2008-2009 FOMB Speaker Series

Speaker Bios

Doug Watts: Endangered Species Win for the Atlantic Salmon!

 

Doug Watts is an expert on Atlantic salmon and other migratory fish in Maine. He was a former newspaper reporter specializing in historical accounts and currently is a freelance writer, fishery consultant and river activist. Watts also has been President of Friends of Kennebec Salmon for many years. Watts and his brother wrote the citizens ESA petition to protect the American eel and while the federal government found the petition to have scientific merit, they ultimately decided against listing the eel as an endangered species. Friends of Merrymeeting Bay continues to partner with Watts on state and federal efforts to protect American eel, Atlantic salmon and other migratory fish who are denied access to spawning habitat and or victims of turbine mortality.

 

http://home.gwi.net/~fks/ksalmon.html

 

 

 

Jake Bishop: Growing Up the Hard Way [Next to Swan Island]

 

Jake Bishop is the founder and retired CEO of the Board of Directors of the 31-year-old Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium, a group purchasing consortium that serves 96 New England schools. 

 

Born in Richmond, Maine, he grew up in Bowdoinham and Stockton Springs on Jersey farms.  The Bishop Farm was on Route 24 on the Kennebec River across from Swan’s Island.  Following graduation from Higgins Classical Institute, he served several years in the United States Marine Corps, returning to Maine in 1958 to work in a Purchasing Department in industry in Searsport, Maine.

 

In the fall of 1959 he joined Boston University as a Senior Buyer.  Over a period of 25 years he took courses at various colleges, culminating in his graduation from the University of Massachusetts in 1980, “Summa Cum Lately!”

 

Jake worked for over 35 years in the UMass Amherst Procurement Department.  His last 23 years were served as Director, until his retirement in 1997.

 

A past President of the NAEB New England Group, he also served for 12 years on the board of the National E&I Purchasing Co-op., the last year as President.  In 1976 he was one of the first in higher education to be made a Certified Purchasing Manager (C.P.M.) by the Institute for Supply Management.  In 1996 he was awarded the Burt C. Ahrens Award, the highest national award given in higher education purchasing.

 

Following retirement, Jake has continued to help manage the MHEC, which is presently a 96-member, $200,000,000 per year purchasing consortium, recognized as one of the best in the country.

 

He has lectured and taught various courses, including Purchasing Law, to groups across the country for over 40 years.

 

 

Karen McElmurry: Raptors, Reptiles & More.

Karen McElmurry is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator with 23 years of experience. Karen grew up in Michigan, and always had a passion for helping animals. She worked at the Michigan Human Society, first with the dogs and cats, then moved to the wildlife wing in 1984… and has not stopped working with wildlife since.

In 1986 she interned at the Treehouse Wildlife Center in Brighton, Illinois, then headed to the renowned Owl Foundation in Ontario, Canada for another internship. The famous Kay McCeaver inspired in Karen an undying passion for owls, which is still evident to anyone who sees Karen with CFW barred owl Bianca on her arm. She then moved to New Hampshire and became the weekend wildlife coordinator for the New England Wildlife Center in Hingham, MA - an overwhelming but very educational job. After spending two years gaining valuable experience there, she moved to Maine and began her career at the Center for Wildlife, which was then only a couple years old, and was housed in a trailer with no running water.

Karen has been at the Center ever since, and her vision of wildlife rehabilitation is the guiding force behind the Center’s work. With her dreams and determination, and a lot of help, she led the Center to plumbing (which revolutionized the cleaning of poopy cages); a building, plus several expansions and renovations; the capacity for our current intake level of 1500 animals a year; a wide array of educational programs; and – most recently – a beautiful new enclosure for our non-releasable raptors.

In 2000, Karen was named “Maine Rehabilitator of the Year” by Re-Maine Wild, and she is frequently asked to be a presenter at state and regional conferences on wildlife rehabilitation. She lives in Cape Neddick with her dogs, goats, chickens, bunnies, a snake… and an infinitely patient family of Mike, Laurel, and Dillon, all of whom help to make CFW the success it is by generously sharing their wife and mom, not to mention being constantly co-opted into CFW projects.

http://www.yorkcenterforwildlife.org/index.php

 

 

Tim Glidden: Land for Maine’s Future, Protect it While We Can.

 

Tim Glidden is the Director of the Land for Maine’s Future Program at the Maine State Planning Office.  Tim has worked for more than thirty years on a wide range of natural resource policy issues.  From national reforestation in Pakistan to the environmental impacts of an industrial wood-to-methanol refinery in Maine's North Woods, Tim has concentrated on applying the results of scientific research to the policy debate over sustainable natural resource management.  He spent 11 years with the Office of Policy and Legal Analysis with the Maine Legislature finishing his tenure there as the Principal Analyst for natural resource matters.  While at the Legislature, Tim worked with all the legislative committees dealing with the all natural resource, environmental and energy issues.  He also served as the Deputy Director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.  Tim holds a masters degree in forestry sciences from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.  He lives in Topsham with his wife, Kathy Lyon.

