SAWTOOTH FORUM & LECTURE SERIES
5pm Friday, July 12
Forum: Women in Wildfire
presented by Jolie Pollet, Melissa Wegner, and Samantha Cluff
Hear from three women who have worked in wildland firefighting across the West. The program will include perspectives from folks early in their career and seasoned professionals. Each will share some of their experience with time for audience questions.
Samantha Cluff has just begun her third summer working as a seasonal wildland firefighter and it’s her second year on the Sawtooth National Forest. She attends Western Colorado University where she is pursuing a degree in physics. She is active outside her academic life and holds leadership positions in a variety of clubs and organizations both at the university and in the community.
In the few years working in Fire, Cluff has learned the importance of having solid leadership, crew cohesion, and effective communication. She is passionate about sharing her experiences and gaining skills from peers and supervisors, so she can not only become an exceptional leader, but also inspire the next generation of confident leaders.
Melissa Wegner has worked in wildland fire since 1989. Every step of her career (Hotshot, Fuels, Prevention, Assistant and Fire Management Officer) has been a challenging and needed stepping stone in the path to where she is today: the Geographic Area Training Representative for the Northern Rockies.
As a Midwestern girl, paying for college was the impetus that brought Wegner to Fire but the people and the experiences kept her coming back until she accepted a permanent position in 1998. The importance of education played its role throughout her career whether in the form of a BAs in Public Administration and Technical Fire Management or as a secondary education teacher in the remote village of Grayling in the bush of Alaska. Wegner’s career in Fire has primarily been with the Forest Service but she has also worked for BLM’s Alaska Fire Service.
As a Program Manager for the Department of the Interior’s Office of Wildland Fire in Boise, Idaho, Jolie Pollet leads strategic efforts to reduce wildfire risk and promote wildfire resilience. Pollet previously served as the Fire Planning and Fuels Management Division Chief for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Boise at the National Interagency Fire Center from 2004 to 2022.
During her 29 years in wildland fire and natural resource management, Pollet also held roles with the BLM and United States Forest Service in Alaska, Utah, Oregon and Colorado. Pollet earned a Bachelor of Arts in geography from the University of New Orleans and a Master of Science in forestry and wildland fire from Colorado State University.
5pm Friday, July 26
Savoring the Sawtooths: Foraging as Stewardship in the Mountain West
presented by
Krista Willmorth
Forage: verb, “to go from place to place searching for things that you can eat or use." From morels and huckleberries to porcini and medicinal plants, the mountains of Idaho offer myriad opportunities for a forager to do just that. But is foraging sustainable? What if everyone suddenly decided to collect a portion of their diet from the wild? While introducing an array of edible and useful mushrooms and plants found in the Mountain West, Krista will discuss why she thinks teaching even more people to forage is one of the best ways to protect and preserve Idaho’s superb wilderness areas.
Krista Willmorth is the owner of FunGalForager.com, a business dedicated to sharing her experience foraging for edible mushrooms and other wild foods in Idaho and the Mountain West. Her eBook, How To Find Morel Mushrooms In Idaho And Beyond: A Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide, has helped many discover and identify their first wild morels.
5pm Friday, August 9
Bald Eagles: Celebrating a Successful Recovery! presented by Greg Kaltenecker, Director, Intermountain Bird Observatory
Greg will talk about bald eagle biology/life histories, status of their populations, threats, and some personal stories working with the species in the past.
Greg Kaltenecker co-founded IBO in 1992. He received his BS in Biology and his MS in Raptor Biology from Boise State University. Greg currently holds the Diane and Winston Moore Endowed Chair for the Director of the Intermountain Bird Observatory. Greg’s research passion is bird migration, and his lifelong pursuit is to educate the public about birds, science, and conservation. He believes that a strong public community presence is critical to being an effective scientist, and that the easiest way to accomplish conservation is through active public engagement.
5pm Friday, August 23
Salmon Stories
presented by our elders
Join us to kickoff Salmon Fest!
Enjoy stories from our elders, who remember seeing and experiencing salmon returning to Central Idaho decades ago.
Special thanks to DL Evans Bank for sponsoring this program!
Would you or your business like to sponsor a series program? Contact Lin for more details.
5pm Friday, September 13 at the Ketchum Community Library
Wolverines in Winter: Ecology and Conservation of a Rare Carnivore in Large Landscapes presented by Kimberly Heinemeyer, PhD
Kim will provide an overview of the little known and little understood wolverine, a species that occupies the mountains around us but which many of us have never seen or even realized were our neighbors. She will share results of research she and collaborators completed in central Idaho on wolverine responses to backcountry winter recreation and preview efforts to continue to monitor this elusive species.
Please RSVP to help the Community Library prepare for this free event.
Dr. Kimberly Heinemeyer is the Senior Scientist and Executive at Braided Knowledge Environmental Consulting, based in Bozeman, Montana. Kim received her M.S. and PhD in Wildlife Biology and Conservation Biology, respectively and her research then and now has included a fascination with species we know little about and see even less – the ‘mid-sized’ carnivores that we share wild spaces with including wolverines, fishers and American marten. More broadly, she has spent her career pursuing her interest in the ecological, cultural and conservation values of large wild landscapes and the wide-ranging species that require them, including in the US Rocky Mountains, northwestern Canada and southern Africa.
She and colleagues completed a 6-year research effort in central Idaho, including the Sawtooth NRA and surrounding landscapes, to document responses of wolverines to backcountry winter recreation. This study represents one of the most intensive studies undertaken to date looking at responses of a wide-ranging species to winter recreation. In on-going partnerships with federal and state agencies, Kim has continued to advance research and monitoring of wolverines and backcountry winter recreation to glean more insights into this fascinating species and the landscapes it occupies.
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Special thanks to a private citizen who loves wolverine for sponsoring this program!
Would you or your business like to sponsor a series program? Contact Lin for more details.
This series is brought to you by:
The MacNichol Family, in honor of Roland MacNichol
Val A Browning Foundation
With program support from:
In partnership with:
