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Meet the SERNW Board
Ali Wick, President
Ali Wick has been a fisheries biologist and environmental scientist with Anchor QEA for the past 8 years, during which time she has worked on a variety of marine, estuarine, and freshwater restoration projects. She received her M.S. from the University of Washington in Fisheries Science in 2002. Ali is a member of SER and of American Fisheries Society (AFS), and has presented her work at many conferences in recent years, including SERNW, AFS, and Restore America’s Estuaries. She was a session chair for the SERNW 2005 conference in Seattle, and was on the Sponsorship Committee for the SERNW/SWS 2007 conference in Yakima. She was executive vice president of SERNW prior to her tenure as president. Additionally, she is involved in a myriad of volunteer efforts outside of her professional endeavors, ranging from participating in restoration planting events, co-chairing a running race, and performing children’s music. Ali serves on the SERNW board in order to help orchestrate the advancement of restoration science in the Northwest and to serve the scientific community by connecting colleagues with one another within the forum of SERNW. Contact Ali.
Rebecca Brown, Executive Vice President
Rebecca (Becky) Brown is riparian ecologist at Eastern Washington University where she has been a tenure-track faculty member since 2004. She teaches botany, ecology and riparian ecology. Her research is focused on riparian restoration, particularly the effects of dams and invasive species on riparian systems. She is actively involved in the Elwha River restoration on the Olympic Peninsula through her research and as a member of the Elwha Research Consortium. She is currently studying the effects of dams on riparian vegetation in the Elwha River and collecting baseline data prior to the removal of those dams. In addition, Becky is actively involved in restoration in Eastern Washington as a member of the fledgling Channeled Scablands Cooperative Weed Management Association and through several riparian restoration projects. Recently, Becky organized the Inland Northwest Aquatic, Riparian, and Wetland Symposium, hosted by Eastern Washington University and sponsored by SERNW, as a way to bring together land managers, agencies, and scientists to focus on restoration needs in the Inland Northwest. The symposium had 34 presenters and over 150 participants. Before coming to Eastern Washington, Becky received her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002, where she studied riparian plant communities. Later, she worked at the Patrick Center for Environmental Research at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia where she studied the effects of small dams on stream ecosystems. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science from George Washington University, and is originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Contact Rebecca.
Jonathan Scherch, Program Vice President
Since 1998, Dr. Jonathan Scherch has served as Core Faculty of the Graduate Program in Environment & Community at Antioch University Seattle. A returned Peace Corps volunteer (Jamaica, 1991–93) and social worker by profession, his teaching focuses on local-through-global themes of social justice, ecological design and sustainable community development. Areas of research and community practice include: At-risk and environmental refugee populations; Climate change, energy transitions and implications for social work; Integrated resource systems and appropriate technologies for food security, renewable energies, eco-city innovations, etc.; Interdisciplinary education and curriculum design. His work has led around the world -- into Tibetan refugee settlements in India, into bamboo forests in China and into slum communities in Bangladesh. In 2006/07, he completed a sabbatical in China, teaching and conducting collaborative inquiries on bamboo resource systems for sustainable development at Zhejiang Forestry University. He presently directs Pacific Bamboo Resources, an institute involving regional and international collaborators focusing on innovations within emerging bamboo economies that advance carbon ethics and climate recovery, ecological restoration and improved quality of livelihood. He has served with many Boards of Directors in various capacities for organizations in the PNW and elsewhere. Recent publications: Scherch, J. (2008). Riverton: Envisioning a Sustainable Community. In D. Fauri, S. Wernet & F.E. Netting's (Eds.) Cases in Social Work Macro Practice, 3rd Edition. New York: Allyn & Bacon. || Scherch, J. (2005). Models of Sustainability. In John Nolt's (Ed.) A Land Imperiled: The Declining Ecological Health of Southern Appalachia. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. || Scherch, J. (2005). Sustainability in Exile: Envisioning Permanent Culture in Tibetan Refugee Settlements. International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, 1(2). Contact Jonathan.
