Steve is originally from a small town in South Dakota. After graduation, he began his legal career, first as a law clerk to federal judges, and then joined a Minneapolis-based law firm, which eventually sent him to Montana, where his love of the outdoors began in earnest.

Jim has experience as both a rural sociologist and a forester. For nearly 20 years he worked for the USDA Forest Service in Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington, with a three year assignment in Washington D.C. as a policy analyst in the International Program Office.

Larry is retired after a 30-year career in high tech. He worked with many of the creators of the networked computer industry in Silicon Valley as an engineer and executive. His primary interests in philanthropy are watershed conservation, Special Olympics, and applying entrepreneurism to the world’s challenges through his alma mater Stanford University.

Since April 2004, Steven has worked for The Nature Conservancy as their Western Montana Land Steward. He lives near Ovando, in the heart of the Blackfoot Valley, on a conserved ‘ranchito’ with his nature-immersed family. Steve has had the rare privilege of managing and helping to heal over 500,000 acres of former Plum Creek Timberlands. He manages a diverse array of uses and resources for TNC, including conservation easement monitoring, preserve management, aquatic and forest restoration projects, public recreation of all kinds, 2000 miles of forest roads, invasive plants, and livestock grazing.⁣

Chris La Tray is a Métis writer and storyteller. Chris is an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians and lives near Missoula, Montana.

Zoë worked as a Resource Forester across Montana for Pyramid Mountain Lumber, specializing in working with private landowners to achieve their ownership objectives. Utilizing the latest silviculture as well as tried and true methods of forest management, she is passionate about making forests the healthiest and most resilient they can be from the ground up.

Tim served as District Ranger for the Seeley Lake Ranger District on the Lolo National Forest for nearly twenty years. Tim is currently serving as Coordinator for the Montana Forest Collaboration Network & served as an Adjunct, teaching Forest Planning at the College Of Forestry & Conservation at the University of Montana. Tim serves as a Public Information Officer with a Type 1 Incident Management Team.

Alex serves as a research professor at the University of Montana’s College of Forestry and Conservation. His academic interests revolve around private lands conservation—building partnerships to encourage the stewardship of working lands.

Patrick retired as the Chief Planning Officer and Director of Community and Planning Services for Missoula County in 2018. While working with Montana residents, Patrick learned the value of transparent and collaborative relationships and he helped establish multiple area community organizations. He currently chairs the Missoula County Open Lands Citizen Advisory Committee from his home in the Swan.

Casey is a native Montanan and a member of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes. Casey currently serves as a hydrologist with the CSKT Natural Resources Department. He attended the University of Montana and received a B.S. in Geography and a M.S. in Forestry. Prior to accepting a position with the CSKT, Casey began his hydrology career with the United States Fish & Wildlife Service.

Mark's family has been farming in the Flathead Valley for over 100 years. He returned to Bigfork after 10 years working as a placer gold geologist, and for 20 years managed his plantation tree farm and native timber lot. Starting in 1998 Mark started working for the Montana Land Reliance as a seasonal land steward, and in 2008 he joined MLR full time as the Western Office Manager.

Lara is the Director of Stories for Action, a hybrid production company that utilizes the power of storytelling to connect people to the environments they're a part of, and to one another. Lara grew up in the Bitterroot Valley, worked out of state and around the world for a decade, and loves being back home amongst the special places and communities of Montana.

Mark Vander Meer is a principle partner with Watershed Consulting LLC, and the owner of VanWild Native Plant Nursery, all based in Missoula, MT. Mark specializes in bridging the gap between current ecologic concepts and on-the-ground application. He has been a practicing restoration ecologist, forester and soil scientist for 35 years.

Gary Wolfe is a lifelong outdoorsman and conservationist. Gary’s first professional natural resources job was as a seasonal ranger at Mount Rainier and Big Bend National Parks. He joined the staff of the fledgling Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in 1986 as the organization’s second field director, spending the following 15 years with the organization. He also later served as executive director of Vital Ground and the Cinnabar Foundation.