THANKS! ...........
to our wonderful 2011 speakers for their generous time and high quality of presentations.
In the words of particpant from Sandy, Utah ......... "What terrific speakers and interesting topics. Every one complimented the one before it. Not being a river runner I sure found alot to learn."
to our wonderful 2011 speakers for their generous time and high quality of presentations.
In the words of particpant from Sandy, Utah ......... "What terrific speakers and interesting topics. Every one complimented the one before it. Not being a river runner I sure found alot to learn."
2011 Speakers
Profiles
Brad Dimock
In 1911 Ellsworth and Emery Kolb launched an expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers in two state-of-the-art wooden rowboats. The boat design and technique for rowing them had been devised over the previous two decades by Nathaniel Galloway, and would continue to dominate whitewater travel in the West for another twenty years. Today the Galloway technique has lost much of its relevance, as modern techniques and equipment press onward. And by 2011 no one alive had rowed a Galloway boat.
To commemorate the Kolb Centennial, Brad Dimock built an exact replica of Emery Kolb’s Edith and rowed it through all the remaining significant whitewater on the Kolb route. A career boatman and student of old and new boat hulls and techniques, Dimock now puts the Kolbs, their boats, and techniques into the grand scheme of western whitewater. A consummate storyteller, Dimock augments the amusing tale with still and moving images.
Brad Dimock has been running the Colorado River through Grand Canyon for forty years, pausing occasionally to write about unsung early river runners and their place in history. He has run nearly every type of boat that has ever floated the Colorado (and a few that weren’t really boats), and his books have won three National Outdoor Book Awards. He lives, writes, and builds boats in Flagstaff, Arizona and works as a river guide for Arizona Raft Adventures.
To commemorate the Kolb Centennial, Brad Dimock built an exact replica of Emery Kolb’s Edith and rowed it through all the remaining significant whitewater on the Kolb route. A career boatman and student of old and new boat hulls and techniques, Dimock now puts the Kolbs, their boats, and techniques into the grand scheme of western whitewater. A consummate storyteller, Dimock augments the amusing tale with still and moving images.
Brad Dimock has been running the Colorado River through Grand Canyon for forty years, pausing occasionally to write about unsung early river runners and their place in history. He has run nearly every type of boat that has ever floated the Colorado (and a few that weren’t really boats), and his books have won three National Outdoor Book Awards. He lives, writes, and builds boats in Flagstaff, Arizona and works as a river guide for Arizona Raft Adventures.
Jim Aton
James M. Aton has been Professor of English at Southern Utah University since 1980. He is the author of John Wesley Powell (Boise 1994), (with Robert S. McPherson) River Flowing from the Sunrise: An Environmental History of the Lower San Juan (Logan 2000), (with photographer Dan Miller) The River Knows Everything: Desolation Canyon and the Green (Logan 2009), and John Wesley Powell: His Life and Legacy (SLC 2010). River Flowing won the Hundley Award for best book from the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association and was a Finalist for the Utah Book Award in Nonfiction. He is currently writing a book for Gibbs Smith Books on the art and life of the late landscapist Jimmie F. Jones.
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Tamara Naumann
Tamara is the principal vegetation ecologist at Dinosaur National Monument, focusing on the river corridor. She developed Dinosaur’s volunteer Weed Warrior program, which completed a 15th successful season in 2011. Over the program’s 15-year history, more than 6,000 volunteers have contributed 27,000 hours removing invasive tamarisk, leafy spurge, perennial pepperweed and Russian olive from the Yampa and Green rivers in Dinosaur. Education, service and constituency development have always been significant aspects of this program.
Having met or exceeded all goals for the program, Tamara has shifted focus to developing of a long-term river research and monitoring program for the 105 miles of the Yampa and Green rivers flowing through Dinosaur National Monument.
Having met or exceeded all goals for the program, Tamara has shifted focus to developing of a long-term river research and monitoring program for the 105 miles of the Yampa and Green rivers flowing through Dinosaur National Monument.
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Robert Fillmore
Robert Fillmore is professor of geology at Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison, returning to teach at the college at which he was an undergraduate student after earning a MS at University of Northern Arizona and a PhD at University of Kansas. His articles, abstracts, and chapters have appeared in many journals and books. He has also written two widely acclaimed books on regional geology: “The Geology of the Parks, Monuments, and Wildlands of Southern Utah” and “Geological Evolution of the Colorado Plateau”
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Wright Robinson
Wright Robinson has a MS in Biology with a concentration in Marine/Terrestrial Ecology. He worked in a marine research facility in Virginia and Jamaica and then taught for about 20 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. This is his fifth year working on the Grand County tamarisk beetle project. When not tracking tamarisk beetles, he tracks down lost and injured tourists as part of the Grand County Search and Rescue team. He enjoys reading, hiking, biking, photography, rafting and kayaking.
