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| >> LANDSCAPE AND LIVELIHOOD - OVERVIEW |
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| Winter Field Studies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Animal Tracking Clinic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Natural History Adventures | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A diversity of guest speakers round out the instructional staff for our field programs. Swan Valley community members, local and regional biologists, agency personnel, business owners and environmentalists serve as speakers, hosts and guides. All of our speakers contribute to our field programs through their deep knowledge of the region's ecology, economy and community.
Below is a sampling of some of the speakers students will meet during the field semester.
Russ Abolt—Russ is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Swan Ecosystem Center Board of Directors and serves as Chairman of the Alpine Artisans Cultural Arts Development and Outreach division. Russ actively supports land conservation efforts in the Swan and is also an active wood sculpture artist focusing on natural themes and forms.
Stephen Barrett—Steve Barrett currently works with the National Interagency Fuels Technology Team and recently conducted fire regimes modeling for the USDA Forest Service in the Swan Valley. Steve teaches fire ecology for the Forest & Communities course.
Anne Dahl—Anne Dahl has been president of Swan Ecosystem Center since its inception in 1996. She has a B.A. in English literature from the University of Washington. Prior to nonprofit work she co-owned and managed a successful micro-business. Anne is an avid outdoorswoman. Anne has been involved in our field semester as a speaker and mentor since 2001.
Carol Daly—Carol has been the president of the Flathead Economic Policy Center since 1994. She is the current president of the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress. . During her career she has been co-owner/manager of various cattle ranches and/or forest properties in Western Montana.
Claire Emery—Claire is an artist, naturalist and educator from Missoula, Montana. Her work focuses on illuminating Montana’s natural and cultural heritage, and on honoring all life’s struggle for sustenance and meaning. She runs a freelance illustration business focused on natural science illustration and joins L&L students to help develop field journaling skills.
John Ingebretson—John is the Assistant Fire Management Officer and Fuels Specialist for the Flathead National Forest. He has worked in fire management with the US Forest Service for 25 years and is the current Fuel Planner on the Swan Lake Ranger District. John has extensive experience in collaboration and partnerships for fuel reduction projects on, and adjacent to, National Forest System Lands.
Dave McEvoy—Dave is the director and co-founder of Aerie Backcountry and Emergency Medicine. He has worked for the past twenty years leading backcountry excursions throughout the U.S. Dave is L&L’s wilderness first-aid instructor and through Aerie, runs a Wilderness First-Aid certification for students at the beginning of the semester.
Mark Vander Meer—Mark Vander Meer wears three hats: Forester, restoration ecologist, and soil scientist. Mark is the owner of Vander Meer’s Wildland Conservation Services, based in Missoula and the SwanValley. He is also the regional coordinator for the National Network of Forest Practitioners, supporting individuals and groups that build sustainable relationships between forests and people.
Neil & Dixie Meyer—Neil and Dixie have lived in the Swan Valley for past 53 years and own 350 acres where they raised their family. Neil has been a logger all of his working life and was on the board of the Montana Logging Association. Dixie continues to raise cattle on the property, puts hay up each year, and is the fastest female firewood splitter in the valley. They are active community members.
Greg Neudecker—Greg has been the Assistant State Coordinator for the Montana Partnership for Fish and Wildlife Program, a program of the US Fish and Wildlife Service for the past 12 year and has worked for USFWS for 20 years. Greg has been involvement with the Blackfoot Challenge ---a landowner-based group that coordinates management of the Blackfoot River, its tributaries, and adjacent lands---since 1993. For the past seven years Greg has served as Vice Chair of the Blackfoot Challenge and has engaged in diverse habitat restoration projects in the Blackfoot Valley.
Pat O’Herren—Pat is the director of Missoula County’s Rural Planning Office. He has worked in the land use planning field since 1979 for city and county government, the real estate and homebuilding industries, the energy industry and as a private consultant.
Robert Rassmussen—Robert has worked with the Trust for Public Land’s Northern Rockies Field Office for seven years. His principal project area is the Swan Valley, where he works with the Swan Ecosystem Center, the community, landowners, resource and land management agencies, and other partners to identify conservation opportunities, develop, and implement conservation strategies.
Amy Royer—Amy started Montana Land Reliance’s (MLR) Glacier/Flathead office in 1992. Over the past 17 years, Amy has helped complete over 200 conservation easements throughout the region with a special attention on projects within and surrounding the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. In 2000, Amy founded MLR’s Women’s Outdoor Adventure trips and is also the MLR’s event coordinator with “Artists for Open Space” as the premier event for MLR. In addition, she co-founded and directed the Five Valleys Land Trust out of Missoula, MT.
Ben & Roy Thompson—Brothers Ben and Roy Thompson run RBM Lumber, a family logging and lumber company based out of Columbia Falls, which emphasizes sustainable forestry and works to create and supply a market for value-added wood products. Ben and Roy teach for us both in the field and at their sawmill.
Suzanne Vernon— Suzanne Vernon is a fifth generation Montanan and local historian. In 1986 she and her husband Sheldon, co-founded Seeley Lake’s weekly newspaper, the Pathfinder. Susan now works with the Swan Ecosystem Center in Condon as coordinator for the Upper Swan Valley Oral History Project and works to preserve the voices of community elders in the valley.
Alan Wood—Alan was the first permanent wildlife biologist for the Montana state forestry office and Conservation and helped craft a management plan for 700,000 acres of state forestland. For the last 14 years, Alan has worked for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks managing a program designed to mitigate the impacts of hydropower facilities on wildlife in NW Montana.
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