2024 Wilderness & Beyond Conference Speakers and Presenters

Tracy Stone-Manning

Tracy Stone-Manning is the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Before coming to the BLM, Stone-Manning served as both a senior advisor for conservation policy and associate vice president of public lands at the National Wildlife Federation.

Scheduled to appear.

Nada Wolff Culver

Nada Wolff Culver is the Principal Deputy Director of the BLM. Prior to joining the BLM, Culver served as the Vice President, Public Lands and Senior Policy Counsel at the National Audubon Society, and the Senior Counsel and Senior Director for Policy and Planning at The Wilderness Society.

Scheduled to appear.

Cyndi Anderson

Cyndi Anderson is a Co-Leader of the Willamette Valley Broadband in Oregon.

Panel: “Out of Our Comfort Zone”

Misty Boos

Misty is the U.S. Conservation Policy Manager for the Wildlands Network, where she is dedicated to advancing policies that champion habitat connectivity, conservation, and restoration. She earned her B.S. in Sociology from Southern Oregon University and her Master’s in Environmental Planning from the University of Tasmania. Over the past decade, Misty served as the Executive Director of Wild Virginia, playing a pivotal role in establishing the Virginia Safe Wildlife Corridors Collaborative and spearheading successful efforts to pass legislation creating the Wildlife Corridor Action Plan for Virginia.

Presentation: Advocating for Wildlife Crossings in Your Community

This session focuses on exploring the crucial role of habitat connectivity in safeguarding wildlife populations. We will cover successful strategies and case studies leading to the enactment of wildlife crossing and connectivity legislation nationwide. We will dive into efforts leading to the passage of Virginia’s Wildlife Corridor Action Plan and discuss how wildlife crossings and habitat corridors support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ). Through these discussions, participants will gain practical strategies and tools for working together to help connect our increasingly fragmented natural world.

Emily Cain

Panel: “The River Democracy Act: A case study in using the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to help achieve 30×30”

The River Democracy Act, a Wild and Scenic Rivers bill in Oregon, is the product of years of grassroots and organizational efforts to engage Oregon’s Senators and build unprecedented support from local leaders, businesses, and recreationists. When passed, it will add protections for thousands of miles of waterways and more than a million acres of public lands – significantly contributing to the 30×30 effort. Advocates in Oregon have employed many strategies and tactics to bring this bill closer to the finish line, and it can serve as a case study for other such efforts around the country.

Robyn Cascade

Robyn Cascade is a former leader of the Northern San Juan Broadband in southwest Colorado. She is an avid outdoorswoman and engaged citizen scientist surveying for rare/sensitive botanical species, raptors, and bighorn sheep while monitoring for livestock grazing, invasive species and recreation impacts. She also advocates for health and integrity of wild lands and watersheds and dedicated her energy over the last six years to the revision of the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest management plan which was released earlier this year.

Panel: “Out of Our Comfort Zone”, “Session 2: Federal Forest Planning and Policy: How it Works and How We Can Make a Difference—The HOW and OUTCOMES of Forest Planning”

Ty Churchwell

Ty is the Mining Coordinator for Trout Unlimited’s Government Affairs program, working on federal mining policy, including Good Samaritan legislation, reform of the General Mining Law of 1872, and critical mineral policy development. Additionally, Ty coordinates the Bonita Peak Community Advisory Group overseeing the federal Superfund cleanup of the abandoned mines in his home watershed of the Animas River. Ty is a graduate of Colorado State University, with a B.S. in Plant Science

Presentation: “Good Samaritan Policy – Addressing the Legal Hurdles to Voluntary Abandoned Mine Cleanups”

This session will discuss how the Clean Water Act—arguably the most important environmental law ever passed—has a shortcoming that is dissuading voluntary, third-party cleanups at abandoned draining mines. Abandoned mines are a huge, but often overlooked, environmental issue in the US. The EPA estimates there are over 500,000 abandoned mines in the US, thousands of which are harming water quality, especially in the West. Current laws prevent anyone from treating abandoned mine water, whereby leaving no cleanups at all. Good Samaritan legislation—currently making its way through Congress—is the needed policy to correct this shortcoming while greatly expanding efforts to address mining-impacted waters nationwide.

Pam Conley

Pam Conley is the chair of Broads’ Lower Snake River Dams committee (LSRD) of the Pacific NW Broads Regional Advocacy Team (BRAT).  Broads have been officially working on the issue since June 2019.  She is a retired federal employee who worked on mapping of the public lands.  Pam lives in rural northeast Oregon about 17 miles from the Snake River.  She is avid naturalist who loves hiking with her husband and two dogs.

