Meet our Educators: Mary O'Brien

Mary O’Brien

Scientist, activist, stakeholder member of Monroe Mountain Working Group

Castle Valley, UT

9/16/21 - 10/3/21

Mary O’Brien has worn a lot of hats during her more than 30 years of work on environmental causes. She is a Ph.D. botanist and an activist who has been involved with kickstarting regulations for toxic chemicals in Oregon, preserving the Hells Canyon National Recreation area, and, most recently, pushing for responsible management of range areas. In the intermountain West this applies to a vast amount of land given that most public land in this country is open to livestock grazing. Mary has seen and documented the negative impacts cattle have on these places—trampled and incised streams, loss of riparian habitat, and reduced biodiversity in forest—and she believes there need to be fewer cows on public lands.

On Monroe Mountain in south-central Utah, the Forest Service is currently undergoing a restructuring of grazing allotments. They will decide how many cattle will be allowed in what areas, and what environmental standards will be enforced for the foreseeable future. Mary gathers scientific data such as the height of grasses in riparian areas, to hold organizations like the Forest Service accountable to commitments they have made to conserve habitat.

Mary explains that “the interesting thing about numbers and methods that anyone can repeat, is that you can’t deny that . . .if they think we’re making stuff up, they can go to that spot and rerun their own transects.” The Forest Service must take this undeniable proof (i.e. data collected in the National Forest) into account when they make decisions. She sees science as a way of taking the human perspective out of the picture, and letting other species speak through the data. She firmly believes the nonhuman members of the Utah ecosystem deserve a seat at the decision-making table.

     Mary works hard, walks fast, and holds herself and her work to a high standard of accuracy. She pushed the Westies to do what it takes to get accurate and precise data, hiking far over cacti and scrambling through juniper trees to set the tape measure in a straight line for a transect. When it came time to write up reports, she edited the work that 20 students produced almost as fast as it could be written. Multiple drafts later, reports were sent in to the Forest Service to be considered when planning the new grazing rules in Monroe Mountain.

By Reya Fore

Meet our Guests: John Rohrer

John Rohrer

U.S. Forest Service Program Manager

Methow Valley, Washington

8/28/21-8/30/21

     John Rohrer is the USFS Program Manager for Range, Weeds, Botany and Wildlife based in the Okanogan National Forest. John is a soft-spoken, thoughtful biologist who has numerous interests within the Methow valley and battles with a wide range of dilemmas in the ecological and political spheres.

     John’s wide-ranging job description means that he is involved with a variety of forest management decisions and the dilemmas that often accompany those decisions. For example, John has worked with fire rangers in an attempt to address the issue of overly dense forests that need thinning to prevent massive fires that have decimated the valley in recent years. However, thinning is difficult to begin because of the restrictions on cutting trees down due to the presence of the endangered spotted owl who resides in these forests. John also works on other projects such as his effort to reintroduce beavers to Black Pine Lake. Outside of his official job, John is a snake enthusiast who captures pesky rattlesnakes in the valley, monitors them and houses them on his property.

By Wes Johnston

Meet our Educators: Kent Woodruff

Kent Woodruff

Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Forest Service (retired)

Methow Valley, WA

8/28/21 – 9/2/21

     The mid-afternoon sun glistens from a cloudless sky as Semester in the West arrives at the Methow Valley Interpretive Center. A pair of vibrant blue eyes and a warm, youthful grin greet the group at the entrance to Twisp, Washington. Kent Woodruff, Methow Valley local, will be the Westie programming guide for the next ten days.

     Kent’s professional life has been as rich and complex as the natural landscapes that he works within. While in the Methow, the retired U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist shares three of his most prized regional conservation projects with the program: beaver and wetland restoration with the Methow Beaver Project, raptor conservation on Chelan Ridge with HawkWatch International, and a freelance project to relocate and nurse rare Townsend big-ear bats.

     Despite his myriad of accomplishments, Kent insists that his greatest pride comes from working with young environmentalists. During this era of climate change and mass ecological destruction, Kent is devoted to educating and nurturing the successes of an upcoming generation of biologists, ecologists, and activists.

     On Kent’s final day with the Westies, one student asks him how we are going to get through these perilous times. Kent pauses. Water pools at the base of his blueberry-bright eyes. He reaches down and fastens his fingers around the hand nearest to his own. “By finding people to hold on to and care about. And partner with and find solutions with. I think that’s the way we are going to get through this. Make connections and hold those people close. Love will help us get through.”

