The Plank Stewardship Initiative was established with the belief that the future health of high plains ecosystems depends on land managers and landowners’ ecological, financial and social stewardship. Ranchers and farmers must make a living in order for the high plains landscapes to be managed for resiliency and ecologic health. Long-term sustainability depends on profitability as well as ecologic and social integrity. One issue cannot be maximized or neglected at the expense of other two.

OUR STAFF

**Milward Simpson** ***Executive Director***

Contact Milward: milward.simpson@plankstewardship.org

Milward Simpson has enjoyed a diverse career in Wyoming as a nonprofit organization and state government agency manager working in conservation, parks and recreation, historic preservation and the arts.

As a fifth generation Wyomingite, Milward’s love of ranching and conservation was instilled at a young age. He spent numerous childhood summers on the extended family ranch down the South Fork of the Shoshone River southeast of Cody, WY and, in high school and college, he worked summers as a ranch hand in Parkman, WY.

As Wyoming State Chapter Director for The Nature Conservancy, Milward advanced science-based projects to protect Wyoming’s large ungulate migration corridors, to improve the health of Wyoming’s sagebrush and grassland ecosystems, to mitigate invasive trees, grasses and noxious weeds and to work with individual producers to establish new conservation easements. As Director of the Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources, Milward worked to conserve and promote hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands for outdoor recreation. He helped establish the first agency efforts to prevent the invasion of Quagga and Zebra mussels in Wyoming waters. He partnered with the Department of Agriculture to create a new strategic plan for the Wyoming State Fair and he helped establish new historic sites showcasing Wyoming’s ranching history, such as “Cattle King” and early 20th century politician John Kendrick’s LX Bar Ranch in Campbell County.

Milward has chaired a number of local and statewide boards including the Wyoming Humanities Council, Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board, and Wyoming Recreation Action Team (REACT). During the administration of Governor Matt Mead, Milward chaired both his Jobs and Workforce subcabinet and his Energy and Natural resources subcabinet where he helped to leverage public agency partnerships to promote the balance between sustainable energy development and the conservation of Wyoming’s wildlife and wide-open landscapes.

Milward holds a BA in Music Performance from the University of Wyoming and a Master of Humanities from the University of Colorado at Denver. His wife, Amy, is a long-time music educator, public education advocate and green thumb. In addition to enjoying time with his three adult children and two grandchildren, Milward enjoys traveling, spending time in Wyoming’s great outdoors, and partnering with Amy in the garden and in the kitchen!

OUR BOARD

Leah Burgess, Chair Tressa Lawrence, Secretary Mantha Phillips Dr. Ben Rashford

Katie Meiklejohn, Treasurer Marty Zeller (ex officio) Dr. Kristie Maczko Travis Brammer

Charlie Bettigole, Vice Chair Beth White Bea Gordon. Dr. Caitlin Youngquist

Tressa Lawrence | *Secretary*

Tressa is a fifth generation cattle rancher in northeast Wyoming. She has her M.S. in Agricultural Communications from Texas Tech University and puts it to use through her freelance writing and photography business. Tressa is passionate about ranching and agriculture, and helping those within the industry to maintain their livelihoods while encouraging younger generations, especially women, to come back to the ranch.

Katie Meiklejohn | *Treasurer*

Katie has over 15 years of experience in landscape-scale conservation and has worked extensively with ranchers to identify strategies that simultaneously enhance ecological health, financial success and human well-being. Currently, Katie is the Senior Partner at Ranch Advisory Partners, where she oversees the company's Rangeland Health Monitoring Program. Prior to joining Ranch Advisory Partners, she headed up the Sonoran Institute’s Working Landscapes Program in the Northern Rockies, was a Program Director for American Wildlands and helped get the Center for Large Landscape Conservation established in Bozeman, MT. Katie is a Kinship Conservation Fellow and obtained a Master’s in Conservation Biology from Columbia University. She lives in the Blackfoot Valley of Montana.

Bea Gordon

She is a professional with experience in hydrology and related fields including work in industry, non-profits, government agencies, and academia. Her proficiencies include research design, data collection, processing, and analysis in addition to domestic/international project management. Her interest is the intersection of science and policy where she hopes to join her technical expertise with bigger questions about the fate of water resources in the U.S. and abroad.

Marty Zeller | Honorary Member - Ex Officio

He is a president of Denver based Conservation Partners. Marty works throughout the western states as an advisor to conservation leaning land owners and managers. He has extensive experience in conservation easements and development. He served on the Ucross Foundation Board of Directors for many years.

Dr. Caitlin Youngquist

Caitlin Youngquist holds a PhD in soil science. She has lead research and extension projects, taught, and published on regenerative agriculture, soil health, no-till farming and gardening, cover crops, compost, ancient grains, community food security, and mental health in agriculture. Years of working with multi-generational farms and ranches has helped her appreciate the human components of soil health and regenerative agriculture. She loves working with land managers and soil stewards to help them implement restoration strategies and soil health practices on operations large and small. She lives in Northwest Wyoming with her husband where they grow vegetables and own a compost and soil business (Dirt Works). Caitlin is also a licensed hunting guide specializing in helping new hunters learn about ethical harvest of wild game, and serves as a volunteer firefighter in her home town.

Travis Brammer

Travis Brammer is the Property and Environment Research Center's (PERC) Director of Conservation, overseeing PERC’s Conservation Innovation Lab and all field projects. Travis was raised in Colorado, as the seventh generation of a ranching family. Travis is passionate about the intersection of conservation and agriculture and has spent his career trying to advance both.

He began his career at the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust rising to become the group’s Interim Conservation Director. He later graduated with honors from the University of Wyoming College of Law and most recently served as a Conservation Fellow at the Ruckelshaus Institute and MacMillan Private Lands Stewardship Program. He continues his engagement with the University through an adjunct professorship.

**Leah Burgess |**
***Chair***

Leah is a Senior Conservation Program Manager for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and has been involved in land conservation work for over 25 years in both the private and public sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Resources Recreation and Tourism from Colorado State University, and a Master’s Degree in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Science from the University of Wyoming. She raises a family near Laramie, Wyoming where her other interests include horses, leatherwork, rivers, gardening, playing music, and growing her community.

Charlie Bettigole | *Vice Chair*

Charlie is the Director of the GIS Center for Interdisciplinary Research at Skidmore College. As a member of the faculty, Charlie teaches GIS and remote sensing courses, and focuses on connecting students with a diverse array of applied, real-world research projects.
Charlie has a background in Wildlife Biology and Spatial Ecology (M.S. University of Vermont). He is broadly interested in leveraging the latest technologies in geoinformatics and data science to help solve pressing ecological dilemmas. His current research is focused on optimizing sampling designs for mapping soil carbon, national-scale analyses of grazing system resiliency, and remote sensing of invasive species in the Adirondack Park, NY. Research highlights include a spatially-explicit count of the number of trees on earth (3.04 trillion) and building tools and techniques to support large-scale mapping of soil carbon (stratifi web tool).

**Kristie Maczko**

Dr. Kristie Maczko is a Research Scientist at the University of Wyoming and Executive Director of the Sustainable Rangelands Roundtable (SRR). She was previously the co-director of Colorado State University’s Rangeland Resources Institute. Dr. Maczko has spent over 20 years working with government agency personnel, policy experts, economists, sociologists, rangeland ecologists, professional societies, producer groups and other stakeholders to advance rangeland sustainability. She works with interdisciplinary SRR research teams exploring rangeland ecosystem goods and services, soil health, and economic aspects of conservation practices and rangeland management for livestock and wildlife. She serves on the boards of the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and the Plank Stewardship Initiative, as well as the National Grazing Lands Coalition’s Advisory Committee. She earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from Colorado State University, M.S. in Recreation from University of Memphis, and B.A. in Journalism and B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Rutgers University.

Mantha Phillips

Mantha is a managing partner of the Purdy Ranch, a cow-calf operation near Buffalo WY Mantha also served as the State Director for Congresswoman Barabra Cubin overseeing all federal issues in Wyoming as well as working with local, state and federal agencies. She has served as Chairman of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Land Trust, Wyoming Pari-Mutual Commission and Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom. She has a keen interest in conservation, particularly of Wyoming’s agricultural landscape, along with the families and the communities they support.

Ben Rashford

Dr. Rashford is the Department Head of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming. He specializes in natural resource economics with emphases on wildlife conservation and management in agro-ecosystems.

Dr. Rashford has worked extensively on the economics of wildlife management and habitat conservation. His work in this area has ranged from the design of cost-effective species and location specific management plans to spatially targeting conservation across broad landscapes. Much of his work in this area has focused on quantifying the economic and ecological tradeoffs between agricultural or energy production, and conservation. Dr. Rashford’s research has contributed to the policymaking process for numerous private and public entities, including Ducks Unlimited, US Forest Service, WY Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust Fund, Environmental Protection Agency and USDA Animal Health and Plant Inspection Service.

Our Founder

PSI was created by Raymond Plank, an entrepreneur with a long and successful business and philanthropic history: Raymond Plank’s commitment to land and water is unwavering. In 2014 at the age of 92, he launched the Plank Stewardship Initiative (PSI) to extend his stewardship work and with the belief that the people who live and work on the land must be able to make a living in order for land and water to become resilient. The organization has been designed to reflect Plank’s belief in the people who work the land and the values demonstrated in so many of his life endeavors. He reminds us that individuals possess immense creative potential that can contribute.