Presentation: “Saving Salmon and Orca: the Fight to Free the Snake River”

Mark Dubois

Mark is the co-founder of Friends of the River and the International Rivers Network, and a world-renowned advocate for clean, free-flowing rivers and waterways. Check out this great video to learn more about Mark and his decades of work to protect rivers from destruction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5R5cmvaSio

Keynote Speaker

Tuesday, Oct. 15
7:30-8:45 PM

Debra Ellers

Debra grew up on a family farm near the Chesapeake Bay in Eastern Virginia, where she developed a love of salt water and its creatures. She received her B.A. in Economics with High Honors from the University of Tennessee, where she was Phi Beta Kappa, and J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law. She has been involved with many conservation issues, including public lands grazing, wolf reintroduction, and salmon recovery. Debra was also an adjunct instructor teaching introductory environmental law classes and litigation skills. Debra has been a Broad since 2020, is currently the leader of the North Olympic Peninsula Broadband, and is an active member of the Broads’ Regional Advocacy Team for the Lower Snake River Dams.

Presentation: “Dammed to Extinction” Film Panel, Saving Salmon and Orca: The Fight to Free the Snake River, Decolonizing Stewardship

Vicky Hoover

Vicky Hoover is a long-time volunteer with the Sierra Club whose work and passion for nature was instrumental in getting the California Desert Protection Act passed, which defined 69 distinct areas as wilderness, boosted the status of Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Monuments to national parks, and created the Mojave National Preserve on 1.6 million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Hoover has been presented with the “Wilderness-Forever Future” award—honoring her decades of leadership and volunteer work to connect countless individuals with the great outdoors. 

Keynote Speaker

Monday, Oct. 14
7:30 PM

Andrew Hursh

Panelist: “Federal Forest Planning and Policy: How it works and how we can make a difference”

Forest plans define and affect the uses—from recreation to logging—allowed in National Forests as well as the wildlife habitat, waterways, and ecosystems found there. Forest plan revisions or amendments are an opportunity to inform protections for rivers, wild places, wildlife, and recreation. This presentation will explore the laws and policies that govern forest planning and how grassroots engagement and advocacy can make a difference for your local forest.

Dana M. Johnson

Dana is an attorney and policy director for Wilderness Watch, a national wilderness preservation organization, and has provided litigation and general legal support for environmental groups and individual Earth defenders throughout the Northern Rockies since 2010.

Presentation: “Earth and its Community of Life: Elevating Interests of Non-Human Animals in Wilderness Protection”

Ione Jones

Ione I. Jones is a lineal descendant of the Original Peoples of Fishhook Bend, a place where Indigenous villages and communities once existed along upper, middle and lower parts on the Snake River. She is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakama Nation (YN) – specifically as WOW-YICK-MA NAH-KHEE-UM NU-SHWA, the People of the Lower Snake River Palouse. Her father’s family is from the Wind River reservation located in Fremont County of Wyoming State where the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone reside. She is an independent researcher, cultural programmer, and advocate studying the way modern systems impact Indian Country. Ione conducts much of this work in her role as president and executive director of KHIMSTONIK, a grassroots native-led nonprofit she co-created in 2022.

The Lewis & Clark expedition and the colonization and settlement that came afterwards caused destruction for Southeastern Washington’s Original Peoples and Persons. Most people have only read about what happeneed. But the Original Peoples and Persons still live with the impact. Ione has dedicated her life to understanding how colonization and settlement affect the Original Peoples and Persons. She uses historical context to create culturally appropriate healing processes among those in the communities bordering federal reservations and those building lives around returning to their ancestral homelands and
Indigenous lifestyles. Her goal is to weave connections between the current checkerboard approach to the land management of the Original Lands and Tribal initiative programs. Out of this weaving, Ione is working to create programs that are sustainable and resilient for everyone.

Presentation: “Decolonizing Stewardship: Using Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and Practices to Restore Lands and Waters.“

Chandra LeGue

Chandra LeGue is Senior Conservation Advocate with Oregon Wild, where she has been  focused on public forest policy and advocacy, public lands protection campaigns, and community engagement and education for the past 20 years. She is the co-leader of the Willamette Valley Broadband, and facilitator of the Pacific Northwest Forest BRAT (Broads Regional Advocacy Team). She is also the author of Oregon’s Ancient Forests: A Hiking Guide.

