MENDOCINO-TAHOE CONSERVANCY TEAM

Stephen Hein,
Executive Director

Stephen Hein is a California Land Surveyor and a long-time conservationist. Many years ago he lived in a tree-house in the Mendocino oak woodlands and has received much of his practical and spiritual education from the forest. He has collaborated with John Olmsted on preserving the northern California landscape since he was a Sierra College forestry student in 1978, including construction on the Independence trail and co-management of the Goat Mtn. conservation project. As executor of John's estate, Stephen intends to continue working to preserve our diverse treasures along a necklace of publicly accessible natural sites, linked by Tahoe-Pacific walking trail.

 

Brian Bisnett, President

Brian Bisnett is a licensed landscape architect and environmental planner who has worked for three decades, both professionally and as a volunteer, to build collaboration and community support for conservation. He is a principal of Bisnett Design Associates and Env-Vision Development, Inc., and a founder and past president of the Nevada County Rural Quality Coalition.

 

Kristen Hein Strohm, Secretary

Kristen is a professional wildlife biologist- knowledgeable about wildlife habitat needs and ecological relationships, skilled in the identification of bird song and the analysis of wildlife population trends. A California native, Kristen has worked on many wildlife conservation and research projects throughout the US and abroad. Kristen returned to northern California in 2005 and has grown deep and joyful roots among its Jeffrey pines and manzanita, Cooper's hawks and mountain quail, granite lakes and tule marshes, jewelflowers and sea stars. Kristen is currently writing a book about Sierra ecology, and enjoys singing educational children's songs about wildlife with her darling husband Stephen Hein.

Rosalie Adduci, Treasurer

Rosalie says "One of my passions is to hike with my husband and my golden retriever. The Mendocino-Tahoe Conservancy’s founder, John Olmsted, was an advocate for saving our forests and keeping them open for the public to enjoy, and for that I will be forever thankful to John. My love of nature was the prime reason my family and I moved to Nevada County four years ago. I was lucky to work for SYRCL as the Finance Director for the first two years I lived in Nevada County, which is where I first met John, as he was a regular at the SYRCL office and events. MTC’s mission is to continue the work John started in preserving and building trails in California, and I too support this mission. I am a California CPA, and have a work history of over 20 years working in Public Accounting, Public Corporations and Not for Profit organizations".

 

Alden Olmsted,
Board Member

Alden is the son of California ecologist and botanist John D. Olmsted, and a native California resident. Alden grew up with a childhood filled with exploration and love of the outdoors, primarily in Sonoma, Marin, and Mendocino counties. Alden reconnected with his father through many trips to the South Yuba River beginning in 1994, and became his caregiver when, in September of 2010, John was given six months to live. Alden began researching John’s history of park and trail work, and documenting their subsequent reconnection, completing the documentary feature "My Father, who art in nature," five days before Johns’ passing on March 8, 2011. Alden has been thrust into defending his fathers’ life’s work when, in May of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown’s budget forced closures of 70 state parks, including each of the parks John helped to save.

 

Sunny Holmes,
Board Member

Sunny says “was born and raised outside of Boston, Mass., as part of a spiritual organization called the Eloists. I was taken for walks in the Fenway, which was one of Frederick Law Olmsted's parks as a child, having no idea, of course, of my association with another Olmsted much later in life who was also strong on creating parks. I was raised vegetarian. In the late 60's I headed out to California, as many did. I've been motivated by spiritual ideals all my life and always had a strong love of nature. I became a part of a communal group in S.F., Berkeley, and later Maui. I lived on Maui, Hi., in the late 70's and returned later in the 80's, where I lived until returning to Nevada County in 1992. I met John Olmsted in late '93, and moved onto his land in early '94. He became a strong personal friend, as well as having much admiration and support of his work for 'Gaia'. I've always had a love for photography and found myself documenting/photographing much of his land and him and his activities of which I have a large archive at present. Due to health issues I wasn't able to keep up to his level of activity much of the time but I supported him in ways not always obvious, and he also assisted me. I helped facilitate ceremonial circles honoring the Earth and Spirit at the time of seasonal changes. Although I didn't continue to live on his land I lived fairly close by and we were able to be of help to each other until his passing last March. I continue in part in a spiritual role as a member of the new Mendocino Tahoe Conservancy board.”

