The Stewardship Network Conference

Mary Stewart Adams is a Star Lore Historian and host of the weekly public radio program and podcast “The Storyteller’s Night Sky” and author of the richly illustrated book The Star Tales of Mother Goose ~ For Those Who Seek the Secret Language of the Stars.  Through her research in spiritual science and her education in literary arts, Mary has developed a unique, humanities-based approach to understanding our relationship with the stars.  Her work is further augmented by an extensive knowledge of ancient mythologies and fairy tales, which she relates to the research and ideas borne of contemporary culture, in order to keep the human being at the center of our thoughts and ideas regarding the cosmos. As a global advocate for starry skies, Mary led the team that established the 9th International Dark Sky Park in the world in 2011 at the Headlands in Mackinaw City, which later led to the state of Michigan protecting 35,000 acres of state land for its natural darkness. Mary has traveled extensively in fulfillment of her mission to safeguard the human imagination by protecting our access to the night sky and its stories, and has received numerous honors for her work.

Steve Apfelbaum, the founder of Applied Ecological Services in Brodhead, WI, has been a full-time research and consulting ecologist with AES since 1978 when he founded the company and in 2021merged with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES).   Steve has conducted ecological research projects in most biomes of North America, and since the early 1980s he has been one of the leading consultants in the U.S. in ecological restoration programs. Apfelbaum is trained as an animal and plant ecologist with graduate studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he earned his MS Degree in Ecological and Biological Sciences in 1978. He has been a scientist in hundreds of field ecological projects and data analysis projects. During his career, Mr. Apfelbaum has authored or co-authored hundreds of technical studies, reports, ecological program plans, restoration plans, and monitoring and compliance reports for research projects and for regulatory program reporting. In recent years, his focus has been in soil carbon research and directing large soil carbon projects in Canada, Palouse Region and throughout the country.  He has worked closely with hydrologists to understand landscape-scale hydrologic changes associated with land settlement in the Midwestern U.S. This work has direct application to many millions of acres in North America and elsewhere. Mr. Apfelbaum has also presented results of his study of ecological restoration at hundreds of seminars and courses around the world and is a much sought-after speaker at educational events focusing on soil carbon, regenerative agriculture, ecological restoration, alternative storm water management and conservation development.  Apfelbaum’s latest book, “Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land” (Island Press) and his personal account of thirty years of restoring their Wisconsin farm, in “Natures Second Chance” (Beacon press) have received a range of awards, including rave reviews in the New York Times and elsewhere. The later book has been recognized as one of the top ten environmental books of 2009 and best books for people to personally learn about what they can do to address climate change. Apfelbaum teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Design a course on the future of coastal systems and regenerative agriculture and holds adjunct professorships and lectureships at several other universities.

To get updates about RES and our work around the country, visit our website, res.us, and follow us on social media.

Professor and Dean Emerita Bierbaum, PhD, focuses her research on the interface of science and policy–principally on issues related to climate change adaptation and mitigation at the national and international levels.   She also holds an appointment in the School of Public Health at Michigan, and in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. Her experience extends from climate science into foreign relations and international development. Rosina served for two decades in both the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. Government, and ran the first Environment Division of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She chairs the Scientific and Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility, served on President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, was an Adaptation Fellow at the World Bank, and a lead author of the U.S. National Climate Assessment. She has lectured on every continent, and in more than 20 countries.

Bierbaum is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Ecological Society of America, and Sigma Xi. She received the American Geophysical Union’s Waldo Smith award for ‘extraordinary service to Geoscience’ and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Protection Award.  Bierbaum serves on the board of the AAAS, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Federation of American Scientists, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the Climate Reality Project, the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. She earned a BA in English, a BS in biology and a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution.

Janet served as director of the Center for Invasive Plant Management at Montana State University for nine years before switching directions and moving to the coast of Washington to work as a grant writer for the natural resources department of the Quinault Indian Nation. Salmon, old-growth forests, marine biodiversity, and coastal climate change were her focus. She was especially gratified to help the Quinault Indian Nation produce its first ethnobotany book. But after a rainy four-year coastal interlude, Janet was ready to return to the mountains of Montana. Today she is the administrator for Headwaters Economics – a Bozeman-based nonprofit organization that works with community development and land management issues, particularly those related to climate change and public lands. Peeking at retirement just over the horizon, Janet looks forward to spending more time with grandkids in Colorado and Tennessee, learning more about medicinal plants, and traveling around the West with her husband in their trusty camper.

