The following speakers will present at the conference this year.

Nolan Baratono

Nolan has worked as an environmental planner for over 30 years.  He spent over 20 years working for local government.  He now works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency as the Rainy River Basin Coordinator.

Wade Davis

Wade Davis is a native of British Columbia and has worked as a guide, park ranger and a forestry engineer and has conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies in northern Canada.  In early 2000, Wade was appointed to a three year term as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.

In addition to his many articles, Wade is the author of nine books including One River (1996) which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Award, Canada's most prestigious literary prize, and his latest book, Light at the Edge of the World.

Wade is an Honorary Research Associate of the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Gardens, a Fellow of the Linnan Society, a Fellow of the Explorer's Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Executive Director of The Endangered People's Project.  Davis is also on the boards of a number of organizations including the David Suzuki Foundation, Future Generations, Cultural Survival and Rivers Canada as well as the Banff Centre, Canada's leading institution for the Arts.

Davis is married to Gail Percy. When not in the field they divide their time between Washington and a fishing lodge in the Stikine Valley of northern British Columbia. They have two children, Tara aged 14 and Raina who is 11.

Don Graves

Don Graves teaches biology, geology and outdoor leadership at Rainy River Community College, International Falls, Minnesota.  Mr. Graves has a long history of working with students in environmental education and has recently been awarded a grant to teach energy education curriculum to grade school students utilizing college science students.  Along with his wife, Dr. Wendy Graves, Mr. Graves is working to establish the Rainy River Basin Water Resource Center at Rainy River Community College and is intimately involved in undergraduate research activities using the college's water quality monitoring program on Rainy River as a model. 

Dr. Wendy Graves

Wendy Graves Ph.D., teaches mathematics, physics and biology at Rainy River Community College, International Falls, Minnesota.  Dr. Graves has been active in the establishment of the Rainy River Basin Water Resource Center, working to find funding to support the development of the center's website and activities.  She is co-author of two grants supporting a water quality monitoring program at the college and an interdisciplinary project aimed at increasing the level of undergraduate research at the freshman and sophomore level.  During this past year Dr. Graves did research at the University of Minnesota, Duluth working on mathematical models for mutualistic interactions in biological systems.

Allan Harris

Al Harris is a principal in Northern Bioscience, a Thunder Bay consulting firm.   He holds academic degrees from the University of Guelph and Lakehead University.  He is one of the co-investigators of the wetland monitoring at Voyageurs National Park. Al has conducted life science fieldwork at over 30 parks, conservation reserves and other sites in the Rainy River Basin.  Elsewhere, he led the analysis and development of the wetland ecosystem classification for north western Ontario.

Herb Hammond

Hammond is a professional forester and forest ecologist with 25 years of experience. He has worked in the timber industry, as an instructor of silviculture and forest ecology at Selkirk College, and as a consultant whose principal clients are Indigenous people and community groups.  Herb is the author of “Saving the Forest Among the Trees”, “Case of Wholistic Forest Use” and co-author of “Community Guide to the Forest Ecology, Planning and Use”.  Herb speaks and gives workshops across Canada and the northwestern United States about the principals of ecologically responsible forest use.  As a volunteer, Herb has worked for 15 years towards community control of forest use decisions.

Larry Kallemeyn

Since finishing his M.Sc. at South Dakota State University in 1968, Larry has worked for several fishery agencies.  In 1980, he moved to International Falls, Minnesota where he became the first aquatic research biologist at Voyageurs National Park.  He continued to work for the National Park Service until 1993, when he was transferred to the National Biological Survey.  He now is the sole permanent employee of the United States Geological Survey’s International Falls Biological Station, which is attached to the Columbia Environmental Research Center.  His work experience has focused on the aquatic ecosystems and in particular the fish communities in the boreal forest lakes and reservoirs.  His work in the national parks has primarily been directed toward the identification and prediction of effects of factors such as reservoir management regimes, invasive species, environmental contaminants, and fisheries management practices on the health and viability of the national resources of the parks.

Donna Mergler

Donna Mergler is a full professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), a member of the research group CINBIOSE (Centre d’étude des interactions biologiques entre la santé et l’environnement), a World Health Organisation and Pan-American Health Organisation Collaborating Centre, and currently head of UQAM's Institute for Environmental Sciences.   She received her doctorate in neurophysiology from McGill University in the early seventies and since then her research has focused on early neurotoxic effects of exposure to workplace and environmental pollutants. She is currently the team leader of the health component within the Collaborative Mercury Research Network (COMERN), a multi-million dollar NSERC project, whose objective is to examine mercury and its impact in the Canadian environment, taking an interdisciplinary ecosystemic approach. 

John Pastor

John Pastor received his Ph.D. in Forestry and Soil Science from the University of Wisconsin in 1980. He then was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory until 1985, when he became a Research Associate at the Natural Resources Research Institute of the University of Minnesota in Duluth. Since 1996, he has been Professor of Biology at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. His research interests include the effects of global warming on northern ecosystems, animal-habitat interactions, and mathematical modeling of ecosystems.

Linda Wall

Linda is a graduate Forestry Technician, (Lakehead University,1978). Over the past 26 years she has had a number of roles in the Ministry of Natural Resources in the Northwest Region, mostly in Forestry and Forest Management. Since the early to mid 90's she has worked as Area Supervisor and as Information Management Supervisor.   More recently, she has bee Area Supervisor for the Rainy Lake Area, and Fish and Wildlife lead for the Fort Frances District, working with the staff on the Rainy Lake Area team.

