Western Water Project - Staff Directory

Melinda Kassen, Managing Director Western Water Project
1320 Pearl St., Ste 320
Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 440-2937

Melinda Kassen is the managing director of the Western Water Project. Between 1998-2005 she ran the Colorado Water Project. She is the environmental and recreational interest representative on Colorado’s Interbasin Water Compact Committee. Her water experience includes working at the Environmental Defense Fund's Rocky Mountain Office, where she was involved in the fight to stop Two Forks Dam. She has represented water quality and water rights clients with the Colorado Attorney General, including the Water Conservation Board for its instream flow program. Melinda also worked for ICF Kaiser, primarily on the clean up of the Rocky Flats site, was Environmental Counsel to the House Armed Services Committee in the 103rd Congress and spent two years prosecuting domestic violence cases in Los Angeles.

John Gerstle is Technical Advisor for the Western Water Project and the Public Lands Initiative.  With a professional background in water resources planning and management, water rights and environmental impact assessment, he worked as a consultant for over 30 years on assignments in the US, Norway, Africa and Asia.   He testified as an expert witness in legal cases involving water management for several clients, including Trout Unlimited, US Department of Justice and US Fish and Wildlife Service, and assisted the governments of Bhutan, Nepal and Tanzania in the development of their administrative and legal arrangements for water resources management.  He has a BA (Chemistry) from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and SMCE and CE postgraduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Randy Scholfield is Communications Director for the Western Water Project. He previously was an editorial writer and columnist for The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, where he wrote frequently on environmental and water issues. As a community outreach coordinator for the Great Plains Earth Institute, a small nonprofit environmental group in Wichita, he helped start community gardening and environmental education projects. He has also worked as a freelance writer and taught English and writing at the high school and college levels. Randy has a B.A. in English from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas. In his free time, he enjoys outdoors activities with his wife and two children and pursues a lifelong passion for travel and fly-fishing in the West. 

David Stillwell came to TU from Boulder's Naropa University, where he was the Director of Academic Affairs. He has 12 years of experience in a non-profit environment. He received his BA in English from Bethany College, West Virginia and his MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. 

California

Brian J. Johnson, California Director
1808B 5th Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 528-4772

Brian J. Johnson manages TU’s California Water Project, where he works to reform state water law and to promote scientifically sound stream flows for trout and salmon. He came to TU after five years at Shute, Mihaly&Weinberger, a public interest law firm where he represented community groups in battles to protect waterways and other natural resources. Before law school Brian was the Communications Director at the White House environmental office from 1993-97, and the co-creator and manager of EPA's first "Energy Star" initiative for energy efficient computers from 1991-93. Brian grew up in Iowa and graduated from Duke University and Stanford Law School. He and his wife Debbie are busy introducing their toddler son Leo to the great outdoors.

Mary Ann King is the Stewardship Coordinator for TU’s California Water Project. Mary Ann is responsible coordinating landowner participation in TU’s cooperative initiatives to improve instream flows and water supply reliability in California-- Water and Wine and Streamflow Stewardship.  Before coming to TU, she worked at Recreational Equipment, Inc. She received her M.S. in Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. She has written extensively on water and natural resources law and policy and has been published by the MIT Press and the Harvard Environmental Law Review. She received her B.A. in Political Science, also from UC Berkeley. She is an avid hiker, backpacker and road cyclist.

Colorado

Drew Peternell, Colorado Director
1320 Pearl St., Ste 320
Boulder, CO 80302
(303) 440-2937

Greg Espegren serves as the Colorado Water Project’s staff aquatic scientist, working as an agency liaison, instream flow, water quality, and aquatic habitat analyst, and river restoration project manager. Prior to coming to T.U., Greg spent 15 years working for the Colorado Water Conservation Board (C WCB) as a Water Resource Specialist with the Board’s Instream Flow and Natural Lake Level Program. Greg has also worked as a private consultant on various water-related projects including the completion of the CWCB’s ArcGIS-based Instream Flow Decision Support System and the Town of Avon’s Recreational In-Channel Diversion water right. Greg holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Fishery and Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University. 

Drew Peternell joined Trout Unlimited's Colorado Water Project in 2002 as staff attorney. In that role, he worked to maintain and restore flows in Colorado's rivers and streams, primarily through the Colorado water court system and various state and federal administrative agencies. As the director of the Colorado Water Project, Drew continues the effort toward protection of stream flows, with increasing emphasis on statewide water policy and on-the-ground stream restoration projects. Drew holds a B.A. in political science from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. and Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining TU, Drew worked for two years in private practice in Boulder.