 

http://maine.gov/spo/lmf/about.htm

 

 

 

Charlene Donahue: What’s Bugging Us? Brown-Tail Moths & More

 

Charlene Donahue is a Forest Entomologist with the Maine Forest Service. She has worked there for the past 16 years and is currently responsible for the statewide forest insect survey, exotic pest surveys, curating the insect collection and responding to forest pest problems across the state.  She has a Masters degree in Entomology from the University of Maine and has been working in Entomology for over 30 years.  Charlene has just been elected president of the Maine Entomological Society and is a past president of the Northeastern Forest Pest Council.

 

http://maine.gov/doc/mfs/idmhome.htm

 

 

 

Glen Rea: Return of the Endangered American Chestnut Tree

 

I am a graduate of the Univ. of Missouri (BA in Economics), Univ. of Maine
(BS in Forestry) and a MBA from Washington Univ. in St. Louis.  In 1981 I
became a registered professional forester in Maine, and then in 1983 I
became a registered securities agent (stockbroker) at Means Investment  in
Bangor.  I joined The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) in 2000 and was
elected as president of the Maine chapter in 2005 after serving 2 years as
vice-president.  I am currently on the national board of directors of TACF,
and am the chair of the Distribution Committee of this organization.

 

http://www.me-acf.org/            http://www.acf.org/

 

 

Diane Cowan: Community: Based Lobster Science

Diane has worked as a research scientist and educator in the academic, government and non-profit sectors. In 1996, she founded The Lobster Conservancy with a vision of building a bridge to join all those sharing the common goal of maintaining a strong and healthy lobster resource.

Boston University awarded Diane with a Presidential University Graduate Fellowship to support her graduate studies. Diane earned her Ph.D. from the Boston University Marine Program in 1992 while studying lobster molting and reproduction at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In 1999, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution awarded Diane a Fellowship in Marine Policy to continue her studies.

Diane has taught courses in Marine Biology, Oceanography, Animal Behavior, and Ecology at many institutions including Bates College, University of Southern Maine, Suffolk University and the Isle of Shoals Marine Laboratory.

As Leader of the Division of Biological Monitoring for the state of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, Diane served as the state’s chief lobster biologist. She was also responsible for supervising programs for the lobster, shrimp, herring and urchin fisheries.

Diane’s publications and conference presentations include primary research papers on Lobster Mating Systems Ecology, Chemical Communication, Social Behavior and Migrations, Molting and Early Life History, and Thermal Histories of Brooding Female Lobsters.

Diane’s work has been featured by the media on television (including, the Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, Animal Planet Report, PBS), radio (including All Things and Maine Things Considered), in newspapers (including the New York Times, Washington Post, Portland Press Herald, AP), magazines (including Der Spiegel, Atlantic Monthly, Chronicle of Higher Education), and books (including The Secret Life of Lobsters and The Lobster Coast). She also contributes health and handling tips on lobsters in her monthly "Ask the Lobster Doc" column featured in "Commercial Fisheries News".

Cowan's CV

Cowan's Publications

 

http://www.lobsters.org/index.html

 

 

 

Dave Nicholas: Legal Advocacy: Fighting for Environmental Justice

 

David A. Nicholas has been an attorney for close to 25 years.  He is admitted to practice in state courts in Maine, Massachusetts, and New York, and in a number of federal courts around the nation.  He obtained his law degree from New York University School of Law in 1984 and a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College in 1981.  He is a sole practitioner with an office in Newton, Massachusetts.

 

Dave specializes in public interest lawsuits on behalf of citizen and environmental groups to protect natural resources and public health.  He has brought cases under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and other federal and state environmental laws.  He represented Friends of Merrymeeting Bay in a successful Endangered Species Act lawsuit that forced the federal government to act on FOMB’s petition to list the Kennebec River population of Atlantic salmon as endangered.  Dave also handles the legal aspects of FOMB’s efforts to obtain safe passage for the American eel and other indigenous migratory fish on the heavily dammed Kennebec and Androscoggin Rivers.

 

            Other cases Dave has brought include:

 

·      Animal Protection Institute v. Martin.  Endangered Species Act citizen suit against Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner for licensing trapping activities that capture endangered Canada lynx.  Resulted in a consent decree banning large traps.

 

·      U.S. PIRG v. Atlantic Salmon of Maine and Stolt Sea Farm.  Clean Water Act citizen suits against dominant companies of the Maine salmon farming industry for operating without discharge permits.  Trial resulted in an injunction imposing significant changes to operating practices of companies and a shutdown of new production for up to three years. The injunction was upheld on appeal.  A companion case against Heritage Salmon resulted in a consent decree imposing precedent-setting environmental restrictions on salmon farms. 

 

·      CALPIRG v. Shell Oil Company.  Clean Water Act citizen suit against oil refinery for selenium pollution of San Francisco Bay.  Resulted in a consent decree requiring reduction of pollutants and a $2.2 million penalty.

 

·      U.S. PIRG v. Bayou Steel Corporation.  Clean Air Act citizen suit against Louisiana steel mill for emitting excessive particulate matter.  Resulted in a consent decree requiring compliance with emission standards, compliance with OSHA exposure limits for lead, cadmium and respirable particulates, $850,000 of supplemental environmental projects, and a $345,000 penalty.

 

·      Fort Ord Toxics Project v. U.S. Army.  CERCLA citizen suit against the Army for inadequate cleanup of ordnance and chemical weapons at closed base near Monterey.  Resulted in a settlement requiring additional cleanup at site.