James E. Crowfoot is Professor Emeritus of the U-M Natural Resources & Environment and Urban and Regional Planning Program (1972–1994)— a dual degree program with the U-M A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (Taubman College), and the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SNRE). He is also Dean Emeritus of the U-M SNRE (1982–1990), and was President of Antioch College (1994–1996). Prior to retirement, his work focused on processes of organizational and social change related to socio-environmental problems and social justice.

He joined the School for Environment and Sustainability in 1972 as an assistant professor of natural resources and urban and regional planning. He was promoted to associate professor in 1975 and professor in 1981. Professor Crowfoot served as Dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability from 1983-90, guiding it through a challenging period of change and reorganization. During that period, he oversaw the design and implementation of major curriculum changes at all degree levels and presided over a budget reduction and downsizing of the school. He also established a new research division and fundraising program.

From 1989 until his retirement, Professor Crowfoot was director of the Pew Scholars Program in Conservation and the Environment. He was also a co-founder and active participant in the Program in Conflict Management Alternatives. In addition, Professor Crowfoot represented the School for Environment and Sustainability on numerous University-wide committees and served in a great many capacities within the school. Professor Crowfoot’s teaching and research centered on conflict management in environmental and other social-change organizations; environmental education; and social inequities and justice.

In 1998, Crowfoot returned to the U of M as an Adjunct Professor in the then new and now continuing Undergraduate Program in the Environment and in the interdisciplinary academic U of M living learning program that includes community service. This now ongoing Michigan Community Scholars Program is where he taught seminars focused on the challenges of unsustainability from both a scientific and spiritual perspective. He taught part time in this program from 1998-2014.

Since 1998, Jim and his wife Ruth have lived in Sunward Cohousing Community, an intentional community that reflects many of their core values and social practices.

Philip Enquist is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects and an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Phil is the former Governor’s Chair for the State of Tennessee researching Energy and Urbanism with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the School of Architecture and Design, University of Tennessee.

Phil is currently serving on the City of Chicago Rivers Governance Task Force and the City’s Committee on Design.

Beginning in 2009, Phil has led a pro bono initiative looking holistically at a vision for the international Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River watersheds, home to over 40 million people

From 1995 to 2017, Phil led the City Design Practice (CDP) for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.  During that time, Phil, focused on planning efforts within rapidly urbanizing regions and collaborated with over 100 cities.

Phil has taught urban design at:

• Harvard University Graduate School of Design
• University of Michigan
• Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
• University of Tennessee

Frank Ettawageshik lives in Harbor Springs, Michigan, with his wife Rochelle.  He has four adult children and six grandchildren.  He is a traditional storyteller and potter, believing that native people need to be rooted in their traditions in order to be prepared for the future.

He served in tribal elected office for sixteen years, fourteen as the Tribal Chairman of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in Harbor Springs. During his tenure as Tribal Chairman he was instrumental in the adoption of the Tribal and First Nations Great Lakes Water Accord in 2004 and the United League of Indigenous Nations Treaty in 2007.  Now serving as the Executive Director of the United Tribes of Michigan, he is also the Chairman of the United League of Indigenous Nations Governing Board and the Co-chair of the National Congress of American Indians Federal Recognition Task Force.

Frank currently serves on several non-profit boards including the Association on American Indian Affairs, Anishinaabemowin Teg and the Michigan Indian Education Council.  In April 2016 he was appointed to the Great Lakes Water Quality Board.  Frank was a 2010 Fellow at the Native Nations Institute Indigenous Leaders Fellowship Program at the University of Arizona. His 40 years of public service have included serving on the Executive Board of the National Congress of American Indians, the Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes, the Historical Society of Michigan, the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority, the Michigan Climate Action Council, the Little Traverse Conservancy, the Michigan Travel Commission, the Public Interest Advisory Group for the International Joint Commission’s Upper Great Lakes Study, the Michigan Great Lakes Offshore Wind Council, and the Michigan Ground Water Conservation Advisory Council.

In December 2015 he attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Council of the Parties 21 (UNFCCC COP21) in Paris, France, as a delegate from the National Congress of American Indians.  Approximately 45,000 people attended COP21 including over 100 Heads of State.  Frank joined approximately 200 Indigenous Peoples delegates as a member of the International Indigenous Peoples Caucus on Climate Change.

Sharon Farrell is Executive Vice President of Projects, Stewardship & Science at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Sharon and her team lead the organization’s project design and delivery, conservation initiatives, community science, restoration, and stewardship programs. This includes advancing opportunities for engaging partners, scientists and community members in research, monitoring and many aspects of land stewardship. Sharon also works closely with agency partners to oversee the One Tam Initiative, a community initiative to help ensure a healthy future for Mt. Tamalpais.

