Ernie Dickerman, Buffalo Gap, Virginia

Born 1910, "for 88 years a bachelor, free and independent". Moved to Knoxville in 1933 when hired by newly created TVA. Stayed in Knoxville 35 years (except for the war) but only stayed with the government 3 years. Joined the Conservation Committee of the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club concerned with the newly created park. Became close friends with Wilderness Society founder Harvey Broome and joined the TWS staff in 1966 and becoming friends with Sig Olsen and Olaus Murie. Hired to fight the proposed highway through the wilderness proposal for Great Smoky Mountains Park. Organized throughout the East for seven years defeating the park road proposal and urging citizens to protect lands under the new Wilderness Act of 1964, leading to the "Eastern" Wilderness Act, and inclusion of eastern areas in RARE II.

Upon retirement in 1976, moved to a mountain farm near Buffalo Gap and was drafted as president of the Virginia Wilderness Committee. Led the effort to pass the Virginia Wilderness Act in 1984, and subsequent wilderness and conservation laws for the state. Remains an active member of VWC and is currently working on a proposal to protect "7 or 8" new areas and to preserve numerous roadless areas. Remains a leading activist in Virginia in the effort to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Maggie Fox, Boulder, Colorado

Senior Regional Representative, 14 year veteran of Sierra Club Southwest Office as regional representative, lawyer and policy analyst. Worked closely on numerous wilderness bills that are now law in New Mexico (San Juan Wilderness Protection Act, El Malpais); Arizona--both Forest Service and BLM bills; Utah--Forest Service and our 5.7(+) Utah BLM wilderness effort; Colorado--wilderness and wild and scenic legislation (1993 Colorado Wilderness Act and the Cache La Poudre Wild and Scenic) as well as current proposals for wilderness for Spanish Peaks and an expanded bill for the Arapahoe-Roosevelt National Forest sponsored by retiring Rep. David Skaggs and the Citizen's proposal for Colorado BLM wilderness. I also consulted on Wyoming wilderness and several other proposed wild and scenic bills (a few of which are now law) and did general consulting on the water rights language and other technical aspects of several other western wilderness bills.

Previous work experience:  over 15 years as part-time and full-time instructor, course director, program designer and consultant for Outward Bound Schools in the United States, primarily the North Carolina and Colorado Schools. Teacher and Community Organizer on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations for 4 years.

Attended Northwestern School of Law, Lewis and Clark College, in Portland, Ore.   While in law school, I worked for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the Native American Project of Oregon Legal Services Corp. and did a year long externship with the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colorado. All of those positions involved work in the field of Native American natural resource law. I also worked for the NWF's Rocky Mountain Legal Clinic at the University of Colorado while a student focusing on oil and gas leasing on USFS and BLM lands.

Patrick Higgins, Arcata, California

Patrick Higgins is a consulting fisheries biologist from Arcata, California, who specializes in salmon and steelhead restoration. Pat has written extensively about protection of northwestern California salmon stocks and has helped to craft numerous watershed restoration plans. He has given slide presentations to thousands of people on salmon conservation and has also produced an hour long documentary, Last Chance for the Pacific Salmon.

For the last four years, Pat has been helping to develop a comprehensive fish and water quality database and geographic information system (GIS) for the Klamath River Basin called the Klamath Resource Information System (KRIS). KRIS is a custom program developed for IBM-type computers that allows easy integration and access to data, charts, photographs, bibliographic resources and maps. KRIS is currently being distributed on CD and, since the program is custom-made, it requires no acquisition of software. The program is designed to be user update-able and users can easily cut and paste any charts, photos or map displays in KRIS into reports or letters.

While the KRIS system is currently being used to monitor water quality trends and fish restoration, it could be used for conveying information on wildlife and their habitat needs. Since the U.S. Forest Service is obligated to protect the full range of wildlife species, it must move to protect lands that are critical for keystone species. Maps can show the relationship of keystone species and old growth or other wildland habitats. KRIS can incorporate maps, photos of the area proposed for protection, studies that support the need for action and any data that shows trends for the animals at risk. KRIS can also be used to track the success of the strategy over time.

