Sarah Bates came to appreciate the role of beavers in riparian and watershed health through her work on western water issues with the National Wildlife Federation. She has been involved in several nonprofit boards and collaborative partnerships, including the Montana Beaver Working Group and the Montana Beaver Conflict Resolution Project. Now retired, Sarah enjoys a variety of outdoor activities from her home base in Missoula, Montana.
Mike Callahan is the founder of the Beaver Institute Inc. He received a B.A. from St. Michael’s College and worked for 20 years as a Physician Assistant providing medical care to under-served populations. He began saving beavers in 1998 after founding the Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers with his wife Ruth. In 2000 he started Beaver Solutions LLC and has personally resolved over 1,900 beaver-human conflicts. He teaches beaver workshops, started an online Beaver Management Forum on Facebook, and created an instructional DVD to teach others to do this work. In 2017 he founded the Beaver Institute, Inc. to promote coexistence with beavers for watershed restoration, biodiversity and climate resilience. His duties as President of the Beaver Institute include training BeaverCorps professionals across North America. In his spare time he loves being outdoors, reading, spiritual pursuits, and time spent with friends and family.
Scott McGill is the Founder and CEO of Ecotone, a design-build ecological restoration company located in Forest Hill, MD. Scott has over 30 years of applied experience in both design and construction of ecological restoration projects throughout the United States. He is a thought leader in the field of ecological restoration and has brought many new ideas and methods into the mainstream, including the use of native materials and the North American beaver to drive ecological and water quality outcomes His “less is more”, using nature to restore nature, approach to environmental restoration that incorporates conservation biology and adaptive management provides an innovative model for sustainable cost-effective ecological restoration. In addition to driving positive change to the ecological restoration industry, Scott has methodically scaled Ecotone from a small 2- person consulting firm in 2000 to a vertically integrated design-build company with over 80 employees. His firm has restored over 40 miles of stream and 1,400 acres of wetlands in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as preserving over 1,200 acres of land in perpetuity. He and his wife of 29 years currently reside in Fallston, MD, have three grown children, and two grandchildren. Outside of Ecotone, Scott is a certified Reiki Master Teacher and enjoys cycling, dog training, fly fishing, and adventure bikepacking.
Reese Mercer serves as the ‘Head Wrangler’ of the Western Beavers Cooperative, and founder of the Beaver Works Oregon program. Reese brings 20 years of nonprofit startup and board experience to Beaver Institute, complemented by 25 years of professional experience as a business and technology consultant.
John Whipple found his way to The Beaver Institute through a love of ecology and a background in corporate finance. With a degree in Theology, John joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps assisting adults with developmental disabilities at a farm and nursery through L’Arche Tahoma Hope. John then pursued a career in professional horticulture, resulting in a desire to serve the earth by promoting ecological restoration. Continuing to evolve, John changed careers to surety bonds, becoming an expert in financial analysis and business development.Advisory Board
WI – Bob Boucher MS – Water Resource Management UW Madison, WI. Founder of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, milwaukeeriverkeeper.org Retired Director of the Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation: He remains a strong advocate for beaver restoration in the Western Great Lakes areas of WI, MI, MN. and Ontario. You can contact him at rboucher1@me.com.
NY – Owen Brown PhD – Dr. Brown, has a PhD in Material Science, and is president of the educational nonprofit Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife (BWW). He was formerly a professor of chemistry and physics for 23 years, and co-founded BWW in 1985. BWW is based in New York State and provides beaver programs, practical advice about solving beaver/human problems and consulting nationwide and overseas.
CA – Brock Dolman – A wildlife biologist, Brock is currently the WATER Institute Director, and Director for the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center Wildlands and Permaculture Program, Since 2012 he has been co-leading the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign in California to integrate beaver stewardship into California policy and restoration in order to improve water quality and quantity, create critical wetland habitat for numerous endangered species and optimize aquatic resource conservation and climate change adaptation strategies. He is co-author of “Restoring Summer Base Flow under a Decentralized Water Management Regime: Constraints, Opportunities, and Outcomes in Mediterranean-Climate California” Water Journal (2017), co-author of Beaver In California: Creating A Culture of Stewardship (2016), co-author of “The Historical Range of Beaver in Coastal California: an updated review of the evidence” California Fish and Game Journal (2013) and co-author of “The historical range of beaver in the Sierra Nevada: a review of the evidence” California Fish and Game Journal (2012). He can be reached at brock@oaec.org at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, CA
OR – Suzanne Fouty – Dr. Fouty currently serves as a is a retired U.S. Forest Service Hydrologist/soils specialist.at Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, OR. She has a B.S. in Geology (University of Washington), a M.S. in Geosciences (University of Arizona) and a Ph.D. in Geography (University of Oregon) where she studied how cattle, elk, and beaver alter streams. She has worked as a Water Resource Specialist for the State of New Mexico on groundwater contamination issues, as an outdoor environmental educator, and done stream-related work for The Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land Management, Department of Justice, and environmental groups. In exploring the issue of water in the Intermountain West, she has learned about the social and political challenges and opportunities for stream restoration. Suzanne was included in the PBS Nature episode “Leave it to Beavers” in the Nevada segment.