Prior to joining the Parks Conservancy in 2004, Sharon was the Executive Director of the Watershed Project. Her work included capacity building for “Friends” groups, with a focus on partnership and fund development with municipalities and local governments. Sharon developed training and grants programs to support this work, and forged regional partnerships with other Bay Area non-profit organizations to support community-based stakeholder groups.

Sharon has also worked as an ecologist and resource specialist with the National Park Service, a resource planner with the Presidio Trust, and as an environmental consultant. Sharon holds a MS in Park Management with emphasis on Ecological Restoration and Community Stewardship, and a BS in Chemistry.

Sharon is an avid backpacker, nature photographer, and explorer. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in the East Bay with her wife Sue, their two children, and their dog, Marco. Together they are frequent hikers of the amazing landscapes on Mt. Tam, Point Reyes, and the Marin Headlands.

Carolyn Finney, PhD is a storyteller, author and a cultural geographer who is grounded in both artistic and
intellectual ways of knowing – she pursued an acting career for eleven years, but five years of backpacking
trips through Africa and Asia, and living in Nepal changed the course of her life. Motivated by these experiences,
Carolyn returned to school after a 15-year absence to complete a B.A., M.A. (gender and environmental issues
in Kenya and Nepal) and a Ph.D. (where she was a Fulbright and a Canon National Science Scholar Fellow).
Along with public speaking (nationally & internationally), writing, media engagements, consulting & teaching (she
has held positions at Wellesley College, the University of California, Berkeley & the University of Kentucky), she
served on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board for eight years. Her first book, Black Faces, White Spaces:
Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors was released in 2014. Recent
publications include Self-Evident: Reflections on the Invisibility of Black Bodies in Environmental Histories
(BESIDE Magazine, Montreal Spring 2020), The Perils of Being Black in Public: We are all Christian Cooper
and George Floyd (The Guardian, June 3rd 2020), and Who Gets Left Out of the Great Outdoors Story?
(The NY Times November 4 2021).

She is currently working on her new book (creative non-fiction) that takes a more personal journey into the very
complicated relationship between race, land & belonging in the United States, and a performance piece entitled
The N Word: Nature Revisited as part of an Andrew W. Mellon residency at the New York Botanical Gardens
Humanities Institute. Along with being the new columnist at the Earth Island Journal, she was recently awarded
the Alexander and Ilse Melamid Medal from the American Geographical Society and is an artist-in-residence in
the Franklin Environmental Center at Middlebury College.

(Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine) Dallas travels extensively across Turtle Island to help fossil fuel and hard rock mining impacted communities tell their stories thru social media, video, and other forms of communication. Dallas is an IEN media team lead, working with IEN staff, board, and organizational partners from a diverse group of climate justice networks. Along with his many tasks and duties with IEN, he is also a Dakota cultural/language teacher, non-violent direct action trainer, and was one of the outstanding Water Protectors at Standing Rock/Oceti Sakowin Camp fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. In addition, he is a co-founder of the Indigenous comedy group, The 1491s, a poet, journalist, traditional artist, powwow emcee, and comedian.

Jeff Grignon is a father, grandfather, husband, and enrolled member of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin.

A life-long student of the environment, having eighteen years of western and southern fire experience, he has now accepted the honor and responsibility to aid in the regeneration or the giving back of what the Menominee forest has offered. His responsibilities as a tribal member also include the preservation and protection of cultural habitational areas and the stories they continue to tell.

David Haskell is a writer and a biologist. His books, The Forest Unseen and The Songs of Trees are acclaimed for their integration of science, poetry, and rich attention to the living world. Among their honors include the National Academies’ Best Book Award, John Burroughs Medal, finalist for Pulitzer Prize, Iris Book Award, Reed Environmental Writing Award, National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature, and runner-up for the 2013 PEN E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. His next book, Sounds Wild and Broken, will be published in March 2022. Haskell received his BA from the University of Oxford and PhD from Cornell University. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Find him at dghaskell.com or on social media @DGHaskell (Twitter), DavidGeorgeHaskell (Instagram and Facebook).

Lyanda Lynn Haupt is an award-winning author, naturalist, ecophilosopher, and speaker, whose work explores the beautiful, complicated connections between humans and the wild earth. Her books include Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness, and Mozart’s Starling. Her newest book is Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, published in Spring, 2021.