Steve Kallick, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Law degree from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis and Clark College, 1983. Conservation work with Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission, Portland 1982-83 (policy analysis for tribes on salmon restoration and hydropower reform issues); SCLDF special projects attorney, 1983-85 (forest planning appeals and litigation on Tongass and Chugach National Forests); SEACC staff attorney, 1985-1990 ( timber sales litigation on Tongass and Chugach and state lands; grassroots organizing in rural Alaskan villages; lobbying in Washington DC for passage of Tongass timber reform act and in state legislature for passage of bills protecting state forest lands) Alaska State Legislature, staff counsel for House Labor and Commerce Committee, 1991-92 (worked on legislation to spend Exxon settlement funds to buy and protect endangered private timberlands)

Alaska Rainforest Campaign, campaign director, 1993-1996 (Coordinated campaign to end Tongass 50-year logging contracts, reform forest planning in Tongass, and protect significant habitat areas in Chugach and Tongass National Forests and on adjacent state lands. Also coordinated successful defensive effort to stop 17 seperate legislative proposals in 104th Congress to increase logging in Tongass). Pew Charitable Trusts, program officer, 1997- present (responsible for Pew Charitable Trusts' forest conservation programs).

Bart Koehler, Juneau, Alaska

Started with The Wilderness Society Denver Field office in 1973, became TWS Wyoming Field Representative (later No. Rockies Rep) in 1974 and concurrently directed the Wyoming Outdoor Council for two years. Worked on individual wilderness proposals in the region, the Wyoming RARE II process, the Endangered American Wilderness Bill, and mobilized support for the Alaska Lands Act.

Co-founded Earth First! With Dave Foreman in 1980 and traveled across the US, while working with Nevada and Wyoming Wilderness Associations. Coordinated the Wyoming Wilderness Project leading to the Wyoming Wilderness Act of 1984.

Executive Director of Southeast Alaska Conservation Council from 1984-1991 and from 1995 to present. Spearheaded introduction and passage of Tongass Timber Reform Act in 1990; then, in the second stint, defended 17 bills by the Alaska delegation to roll it back. In between, Associate Program Director for Greater Yellowstone Coalition, working on the Montana wilderness bill, the Gallatin Range Consolidation, and the Porcupine Valley LWCF purchase. Received the Olaus Murie Award from Alaska Conservation Fund in 1990 for the defense of Alaska’s wildlands. And has two albums: Coyotes Sing All Night, and Wild Heart. (NOTE: we’ll get to hear Bart play some of his tunes on Sunday night!)

Lenny Kohm, Boone, North Carolina

Had a mysterious life as a normal person in California or someplace like that with a normal job as a photographer until 1986 when on a photo assignment he visited the village of Old Crow, Yukon Territory to shoot the Gwich ‘in people. The Gwich ‘in of northern Alaska, Yukon and the North West Territories were faced with the proposed oil development of the Arctic coastal plain in Alaska, the calving grounds for the caribou herd upon which their culture and their lives depended. Lenny visited the Arctic and fell in love with both the place and the people of the place.

In 1987 he arrived back in California and visited Sierra Club headquarters with an offer to help spread the word and fight the Arctic drilling legislation by meeting people and showing them a slide show he had developed about the ecosystem and the people who were imperiled. In Washington, it was judged that this was probably an insignificant effort in what had turned in to a major legislative crisis since development bills were moving in both houses of Congress behind a juggernaut oil industry lobbying campaign that had been quietly assembled over the previous five years. Nevertheless, in such a desperate time, no one would say no to the help and the cost was insignificant. Lenny began traveling and meeting folks and has never stopped.

A Sierra Club volunteer suggested he base his work out of Boone, NC. He moved. He drove a beat up old Chevy into the ground and is persona non grata at every auto rental counter offering unlimited miles. He developed a program and hustled the funding to bring back Gwich ‘in from Alaska and Canada to appear with him on the road show and come to Washington to meet our policymakers.