CA – Sherry Guzzi – Co-founder of the nonprofit organization the Sierra Wildlife Coalition. The Sierra Wildlife Coalition promotes and provides humane and practical solutions for living with beavers, coyotes, and all local wildlife in the Lake Tahoe area. www.sierrawildlife.org/about-us
MA – Kara Holmquist – MSPCA Living with Wildlife Program, Nion Robert Thieriot Grant Program MA Soc. for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, MA
MA – Jeff Horan – US Fish and Wildlife Service
Jeff was a founding Director for the Beaver Institute, serving from 2017 to 2021. He was instrumental in guiding the organization in its early years. He continues to serve as a valuable resource to the Board. He is a wetlands and conservation leader with decades of experience working for federal, state and local governments. He has a B.S. degree in Forest and Wildlife Management from Virginia Tech and taught Forest Ecology and Conservation at Johns Hopkins Univ. Mr. Horan also helped develop award winning conservation programs that provide innovative federal, state and private, technical and financial assistance for private landowners to protect and restore forest, wildlife, wetland and stream resources.
OR – Leonard Houston
South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership, OR
OR – Lois Houston
South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership, OR
VT – Linda Huebner – Linda monitors properties for The Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust in the northeast. Her beaver advocacy has included being an original member of the Pioneer Valley Wetland Volunteers that pioneered flow device installations in MA, as well as administrator of the Nion Robert Thieriot Grant Program, an innovative and very successful flow device grant program for the MA Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
CA – Kate Lundquist – Kate is the WATER Institute Director, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center since 2012 has been co-leading the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign in California to integrate beaver stewardship into California policy and restoration in order to improve water quality and quantity, create critical wetland habitat for numerous endangered species and optimize aquatic resource conservation and climate change adaptation strategies. Lead author of Beaver In California: Creating A Culture of Stewardship (2016), co-author of “The Historical Range of Beaver in Coastal California: An Updated Review of the Evidence” California Fish and Game Journal (2013). Contact Kate at kate@oaec.org at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, CA
UT – Mary O’Brien
Grand Canyon Trust, UT
CA- Heidi Perryman – Dr. Perryman is the founder and President of Worth A Dam, a large grassroots nonprofit organization which started as an effort to protect beavers in her home town, expanded to become an important international beaver advocate and disseminator of beaver knowledge . A child psychologist, now she educates other cities about beaver benefits with a yearly festival and a website devoted to understanding beaver issues. Her Worth A Dam website and blog are major resources for progressive beaver management and advocacy. You can contact her at mtzbeavers@gmail.com.
OR- Stanley Petrowski – Founder and President of the South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership, a 501(c)3 supporting watershed restoration projects. He serves as Board liaison for the Beaver Advocacy Committee. Stan is President of Umpqua Watersheds, a Pacific northwest conservation organization. A zealous advocate of restoration ecology, his commitments include Lomakatsi Restoration Project, Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers and Native Fish Society South Umpqua River Steward.
WA – Michael Pollock
NOAA Fisheries – West Coast Region, WA
OR – Kathy Roberts
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Retired, OR
OR – Jakob Schockey – Owner of Beaver State Wildlife Solutions, which specializes in addressing frustrating conflicts with wildlife in a new way. He is a wildlife biologist and a published researcher in endangered species research. He’s worked professionally in Oregon’s aquatic ecosystems for over 6 years.
WA – Torre Stockard
Methow Beaver Project, WA
CA – Kevin Swift
Swift Water Design, CA
OR – Rob Walton – Senior Policy Advisor – Retired, Oregon-Washington Coastal Area Office, NOAA Fisheries – West Coast Region, OR
UT – Joe Wheaton – Dr. Wheaton is an Associate Professor of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University, UT
WA – Kent Woodruff
Methow Beaver Project, and the US Forest Service, WA