Amelia (Mely) Whiting is legal counsel for the Colorado Water Project.  Mely brings  experience and perspective to her job, having spent her legal career representing a broad range of interests -including local, state and federal government, agriculture, the private sector, and other non-profit organizations- in public lands, environmental and water matters. She has also taught environmental law courses to undergraduate students. Mely graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Utah in 1989. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Mely moved to the United States in 1981.

Idaho

Kim Goodman Trotter,
Director, Idaho Water Project
151 North Ridge Ave, Ste 120
Idaho Falls, ID  83402
(208) 552-0891 xtn. 712

Kim Goodman Trotter is the director of the Idaho Water Project, a statewide effort to find creative ways to enhance and protect fisheries and instream flows.  Before coming to TU, Kim was a nonprofit consultant for organizations throughout the Greater Yellowstone area, and was a land protection specialist with the Teton Regional Land Trust.  Kim has worked with many conservation organizations throughout Idaho, and completed her graduate work in central Idaho with the Nature Conservancy.  Kim was raised in eastern Idaho and has a BS in biology from University of Puget Sound and a Masters of Environmental Management in Resource Ecology from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.  Living at the base of the Tetons with her husband and pets, she hikes, backcountry skis, cycles, and travels whenever possible.

Peter Anderson is legal counsel for the Idaho Water Project.  Peter has 23 years of water law experience, having worked as a deputy attorney general for the Washington and Idaho water resource agencies and having been a hearing officer deciding water rights cases for the Idaho Departments of Water Resources and Environmental Quality.   His varied career has also included stints as a commercial real estate attorney and a deputy prosecuting attorney.  He graduated from Whitman College with a degree in political science and from the University of Michigan Law School.

Jerry Myers is the Upper Salmon Project Manger for Trout Unlimited's Idaho Water Project. He works with water users, agencies and other interested parties to enhance instream flows and improve coldwater habitats in central Idaho. An Idaho farming and ranching native with 33 years of river and fishing guide experience on 2 of Idaho's premier wilderness rivers, the Salmon and Middle Fork Salmon, Jerry has served as vice president of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association and served 10 years on the Board of Directors of IOGA. Jerry also served for 10 years on the Board of Directors of Idaho Rivers United, Idaho's largest river conservation organization, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Salmon Valley Stewardship, a nonprofit citizen organization promoting sustainable use of local natural resources. Jerry and wife, Terry, live just off the Salmon River near North Fork and manage Indian Creek Ranch.

Montana

Laura Ziemer, Montana Director
321 E Main St #411
Bozeman MT  59715
(406) 522-7291

Laura Ziemer opened the Montana Water Project office for Trout Unlimited in August of 1998. In Montana, Mrs. Ziemer has expanded Trout Unlimited's water leasing program through legislative improvements to the program as well as completing a number of stream restoration projects by converting irrigation water rights to instream flow rights. Before joining Trout Unlimited, Mrs. Ziemer had been practicing public-interest environmental law since 1993 as an attorney with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund) out of Seattle, Washington and later in Bozeman, Montana. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, graduating cum laude from the Law School while earning a Master’s Degree in Resource Ecology with honors from the School of Natural Resources.

Stan Bradshaw has been an attorney for the Montana Water Project since May 2001.  In his position, he works on a variety of instream flow initiatives. Previously, Stan was the Resource Director for Montana Trout Unlimited, where he was responsible for working with various state agencies on resource issues related to cold-water fisheries, with a heavy emphasis on instream flows. From 1976 to 1979 he worked for the Montana Department of Health and Environmental Sciences on subdivision and water quality issues.  From 1981 through 1986 he worked for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, where he was Chief Counsel. As part of his duties at MDFWP, he was actively involved in the statewide water rights adjudication and stream access litigation. In addition to his conservation work, Stan was a principal in Greycliff Publishing with his wife Glenda and the late Gary LaFontaine. When he’s not talking water with ranchers or anyone else who will listen, he spends as much time as he can on water, in one form or other--he is an accomplished whitewater canoeist, enthusiastic fly fisherman, and an avid skier.

Patrick Byorth joined the Montana Water Project as a staff attorney in August, 2009.  He spent nearly 17 years as a fisheries biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks working to restore Arctic grayling, Yellowstone and westslope cutthroat trout in their native waters and managed fisheries of the renowned Madison and Gallatin river basins.  Realizing that advanced legal training was necessary to understand and reform Byzantine western water law and policy, he earned a J.D. and a certificate in Environmental Law at the University of Montana School of Law.  Patrick joined Trout Unlimited focused on restoration of instream flows to benefit native fishes through community-based efforts with an eye toward water law reform and at least a toe in the waters he waded as a biologist and angler.  He received a B.A. in biology and chemistry from Carroll College and earned an M.S. in fish and wildlife management from Montana State University.

