Sense of Place Lecture April 13th, Forests, Wildfire, Timber Wars and Finding Common Ground: A Panel Discussion

Join Mt. Adams Institute for a Sense of Place lecture on, Forests, Wildfire, Timber Wars and Finding Common Ground, the lecture will me a panel discussion featuring Jay McLaughlin, Emily Platt, Susan Jane Brown, Les Perkins, which will be moderated by Sense of Place host/curator, Sarah Fox. on April 13th, 2022, at 7 p.m. (doors at 6:30 p.m.) at Columbia Center for the Arts in downtown Hood River*.

*Or online if public health guidelines change.

About the Lecture

One of the most diverse forest landscapes in the Pacific Northwest is encompassed within the Columbia River Gorge. Temperate rainforests in the west transition to arid pine-oak woodlands in the east. These varied forests are all part of a complex ecosystem with an increasingly complex set of challenges. From Spotted Owls and Timber Wars to an unprecedented risk of wildfire – forests have played an undeniable and often contentious role throughout the west. Here in the Gorge, the sale of large swaths of private timberland, increased outdoor recreation, changing local economies, and fire have the potential to forever alter the local landscape and with it, the entire Gorge community. So how did we get here and what might the future hold for our Gorge forests? Join us for this special Sense of Place Conversation featuring Jay McLaughlin, Emily Platt, Susan Jane Brown, Les Perkins, and moderated by Sense of Place host/curator, Sarah Fox.

Meet the Speakers

Susan Jane Brown is a staff attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC). Her primary focus of litigation is federal public lands forest management, but her practice includes cases involving the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, and other land management statutes. She is a former Co-Chair of the National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule and is also heavily engaged in collaborative forest restoration in the Upper John Day Basin in eastern Oregon.

Jay McLaughlin is the founding executive director of Mt. Adams Resource Stewards, a community-based forestry organization focused on land stewardship and sustainable forestry in the Mt. Adams region of southern Washington. Much of this work strives to connect local people to efforts to manage our working forest landscape in a way that promotes the well-being of both our rural communities and the forests that contribute so much to quality of life in the region. Prior to that, Jay was a forester for the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Yakama Reservation, a high school teacher and volunteer with the Peace Corps in Panama. Jay has a master in forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BA in Biology from Whitman College. He lives with his family in Glenwood, Washington.

Les Perkins grew up in the Hood River Valley and graduated from Hood River Valley High School then went on to earn a BS in Biology from Lewis and Clark College. Les has owned his own business and worked for a local laboratory as a microbiologist, helped start Farmers Conservation Alliance, a local non-profit organization focusing on energy and water issues, and has been the manager at Farmers Irrigation District since 2015. Les has been a Hood River County Commissioner since 2001 where he focuses on forestry, energy and water issues. Les has been particularly focused on Hood River County’s forestry operations and the intersection with recreation, a local resource economy, and funding of local government services.

Emily Platt is currently a special project coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Region of the Forest Service. She recently led a team that completed an amendment for six forest plans in eastern Oregon to make it easier to create more fire resistant and resilient forests. Prior to her current position, Emily served as district ranger for the Mt. Adams Ranger District of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest where she and her team worked to create a landscape more resistant to disturbances like wildfire and more resilient to other changes. The district developed an effective partnership with Washington State to get work done in the district’s most at-risk forests which supported high priority restoration work. Emily earned her PhD in forest resources at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry where she studied Forest Service governance and landscape resistance and resilience to wildfire. Emily is an avid trail runner, loves reading, and enjoys anything that gets her twin toddlers outside – puddles, bikes, skiing, camping.