Board Member

Richard and his wife came to the headwaters of the Mattole River Valley in 1971. He blends, with varying degrees of success, homesteading, watershed restoration and forest activism, including establishment of a protected Sinkyone Wilderness Coast in northwest Mendocino County and Redwood Forest Foundation, Inc. (RFFI), a model of sustainable community-based forestry. He has been honored by the Salmonid Restoration Federation, NOAA Fisheries and the California Assembly. He represents the Humboldt Watershed Council on the Salmon and Steelhead Recovery Coalition and elsewhere, was a Board Member of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, represented the Sierra Club on the California Coho Recovery Team, and networks with the Environmental Protection Information Center, the Trees Foundation, the Mattole Salmon Group and the Mattole Restoration Council.

President

Chip has been a woodworker most of his life, a forest owner half of his life and tree lover his whole life. Sustainable forests—using forest products respectfully—has been one of his longest passions. Schooled as a historian, trained as an administrator in banking, industry and restaurants, self-employed as a builder, green contractor and woodworker, Chip seeks to continue the mission of ISF. He has served on the Board of Wild Iris Forestry, was Secretary of the Institute for Sustainable Forestry and has been the President of ISF for over a decade.

Board Member

Liz was born and raised in Branscomb, Mendocino County to a family that set a social and environmental example in the forest products industry. She promotes the recognition of the forest as more than conifers to extract and the restoration of its precontact community of interdependent species.

Liz received a BA in business from Sonoma State University and did her teachers training at Dominican College. She got her Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) at Sandy Bar Ranch in Orleans.

Liz spends summers at PlumNuts, her permaculture and agroforestry farm on the Mad River in Kneeland, and winters with her partner Richard on his farm above Benbow, developing a demonstration garden and nursery for elderberries and other agroforestry, permaculture and restoration plants.

Board Member

Jeff was a leader of the Team Standish community group that kept Standish-Hickey State Park open from 2011, when California State Parks planned to close it, until 2018 when it was placed back in the hands of CA State Parks. He frequently joins board member Richard Gienger on KMUD public radio for broadcasts about local forestry issues on Monday Morning Magazine.

Treasurer

Greg returned to Humboldt in 2012 after 32 years away to build a 40-acre homestead in Salmon Creek. With a B.S. in Chemistry from HSU, he taught computer science in the Sacramento area, administered sheet metal fabrication and injection molding for Chapin International, and owned a lab equipment repair service in Rochester, NY. Greg's work experience includes international business administration, engineering, customer service, business planning, sales and marketing. He has found that the ideas encompassed in agro-forestry provide practical guidelines for sustainable and sensible regional economic development.

Board Member

Gray chairs the Sustainable Forestry Journalism Project, producing radio programs that have aired on KMUD since 2020. He is the innovator and designer of Black Ripple, a set of low-tech strategies for making biochar from excess woody material on steep forest land. Gray brings this experience to ISF’s Biochar Road Show, teaching biochar skills to the public.

Gray completed two Permaculture Design Courses and advanced trainings with several international teachers. He received his B.A. in Science, Technology and Society in 1980 from Clark University, Worcester MA. Gray is an ISA certified arborist and worked for 40 years as Arbor Artist in Berkeley.

Gray homesteads in the Salmon Creek watershed, restoring his oak woodland from the combined effects of unregulated logging and fire suppression.

Board Member

Connie has spent 40+ years developing and implementing low-income, gender-balanced clean energy programs and climate change policies in the US and internationally. She developed and headed the Energy and Environment Division of the International Energy Agency in Paris for seven years, then headed research on peak reduction pricing and improved energy management at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto. She has improved access and affordability of clean energy for the poor in Asia, Europe, the Caucuses, Latin America, and Africa by mitigating the impacts of rising fuel and electricity prices. She and her husband live in the Mendocino County mountains, managing their 100 acres of forest and propagating ancient chestnut and chinquapin trees.

Board Member

Eric is a licensed building contractor in Northern California. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA. He innovates efficient pole frame crafting solutions and draws plans for clients. The appeal of using the small diameter trees that need to be thinned from many tracts of forests in Mendocino County inspired him to use his drawing skills to manifest new tools and techniques to develop a new approach to round-pole timber framing. Energy efficiency, affordability, healthy homes, and appropriate usage of local materials are among his top design considerations. Eric is co-founder, with Colin Gillespie, of Polecraft Solutions in Laytonville.