Background
GRMW ProjectsGRMW Board of Directors
- Who are the GRMW Directors and what do they do?
- Who do the GRMW Directors Represent?
GRMW Board of Directors
Since the inception of the GRMW in 1992, the 15-member board of directors has provided tireless leadership in directing the program toward its mission and goals. Representing virtually all aspects of natural and human resources in the Grande Ronde and Imnaha subbasins, the board has been the underpinning of the GRMW for more than a decade, and it remains the foundation for a successful future.
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The GRMW Board meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month, click here for more details and to view minutes from previous meetings. |
The GRMW Board ends and begins each year with an annual review/planning/visioning meeting in December (view meeting minutes.) Sequestered away from phones and computers, but very close to a comfortable room and ample supply of great food, board members and staff, along with key partners such as the Bonneville Power Administration, spend the day reviewing major events and decisions of the past year. The review is a critical part of the planning session, analyzing what went right and what was less successful than desired, both to prepare for another year.
GRMW Board Members and Representation
Board members have a unique task. Expected to represent the constituency that nominated them for participation, they are also expected to support the mission of the GRMW. Human nature dictates that serving these two masters can be a challenge, and individual interpretations of the mission statement add to the burden of working from outside and from within the GRMW as board members are asked to do.
The board represents all the key elements
of today’s society in northeastern Oregon. Over the years, the work of the board has provided solid evidence that the GRMW is in the good and capable hands of citizens who care; people who seek a reasonable balance of social, economic, and environmental values; and who are consistently willing to place the good of the whole at the forefront of their thoughts and actions.
| Board Member | Representation |
| Mike Hayward | Wallowa County Commission, Chair |
| Steve McClure | Union County Commission, Vice-Chair |
| Norm Cimon | Conservationist Representative |
| Vacant | Grande Ronde Basin Stock Growers |
| Joe McCormack | Nez Perce Tribe |
| Larry Christman | Public Interest Representative |
| Melanie Tromp van Holst | Union County Soil & Water Conservation District |
| Vacant | Wallowa County Soil & Water Conservation District |
| Larry Cribbs | Economic Development & Industry Representative |
| Allen Childs | Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation |
| Daryl Hawes | Private Landowner Representative |
| Bruce Eddy | Fish & Wildlife Representative |
| Pat Wortman | Private Forest & Land Owners Industry |
| Anna Cavinato | Eastern Oregon University |
| Since the beginning of the GRMW, Union and Wallowa County Commissioners have served as chair and vice chair of the board. |  |
| No effort such as this could aspire to do the work we envision without collaboration with the first people to inhabit this region: the Nez Perce Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Both tribes were represented during the development of the GRMW, and both have been represented on the board of directors ever since. | |
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| The “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s prompted federal lawmakers to seek methods to conserve soil, water, and other natural resources. They established the Soil Conservation Service in response. As the need for local leadership in this effort was recognized, Soil and Water Conservation Districts began to form throughout the country, with the support of both federal and state governments. Although known by several different names, depending on their locale, they all share a common mission: to coordinate assistance from all available sources—public and private, local, state, and federal—in an effort to develop locally driven solutions to natural resource concerns. In Oregon, the 1939 legislature passed laws enabling the establishment of conservation districts (SWCDs) charged with directing programs to protect local, renewable natural resources. The natural congruency of the missions of SWCDs and GRMW provided a link through which mutual objectives can be attained collaboratively, and so both the Union SWCD and the Wallowa SWCD have been represented on the GRMW Board since the beginning. | |
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OACD |
| Although some of America’s most notable conservationists (Leupold, Muir, Audubon, and Roosevelt, among others) spoke loudly on behalf of conservation through their own unique interactions with both nature and humans, environmental advocacy as a strong political force was a long time developing. Recognized since the 70s as viable groups with a voice, their collective input was a natural and desirable component of the GRMW Board, and a representative has served since the beginning. | |
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Private landowners make up a significant portion of the population locally, managing irrigated agriculture, timber, and grazing as well as other economically driven natural resource industries. Stockgrowers, timber managers, dry land farmers and irrigators were included at the onset as contributors to the efforts of the GRMW and have been well represented throughout the duration of the program, assisting in seeking the social, economic, and environmental balance necessary to long-term success of such an ambitious endeavor. Industries that rely on the sustainable availability of natural resources provide key input to the GRMW mission. |
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The mission of the GRMW could not be undertaken without a direct link to the people responsible for the management of the fish and wildlife resources of the area, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW). This agency has been well represented by managers willing to create and maintain the connection between the two organizations and their multiple mutual goals. Planning and implementation of the GRMW program relies a great deal on the technical expertise that resides among the staff at ODFW. |
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Federally owned lands in this region comprise a significant portion of the total land mass, and the voices of the public that own these lands has been represented through the history of the GRMW by managers of federal lands, specifically the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Supervisor and District Rangers. |
| The public consists of residents who may be only vaguely aware of GRMW, but who are still affected by the actions. A public-interest member of the board has always had a seat, providing assurance that no voice goes unheard. | |
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Over time, the GRMW has done a great deal to change the way people think about and interact with the natural resources so abundant in the region. In recognition that there are more generations coming along who will inherit the responsibilities for managing these resources, and that many of them will learn at the hands of professional educators, the GRMW added a seat on the board in 2004 to include Eastern Oregon University, with whom the GRMW also has an administrative relationship. |
| Over the years, the work of the board has provided solid evidence that the GRMW is in the good and capable hands of citizens who care, people who seek a reasonable balance of social, economic, and environmental values, and who are consistently willing to place the good of the whole at the forefront of their thoughts and actions. |