Panel: “Federal Forest Planning and Policy: How it works and how we can make a difference”

Forest plans define and affect the uses—from recreation to logging—allowed in National Forests as well as the wildlife habitat, waterways, and ecosystems found there. Forest plan revisions or amendments are an opportunity to inform protections for rivers, wild places, wildlife, and recreation. This presentation will explore the laws and policies that govern forest planning and how grassroots engagement and advocacy can make a difference for your local forest.

Panel: “The River Democracy Act: A case study in using the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to help achieve 30×30”

The River Democracy Act, a Wild and Scenic Rivers bill in Oregon, is the product of years of grassroots and organizational efforts to engage Oregon’s Senators and build unprecedented support from local leaders, businesses, and recreationists. When passed, it will add protections for thousands of miles of waterways and more than a million acres of public lands – significantly contributing to the 30×30 effort. Advocates in Oregon have employed many strategies and tactics to bring this bill closer to the finish line, and it can serve as a case study for other such efforts around the country.

John Leshy

John is an emeritus professor at the University of California College of the Law-San Francisco (formerly known as Hastings). He has also taught at Arizona State University and did four stints as a visiting professor at Harvard. He served in the Carter and Clinton Administrations in the Interior Department, headed the transition team for Interior for Clinton in 1992 (after serving as special counsel to Chairman George Miller of the House Natural Resources Committee), and co-chaired the one for Obama in 2008. His comprehensive history of America’s federal lands, Our Common Ground, was published by Yale University Press in 2022.  His many other publications include a history of the notorious Mining Law of 1872 and co-authoring textbooks on water law (6^th edition, 2018) and federal public lands and resources law (8^th ed. 2022). In 2013 he received the Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award for lifetime contributions to wildlife conservation.

Keynote Speaker

Thursday, Oct. 17
9:00-10:00 AM

Loretta McEllhiney

Loretta was the Colorado Fourteeners Program Manager for the U.S. Forest Service before retiring in 2024. A native of Los Angeles, she received degrees in Kinesiology & Nutrition from Kansas State University before making the move to Leadville, Colorado. In 1989 she joined the USFS, where she worked as a seasonal Forest Service employee in trails and wilderness until 2001 when she was able to put her passion for public lands to work managing the Colorado Fourteeners Program. There she designed 51 summit trails and managed the implementation of 49 trail projects on 47 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains.

Presentation: “Colorado’s Fourteeners Alpine Ecology”

Colorado’s fourteeners and the sustainable trails established on them allow hundreds of thousands of visitors to enter into the magical realm of the alpine. Just entering into this ecosystem places extra responsibilities on these visitors to help protect this fragile environment. This presentation will focus on the adaptations of alpine flora & fauna to survive in the harshest climate in the world. It will also discuss behaviors that can help visitors have minimal impacts & help protect and preserve these mountains.

Erik Molvar

Erik is a wildlife biologist, author, and the Executive Director of the Western Watersheds Project. He spent 13 years as a conservation advocate and later Executive Director of Wyoming-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, and led WildEarth Guardians’ Sagebrush Sea Campaign for three years. Over this period, he became a national leader in sage grouse conservation and recovery. As a wildlife biologist, his research helped establish that predation risk led to the evolution of herd-forming behavior in Alaskan moose, and he also helped to elucidate the role that moose play in accelerating nutrient cycling in timberline areas of Denali National Park. He is the author of 16 hiking guidebooks and backpacking techniques manuals for national parks and wilderness areas spanning the West from Alaska to Arizona, and was a managing editor for the official interagency commemorative book for the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Erik is a contributor to The Hill and his columns in that newspaper can be found here.

Panel: “A Balancing Act: Wilderness Designation and Tribal Sovereignty”

There is a current controversy over whether and to what degree wilderness designation is at odds with decolonization or Indigenous values and sovereignty. This panel will explore these varying perspectives.

Mary O’Brien

Mary O’Brien is a botanist and former member of Broad’s Board of Directors who has worked for toxics reform, environmental law, and public lands conservation organizations for 40 years. In December 2021, Mary left her 17-year position as Utah Public Lands Director for Grand Canyon Trust, a Colorado Plateau regional conservation organization. She founded Project Eleven Hundred in January 2021, a small nonprofit working to end permitting of honey bee apiaries on Forest Service and BLM lands on the Colorado Plateau, because the hive-based, non-native honey bees out-compete native bees and transmit diseases to them. Mary enjoys working with various Broadbands on public lands livestock grazing issues.