In the last dozen years, as threats have mounted and been rebuffed, organizations came to help and went on to other things, as funding has dried up and been found again, senators, representatives and presidents have come and gone, Lenny has visited every state a car can reach and shown the show (improved it over the years) thousands of times to thousands of people. He says he is not a lobbyist, he is a brush salesman, selling the Arctic ideal to everyone he meets—at the airport, at the gas station, at the auditorium every night. He has been sent to the most unlikely, hostile and unorganized places and found schoolchildren in Mississippi, Kiwanis clubs in Indiana and hippies in Vermont who were recruited into an ever larger labor of love.

Tim Mahoney, Alexandria, Virginia

Grew up in New Hampshire, failed miserably as a graduate student, and started as an unpaid helper/researcher in Denver office of The Wilderness Society in 1975. By 1976, parlayed that into a $400/month job fighting Forest Service timber plans in the Rockies. Worked with Doug Scott, field reps, and activists around the country grappling with the RARE II process in 1977-78. Followed the RARE II proposals to Washington and went to work for the Sierra Club in 1979. Worked on/directed lobbying for more than 40 wilderness bills in 36 states from 1978 to 1986 including Alaska and most of the western states while working a defensive campaign against national "release" language advanced by the timber industry. Also developed/directed strategies to combat Secretary Watt’s attempt to lease wilderness areas for oil and gas and to cut the Forest Service road budget in appropriations. In 1987, became chair of the Alaska coalition, defending the Arctic Refuge and pushing its wilderness proposal until 1989. Since then, worked as a consultant for three Alaska native corporations, the League of Conservation Voters and other environmental groups and taught a class on grass-roots organizing/lobbying at Appalachian State University. Most recently negotiated three separate land/timber sales--$l15 mm, 125,000 acres--from native corporations to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustees to protect lands in Kodiak NWR, Afognak Island SP, and Kenai Fjords NP, Alaska. Working on a fourth. Follows baseball intensely, suffers through the Red Sox, the Catholic Church, and the Democratic Party, and spends a lot of time at the cabin in the Shenandoah Valley with Ajax the dog.

Mike Matz, Salt Lake City, Utah

Was one of a gang of five who started the local Sierra Club group at Carleton College, called the Wild Rice Group. In its first year, his senior year, he served as chair of the outings committee. After graduating from Carleton in 1982 with a B.A. in History, he moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where he volunteered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, and the Alaska Environmental Lobby in various capacities. His professional environmental career began in 1984 when the Northern Center hired him as associate director, and in 1986 the Sierra Club hired him as its associate field representative in its Anchorage office. In both jobs a major focus was implementation of the newly passed Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which included dreaded Section 1002 in which the Watt Interior Department conducted an oil and gas survey of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain to recommend to Congress whether or not development should be allowed.

After a year in Anchorage, the Sierra Club asked if Matz would be interested in a six-month stint in Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress against the drilling proposal. That six-months turned into another, and then the Sierra Club hired him as one of its Washington directors of public lands, a lobbyist. In 1989, he succeeded Tim Mahoney as chair of the Alaska Coalition. In 1989-90, he worked to secure passage of the oil spill reform and contingency legislation in the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster. In 1991, he worked to defeat energy legislation that would have opened the Arctic Refuge coastal plain to oil and gas leasing and development. In 1993, with another gang of five, he formed the Alaska Wilderness League as a full-time presence advocating enactment of wilderness legislation for the Arctic Refuge coastal plain, and he serves currently on the organization’s board of directors. In September of 1993 he became executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a position he holds today.

John McComb, Arlington, Virginia

Born: 20 Feb. 1938 which probably makes me the second oldest fart at the meeting, after Dickerman. Ex engineer.

