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Forrest
retired from The Boeing Company in June of 2007, where he led research into eliminating environmentally unfriendly materials
from the systems pertaining to the air you breathe and the floor you walk on inside an aircraft. He now spends retirement
working with local farmers and timber managers to preserve approximately 20,000 acres of prime farm and forest land.
Pat
worked for the Forest Service for ten years ensuring the conservation and enjoyment of the SnoqualmiePass area in Washington. In 2006, Forrest and Pat bought two small farms that they are now in the process of bringing back to health
(thanks to Rick Benjamin and Mike McCarthy, local farmers) and putting a conservation (non-development) easement over the
farms to fully understand and document the process. Once the process is fully understood, the process will then be ready
to be replicated with other interested farmers.
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Doug and Jan Merriman graduated in Horticulture and went on to
establish an orchard and nursery on the banks of the Columbia River. They have farmed 40 acres of apples for 30+
years in Orondo, WA. They placed that land in Open Space designation and it remains so. They are currently
involved in an EQUIP grant (through the Natural Resources Conservation Service) to upgrade irrigation systems to reduce water
loss/use, to increase native riparian habitat, and to establish raptor nest boxes with perches, bat houses, barn owl houses
and Mason bee structures. Doug was
a member of the local area committee for Growth Management. He is a graduate of the Washington Agriculture and
Forestry Education Foundation currently serving on the Board of Trustees. Doug was recently appointed to the Douglas
County Weed Task Force. Jan served on the
committee for the Douglas County Regional Shoreline Master Program Update. She was appointed as a property owner
concerned with conservation, property rights, native habitat and water quality. Additionally she has spent 20+ years
on her local school board currently serving as Board Chair.
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Paul and Rozanne
Tucker
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Paul has over thirty years of experience in research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory the prime research
laboratory for the Department of Energy in the Pacific Northwest. Paul has been involved in various ecological studies including
research on the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve. Rozanne is Director of Philanthropy at Kadlec Medical Center, a not-for-profit
180-bed hospital in Richland, Washington. Her over seventeen years of fund raising management includes special events, planned
giving, annual giving, grant writing and capital campaigns.
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Mike McCarthy
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Mike has been a self-employed farmer since 1980. He sits on many different boards including the
HRVRC, Middle Fork Irrigation District, 1000 Friends of Oregon Farmer Advisory Committee, and the Hood River Grower Shipper
Association Marketing Committee. He was instrumental in negotiating the deal between developers and the Forest Service to save the upper
valley from resort development.
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