George Beck
Swan Valley resident

George was raised on the Swan Valley homestead where NwC is located and has vivid memories of the primitive "good old days" when he had to haul water, milk the cows, separate the cream by hand, feed the chickens, put up the hay by horse and pitchfork all by the light of day.  George retired from a 25 year teaching career in 2002. He and his wife Emily, enjoy spending Spring and Fall in Montana and Summer and Winter in Alaska. They have four children and five grandsons. They enjoy the natural environment wherever they are by hiking, camping, canoeing, skiing, traveling, and watching wildlife.

Gary Freyholtz
Swan Valley Log Crafters, Swan Valley

Our Board Vice-President, Gary is the owner of Swan Valley Log Crafters and has been a log home builder and designer for 21 years. He is also the chairman of Swan Valley Elementary School Board.  Gary was born in Bemidji, MN and arrived in Condon in 1968. He has been married to Wanda for 23 years and they have one son, Bryce. Gary loves to hunt, fish and enjoy the great outdoors.

Katie (Kit) Johnston
Undergraduate Student, University of Montana

Kit was a Landscape and Livelihood student in the fall of 2006.  She is currently a student at the University of Montana, where she is majoring in Environmental Studies and Communication Studies with a focus on Rhetoric and Public Discourse. Her main interests include conservation, conflict resolution, and community collaboration. Kit loves the mountains and rivers of Western Montana and being outdoors.  She is an avid backpacker and biker.

Michael Lund
Shoup & Lund Construction, Swan Valley

Michael was born in Livingston, Montana and grew up in the Shields Valley of Montana.  Mike served in the US Army for 7 years.  Following his military service he worked around the Livingston area as a carpenter and then for a short time at a locomotive rebuild plant.  Mike managed that for about six months when he decided to return to Montana.   He received an Associate of Science Degree in Business and a B.S. in Business Administration with a major in Finance and Economics from Montana State University.  Mike met his wife Jessie at Red Lodge Mountain while they both were volunteering for Eagle Mount, a ski program for individuals with disabilities.  Mike currently lives in the Condon with his wife and daughter.  Mike co-founded Shoup & Lund Construction, Inc.  which builds custom homes in the Swan Valley.

Mary Mitsos
National Forest Foundation, Missoula, MT

Mary is NwC's Board President and Vice- President of the National Forest Foundation (NFF). Chartered by Congress in 1990, the NFF engages America in community-based and national programs that promote the health and public enjoyment of the 192-million-acre National Forest System.  Mary provides leadership for NFF’s conservation programs, facilitates many diverse community groups, and provides technical assistance on public lands issues. Her specialized interests are in collaborative stewardship and contracting mechanisms on public forestlands, conservation-based development and strengthening the working relationship between local communities and forestland managers.

Tom Parker
Buck Creek Guide Service, Swan Valley

Tom has been a hunting guide in the Swan Valley and surrounding wilderness areas for over 30 years.  In 1978, he started his own outfitting business called Buck Creek Guide Service.  He still offers big game hunts during the fall general season.  Tom grew up in western Pennsylvania and lived as a young man in northern Maine.  He moved to the Swan Valley in 1974.  In addition to guiding he has made his living trapping, mule packing, building log homes, doing forest management and for the past 15 years, increasingly in the wildlife research and conservation field.  Tom and his wife Melanie founded Northwest Connections in 1996.  Tom has been on the board of directors for ten years.

Steve Siebert
College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana

Our Board Treasurer, is a professor in the UM College of Forestry and Conservation where he teaches and conducts research on the ecology and management of working landscapes.  His recent field work has focused on biophysical changes associated with agricultural intensification in Sulawesi, Indonesia and Crete, Greece, and on the ecology and management of non-timber forest products, specifically rattan palms, in Indonesia.  At UM he directs the International Resource Management program, an M.S. degree program in which students integrate one year of coursework with applied resource conservation and management field work, primarily in the tropics.  His family owns a 42 acre certified stewardship forest in western Washington where they are working to restore ‘old growth’ Douglas fir through selective timber harvesting.

Ben Thompson
RBM Lumber, Columbia Falls, MT

Ben is the Board Secretary. His passion is working in the woods with nature. He is part owner of RBM Lumber, a family owned and operated sawmill and logging operation located in Columbia Falls, MT. The mill, founded by Ben and his brother Roy in the 1970’s, has grown from a 3-man show to a business that now employs more then 25 people. RBM uses creative market approaches as part of a solution oriented way to maintain a sustainable future for Montana’s wood products industry.  Ben says he has “never been a follower of trends and cares deeply about all living things and the awesome network they create.”