Frank Reckendorf, Treasurer
Frank Reckendorf is a fluvial geomorphologist with Reckendorf and Associates in Salem, Oregon, who currently serves on the SERNW Board. Frank believes that SERNW provides an excellent eclectic forum for people to get information about restoration. He attended three SERNW conferences as a participant and presenter before becoming a board member and thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm and enlightenment of the participants concerning environmental issues. At the 2005 SERNW meeting, he talked to a board member about my willingness to give back to the organization some volunteer help, since he had received much from the three conferences he attended. Volunteer organization cannot continue to function without a strong commitment from a large number of volunteers, and Frank has made such a commitment. During his first term on the board, he attended and participated in every board meeting even though all but one meeting required overnight travel. He volunteered to do an all day workshop for the 2006 joint conference with SWSNW, and otherwise helped out at the conference for three days. He currently serves on the Plenary and Technical Session Committees for the 2007 annual meeting, and is a session chair, a presenter, and jointly with another person will be leading workshop and field trip.
Frank is willing to continue to help SERNW for another term, because of what SERNW has been doing in the past and needs to continue. SERNW promotes the diversity of all plant and animal life and establishment of healthy ecological relationships. He wants to be part of that effort. His focus has been and will continue to be providing a forum for low cost meetings and training for members of the ecological community. Contact Frank.
Allison Warner, Secretary
Currently with the Jay Group, Inc., a landscape architect and environmental consulting firm in Marysville, Allison works as a wetland ecologist, delineating and classifying wetlands, streams and developing mitigation plans and critical area reports. Allison has been involved in restoration in the Pacific Northwest since 1992, upon graduating from the UC Berkeley College of Forestry and Natural Resources. She has a Master’s of Science in forest ecology, and a bachelor’s degree in soil science, also from UC Berkeley. She worked for six years as a soil scientist and watershed specialist for the US Forest Service in Skykomish, Washington, and has over fourteen years professional experience in natural resources and native plants of the Pacific Northwest. She worked with the MBS Forest native plant team to develop seed contracts and forest policy for use of native plants. She has worked extensively in wetland delineation and stream surveys; watershed restoration and analysis, revegetation and propagation; and fish habitat improvement projects.
Her experience includes all phases of project development from project design to implementation and contract supervision. She has performed engineering road surveys and worked with heavy equipment contractors on road decommissioning projects, inspected culvert, bridge projects for erosion compliance, and designed and managed stream restoration and revegetation contracts. Allison has extensive training in fish-habitat evaluation and requirements, hydric soils, and wetland delineation, and native plants. Through six years experience working at Snohomish County Planning and Community Development, Allison developed an in-depth knowledge of federal, state and local jurisdictional requirements and processes. She has recently completed the Construction Site Erosion and Pollution Control course offered by the University of Washington Engineering Dept. Contact Allison.
Cara Nelson, SERI Regional Representative
Cara R. Nelson is an Assistant Professor of Restoration Ecology at University of Montana's College of Forestry and Conservation. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from The Evergreen State College, Master of Science degrees in Conservation Biology and in Forestry from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in Forest Ecosystem Analysis from the University of Washington. Cara's research encompasses a variety of studies, organized around the central theme of the effects of large-scale disturbance on forest vegetation. Current lines of investigation include: (1) effects of forest restoration treatments (thinning, prescribed fire, and road decommissioning) on native understory plant communities, non-native plant invasions, and overstory tree growth, mortality, and vigor, (2) effects of life-history traits on the post-disturbance acclimation potential of late-seral forest herbs, and (3) effects of fragmentation and edges on forest herbs and bryophytes. These projects are being conducted at the landscape, population, and organismal scale, through both field experiments and retrospective studies. Cara has been a member of the Society for Ecological Restoration since 2000, and has served as a director of SER Northwest since 2004 and of SER International since 2007. Contact Cara.
Lauren Urgenson, Director at Large Position 2
Lauren S. Urgenson is a Graduate Research Assistant and PhD candidate at the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources. She received a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy with a concentration Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland and a M.S. in Forest Ecology from the University of Washington. Lauren’s research interests include the causes and consequences of nonnative plant invasions, connecting ecological theory and restoration practice, diverse stakeholder involvement in local restoration and conservation initiatives, and measuring/monitoring restoration outcomes. Her dissertation research, which is being done in collaboration with the Quileute tribe, examines the ecological impacts and restoration of Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum, P. bohemicum, P. sachalinense) invasion in Pacific Northwest riparian forests and, specifically, responses of native vegetation to knotweed removal and the competitive mechanisms underlying knotweed’s effect on riparian tree regeneration. Lauren is a participant in the Multinational Collaborations on Challenges to the Environment Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, a National Science Foundation initiative that provides PhD students with the interdisciplinary background and professional/personal skills needed to address contemporary social and environmental issues.
