Around the Office, Winter Solstice 2011

Winter is upon us and we’re looking forward to seeing the days get longer again, though we are also looking forward to getting out and playing in the snow. Now that the field season has come to a close, we’ve been busy analyzing data, and ramping up our new projects for 2012.

Farewell
We are disappointed to have to say farewell to our long-time Program Associate Cathrine Walters, and to long-time board member Rebecca Lloyd. Becca served two consecutive terms
(the max allowed without a break) on the board and brought incredible expertise from her 10 years of experience running the Nez Perce Tribe’s road removal program on the Powell District of the Clearwater National Forest. She has been a great asset to Wildlands CPR, and we are anxiously awaiting some of her pending publications from her PhD research into road removal.

Cathrine has been with us on and off since 2004 and we are really going to miss all of her positive energy, enthusiasm and input to Wildlands CPR. Cathrine’s been responsible for everything from day-to-day office management, to maintaining our website and facebook pages, to coming up with a lot of the creative approaches for our email solicitations. But now, she no longer has time for everything she wants to do, from professional photography to organic farming, to traveling. We wish her the best of luck, and we’ll let you know who her replacement is in the next issue of The RIPorter.

Welcome
We are very pleased to introduce Marlies Wierenga, our new WA/OR Field Coordinator. Marlies is responsible for our on-the-ground engagement with the Forest Service in Washington
and Oregon, as well as leading the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative and securing more support for our restoration efforts in the region. She’s responsible for a big portion of the work Sue Gunn previously did for us in the Pacific Northwest. Marlies is based in Portland, OR, and has been working in the transportation and restoration fields for about 10 years in Oregon and Washington, bringing a fantastic array of skills perfectly suited to her new position. Welcome Marlies! We’re also delighted to welcome new board member Kathi Nickell. Kathi lives here in Missoula and has supported Wildlands CPR for a long time. In addition to helping us out, she has worked for years with local nonprofits in the environment and the arts, with the Special Olympics and more. As a board member, she’ll be focusing on organizational development.

Finally, we had several new interns this fall. Lydina BigMan joined us as an intern through a tribal fellowship with the National Science Foundation. She updated the tribal resources
on our website and researched new tribal road reclamation programs. We also want to thank two University of Montana Environmental Studies interns. Jeremiah Purdum put together the biblio notes for this RIPorter, while Elizabeth Fairbank researched the effectiveness of wildlife mitigation measures and you’ll see her biblio notes in 2012. Thanks Lydina, Jeremiah and Elizabeth – we really appreciate your time and energy! We’re also happy to welcome a new winter intern, Michael N. Lazorchak. He’ll be working on an assessment of how closed/abandoned roads respond to fire, and the impacts of such roads after a fire occurs.

Thanks
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our Strength in Numbers campaign! We’re very happy to report that we have met our $20,000 matching goal! If you forgot to make a year-end contribution in 2011, don’t hesitate to get an early start and send a donation today. The fourth quarter is also a busy time for foundation support, and we’d like to thank the 444-S, Harder, High Stakes, Lazar, New-Land, and Page Foundations for their support for our upcoming work in 2012.