Presentation: “Out of Our Comfort Zone”

Dan Parkinson

Dan is a retired small animal veterinarian from Durango, Colorado. Dan earned his BS in Wildlife Biology, MS in Physiology working with neonatal mortality of mule deer fawns in captivity and his DVM from Colorado State University in 1982. Dan is a life member of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA), Trout Unlimited and the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society. He is also a proud member of Great Old Broads for Wilderness. In 2024 Dan was honored to receive the Aldo Leopold Conservation Award from BHA.

Presentation: “The Big Threat to Bighorns in Wilderness in the United States and Canada”

Dan will review the problems facing bighorn sheep with a brief film that outlines the disease threat that domestic sheep pose for bighorns on public land, and the current status of bighorns in Southwest Colorado and across the West. He will outline how Great Old Broads for Wilderness and other wilderness advocates can help state wildlife agencies and federal land management agencies by recording observations of bighorns and domestic sheep they see in the backcountry.

Derek Red Arrow

Panel: “Balancing Act: Wilderness Designation and Tribal Sovereignty”

Lisa Ronald

Panel: “The River Democracy Act: A case study in using the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act to help achieve 30×30”

The River Democracy Act, a Wild and Scenic Rivers bill in Oregon, is the product of years of grassroots and organizational efforts to engage Oregon’s Senators and build unprecedented support from local leaders, businesses, and recreationists. When passed, it will add protections for thousands of miles of waterways and more than a million acres of public lands – significantly contributing to the 30×30 effort. Advocates in Oregon have employed many strategies and tactics to bring this bill closer to the finish line, and it can serve as a case study for other such efforts around the country.

Delaney Rudy

Delaney is the Colorado Director with the Western Watersheds Project. She grew up in the Colorado foothills and spent her childhood exploring the mountains and forests of the Front Range. She holds an ecology-focused BS in Biology and her undergraduate research focused on lichen as a bioindicator of air quality across 12 countries in Asia. Her time abroad strengthened her belief in the incredible value of American public lands and emphasized the importance of their stewardship. Delaney previously worked for the U.S. Forest Service in western Colorado and northern Montana across the spectrum of resource management, from wilderness trails and wildland fire crews to wildlife and range management. She lives beside the West Elk Mountains and advocates on behalf of the health of our public lands, the ecological communities that they sustain, and the conservation values of Coloradans.

Panel: Grazing in Wilderness Quality Lands: Get the Damn Cows Off!

Rosie Sanchez

Rosie Sanchez (she/her/ ella) is a wildlife conservation biologist with roots in Michoacan, Mexico, and Guatemala (Maya Mam). Her work focuses on promoting inclusion, community empowerment, and Tribal sovereignty in wildlife conservation and equal access in outdoor recreation. With a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Science from Oregon State University, her experience spans outreach, education, wildlife rehabilitation, and advocacy, including work on the historic reintroduction of wolves in Colorado (Proposition 114). She is currently a second year PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder studying Carnivore Ecology and Indigenous sovereignty and governance of natural resources.

Panel: Welcoming Wolves Home to Colorado

Kaitie Schneider

Kaitie Schneider is a human-wildlife conflict specialist with a Bachelor of Science degree in conservation biology from Colorado State University. Kaitie leads the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Coexistence Program for Defenders of Wildlife, which has been helping livestock producers access and implement measures to minimize wolf-livestock conflict before, during, and after the passage of Proposition 114.

Panel: Welcoming Wolves Home to Colorado

Ryan Sedgeley

Ryan is a passionate advocate that has spent the last decade in and around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. During this time there he gained a profound appreciation for the important role of wolves and bison in North American ecosystems. This appreciation was deepened through his Master’s work on the political and social dimensions of bison expansion outside of Yellowstone National Park. Along with the expertise gained from his J.D., and M.A. in Environment and Natural Resources, he brings the lived experience of day-to-day life with these animals.

Panel: Welcoming Wolves Home to Colorado

Marsha Small

As a Northern Cheyenne woman, Ota’taveenova’e (Blue Tipi Woman), embraces the Tsistsistas ways of knowing, especially those of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility. She grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and plans to return there when her academic journey is complete.

In 2005, she graduated from Chief Dull Knife College located on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Lame Deer, Montana. In 2009, she received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies/Social Policy at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon. In summer of 2015, she graduated with her Master of Arts in Native American Studies and her College Teaching Certificate from Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana. She served as the Mark and Melody Teppola Distinguished Visiting Professor at Willamette University, academic year 2019-2020. She is a doctoral candidate in the Individual Interdisciplinary Program at Montana State University. Her foci are Native American Studies, Earth Sciences, Anthropology, and Health and Human Development.

