President

Term: April 2020 – 2022

Jesse Dillon, Cedar Creek Associates

Jesse Dillon is a Senior Ecologist for Cedar Creek Associates, Inc. which primarily provides reclamation and restoration consulting to the mining industry.  He earned B.S. in Rangeland Ecology with a focus on Restoration Ecology from Colorado State University in 2006.  He has been an ecologist working on reclamation and restoration projects since receiving his degree.  His interests focus on improving reclamation/restoration outcomes of large scale projects by using data driven outcomes to inform improved treatments.

Vice President

Term: April 2020 – April 2022

Brock Bowles, Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety

Brock Bowles works for the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety as an Environmental Protection Specialist.  His area of expertise is overseeing the permitting, monitoring and reclamation of mineral, hard rock and coal mines throughout Colorado.  He received his M.S. in Rangeland Management with a specialty in Restoration Ecology from Colorado State University in 2011.  Brock began his ecological restoration career in 2002 when he started leading volunteer crews on back-country projects restoring degraded public lands.

Past President

Term: April 2020 – April 2022

Mark PaschkeMark Paschke, Colorado State University

Mark Paschke is a Professor and the Shell Endowed Chair of Restoration Ecology in the Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University.  He also serves as Research Associate Dean for the Warner College.  He received his PhD in Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993.  He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Forestry from the University of Illinois.  Dr. Paschke has been a faculty member in WCNR since 2005.  Prior to 2005 he was a Research Scholar and Research Scientist at CSU. His research focuses on mechanisms controlling community assembly in terrestrial plant communities.  By elucidating these mechanisms his research team is able to guide restoration treatments for disturbed lands.  His research has been funded by US Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Interior, various state agencies and the energy and mining industries.  For much of his research career he has worked across multiple scales, from the molecular to the ecosystem level, and across multiple disciplines. He currently teaches classes in Restoration Ecology, Ecological Restoration, and Disturbance Ecology at CSU.

 

Treasurer

Term: April 2019 – 2021

Garrett Stephens, Jefferson Conservation District

Garrett is the Director of the Jefferson Conservation District. He joined JCD staff in 2014 to support the forest conservation program. He’s had a variety of work experiences in the Midwest and Western states in back-country leadership and natural resource management. He earned a B.S. in Environmental Biology from Greenville College in 2008 and a M.S in Ecology from Colorado State University in 2014.

 

Secretary

Term: April 2021 –

Rachel Puttmann, CORVUS Environmental Consulting

Rachel is a Biologist at CORVUS Environmental Consulting in Denver, CO. She has been an environmental consultant for over 14 years with an interest in habitat, including wetland, restoration work throughout the West. Rachel is a Colorado native and holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Colorado – Denver and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Colorado State University. Her interdisciplinary knowledge and experience within the environmental consulting world has given her the opportunity to work on a number of diverse projects throughout the U.S.

 

Outreach Committee Chair

Term: April 2018 – 2021

Michael Curran, University of Wyoming

Michael is a PhD student in Ecology at University of Wyoming, with research focused on restoration ecology associated with oil and natural gas development.  He has bachelors degrees in Biology, Geography and Ancient Greek & Roman Studies from University of Delaware and an M.S. in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management from University of Wyoming.  Mike’s dissertation work involves examining how insects and soils respond to drastic land disturbance and also focuses on how regulatory policies influence restoration outcomes.  He has worked with over 20 oil and gas companies and multiple state and federal government agencies during his time in Wyoming.

 

Membership Committee Chair

Term: April 2020 – 2022

Marenna Disbro, Jefferson Conservation District

Marenna is the Urban Agriculture and Noxious Weed Coordinator with the Jefferson Conservation District, having joined the team in 2019. She focuses primarily on noxious weed abatement as part of private land forest restoration projects along the Front Range in Colorado. Marenna is an emerging professional, having graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in 2017 with a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. Marenna’s interest and excitement for restoration originated from her time working in a restoration ecology lab at UNR, looking at population-level variation of native species for seed-based restoration experiments in Great Basin systems invaded by cheatgrass.

 

Communications Committee Chair

Term: April 2020 – 2022

Megan Bowes, City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Department

Megan is a Plant Ecologist with the City of Boulder’s Open Space and Mountain Parks Department where she manages the Ecological Restoration and Vegetation Community Mapping programs.  She likes things nearly all things plant and has a special interest in teaching plant ID and plant community ecology.  Megan has been a member of the Communications Committee and helps prepare the monthly SER Rocky Mountain Chapter e-newsletter—and she is happy to expand her role to help enhance communications with our chapter members.

 

Scientific Meeting Committee Chair

Term: April 2020 – 2022

Jeremy Sueltenfuss, Colorado State University

Jeremy is an Assistant Professor at Colorado State University and focuses on watershed, wetland and floodplain ecology and restoration. He has worked on restoration projects with the National Park Service, wetland mitigation policy with the Army Corps of Engineers, and is generally interested in the ecology of our landscape from a hydrologic perspective. His research scales from the movement of water within an individual plant to the biogeography of mountain wetlands throughout North and South America.

List of Past Presidents

  • Mark Paschke, 2018 – 2020
  • Brett Wolk, 2016 – 2018
  • Randy Mandel, 2014 – 2016
  • Mark Paschke, 2012 – 2014