Board of Directors

Board of Directors


Lisa Hintz

Lisa Hintz is a botanist and former MRC Project Coordinator who has served on the Board since 2019. At Evergreen State College she studied botany, terrestrial plant ecology, and environmental history with a focus on fire-adapted native grassland/oak savanna ecosystems that are being replaced by Douglas-fir, Scotch broom, and non-native grasses – a situation nearly identical to the one we find in the Mattole.

Loren Miller – Chair

Our Board Chair since 2020, Loren Miller has been an engaged Board member since 2009. Loren’s 36 years of experience as a manager in the Federal civil service working for the U.S. Navy in Ventura County has helped on Board issues particularly those involving personnel and finance and he has been a consistent leader on the Finance and Personnel Committees. Loren supported the creation of our endowment fund and advocated for the development of “greener” investment options with Humboldt Area Foundation. Loren lives between Arcata and Ventura.

Nathan Queener

Nathan Queener has lived in the Mattole watershed since 2007 and worked for the MRC most of that time, including two years as the Executive Director from 2018-2020. Currently Nathan co-coordinates Mattole Salmon Group juvenile and adult salmonid monitoring work. He also has experience in in-stream habitat and sediment monitoring, and riparian restoration. He completed a M.S. in Watershed, Wildland and Forest Science from Humboldt State University in 2015. take a broad view of the MRC’s mission and feel that it is important for the organization to continue to be flexible and adapt and change to fit new needs in the watershed community, and current knowledge of land management and ecology. I am excited to see the organization’s capacity grow in the area of forest management. I would like to see forestland again be a way to earn a living in the valley. I am confident that this can be done in a way that continues to support and even promotes the ecological richness of the place.

Edwin Smith

A Bear River Tribal Member, Edwin Smith is the Emergency Services Coordinator for the Northern California Indian Development Council. Before taking this position he was employed as Environmental and Natural Resources Director for the Bear River Band for over twenty years and served on the Tribal Council for many years as Vice Chairman. Edwin also served as Tribal Representative to the North Coast
Resource Partnership. Edwin is familiar with both local history and traditional cultural knowledge of the Mattole Valley. Edwin served on the Board years ago and returned in 2021. He is committed to establishing a working relationship between the MRC and the Tribe is very important since the Mattole Valley is his ancestral home.

Sue Jamison

A retired lawyer and life-long supporter of watershed restoration and conservation work, Sue Jamison joined our Board in 2022 and has been a part time Mattole resident for 40 years– spending time up Conklin Creek gardening, mushroom hunting, kayaking. hiking, birdwatching, tending to orchards. Sue brings a strong understanding of the role that the Board of Directors plays in fulfilling a non-profit organization’s mission through service as a board member of two legal non-profits — the Lawyer’s Committee of the San Francisco Bay Area, and California Changelawyers.

Gary “Fish” Peterson

Gary has worked as a biologist, laborer, volunteer, and occasional board member with environmental and community organizations in the Mattole River watershed for nearly 40 years. Along with David Simpson and Freeman House, in 1980 he co-founded the Mattole Salmon Group (MSG), a leading non-profit in community-based salmon enhancement and habitat restoration on the Northcoast and partner organization of the MRC. He sat in the shade of the historic Council Madrone near Ettersburg in July 1983 when the MRC was first formed. In 1986 he was a founding board member of the Salmonid Restoration Federation (SRF), California’s foremost non-profit in promoting restoration and stewardship of the state’s native salmon, steelhead, and trout populations and their
habitat. In addition to serving as SRF’s first Secretary from 1986-89, He was awarded the organization’s highest honor in 1995 when he became the recipient of their annual Restorationist of the Year Award. He is presently semi-retired and works part-time for the MSG, but wants to become more strongly engaged with the MRC and put his decades of local knowledge and experience to better use on our Board of Directors.

Bob Roscoe – Vice Chair

Rob Roscoe was born and raised in Humboldt County with roots that run deep in the Mattole Valley.  His very earliest memories are of fishing the Mattole with his grandfather, Stan Roscoe, before the flood in 1964, on the family ranch between Petrolia and Honeydew. He has witnessed firsthand how logging and land use practices impacted the Mattole watershed in the ‘60’s, ‘70’s and ‘80’s, and has watched how more recent efforts have demonstrated that focused and science-based efforts can aid restoration efforts. Rob’s professional background is on the “wet” side of Civil Engineering, and he’s spent over 40 years working in water resources as a private engineering consultant, and in engineering and executive management of public water supply systems.

We appreciate Rob’s quote that “If a watershed can die by a thousand cuts, perhaps we can accelerate healing with a thousand surgically applied bandages.”

Jane Lapiner

Jane Lapiner joined our Board in 2021. A Mattole resident since the 1970’s, she has been a longtime supporter of restoration and conservation–spreading the word about salmon restoration, forest defense and climate change with her husband David Simpson (co-founder of the Mattole Salmon Group) with a traveling family theater troupe “Human Nature” for many years. Jane has attended ten of the last eleven UN climate conferences and regularly volunteers in the schools engaging the next generation of environmental stewards with theater.

Cassie Pinnell – Treasurer

Cassie Pinnell is our new Treasurer and served as the Executive Director of the MRC from 2013 to 2017. Prior to that she contributed to the Watershed Plan as a consultant and served on the MRC Board. Cassie has a MS in Biology from San Francisco State University and is a Senior Ecologist at Vollmar Natural Lands Consulting. Recently Cassie has been focused on developing public-private partnerships for large-scale restoration and conservation work. Cassie also serves on the Lost Coast Camp Board of Directors, and is the Board President for the California Society for Ecological Restoration (SERCAL).

Monica Scholey

Monica Scholey is a former MRC Nursery Manager who first moved to and fell in love with the Mattole in 2008. She is currently a Project Coordinator with the Smith River Alliance. Her work is focused on stream and riparian restoration in the agricultural landscape of the lower Smith River floodplain. Monica grew up on the Oregon coast and spends most of her free time with her family at the ocean.

Maria Vollmar – Secretary

Like so many of us, Maria fell in love with the Mattole the first time she set foot in the valley.  She was just a teenager but felt the magic of the landscape and the community, leading her to return every summer for weeks at a time as a counselor and eventually director for Lost Coast Camp. After graduating from UC Davis in 2020 with a degree in Wildlife Conservation Biology, Maria moved to Petrolia for a full year and worked for the MRC Native Plant Nursery and assisted with other projects as needed. In addition to her work with the MRC, Maria has worked in outdoor education and environmental consulting. She is most passionate about restoring and maintaining natural systems that include human involvement.

Contact us if you have any questions about our Board of Directors or are interested in running for the Board.