In her academic journey, she navigates the revitalization of multidimensional epistemologies of Indigenous worldviews. In correlation with Indigenous knowledge foundations, Marsha employs western methods of geospatial and geophysical systems, specifically geographical information systems, ground penetrating radar and magnetometry. Within all methods, she applies herself as an Indigenous researcher who is a Voice for the Children Who Remain in Indian Boarding School Cemeteries.

Panel: A Balancing Act: Wilderness Designation and Tribal Sovereignty

Ralph Swain

Ralph is a retired U.S. Forest Service official who spent 38 years with the agency in fire, trails, public affairs and wilderness. Before retiring, Ralph was the Regional Wilderness and Rivers Program Manager of the Rocky Mountain Region, where he was responsible for the administration of 47 wilderness areas covering 5 million acres in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. Ralph also oversaw the administration of two Wild and Scenic Rivers: the Cache la Poudre (in Colorado) and the Clarks Fork River (in Wyoming).

Keynote Speaker

Monday, Oct. 14
7:30-9:30 PM

Presentation: “Using Marketing Techniques and Strategies to improve Wilderness Education”

Current methods used to educate wilderness visitors to the Wilderness Act and how it preserves wilderness character for future generations is limited and ineffective. Using marketing techniques can help wilderness volunteer organizations and federal agency managers expand the messaging to more diverse audiences and provide more inclusion and ownership in wilderness stewardship. This presentation will discuss the 5P’s of marketing and how to develop a Marketing Plan using the Marketing Mix concept to better target desired audiences.

Jazzari Taylor

Jazzari Taylor (Jazz-err-ee), Policy Advocate with Latino Outdoors, was born in Los Angeles County and raised there and in the San Gabriel Valley. Jazz’s multicultural and racial background helps her bring a unique perspective to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. She has been a community participant and volunteer with Latino Outdoors since 2016 and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Riverside in Liberal Studies and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

Having started volunteering in her community at 12 years old, Jazzari has had a lifelong passion to advocate for her gente. Her advocacy accomplishments include advocacy at the California State Capital on behalf of higher education funding, securing and implementing a Proposition 68 Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Program for the City of Baldwin Park, and supporting Latino Outdoors’ ongoing Monumentos public lands protection campaign.

In addition to involvement and participation as an elected California Democratic Party Assembly District Delegate as a representative for assembly district 48, Jazz lends her support towards a solution and action-based efforts for comunidades, Tribal Nations, and various different demographic groups; no matter a person’s economic status or background. As the Advocate For Equity and the Outdoors, Jazzari understands that advocacy starts with community and relationship building. She looks forward to continuing her growing understanding of the landscapes, people, native species, and cultures that utilize green spaces. Jazzari leads with heart, passion, and the highest moral and ethical principles to support the Latino Community and the public’s needs.

Keynote Speaker

Wednesday, Oct. 16
8:00-8:45 AM

Courtney Vail

Courtney Vail is a wildlife biologist and social scientist who has worked in the conservation and animal welfare field for over 30 years. With a deep background in biology and environmental policy, she has provided strategic leadership for domestic and international campaigns to protect marine and terrestrial species through her advocacy to protect the natural world.

Courtney is on the Board of Directors of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project where she serves as Board Chair and Community Engagement Advisor, spearheading on-the-ground collaborations and dialogues among diverse stakeholders to foster social tolerance for wolves and for each other. She also envisioned and shepherded the creation of the ‘Born to be Wild’ specialty license plate which has to date raised over $375,000 for Colorado Parks and Wildlife to support livestock producers to implement nonlethal coexistence measures to reduce conflicts with wolves.

Courtney holds a B.Sc. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science, and an M.Sc. in Psychology. Her mantra is ‘The Power of One,’ believing every individual has the power and obligation to make a difference.

Panel: Welcoming Wolves Home to Colorado

Julie Weikel

Julie Weikel grew up in ‘ION’ country, the area where Idaho, Oregon and Nevada’s borders meet. For over 40 years, Julie practiced large animal veterinary medicine, gaining a deep understanding of the Owyhee’s inhabitants, history, geography and wildlife. Her passion for the region led her to become a leading voice for its preservation, traveling far and wide to educate others on the importance of conserving both the Owyhee Canyonlands and the lower Snake River region as a whole.

Panel: Saving Salmon and Orca: The Fight to Free the Snake River