Mark Bransom, Chief Executive Director

Mark Bransom, Executive Director of the KRRC, brings over 20 years of planning, engineering, and construction experience in water resources and environmental management for state and local governments, federal agencies, Tribal Nations, NGOs, and private sector clients throughout the Western United States. In additional to his technical expertise, Mark is a skilled facilitator with experience building consensus among diverse project stakeholders and developing highly collaborative and transparent processes. Mark comes to KRRC from CH2MHill where he worked as a Senior Vice President in Water Resources & Environmental Management and oversaw a variety of large water infrastructure and environmental restoration projects. He was also previously a member of the faculty at Oregon State University, where he taught, conducted research, and consulted on natural resources management and infrastructure projects. Mark holds a BS in Natural Resources Planning from Humboldt State University and earned his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Oregon State University.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lester Snow, President

Appointed by: State of California

Senior Advisor, Water Foundation

Lester Snow is a consultant on natural resource policy and most recently served as the Executive Director of the Water Foundation. Mr. Snow has a long career working on complex natural resource management matters. He has served as Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Director of the California Department of Water Resources, Regional Director of the Bureau of Reclamation, Executive Director of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, and General Manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. Lester currently serves on the Board of Directors for California Water Services Group and the Water Education Foundation. He holds a Master’s degree in Water Resources Administration from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor’s degree in Earth Sciences from Pennsylvania State University.

"Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday announced the appointment of Lester Snow as director of the California Department of Water Resources... Snow has over 25 years of experience working in public water resource management. ... Prior to that, he served as the Mid-Pacific regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. KWUA Executive Director Dan Keppen served as Snow’s special assistant at Reclamation in 2000-01." KBC NOTE: since then Keppen has worked for KWUA on the OnProject Plan, is current director of Family Farm Alliance, and is co-chair of Klamath 'Coalition of the Willing' with Karuk spokesman Craig Tucker, former Friends of the River, and board member of Klamath Riverkeeper

Jim Root, Vice President

Appointed by: State of Oregon

Former NFWF Board Member; Former Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust Founder; Former President, Sabroso

Root's biography

Jim was owner and chief executive officer of Sabroso Company, an international food-processing company dedicated to maintaining sustainable operations. Jim has a strong interest in encouraging international trade, and he founded the Southern Oregon International Trade Council. Beyond trade, Jim is internationally recognized for his knowledge of sustainable farming practices and is focused on developing processed-food markets for agricultural communities in Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina.

He was president of the Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust, which merged with Trout Unlimited, chairman of the Crater Lake National Park Trust, and served on the Board of Directors of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Klamath County Cattlemen’s Association letter to Klamath County Commissioners 10/1/13 regarding Root's Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust

KBC's Trout Unlimited page - articles detailing who runs TU

Root's daughter Chrysten Lambert was on Klamath River Compact Commission, former Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust director, and current Trout Unlimited Water Project Director. Richard Roos-Collins was appointed at KRRC Vice President by American Rivers, California Trout, Klamath Riverkeeper, Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers, Salmon River Restoration Council, Sustainable Northwest, and Trout Unlimited

Leon Szeptycki Secretary/Treasurer

Appointed by: Governor Jerry Brown

Executive Director, Water in the West; Professor of the Practice, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

Leon Szeptycki is Professor of the Practice at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. He serves as executive director of Water in the West, a joint program of the Woods Institute and the Bill Lane Center for the American West. Mr. Szeptycki previously taught at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he led the Environmental Law and Conservation Clinic, and has served as general counsel and eastern conservation director at Trout Unlimited. Mr. Szeptycki has extensive experience in water law and policy, and in implementing large-scale watershed restoration projects.

Natalie Arroyo, Director

Appointed by: State of California

Eureka City Council Member

Natalie Arroyo lives in Eureka, CA where she currently serves on the Eureka City Council. Ms. Arroyo has worked on a wide range of watershed restoration, public health, and community organizing projects throughout Humboldt County and neighboring Northern California over the past 13 years. Ms. Arroyo is a proud veteran and continues to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve. She is a lecturer at Humboldt State University within the Department of Environmental Science and Management. Ms. Arroyo has previously served on the boards of the Salmonid Restoration Federation, Humboldt Trails Council, and multiple community benefit organizations local to the Humboldt Bay area, and has worked as a California Conservation Corpsmember and with the Mattole Salmon Group. She also currently serves as Eureka’s representative to the Humboldt Transit Authority. She is passionate about watershed health, active forms of transportation, effective community engagement, and the relationship between people and place – particularly in rural and geographically isolated community settings.

Michael Barr, Director

Appointed by: Governor Jerry Brown

Partner, Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman LLP

Michael Barr has been a partner at Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman LLP since 1981, where he was an associate from 1973 to 1981. He is a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers Board of Regents. He recently served on the Board of Trustees and as a Board Officer (Secretary) of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Barr earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.