Lauren’s attraction to serving on the board of SERNW stems from her long- term interest and involvement in both the social and scientific dimensions of ecological restoration as well as her desire to gain deeper insight into restoration issues facing our region. She is interested in assisting with the development of community education and outreach activities related to restoration and conservation of local natural areas; helping foster greater communication between restoration scientists, practitioners and the public; and helping with group facilitation and organizational development. Contact Lauren.
Barry Southerland , Director at Large Position 3
Barry works at the USDA-West National Technology Support Center on the National Water Quality and Quantity Technology Development Team with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland, OR. Barry has served 28 years with various federal agencies in the fields of watershed science, fluvial studies, soils, and range work. Twenty-six of his 28 years of federal career service has been with the NRCS. Previous to 1991 most of his NRCS (SCS) work was at field office positions such as soil conservationist, supervisory soil conservationist, team leader, and hydrologic unit (watershed) project coordinator in the Western United States. Barry completed and received his Ph.D. (NRCS Graduate Studies Program) in fluvial geomorphology at Washington State University in October of 2003. He also has MPA, BS, and AA degrees in natural resource science fields including range, watershed studies, soils minor and pre-forestry studies. He has been a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC #514) for twenty years. His principle expertise is geomorphic river restoration: training, analysis, planning, design, and implementation. He has analyzed, planned, and constructed numerous river restoration designs and recommendations on streams (over 5 miles throughout 13 states), including watershed-based fluvial and streambank erosion studies. Barry is a NRCS National Employee Development Center instructor of stream geomorphology for two courses. He teaches introductory, applications, advanced fluvial geomorphology, and natural channel design. He also is a trainer at universities, professional societies including SER, and state sponsored courses. Author and co-author on related materials such as: Natural Channel Design NEH (National Engineering Handbook) 653, NEH 654, Stream Corridor Restoration: Principle, Processes, and Practices, Stream Notes, Rural Technology Initiatives, Inter-Collegian Library Digital Dissertation- Stream Geomorphology and Classification in Glacial-Fluvial Valleys of the North Cascade Mountain Range in Washington State standards and specifications, and white papers. Barry currently has ongoing monitoring and assessment study sites throughout the Western and Central United States in: natural channel design, streambank erosion pin, profile and bed analysis, wood structures used for streambank stability and aquatic habitat improvement and other river restoration related studies. Barry’s principle interest is to promote a geomorphic natural channel design- interdisciplinary approach to river restoration. He is a SER-NW Chapter co-instructor with Frank Reckendorf. Contact Barry.
Marnie Criley, Director at Large Position 4
Marnie Criley is the Coordinator for the Montana Forest Restoration Committee, a 3-year old collaborative effort to promote and engage in ecologically sound restoration projects on Montana's National Forests. Marnie is also the Director of Restore Montana, a network of organizations and businesses that works to promote and strengthen an integrated restoration economy that addresses the natural and built environments. Finally, Marnie works part time for a restoration firm, Watershed Consulting. Over the last ten years, Marnie has been engaged in numerous restoration-focused collaboratives at a national, regional and local scale, and these efforts have led to her interest in the relationship between ecological restoration and human communities. Her current focus is on creating high-skill, high-wage restoration jobs and furthering public understanding of the importance of restoration. Contact Marnie.
Ryan Haugo, Student Guild Board Member
Ryan Haugo is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington’s School of Forest Resources. Originally from North Dakota, Ryan received his B.A. in Biology / Environmental Studies from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN and a M.S. in Forest Ecology from the University of Washington. Before returning to UW to pursue his PhD, Ryan was a Plant Ecologist for the Washington Department of Natural Resources Natural Heritage Program. Ryan is broadly interested in the response of native plant communities to environmental change / human disturbance and the efforts of our society to conserve and restore these communities. While working with the WA Natural Heritage Program he collaborated with a variety of private, local, state and federal partners to compile comprehensive field inventories of imperiled shrub-steppe communities throughout Washington’s Columbia Basin. His current dissertation research focuses on the ecology, conservation, and restoration of grassland communities across the Pacific Northwest. As a UW graduate student, Ryan also participated in the founding of one of the first SER Student Guilds. As a new SER Northwest board member, Ryan is excited to work towards greater student participation in SERNW activities and establish stronger links between restoration students and practitioners. Contact Ryan.
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