Jim Wiener

Jim Wiener is a Wisconsin Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, River Studies Center.  Since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 1979, Jim has held scientific posts with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.  Much of his scientific research has addressed environmental problems affecting the aquatic resources of the Upper Midwest and that Nation.  His recent work has focused on environmental mercury contamination and its effects on our fishery resources.  Dr. Wiener serves actively on a number of science advisory panels that provide informed guidance to governmental agencies in the Unites States and Canada, as well as to the general public, on issues related to environmental quality and pollution.

Wayne Wysocki

Wayne has been a partner in Symbion Consultants for the past fourteen years.  He holds a Masters Degree in National Resources Management and an undergraduate degree in Zoology.  Prior to joining Symbion Consultants, Wayne was a Commercial Fisheries Analyst for 8 years with the Manitoba Department of National Resources.

Wayne has over 20 years of experience in natural resource management and planning.  He has worked for a wide range of clients on matters concerning natural resources management and development, resources evaluation and feasibility, environmental impact assessment and land claims.  Many of these projects have required working with multiple stakeholders where several jurisdictions have responsibility for resources management.

Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson is Research Director of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Natural Resources Secretariat and has held this position since 1988.  Michael provides MKO and the MKO First Nations with research, legal and policy analysis, negotiations support, and has made numerous presentations on behalf of MKO and the MKO First Nations.

Mr. Anderson developed the methodologies used by MKO in the conduct of Land Use, Occupancy and Habitation Studies, Traditional Ecological Knowledge research and Treaty Land Entitlement studies.

Michael has been appointed by the national Aboriginal organizations of Canada to serve as an advisor to the Canadian delegation in respect of the implementation of the Agreement on International Human Trapping Standards.  In addition, the Assembly of First Nations has invited Mr. Anderson to participate in the Aboriginal Working Group overseeing the implementation of the federal Species at Risk Act.

Harry M. Bombay

Mr. Bombay is a member of the Rainy River Ojibway First Nation situated 40 km. from Fort Frances, in Northwestern Ontario.  As Executive Director of the National Aboriginal Forestry Association (NAFA) for the past twelve years, Mr. Bombay has been responsible for organizational development, strategic planning and the creation of partnerships with governments and industry stakeholders in addition to day-to-day administration. As a committed advocate for Aboriginal Peoples’ forest rights and interests, he has contributed publications and presentations on forest issues and has participated in numerous national and international forest policy fora. For his contribution to sustainable forest management in Canada, and for his efforts in advancing the position of Aboriginal communities in the forest sector, Mr. Bombay was a 2003 recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Award.

Jean Carreau

Mr. Carreau is acting as a research professional at the Department of Earth Sciences of Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He is actively involved in the Collaborative Mercury Research Network (COMERN) through an ecosystem study looking at the fate of mercury in various lakes of the Boreal Forest, from their watershed, to the lakes themselves and up to communities feeding on fish from those lakes. He owns a Master degree in environmental science at UQAM that was aimed at the characterization of the vegetation and soils of watersheds of the James Bay reservoirs, using geographic information systems. He is presently contributing to a research program that studies the links between the variations of mercury concentration in fish encountered in various lakes with different descriptors of the watersheds and the lakes themselves (growth rates, water chemistry, etc).

Dr. Robert Foster

Dr. Robert Foster is a principal in Northern Bioscience, a Thunder Bay consulting firm.   He holds academic degrees from the University of Oxford (Zoology) and Lakehead University (Biology).  Rob has conducted life science fieldwork at over 30 parks, conservation reserves and other sites in the Rainy River Basin.  Elsewhere, he played a lead role in the analysis and development of the ecosite and wetland ecosystem classifications for Northwestern Ontario and was the lead investigator for science support to the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area.

Eric Kaufman, R.P.F

Eric obtained honors bachelor of science in forestry at Lakehead University School of Forestry in 1976.  He worked as a contract forester for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) from 1976 to 1982 in Ignace and Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Between 1982 and 1997 Eric was unit forester with the MNR in Fort Frances, Ontario.  From 1997 to present he has been employed by Abitibi-Consolidated Company of Canada as a planning forester.

J.A. (Joe) Kuhn

Joe is a consulting ecologist.  He received his MSc in ecology from the University of California.  Joe has held several technician jobs before travelling to England, Switzerland and eventually Kenya to pursue an interest in Indigenous Food Plants (IFPs), which he developed into an IFP for Kenya.  Joe has spent much of his time working with Indigenous Peoples.  He is currently employed with Grassy Narrows, Anishinaabe Nation Treaty #3 and has been for the past three years.

Ike Schlosser

Ike Schlosser received his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Illinois in 1981.  Since that time he has been a Professor of Biology at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.  His primary research interests are in fish ecology, landscape ecology and conservation biology.  He has published numerous papers on these topics in national and international journals.

Michael Williams

Michael is Assistant Director of the Walpole Island Heritage Centre and heads up the Natural Resources and Environment Division.  The Heritage Centre is the research branch of the Walpole Island First Nation, and as such, he is involved with numerous environmental issues including dredging projects, air/water quality, climate change, and of course, natural heritage issues.  He is co-chair of the Walpole Island Eco-system Recovery Strategy Team and sits on the Aboriginal Working Group for the development and implementation of SARA on First Nations lands, and is also on the Board of Directors for Great Lakes United – a coalition of environmental groups throughout the Great Lakes.  Mr. Williams was born, raised and lives on Walpole Island, is of Ojibwe and Potawatomi descent, and is Turtle Clan.

Tom Weegar

Tom is the Provost of Rainy River Community College.  He has a Masters in Environmental Studies degree from York University in Toronto, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria.  Tom's academic area is First Nations Studies and in particular, Native Self-Governance and Community-Based Development in British Columbia.  He also has a strong interest in control of local resources from the perspective of community sustainability.  Tom is a native of British Columbia and has been a senior administrator at two previous community colleges since 1997.