2024 Wilderness & Beyond Conference Speakers and Presenters
Keynote Speakers
Ralph Swain
Keynote Speaker
Monday, Oct. 14
7:30-9:30 PM
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).
Mark Dubois
Keynote Speaker
Tuesday, Oct. 15
7:30-8:45 PM
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
John Leshy
Keynote Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 17
9:00-10:00 AM
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 (6th edition, 2018) and federal public lands and resources law (8th ed. 2022). In 2013 he received the Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award for lifetime contributions to wildlife conservation.
Presenters
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
Emily Cain is executive director at Greater Hells Canyon Council, with a background is in nonprofit program management, community organizing, political campaigning, and outdoor education. She and her husband operate their farm and inn in rural NE Oregon near the Eagle Cap Wilderness.
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.
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.
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: Coming Soon
Steve Hawley
Steve Hawley is an environmental journalist who writes about rivers, dams, and the ecological impacts they have on salmonids in the American West. His book Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World, was released in May 2023. He is the writer and co-producer of an award-winning documentary, Dammed to Extinction (2019), and the author of Recovering a Lost River.
Presentation: “Cracked- The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World“
During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the whole messy truth about the legacy of last century’s big dam building binge has come to light. What started out as an arguably good government project has drifted oceans away from that original virtuous intent. Governments plugged the nation’s rivers in a misguided attempt to turn them into revenue streams. Water control projects’ main legacy will be one of needless ecological destruction, fostering a host of unnecessary injustices. The estimated 800,000 dams in the world can’t be blamed for destroying the earth’s entire biological inheritance, but they play an outsized role in that destruction. “Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World” is a kind of speed date with the history of water control—its dams, diversions and canals, and just as importantly, the politics and power that evolved with them. Examples from the American West reveal that the costs of building and maintaining a sprawling water storage and delivery complex in an arid world—growing increasingly arid under the ravages of climate chaos–is well beyond the benefits furnished. Success stories from Patagonia and the Blue Heart of Europe point to a possible future where rivers run free and the earth restores itself.
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 is the President and Executive Director of Khimstonik, a non-profit organization that aspires to lead responsible land development through supporting and promoting the stories of the land by weaving a shared web of information among individuals, families, small businesses, tribal governments, and local, state, and federal agencies. She is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakama Nation and lineal descendant of the Fishhook Bend Snake River Renegade Palouse.
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.
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 Discussion: “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.
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.
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.
Lisa Ronald
Lisa works for American Rivers safeguarding headwater streams, protecting climate refugia for endangered fish, and reconnecting floodplains in western Montana and Idaho. Prior to joining American Rivers in 2022, she spent nearly 20 years working on national wilderness partnerships at the University of Montana’s Wilderness Institute. She led broad-scale celebrations for the 50th anniversaries of both the Wilderness Act and the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. In 2017, she helped found and continues to chair the Wild and Scenic Rivers Coalition, a national alliance of more than 60 river groups. Lisa is an avid whitewater kayaker and packrafter and supporter of affinity spaces for those who identify as female paddlers.
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”
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).
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.