Henry Lickers, a Haudenosaunee citizen of the Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan. He was the Director of the Environment for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne for 32 years and the Environmental Science Officer, six years before his retirement in 2019. Throughout his career, Mr. Lickers has been instrumental in incorporating First Nation’s people and their knowledge into environmental planning and decision making.

Prior to his appointment as IJC Commissioner in 2019, Mr. Lickers was a member of the IJC’s current Great Lakes Science Advisory Board (SAB) since 2014. Mr. Lickers also served as a SAB member from 1987-91 and 1997-2000. He has been principle investigator on the EAGLE (Effect on Aboriginal in the Great Lakes Environment) Project and the Naturalized Knowledge Systems Project and the First Nations’ Community Health Indicators Project. Henry has been a Director, Ontario Professional Foresters Association, Scientific Co-Chair of The Haudenosaunee Environmental Taskforce, Vice President of the Board of Directors, St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences and a member of the Board of Directors for the Eastern Ontario Model Forest.

The recipient of a number of awards recognizing his lifelong service to the St. Lawrence River, and service to many environmental and government organizations over his career, Mr. Lickers was given an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from the State University of New York Syracuse.

He holds a Bachelor of Science (Biology and Geography) and undertook graduate studies at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and was a Trent University Ph D. Elder,Council member.

He has been married to his wife, Bev for 51 years and has three grown children and two granddaughters. He resides in Akwesasne, Ontario.

Curt Meine is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer based in Sauk County, Wisconsin.  He serves as Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation and Center for Humans and Nature; as Research Associate with the International Crane Foundation; and as Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Over the last three decades he has worked with a wide array of organizations at the intersection of biodiversity conservation, agriculture, water, climate change, environmental justice, and community resilience.  Meine has authored and edited several books, including the award-winning biography Aldo Leopold:  His Life and Work (1988/2010) and The Driftless Reader (2017).  He served as on-screen guide in the Emmy Award-winning documentary film Green Fire:  Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time (2011).  In his home landscape, he is a founding member of the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance.

Charity Nebbe became the host of Talk of Iowa in 2010. It was a homecoming for her as she moved back to her native state. She began her career in public radio at WOI Radio in Ames, Iowa when she was a student at Iowa State University and has been working in public radio ever since. Early in her career she created Chinwag Theater a nationally syndicated public radio show that she produced and co-hosted with well-known author Daniel Pinkwater. She spent ten years as a host and producer at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor.

In addition to her award winning radio work Charity is also the host of Iowa Ingredient on Iowa Public Television and the author of the children’s book “Our Walk in the Woods,” published in 2008. Charity is co-founder of Let Me Run Eastern Iowa Corridor, a character development and running program for boys.

Stephen Packard has worked for four decades to develop the practice and popular understanding of ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation. He was Director of Science and Stewardship for the Illinois Nature Conservancy (1983-1999) and Founding Director of Audubon Chicago Region (1999-2014). He taught at Northwestern University (2008-2013). He was the primary initiator of the Chicago Region Biodiversity Council (Chicago Wilderness) – now a globally respected collaboration of more than 200 national and local conservation-minded agencies. He collaborates with and counsels a wide variety of efforts to conserve biodiversity through good land stewardship and building constituency through “conservation communities” in which people and nature can re-establish mutually nourishing relationships in a changing world.

Packard initiated and helped to plan and implement many of Illinois’ larger ecological restoration projects including Bartel Grassland (750 acres), Orland Grassland (960 acres), Nachusa Grasslands (4,000 acres), and the restoration of the North Branch, Poplar Creek, Deer Grove, and Spring Creek Forest Preserves. He has extensive experience in the restoration of prairies, savannas, and oak woodlands. His work on the oak ecosystems has led to new insights that have clarified ideas about the composition and dynamics of these vanishing rare communities. Some have referred to this work in the 1980s as the “rediscovery” of this ecosystem.

At the Nature Conservancy and later with Audubon, he initiated and guided the Volunteer Stewardship Network. With thousands of volunteers working at hundreds of sites, this new approach served as models for the creation of similar projects by many agencies in other parts of the United States and internationally. With William Freyman and Linda Masters, he published the Universal Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) Calculator: an online tool for ecological assessment and monitoring.

He helped assemble and was a founding board member of the Society for Ecological Restoration, which now has members throughout the world and is the pre-eminent organization in this flourishing new field. He helped design and initiate the Mighty Acorns (youth stewardship program), Friends of the Forest Preserves, Chicago Wilderness Magazine, and Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves. He is a national Honorary Director of “Wild Ones: native plants, natural landscapes.”