Oregon

Kate Miller, Oregon Water Counsel
227 SW Pine St, Suite 200
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 827-5700

Kate Miller began working for TU as an intern in the summer of 2004 and joined the Oregon staff full time in 2005 working as legal analyst focusing on issues affecting salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest.  Kate is a graduate of Tulane University Law School where she received a certificate of study in environmental law and was a student attorney in the Environmental Law Clinic.  Born and Raised up the coast in Tulalip, Washington, Kate worked as an attorney in her home state prior to joining TU. 

Utah

Tim Hawkes, Utah Director
443 S 225 E
Centerville, UT 84014
(801) 294-5624

Tim Hawkes started working for Trout Unlimited in 2004, where he immediately began work on a bill to give Trout Unlimited the freedom to work directly with farmers and ranchers and lease water to protect stream flows.  The bill, passed by the Utah legislature in March of 2008, marks the first significant change to Utah’s instream flow law in over 20 years.  Currently, Tim and his team are working to identify and implement cooperative projects to demonstrate how the new legislation can benefit sportsmen and agricultural producers alike.  Before coming to TU, Tim spent several years in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Tokyo, Japan.  He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.
 
Kirk Dahle began working for TU in 2007. He is involved with the Bear River Native trout program and is currently working to expand this project into Utah portions of the watershed.  Kirk received a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife from Utah State University in 2000 and is currently finishing a M.S. in Fisheries Biology at USU.  He comes to TU with experience on various projects concerned with western native fish conservation gained while working for private, state, and academic organizations during the past 7 years.

Philip Jensen joined the Western Water Project after Trout Unlimited spearheaded the passage of Utah's landmark legislation allowing the leasing of water to enhance the state's fisheries. He is working with Utah's water community to show that instream water leasing can benefit not only fish and anglers, but also farmers, ranchers, and rural communities in Utah. Philip grew up in Utah, worked as a wilderness survival counselor in the Escalante area, and spent four summers leading whitewater rafting trips on the Colorado and Green Rivers. He earned a B.S. from Brigham Young University and a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law School. Prior to joining TU Philip practiced law in the non-profit sector.

Wyoming

Scott Yates, Wyoming Director
250 N First St
PO Box 64
Lander, WY   82520
(307) 332-7700

Scott Yates began working for Trout Unlimited in 1997.  His tenure with TU has included work in the Pacific Northwest on salmon and steelhead issues, the Rocky Mountains on native trout issues, and Idaho and Wyoming for stream flows.  He left TU briefly in 2005 to work for Portland General Electric as the License Manager for the 350 megawatt Pelton-Round Butte Project on the Deschutes River.  He now directs TU’s Wyoming Water Project based in Lander, Wyoming.  Scott has an undergraduate degree from Willamette University and a law degree and environmental and natural resource law certificate from Lewis&Clark’s Northwestern School of Law.

Jeff Streeter is the North Platte River Water Project manager.  Jeff joined TU after serving as a consultant to the TU North Platte River Fishery Conservation Assessment Project.  After receiving a B.A. from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, he began guiding on the North Platte and Encampment Rivers in south central Wyoming.  He was the Old Baldy Club Streams and Outdoor Recreation Manager for twenty-seven years.  Jeff brings to TU an intimate knowledge of the Upper North Platte and its tributaries, and an understanding of the Valley’s people and land and water use practices.  He teaches fly fishing and cross country skiing for Western Wyoming Community College and provides workshops and casting clinics to local youth groups.  Jeff has participated in a number of fly fishing instructional TV spots for both PBS and OLN.  An avid whitewater boater, he has been a trip leader on many of the West’s most challenging rivers.

Cory Toye is a Wyoming native and a recent law school graduate from the University of Wyoming. Perhaps most importantly, he has spent actual time on-the-ground working with irrigation systems on a working ranch in the Wind River Basin.  Cory will be helping work on our existing on-the-ground projects and help identify new ones that both protect/restore streamflows and compliment our legislative efforts. He’ll also become the TU face in Wyoming working on Wyoming Water Development Commission and federal Farm Bill issues.  When not working, Cory can be found in the Wind River Mountain Range or in Valdez, AK with his father chasing Cohos.