Joined the Sierra Club in 1962 (2 years before the signing of The Wilderness Act) for completely unknown reasons. Became actively involved in conservation during the fight over dams in the Grand Canyon at a time when I was a professional graduate student at the University of Arizona. Asked by David Brower to testify before the House Interior Committee when it was chaired by Wayne Aspinall and Mo Udall was leading the fight to build the dams. Around the same time drove 550 miles to one of the first field hearings under The Wilderness Act on the Mount Baldy Wilderness.

My fate was sealed after that. My major professor said I had too many outside interests to ever get a graduate degree. Hired by the Sierra Club in late 1969 as their Southwest Field Representative, some evidence of which can be seen in the fact that there are designated wilderness areas on all four sides of Tucson. Worked equally hard in "locking up" as much wild territory as possible in my region, and especially on the Colorado Plateau. Really learned about the importance of grassroots support for wilderness when I hoped to attach an unknown area, the Galiuro Wilderness, onto the Endangered American Wilderness Act. It was in the bill as introduced but lasted about 30 seconds because I was the only supporter.

Moved to Washington, DC in 1977 to work for the Sierra Club primarily on public lands. Deeply involved in the FLPMA and the Alaska lands legislation. The House lobbying effort was run out of my apartment on South Capitol Street (Doug Scott talked me into that). Became Director of the Washington Office of the Sierra Club and later on Conservation Director.

Left the Sierra Club in 1986, foolishly looking for new challenges. Worked briefly for The Wilderness Society, became a computer consultant with clients primarily in the environmental and political community. Set up the editorial and information delivery systems for The Hotline. Worked for three years in Cambridge, England for the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, where I managed a project to produce a book of information, published in 1992, Global Biodiversity - Status of the Earth's Living Resources. As a result of this I also ended up managing their Computer Services department.

I ride a bike routinely to work. It is the cheapest, fastest, and healthiest (some would dispute this) way to get around in downtown Washington, DC. I still get out in the wilderness - spent 13 days canoeing the Wilderness Waterway in Everglades National Park this past Christmas. Still wishes for more time in the wilderness. Doesn't own a sport-utility vehicle, nor never has. Information junkie (how I like to think of myself) and computer nerd (how my friends view me). Current clients include LCV, Alaska Wilderness League, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and the Mineral Policy Center. Past clients have included most major national environmental organizations.

Still dreams of a politically sophisticated wilderness movement with powerful grassroots support which uses cutting-edge information technology to achieve their goals. Also dreams of a Democratic Congress

Jay W. Nelson, Juneau, Alaska

I am a westerner, born and raised in the heart of Republican Montana, Billings. After four years in Oregon, in 1973 I moved to Alaska more or less permanently with time out for stints at graduate school in Arizona, and lobbying for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council in 1987, '88, the Alaska Marine Conservation Council in '94 in Washington, D.C. and travel around the planet.

In 1994 I worked on the campaign of Tony Knowles for Alaska governor. Since then I worked as a special assistant in the Department of Fish and Game and am now the Governor's special assistant for fisheries and wildlife.

Also about ten years of temporary work with the USFWS in Alaska on marine birds, whales and sea otters. I also worked seasonally as a road engineer for the USFS in Oregon, Montana and Alaska. My political work includes five years in the Alaska legislature as senior committee staff for the greenest chairman of the Alaska legislature.

My principle environmental positions were: 1983-4 as full-time director of the AK Environmental Lobby in Juneau; 1987-8 as D.C. lobbyist/organizer for SEACC on the Tongass Timber Reform Act; 1994 as lobbyist for AMCC on reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act.

I love open landscapes whether they be ocean, tundra, plains or especially deserts. Forests I love to save, for others.

Doug Scott, Friday Harbor, Washington

My "wilderness biography" began as I grew up in the shadow of the Cascades of Oregon and Washington. A summer job at Carlsbad Caverns National Park led to interest in a Park Service career, and ultimately a forestry degree from the University of Michigan in 1966. That winter I found my way to the Park Service's public hearing on their woefully inadequate wilderness proposal for Isle Royale National Park. In short order I was a member and grassroots activist both for The Wilderness Society and the new chapter of the Sierra Club in Michigan.