Ricardo Cano

Appointed by: State of California

Project Director, Element Consulting Inc.

Ricardo has been a project director at Element Consulting Inc. since 2016. Mr. Cano has more than 25 years of experience in program and project management, successfully delivering over 200 projects over the course of his career. Mr. Cano is a graduate of the California State University, Los Angeles, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, Operations. He is affiliated with various local and national trade associations, such as the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) where he currently serves as Co-Chair of the Program Planning Committee.

Michael Carrier, Director

Appointed by: State of Oregon

Former Idaho Supervisor, US FWS

Mike became the supervisor for the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office in the Pacific Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014. Previously, Carrier was Assistant Regional Director for Fishery Resources and Coordinator of the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative, forging a major new regional natural resource partnership to address impacts of climate change across a large landscape. Carrier had been former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski’s principal adviser on all natural resource and environment issues from 2004 to 2010. In Oregon, Carrier helped establish the Renewable Energy Opportunities and Eastern Oregon Landscape Conservation Partnership. Earlier in his carrier, he was Director of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department for four years.

Amy Cordalis, Director

Appointed by: Yurok Tribe

Newsom appoints Yurok attorney Amy Cordalis of McKinleyville to California Water Commission Times Standard 1/14/2021 - SACRAMENTO – Among the appointments announced today by Governor Gavin Newsom:
Amy Cordalis, 40, of McKinleyville, has been appointed to the California Water Commission. Cordalis, Democrat and member of the Yurok Tribe, has been General Counsel for the Yurok Tribe since 2016 and served as a Staff Attorney for the Tribe from 2014 to 2016. She was Staff Attorney at Berkey Williams LLP from 2012 to 2014 and at the Native American Rights Fund from 2007 to 2012. Cordalis is a member of the Klamath River Renewal Corporation Board of Directors. She earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Denver College of Law. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem.

Wendy (Poppy) Ferris-George, Director

Appointed by: Karuk Tribe

Hoopa Valley Tribe member and former Council Member

Mrs. Ferris- George is a former Vice-Chair and Council Member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. She has worked for years on the campaign to remove Klamath River dams. Mrs. Ferris-George is an enrolled Hupa Tribal Member and also descends from the Karuk and Yurok Tribes. She has spent her life fishing on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers and is heavily involved with those that depend on the Klamath River for subsistence and economic purposes. Mrs. Ferris-George studied Anthropology at Sonoma State University and has studied the Klamath Basin for decades.

Glen Spain, Director

Appointed by: Institute for Fisheries Resources and Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations

Northwest Regional Director and Salmon Protection Program Director, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) and the Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR)

Since 1978, Mr. Spain has been an effective and vocal advocate for better watershed and riparian protections for west coast salmon rivers on both private and public lands, has served on advisory committees to the Boards of Forestry in both California and Oregon and for Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and has served as the fishing industry representative for several years to the Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force, a federal FACA committee created under the Klamath River Basin Fisheries Resource Restoration Act (PL 99-552) that advised federal agencies on salmon habitat restoration efforts in the Klamath for nearly two decades until it was superseded in about 2005. He currently is the fishing industry representative to the Klamath Settlement Agreements process as well as PCFFA/IFR representative to the Klamath Hydropower Settlement Agreement (KHSA) process. Mr. Spain continues in his capacity as PCFFA/IFR Northwest Regional Director as an advocate for sustainable aquatic resource use, and the protection and recovery of salmon runs throughout northern California and the Pacific Northwest. He is also the recipient of the 1993 David Simmons Award for Environmental Vision from the Oregon Natural Resources Council (now Oregon Wild), Oregon’s largest environmental protection organization, and in 2016 was co-awarded the Attorney of the Year Award by the State of California State Bar Journal for landmark work on the Public Trust Doctrine as applied to water law in California. He is admitted to practice law in both California and Oregon and in several federal jurisdictions, and additionally serves as PCFFA/IFR General Legal Counsel.

Here is the story by PCFFA how they created IFR to get non-profit funding, namely, George Soros-funded Earthjustice. Several other NGOs (non-governmental agencies like Klamath Riverkeeper) join in the lawsuits against irrigators, miners, loggers, grazers, and mostly use Soros and partners sponsored attorneys, Earthjustice.

Brian Johnson, Director

Appointed by: American Rivers, California Trout, Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers, Salmon River Restoration Council, Sustainable Northwest, and Trout Unlimited

California Director, Trout Unlimited

Brian Johnson is the California Director for Trout Unlimited (TU). TU is the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit working to conserve, protect, and restore North America’s trout and salmon rivers, with about 15,000 members in Oregon and California. Brian and his colleagues at TU have long worked to settle the fisheries, water, and power issues in the Klamath River with its partners in tribal government and irrigated agriculture, including the Klamath Hydropower Settlement Agreement. Brian joined TU in 2005, led TU’s California Water Project for 6 years, and became the state director in 2011. Before TU, Brian worked at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, was the Communications Director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 1993-97, and was the co-creator and manager of EPA’s first “Energy Star” initiative from 1991-93. Brian grew up in Iowa and graduated from Duke University and Stanford Law School.

