO. She holds an A.B. in biology from Princeton University, Master’s degrees in ecology and philosophy from University of Montana, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Duke University. Marion’s teaching and research interests include environmental ethics, comparative ethics, and philosophy of science. With her husband, David Havlick (a geography professor at University of  Colorado-Colorado Springs, author of No Place Distant: Roads and Motorized Recreation on America’s Public Lands, and former Wildlands CPR board member), Marion was recently awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to study ecological restoration on former military lands now designated as National Wildlife Refuges.

Thanks

A huge thank you to everyone who made year end donations to Wildlands CPR – your support made a big difference and enabled us to enter 2010 in a very financially healthy position! We’d also like to thank the High Stakes, Horizons, Peradam and Temper of the Times Foundations for generous grants to support our restoration program.