Deciding to write my master's thesis on the conceptual origins and legislative history of the 1964 Wilderness Act, I talked my way into a summer job with The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C. 1968 was the summer of the first Redwoods National Park bill, the North Cascades bill, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and more ... and I came down with a nearly fatal case of enthusiasm for the legislative process. To try my wings, I even had "my own" practical case to work on back at school: the long-stalled bill to establish the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

In 1970 I became a full-time lobbyist for The Wilderness Society, where I stayed until 1973. During the years from 1967 to 1973 I learned my "trade" of grassroots-based legislative strategy, sitting at the feet of great wilderness strategists: Stewart Brandborg, Mike Nadel, Ernie Dickerman, Harry Crandall, (and Lloyd Tupling and Mike McCloskey of the Sierra Club). And I deepened my wilderness philosophy in the company of Mardy Murie, Sigurd Olsen, George Marshall, Ernest Griffiths, and other legendary members of the Society's governing Council. Over these years I worked on dozens of wilderness bills, park bills and the successful campaign to stop federal funding for the supersonic transport (SST). Most intense was our work for the National Interest Lands Amendment to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (the "D2" provision) and the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act.

Missing the West, I could not resist the chance to move to Seattle in 1973 as Northwest Representative for the Sierra Club. During this period I deepened my experience by sleeping on many other people's sofas while grassroots organizing, and frequented the airlines between the Northwest and Washington. This was the period of RARE-I, statewide wilderness bills, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Act, the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Act and the River of No Return Wilderness Act. It was also during this period that John McComb, Chuck Clusen and I concocted the Endangered American Wilderness Act ... and had the pleasure of watching as President Carter signed it into law.

In 1978 I again moved to Washington as Lobbying Coordinator for the Alaska Coalition in the great drive for the Alaska National Interest Lands Act. This led to my transfer to the Sierra Club headquarters in San Francisco in 1980 and a decade of leadership roles in the Club's conservation staff. Those were the years of RARE-II, Watt, the California Desert Act, the Clean Air Act, Superfund and much more.

In 1990 I resigned as Associate Executive Director of the Sierra Club to move to San Juan Island and manage the new San Juan Community Theatre & Arts Center. In 1991 I became executive director of the Friends of the San Juans, our local environmental advocacy group. I serve on the Conservation Committee of REI and on the board of People for Puget Sound.

Debbie Sease, Washington, D.C.

Debbie Sease is the Legislative Director for the Sierra Club, and is responsible for coordinating the Sierra Club's legislative and administrative campaigns and managing the 30 staff members in its Washington office. She has been a conservation professional in Washington, DC since 1978, and has been with the Sierra Club since 1980. Prior to being appointed Legislative Director, she directed the Sierra Club's public lands protection programs and coordinated their efforts on a variety of wilderness and park protection measures, including the decade-long campaign which led to enactment of the California Desert Protection Act in 1994.

Ms. Sease was involved in numerous other successful wilderness campaigns, including: San Juan Basin Wilderness Act, the El Malpais wilderness, national monument and conservation area in New Mexico, the Aravaipa national conservation area in Arizona, the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act the Arizona Strip Wilderness Act, the Nevada Wilderness Act, and additions to the Ventana Wilderness in California. Wild and Scenic River campaigns include: the Rio Grande in Texas, the Chama in New Mexico, the Merced in California.

Ms. Sease has also played a major role in ongoing campaigns to reform forestry, mining and grazing policies on public lands. Prior to coming to the Sierra Club, Ms. Sease worked for The Wilderness Society.

Ms. Sease grew up in New Mexico, and before moving to Washington, D.C. , managed a nonprofit educational wilderness trip program in the Southwest. She served for six years on the board of directors of American Rivers, and currently serves on the board of directors of the League of Conservation Voters.