By Kate Joss

Meet our Guests: Matt Ellis

Matt Ellis

Fire Management Officer, Methow Valley Ranger District, U.S. Forest Service

Methow Valley, WA

08/30/2021

Standing amongst an old-growth forest stand in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Matt Ellis, Fire Management Officer for the Forest Service’s Methow Valley Ranger District, speaks to the dilemmas in managing National Forest land from a wildfire management perspective. When looking at this dense, multi-layered old-growth forest, Matt sees a continuous availability of fuel and the potential for high-severity fire. However, Matt’s Forest Service colleague, wildlife biologist John Rohrer sees an ideal habitat for the northern spotted owl, an animal that was listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to loss of habitat. The spotted owl’s status under the ESA means that the Forest Service has to prioritize preserving its habitat. Nevertheless, Matt knows that without thinning the vegetation in old growth stands, fire will blacken the landscape on a large scale.

Dilemmas such as this often don’t have easily defined answers. Matt emphasizes that there’s not one person or agency that fully gets their way in the management of forest lands. In the old growth stand Semester in the West visited only small diameter trees were thinned to reduce fire risk, while the large ponderosa pines that provide habitat for the spotted owl still stand tall.

Despite the demanding nature of reconciling fire safety with the variety of uses on forest lands, Matt continues to believe “one of the coolest things about the Forest Service is we offer opportunities for all these different users.”

By Claire Warncke

Meet our Guests: Matt Howard

Matt Howard

Fire Manager, Oregon Department of Forestry

Wallowa County, OR

8/24/2021

Standing in the hot sun on a bed of dry pine needles, Matt Howard, Fire Manager with the Oregon Department of Forestry, emphasizes that this place, the Lostine Canyon in northeastern Oregon, is only accessible by a one-lane road. The nature of the road and its users means that a wildfire evacuation would be difficult and slow. Traffic could create a bottleneck at the bridge and block emergency vehicles. Matt describes that thinning the forest around the road by cutting small diameter trees would give firefighters a chance to hold back a blaze during an evacuation.

Working with homeowners in the area, Matt educates on fire preparedness. About half of the residents in Lostine Canyon participate in the Firewise Community program which involves creating a “defensible space” without burnable debris around their homes so that wildfire or flying embers do not ignite the building as easily. Why don’t more people take action to protect their (and their neighbors’) homes? Matt explains in a resigned tone that people just do not think fire will come to them. He also mentions that it is hard to get second homeowners to care for a property they only visit one or two weeks in a year. Matt speaks from experience when he says “I can educate, I can regulate, but people aren’t going to do things unless they believe in them.”

Matt loves these woods, and understands why people would risk living here. Even considering the persistence of fire in the area, Matt believes that “people can live here and be safe…knowing there’s inherent risk.”

By Reya Fore

Meet our Guests: Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly

Restoration Director, Greater Hells Canyon Council

Lostine, OR

8/22/21

The Lostine River Corridor is a place of great tension for many residents of Wallowa County. For Brian Kelly, Restoration Director for the Greater Hells Canyon Council, a regional environmental advocacy group, this is an area of devastation and disappointment. Brian is a transplant to northeastern Oregon, the native New Yorker discovered his love for the West on a hitchhiking trip straight out of high school and came back to his home state eager to return. He soon got his chance in the form of a full-time position with the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon; however, after a year with the federal agency he became disillusioned with its forestry practices.

Brian believes in a holistic and forward-thinking approach to forest management that emphasizes minimal intervention and natural aesthetics. Much of Brian’s work revolves around advocating for land managers to follow those principles, but it can be a struggle to convince them. Recently he has advocated against the Lostine Corridor Project, a tree-thinning project conducted by the Forest Service meant to reduce fire danger along a heavily-trafficked forest road. The Forest Service exempted this project from a full environmental analysis for public safety reasons, but Brian argued that it deserved a thorough assessment. Looking over stumps and debris between the remaining trees, he said “this would be a great treatment for a dry, pine forest. Unfortunately, it’s not a dry pine forest.” The transition from the thinning site to the wet undisturbed canopy further from the road provides confirms Brian’s assessment of the forest. In most of the clear-cuts that Brian has worked on, he believes it was unnecessary to clear the area in the first place. “If you’re doing that kind of forestry, let’s just say that I don’t agree with you”.

By Elio Van Gorden