Armando Quintero was named director for the California Department of Parks and Recreation on Aug. 18, 2020. An experienced parks professional with expertise in park operations, outdoor education, equity and access, and diversity and inclusion in hiring and retention, Quintero is an environmental scientist by training. Since 2015, he has been executive director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of California, Merced, where he was also director of development from 2008 to 2014. He has also served as a member of the California Water Commission since 2014.

Quintero held multiple positions at the National Park Service from 1976 to 1998, including chief of the Special Park Uses Group and district ranger at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, personnel staffing specialist for the National Park Service, park ranger and supervisory park ranger at the Point Reyes National Seashore and park ranger at the Sequoia National Park and at the John Muir National Historic Site.

Following his career at the National Park Service, he was an independent environmental educator for a decade, from 1998 to 2008. He has also served as member of the Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors since 2009.

Laura Rubin has spent more than 30 years working on environmental protection, policy, and conservation issues. She is currently the Director of the Healing Our Waters—Great Lakes Coalition, which has been harnessing the collective power of more than 160 groups representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes. The Coalition has earned a well-deserved reputation as a national leader in securing federal investment in regional ecosystem restoration efforts. Before that Rubin worked as executive director of the Michigan-based Huron River Watershed Council since 1998, where she transformed the nonprofit from a low-profile organization to a high-impact, high-visibility national leader in the field of watershed management. She has served as a board member or advisor to local, state, and national organizations including the Great Lakes Protection Fund, Michigan Environmental Council, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, the University of Michigan School Of Natural External Advisory Board, the City of Ann Arbor’s Greenbelt Commission, and others. For her national leadership in river protection, she received the River Network’s 2013 River Hero Award. She earned Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Natural Resource Policy at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute, and a Bachelor of Arts in business economics from Colorado College.

Mark Shepard is the CEO of Forest Agriculture Enterprises LLC, founder of Restoration Agriculture Development LLC and award-winning author of the book, Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers. Mark has also been a farmer member of the Organic Valley cooperative, the worlds largest Organic Farmer’s marketing co-op, since 1995. He is most widely known as the founder of New Forest Farm, the 106-acre perennial agricultural savanna considered by many to be one of the most ambitious sustainable agriculture projects in the United States.

New Forest Farm is a planned conversion of a typical row-crops grain farm into a commercial-scale, perennial agricultural ecosystem using oak savanna, successional brushland and eastern woodlands as the ecological models. Trees, shrubs, vines, canes, perennial plants and fungi are planted in association with one another to produce food (for humans and animals), fuel, medicines, and beauty. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and various fruits are the primary woody crops. The farm is entirely solar and wind powered and farm equipment is capable of being powered with locally produced biofuels.

Trained in both mechanical engineering and ecology, Mark has developed and patented equipment and processes for the cultivation, harvesting and processing of forest derived agricultural products for human foods and bio fuels production.

Mark was certified as a Permaculture designer in 1993 and received his Diploma of Permaculture design from Bill Mollison, the founder of the international Permaculture movement. He teaches agroforestry and Permaculture worldwide.

Alison Swan’s fifth book, A Fine Canopy (Wayne State University Press), was named one of the eleven most anticipated poetry releases of fall 2020 by Literary Hub and was a bestseller at Literati Bookstore. Her first book, Fresh Water: Women Writing on the Great Lakes, is a Michigan Notable Book. Numerous literary journals and anthologies have published her poems and environmental writing, including the eco-justice poetry anthology Ghost Fishing, edited by Melissa Tuckey. Alison has been awarded a Mesa Refuge Residency for her environmentally conscious writing and the Michigan Environmental Council’s Petoskey Prize for Grassroots Environmental Leadership. She is as concerned about the biodiversity crisis as the climate crisis. You can find her online at:  http://alisonswan.net.

Poet and writer Keith Taylor recently retired from the University of Michigan where he taught in the undergraduate and graduate programs in creative writing.

Recent publication: January 2021, Let Them Be Left, poems from Isle Royale published by Alice Greene & Co.

His sixteenth collection, The Bird-while, was published by Wayne State University Press February 2017. Ecstatic Destinations was published by Alice Greene & Co in 2018.

Keith’s work has appeared in such publications as Story, The Los Angeles Times, Alternative Press, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, The Iowa Review, Witness, Chicago Tribune, and Hanging Loose. Other books are Marginalia for a Natural History published by Black Lawrence Press, and Ghost Writers, a collection of ghost stories co-edited with Laura Kasischke, published by Wayne State University Press.