The Land Trust is so thankful to have such an outstanding group of dedicated volunteers! Thanks to the 135 individuals and groups who donated more than 3300 hours last year. We'd like to give special honors to our Volunteers of the Year:

Dave Breuer moved to Central Oregon about ten years ago and first became involved with the Land Trust because of Skyline Forest. Dave Breuer moved to Central Oregon about ten years ago and first became involved with the Land Trust because of Skyline Forest. “I liked the Skyline concept—preservation with management for the beneficial use of all resources” commented Dave, whose professional background includes a career in forestry.

Dave’s background came in handy as he helped stewardship director Amanda Egertson monitor the 3,045 acre Hopkins-Young Special Management Area, a conserved forest near Crescent, OR. The annual monitoring of this vast property includes long days spent navigating unmarked and unmaintained dirt roads and hiking up steep terrain. This year it also included a review of recent thinning activities the new owners had undertaken. “Not only was Dave great company on those long days, but he was invaluable as a co-navigator and forestry consultant,” said Amanda.

In addition to his help at Hopkins-Young, Dave has also found time for miscellaneous office projects, banner installation, and building fences. Thanks for all your work and congratulations Dave!

Martha Lussenhop moved to Sisters in 2005 from the Chicago area. A former museum educator and middle school teacher, Martha and her husband John fell in love with the area on a visit and were fortunate to find property adjacent to the Land Trust’s Indian Ford Meadow Preserve. The Lussenhops became members while still in Chicago, but once they finally moved here Martha threw herself into Land Trust activities.

“It’s good to have a volunteer activity that has an impact on my immediate environment. Since I can’t directly help the far corners of our planet, it is satisfying to ‘act locally’ to help sustain the health of plant, animal and human communities,” commented Martha. 

Though Martha has logged hours cleaning trails and pulling weeds, most of Martha’s hours were donated to work in the Land Trust office. This most unglamorous of jobs, has been one of the most critical for staff. “We so appreciate Martha’s ability to come in regularly—sometimes every week—it really frees up staff, so we can be most effective in our work,” noted Sarah Mowry the Land Trust’s outreach manager.

Thanks Martha for all your work and congratulations! And thanks to Patagonia by Pandora's Backpack for donating this year's volunteer of the year awards.

Outstanding Volunteers

Finally, we'd like to give special thanks to three other volunteers who made such outstanding contributions in the past year. Thanks to:

• Bill Mitchell for his help with bird surveys, weed pulling, weed whacking, monitoring and photo cataloging...the list goes on and on!
• Brian Ouimette for his time taking beautiful photos for the Land Trust. Your work helps us show the beauty of the lands we protect!
• Linda Shaw for being the "Queen of Mailings"! Thank you for the countless hours you'be donated helping get Land Trust mailings out the door.