by Jon Steigerwaldt – Forest Conservation Director | Great Lakes Region
Staff Expansions
New positions at RGS & AWS are driven by our strategic growth in conservation delivery and in secured grants and funding agreements. Prior to 2020, the Great Lakes Team was managing less than $500,000 in habitat projects. In less than five years, this has grown to more than $7.25 million in grants and agreements with a variety of funding partners, including our Region 9 Stewardship Agreement with the U.S. Forest Service and 11 agreements with six national forests. In 2023 alone, our Wisconsin Private Lands Team assisted landowners in securing an additional $1.1 million in forest conservation funding through Farm Bill. This does not include grant applications and agreements currently in the works.
Bottom line? We’re growing rapidly. And we need staff to work across seven states – Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
In 2021, RGS & AWS only had three conservation delivery staff in the Great Lakes Region. By the end of 2023, our team had tripled (to nine conservation staffers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan).
This growth continued in the first quarter of 2024, with RGS & AWS filling several new positions:
- One, a first of its kind for RGS & AWS, is a forestry technician in Michigan who works under Upper Peninsula of Michigan Conservation Coordinator Seth Finkel.
- The next, a first of its kind for Minnesota, is a forest wildlife specialist for the Arrowhead Region. Wisconsin Forest Wildlife Specialist and Minnesota native Stefan Nelson is moving into that role. Based out of the Superior National Forest Office in Duluth, Stefan is working under our Minnesota Forest Conservation Coordinator Scott Johnson.
- The third position is a forest wildlife specialist for Wisconsin – our fifth such position in the state. It was filled through a lateral transfer within Wisconsin, with Sam Lau leaving his role as habitat biologist in Hayward to move closer to family in this new role.
- Also in Wisconsin, we expanded our leadership team, promoting Jared Elm to our first-ever Wisconsin conservation coordinator to oversee our forest wildlife specialists.
Another personnel change concerns Lower Peninsula of Michigan Conservation Coordinator Larry Partridge, who is moving home to Wisconsin.
By promoting staff within the organization, we’re able to maintain staff and foster a healthy work environment. RGS & AWS remains a great place to work – one where people can move up the ladder, find new challenges and opportunities for professional advancement, and enjoy a great working environment.
Looking Ahead
With this expansion comes a variety of new opportunities.
Since 2020, we have grown our conservation model in the region from a focus on small, discrete habitat projects to conservation implementation at a retail level. Following the pace of this growth in Minnesota and Wisconsin – growth that has moved from a retail level toward wholesale (large-scale) implementation – we are looking at next steps for other states in the region.
For Michigan, it means working toward completing seven open/active grants and agreements (See Figure 1.0.) and shifting toward that bigger, wholesale model. This also means continuing to increase funding and agreements (like the Region 9 Forest Service Agreement, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation MOU, and the Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever MOU) and building a private lands delivery program in Indiana and Ohio, as well as Michigan.
With our Michigan team pursuing an additional 700 acres of conservation grants and agreements in the first quarter of 2024 alone (see Figure 2.0), we are at an inflection point to plan conservation delivery in Michigan at a new wholesale level. Quite simply, the growth of the work we are doing in the region calls for new senior staff leadership.
Consequently, we are dividing the Great Lakes Forest Conservation Region into eastern and western divisions. Larry Partridge’s move – and consideration of how to address this vacancy in Michigan – resulted in our decision to add a senior-level forest conservation director position to continue to build out our growth in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.
In Ohio, we are securing a state coordinator position that will work with the ODNR to plan timber sales on state wildlife areas. We’re also exploring opportunities to fund private lands positions in lower Michigan, southern Indiana and eastern Ohio with key partner groups.
We’re thrilled and gratified to see our hard work and mission-focused efforts result in big wins for our forests and wildlife in the Great Lakes. These changes will result in open positions in the coming months. Check our website and follow us on social media to learn more … and to join the RGS & AWS team!