Theodore (Ted) Kulongoski, Director

Appointed by: State of Oregon

Former Oregon Governor

Governor Ted Kulongoski served as Oregon’s 36th governor from 2003-2011 – becoming the first Oregon Governor to serve in all three branches of state government. He served as the Associate Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1997 to 2001 and Attorney General from 1993 to 1997. He also served in the Oregon State House and Senate. He has served as a Distinguished Fellow of Politics and Policy at Portland State University.

Laura Rose Day, Director

Appointed by: American Rivers, California Trout, Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers, Salmon River Restoration Council, Sustainable Northwest, and Trout Unlimited

Principal, Source to Sea Consulting

Ms. Rose Day, a Principal in Source to Sea Consulting, Maine, brings unique experience in the development and implementation of results-based approaches to improving relationships between people and natural resources. In 1999-2016, Laura helped lead the Penobscot River Restoration Project, a collaboration engaging tribal, state, federal, hydropower, non-profit and private interests in an effort to significantly open access for depleted sea-run fish on the largest watershed within Maine. As Executive Director of the non-profit Penobscot River Restoration Trust, she oversaw all aspects translating a complex legal agreement into successful on-the-ground restoration, including the purchase and decommissioning of three dams, removal of two and bypass of a third, and related work with people of the region. Previously, Laura served as counsel to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, managed the National Wildlife Federation’s Lake Superior and Biodiversity Project, and directed the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s Watershed Program.

Krystyna Wolniakowski, Director

Appointed by: Oregon Governor Kate Brown

Executive Director, Columbia River Gorge Commission

Krystyna U. Wolniakowski has served as the Executive Director of the bi-state Columbia River Gorge Commission since 2015. Before joining the Commission, Krystyna led the Western Regional Office of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in Portland for more than 14 years as Regional Director, managing conservation grant-making programs, fundraising and developing regional partnership in seven western states, including serving on the National Fish Habitat Board for 10 years. She worked in the Klamath Basin since 2000 and initiated the NFWF Klamath Basin Keystone Initiative in 2008, a watershed partnership program to restore habitat in the upper and lower Klamath Basin for ESA-listed Coho salmon and sucker species in California and Oregon.  In 2014-2015, she served as science advisor for development of the statewide Focused Investment Partnerships Program for the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB).  From 1991-2000, she worked for the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. as Director for Central and Eastern Europe, developing programs for conservation, economic, and democratic reforms in seven countries after the fall of the Berlin wall.

Richard Roos-Collins, KRRC General Counsel

Appointed by: American Rivers, California Trout, Klamath Riverkeeper, Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers, Salmon River Restoration Council, Sustainable Northwest, and Trout Unlimited

Principal, Water and Power Law Group

Mr. Roos-Collins is an attorney specializing in settlements of complex cases involving multiple parties, interests, and laws in natural resources management. He is Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco Law School. He is a Director of the Pacific Forest Stewardship Council and General Counsel of the Hydropower Reform Coalition. He served as Board Chairman of the Low Impact Hydropower Institute. He was a member of Delta Stewardship Council; Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice; and Attorney-Advisor, Office of General Counsel, U.S Environmental Protection Agency.

"appointed by Sustainable Northwest"

***NHI partners, collaborators and funders: http://n-h-i.org/about-nhi/partners-collaborators-funders/  KBC Note: they are pretty much essentially the anti-dam and anti-Klamath Farmer groups who have ever sued us and other Klamath River Basin resource users. NHI has been hired by the NGO's who appointed him to the KRRC leadership. Partner MBK Engineers worked for Klamath Water Users Association on their On-Project Plan 

Curtis Knight, Alternate Director for Laura Rose Day

Appointed by: American Rivers, California Trout, Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishers, Salmon River Restoration Council, Sustainable Northwest, and Trout Unlimited

Executive Director, California Trout

Scott Williams, Alternate Director for Amy Cordalis

Appointed by: Yurok Tribe

Partner, Berkey Williams

Mr. Williams has an extensive background in complex civil litigation. Mr. Williams began an affiliation with his current partners in 1997; the firm represents, exclusively, Indian tribes and tribal organizations throughout the United States. His practice focuses on representation in the areas of water rights and natural resources, cultural site protection, and employment relations.

With Professor Eric Biber, Mr. Williams teaches Federal Indian Law, and along with his partners, the Advanced Indian Law seminar at Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall).