<< previous session  |  next session >>

Register for the WSS!

Thursday, 3:30pm

At the national, state and local level there is a growing interest in the restoration and stewardship of our federal public lands. This panel will examine many of the current restoration policy and funding initiatives and their implications for future federal land management. Topics to be covered include stewardship contracting, funding for watershed restoration, the Wyden Amendment, community capacity building and the implications of the rising cost of fire suppression.

Speakers

• Maia Enzer, Rural Voices for Collaborative Conservation; Policy Program Director, Sustainable Northwest
  Priority Legislative Issues for Rural Voices for Conservation

• Sue Gunn, Washington State Representative, Wildlands CPR; Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative
  National Forest Watershed Restoration Funding – the Legacy Road and Trails Remediation Initiative
  

• Jay Jensen, Executive Director, Western Forestry Leadership Coalition
  Priority Forest Restoration Policy Issues for the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition

• Randi Spivak, Executive Director, American Lands Alliance
  Priority Legislative Issues for the American Lands Alliance

Moderator

Marnie Criley, Restoration Coordinator, Wildlands CPR

Recommended Readings

RVCC is comprised of western rural and local, regional, and national organizations that have joined together to promote balanced conservation-based approaches to the ecological and economic problems facing the West. The eight year old coalition has been working on a spectrum of natural resource policy issues that affect rural western communities and landscapes. In 2008 the RVCC issue papers focused on: federal appropriations, woody biomass, private working lands, stewardship contracting and workforce and labor issues. View the 2008 issues papers and those from previous years.

The Policy Opportunities Snapshot was prepared for the June 2008 National Rural Assembly. The Snapshot describes policy context, challenges and opportunities on four sectors: Quality in Education, Stewardship of Natural Resources, Healthy of our Communities, and Investment in our Communities.  The section on Stewardship of Natural Resources discusses the topics of Sustainable Rural Development, Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Agriculture and Family Farms, Public Lands Management, and Private Land Conversion.

<< previous session  |  next session >>

Maia Enzer

Maia Enzer is the Director for the Policy Program at Sustainable Northwest. In that capacity she works on issues related to forest restoration and community economic development, with a focus on federal lands policy. She has more than 13 years experience in bringing diverse stakeholders together to identify common ground around federal lands management issues. Previously, she served as Sustainable Northwest's Director of the Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Partnership (HFHC), a regional collaborative working to market the byproducts of forest restoration. Prior to joining Sustainable Northwest, Maia was the Director of Forest Policy at American Forests in Washington, D.C. (1993-2000). She has also worked as an organizer for MASSPIRG and NYPIRG on state and local environmental issues. Maia has a Masters degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (1993) and a BA in Political Science from Union College (1989). She currently is serving on the Western Governors' Association Forest Health Advisory Council. She served on the board of the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress and was the Co-Chair of the Policy Task Group for the (1997-2002); she served on the board of the National Network of Forest Practitioners (2000-2005). She is one of the editors on the book entitled, Understanding Community Based Forest Ecosystem Management, published by the Journal of Sustainable Forestry.

Sue Gunn

Sue is the Washington state representative for Wildlands CPR in Olympia, WA and serves as the campaign coordinator for the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative.  In 2007 WWRI was successful in getting $40 million in federal appropriations for the Forest Service for the forest watershed restoration.  Funds will be used to decommission, repair and maintain Forest Service roads and repair fish culverts throughout the country in order to protect community water sources and threatened, endangered and sensitive species. 

She has a PhD in isotope geochemistry and conducted research in igneous petrology for the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, CA.  Her doctorate fieldwork was conducted on the Cretaceous granites of southwestern Montana and the research for her MS was in a remote area of Baja, CA. Her undergraduate degree is in Political Science with an emphasis on constitutional law. Sue has an extensive policy background and worked for a decade in Washington DC as the director of Budget and Appropriations and later the director of the National Parks Program for The Wilderness Society.

Jay Jensen

For nearly a decade Jay Jensen has been involved in crafting and developing natural resource legislative and policy issues, especially on forestry and wildfire.  In 2005, Jay became the Executive Director for the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC), a Denver-based federal-state governmental partnership of western forest agency directors.  One of the key missions of the WFLC is to coordinate various government and interest groups along key policy issues to create agreement and action.  Prior to the WFLC, Jay served as the Senior Forestry Advisor for the Western Governors’ Association and as the lead staff on forestry for the U.S. House of Representative Committee on Agriculture.
Jay has been a member of the Society of American Foresters since 1998.  He grew up in southern California and holds a Bachelors degree in biology and geography from University of California at Los Angeles.  He is currently completing a Masters degree in forestry at Colorado State University.

Marnie Criley

Marnie began working with Wildlands CPR in February 2000. Marnie has an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana and a BA in English from the University of Michigan. Marnie has spent the last 12 years working in forest and watershed restoration in the intermountain region. In addition to small-scale, environmentally-sound logging, she has been involved in numerous aquatic restoration projects including some road removal work. Marnie is a published writer and also spent a year working for Hells Canyon Preservation Council in eastern Oregon. Currently she is a member of the National Forest Restoration Collaborative and the Restore Montana network. She also serves on the steering committee of the Montana Forest Restoration Committee and the board of Montana Trout.

Randi Spivak

Randi Spivak served as board president of American Lands Alliance before becoming Executive Director in 2001. Randi is a long-time forest advocate with extensive experience in national campaigns, advocacy and marketing. American Lands was formed by forest activists to ensure that their voices and issues are raised in Washington DC. American Lands provides national and regional leadership on federal forest policy issues by combining local grassroots experience with a deep understanding of national politics.

During her tenure Randi has been a leader in efforts by American Lands and its allies to protect national forest roadless areas, old growth and limit the severity of legislation to roll back environmental protections by a very anti-environmental majority in Congress. American Lands unified the forest community’s voice around conservation positions that were critical to success, and brought hundreds of forest activists, scientists and other allies back to Washington DC to educate Members of Congress.

Randi was previously Campaign Manager for the extremely successful $319 million Los Angeles County park and open space bond measure, Division Chief for a California State Lands’ Conservancy, member of the executive committee of Earth Communications Office, the communication industry’s environmental advocacy group, and a board member of environmental organizations in California. Previously, Randi was an advertising and marketing executive responsible for several leading national brands.