 

Derek Hitchcock,
Board Member

Derek is a sixth generation northern Californian who grew up in Nevada City.  Educated as an ecologist at U.C. Berkeley, he worked for nearly a decade throughout the globe conducting original research in tropical ecology and working with communities on environmental issues, before returning to his home region to engage in the life-long process of becoming indigenous to this place. Derek initially worked as Environmental Director of the North Fork Mono Tribe in the Upper San Joaquin River Basin, before having the opportunity to work in his native Yuba Watershed for the South Yuba River Citizen’s League from 2007-2011. Although an acquaintance of John Olmsted’s since childhood, it was this recent life phase that brought John and Derek together closely in a shared vision for a better future. Derek is lead author of SYRCL’s 21st Century Assessment of the Yuba River Watershed and founding member of the Source to Sea Collective, an evolving community of Northern California artists, activists, educators, and ecologists who find inspiration in the life cycle of salmon and the bioregional connections of our local watersheds. Source to Sea purchased 22 acres of John Olmsted’s land in the South Yuba Watershed in 2009, and this place, now called Yuba Libre, aims to promote an artful back-and-forth integration of people and ideas from the headwaters of the Yuba to the where San Francisco Bay spills into the Pacific Ocean. Derek Hitchcock is the owner of Hitchcock Ecological, specializing in researching and writing watershed assessments and restoration plans, preserve management, ecological field studies, and natural resource database development.

 

Jim HannahJim Hannah,
Board Member

James Hannah is a retired California-Nevada medical anthropologist, conservationist and cultural ecologist. A writer of environmental laws/regulations and health planning documents for all levels of Government and Indigenous Tribes on both sides of the Sierra Nevada(1976-1988); on-location production services Coordinator for actors, movies, TV advertisements, serial TV shows, concerts and fund-raising events; co-founder and original webmaster of the Mendocino Tahoe Conservancy; Ayurvedic Practitioner (1996-2012); and long time friend of John Olmsted supporting his endeavors and holistic health during his last 18 years of developing the successful California Institute of Man in Nature/Across California Conservancy trail along the 39th parallel (Jughandle Farm and Nature Center, Goat Mountain/Cache Creek Watershed, Yuba Powerhouse Preserve-Sierra Foothills Landscape, and South Yuba River's Wheelchair Accessible Independence Trail). Jim says " It continually feels worthy to me that sentient beings are (and will continue to be) walking, sitting, swimming, flying, or growing in the shade of a tree because we (all of us, benefactors and beneficiaries) were able to save even a small part of the open, wild places/spaces and riparian areas across the "terra-firma archipelago of parklets" within central California; and provide a way for enticing adults and children to look at nature's loveliness, helping to balance external/internal pleasures producing well-being benefits linked to improved social interactions and changes in mood, anxiety, self-esteem and personal emotions. ~Namaste~"

 

bruce mccloudBruce McCloud,
Board Member

Bruce says of himself "I first built trails with the Conservation Corps in my youth, and later explored many trails on my way to rock climbs throughout Yosemite and California. About the time I graduated in 1994 in Natural Sciences, I met MTC founder John Olmsted at a Nevada County land trust meeting. I began helping him secure Goat Mountain and other properties, and later lived on his property for several periods of time. I look forward to working with all those involved in making John's 39th Parallel Necklace of Parks a reality".

 

Sarah Phillips,
Board Member

Born and raised as a southern girl, Sarah spent her first twenty years throughout the Southeast of the country, mostly in Atlanta, Georgia. She began her studies at Kennesaw State University, in Georgia, accomplishing her general education so that she could then transfer to a school that actually had an undergraduate program in Environmental Studies. At age 20, she ventured out to Northern California to find home sweet home, and to eventually finish her degree at Sonoma State University in Environmental Studies and Planning, concentrating in Restoration and Conservation with a minor in Biology. This broad degree allowed her ample room to intern in very diverse realms of Environmentalism. One example included working for Petaluma Bounty, a non-profit sustainable farm in Sonoma County that provides affordable, organic produce to low-income families. Recently, Sarah has had the honor of working with The Amazon Mycorenewal Project team in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. The main focus being to train and build healthy ties with indigenous peoples in effort to using mushrooms to remediate (Mycoremediation) petroleum-contaminated lands from Texaco-Chevron’s mess since the 1960’s. Sarah is employed with the South Yuba River Citizens League as their Watershed Coordinator Specialist.

Christine Elder,
Web Mistress & Graphics Gal

Christine Elder is a Nevada County native, having grown up in the Yuba watershed riding her horses, backpacking in the Sierra, and swimming in the rivers. She has both a bachelor's and master's degree in biology and a graduate certificate in science illustration from the University of California. She has appplied her passion in the arts and sciences in working as a naturalist, educator and artist. She resides in her hometown of Nevada City and runs her own business as a scientific illustrator and graphic designer, whose recent clients include the National Park Service, California State Parks and the Department of Fish & Game.