Russell Shay, Washington, DC

The Sierra Club hired me half-time in 1976 to edit a newsletter on off-road vehicles. Began working on BLM planning and wilderness inventory in California Desert. Went to DC in 1977 to work on BLM wilderness inventory regulations. Was assigned in 1979 to be Public Lands Coordinator for Northern California, to coordinate work on California RARE II wilderness legislation. Passed bill through House in 1980, bill failed in Senate.

In 1982 I was promoted to Regional Representative, but still spent most time working on wilderness legislation. Passed wilderness bill through House, failed in Senate. In 1984 we passed the wilderness bill through House. Negotiated a deal with Senator Pete Wilson (R-CA). The President signed it!

In 1985 Rep. John Seiberling (D-OH) hired me on the majority staff of the House Public Lands Subcommittee. Drafted, organized hearings, moved through committee and House wilderness bills for Nevada, Nebraska, Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama, and legislation designating an El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico and San Pedro National Conservation Area in Arizona. All these bills eventually became law, though some took several Congresses. I negotiated range management legislation with staff of Senators McClure (R-ID) and Wallop (R-WY), and held hearings on below-cost timber sales and on Tongass National Forest timber program.

In 1987 Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA) hired me as staff for the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, with jurisdiction over wildlife refuges and related matters. Was point person for the fight against development of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We got rolled in committee: development bill passed with substantial majority.

In 1988 Senator Timothy E. Wirth (D-CO) hired me to work on environmental matters. Drafted and passed legislation designating wilderness and changing timber program in Tongass National Forest; led successful Senate floor fight to stop development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; drafted, negotiated and passed a Colorado Wilderness Bill with Senator Hank Brown (R-CO) which the House failed to pass on the final day of the Congress, but enacted in the subsequent Congress. Worked on every other issue under the sun having to do with environment, energy, natural resources, pollution, Indian affairs, etc., etc.

In 1993 I went to work for The Nature Conservancy to work with the Congress and federal agencies on their behalf. I left in 1997 to take a vacation, and then spent several months representing The Greater Yellowstone Coalition, helping them get a $60 million appropriation to purchase the New World Mine site.

Cindy Shogan, Washington, DC

After a Peace Corps stint in Kenya I fell into a secretarial job at the DC office of the Sierra Club. The legendary (in our minds) Club legislative office of the old days--complete with roaches, daily Tune-Inn lunches, and inspiring lobbyists (one became my husband and many are the Codgers you will meet). Sucked into the DC environmental community I began a competition with the infamous Dave Hahn-Baker to see who could work for more organizations. My tour included the Izaak Walton League, Defenders of Wildlife and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. At the League and Defenders I helped coordinate grassroots efforts around some of the organizations major campaigns. After years of successfully avoiding lobbying the Hill, I gingerly made some efforts on behalf of wolf reintroduction. Never thought I would be a full-time lobbyist. For years I had heard of Brant Calkin and even had evidence of his existence every time I moved his squash racquet in the Sierra Club’s supply closet. When I heard SUWA was opening a DC office I jumped at the opportunity. Fortunately for me their first choice turned down the job. I’ve been with SUWA ever since--8 years of driving the Utah delegation crazy and working with a phenomenal group of folks promoting a wilderness agenda.

Brooks Yeager, Washington, DC

Brooks has been involved in one conservation battle or another for over twenty years. He is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Interior Department. Before going into the Administration to work with Secretary Babbitt, Brooks ran the National Audubon Society’s lobbying effort in Washington; for the eight long years of the Reagan administration, he represented the Sierra Club on energy and public lands issues. Over two decades, he has led or participated in lots of campaigns, including wilderness-related fights to protect the Bisti Badlands, stop Watt’s coal leasing program, block oil and gas development in the Yellowstone ecosystem, reform the oil and gas leasing law to better protect roadless areas, stop DOE from targetting Canyonlands for HLW disposal, jump start the restoration of the Everglades, and, by last count, four separate campaigns to protect as wilderness the coastal plain of the the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He has also been involved in many non-wilderness efforts, including campaigns to strengthen the Endangered Species Act, to encourage international agreement to a climate convention, and to protect tigers and rhinos against the threat of extinction from poaching.