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Jerry Spangler
Jerry D. Spangler, a registered professional archaeologist and Director of the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, has devoted the past 20 years to furthering the protection and preservation of cultural resources of the Colorado Plateau. He is a widely published expert on prehistoric ancestral peoples of the northern Colorado Plateau, and has two award-winning books: “Horned Snakes and Axle Grease: A Guide the Archaeology, History and Rock Art of Nine Mile Canyon,” and “Treasures of the Tavaputs: The Archaeology of Desolation Canyon, Nine Mile Canyon and Range Creek”. His research is widely acclaimed for its innovative insights, and he has a unique ability to make the science of archaeology accessible to a wider public.
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Dennis Willis
Like many people in Utah, Dennis Willis' first river trip was on the Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam. That was in 1974, working a seasonal position for the US Forest Service. Upon completing his degree in Natural Resources from the University of Nevada Reno, he continued to work for the Forest Service in Utah and Idaho and enjoying what the local rivers had to offer. He came to the BLM in Price, Utah in 1979 and has worked in the management of the Green River through Desolation, Gray and Labyrinth Canyons. He received the 2008 NOLS Stewardship Award, which recognizes land managers who have demonstrated exceptional stewardship of the wild lands entrusted to their care. The NOLS chose to honor Dennis for his ability to provide high-quality outdoor experiences for visitors while providing protection and balanced management of the resource in which these experiences occur. Retired in 2009, and still living in Price, he currently serves at the Vice President of the River Management Society.
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Bill Bates
Wildlife biologist, Bill Bates is the regional supervisor for the southeastern region of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in Price, UT. While working for the DWR, he's had the chance to restore river otter populations, research endangered fish, crawl into bear dens, and transplant big game animals.
Below, Bill uses a radio receiver to try and locate Desert bighorn sheep that are wearing radio collars as he walks above the Colorado River near Dead Horse Point Nov. 3, 2005
Below, Bill uses a radio receiver to try and locate Desert bighorn sheep that are wearing radio collars as he walks above the Colorado River near Dead Horse Point Nov. 3, 2005
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Tim Graham
Tim Graham earned a Ph.D. in 1986 from Utah State University, Logan, Utah, in Biology-Ecology, researching grasshoppers in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Tim worked for the National Park Service on the Colorado Plateau from 1984 to 1993 at the Southeast Utah Group (Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, Natural Bridges National Monument), Capitol Reef National Park, and Curecanti National Recreation Area. He also taught desert ecology and pothole ecology for Utah State University classes and NPS trainings. In 1993, Tim joined USGS in California and transferred back to Moab, joining the Canyonlands Research Station as the NBS was absorbed into the USGS in 1996. He is dedicated to providing information to managers so their decisions are better informed, and sustainability of natural resources in the west is enhanced.
Roy Webb
Roy Dale Webb, born in Farmington, New Mexico, in October, 1952. I grew up in Farmington on the banks of the San Juan and Animas Rivers. I've run all of the Green below Fontenelle Dam in Wyoming, all of the Colorado between Grand Junction and South Cove, the San Juan, the White River, and other rivers in the western United States. I've written four books and many articles and book reviews on the history of river running in Utah and the Intermountain West. I was a Fellow of the Huntington Library in 2004, doing research in the vast collection of river history in the Otis R. Marston papers, taught classes on river running history for the University of Utah, been a consultant for video documentary projects and television series, and have been a speaker for the training seminars given by the Grand Canyon River Guides Association, both during the land sessions and the two-week river training trips, and was a charter member of the Colorado Plateau River Guides Association.
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Michael Dean Smith,
Event Director / Founder
Plateau Restoration's Founder and Board President, Michael has lived on the Colorado Plateau since 1976 and in Moab since 1989. His love for the Plateau was ingrained while working at Phantom Ranch in the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the mid-70's. He later earned degrees in Outdoor Education and Recreation Management from Colorado Mountain College and in Outdoor Recreation and Resource Management from Prescott College, Arizona. He worked as a National Park Service Ranger in visitor and resource protection and interpretation at Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, and Dinosaur National Parks and Monuments, and has guided for numerous outfitters including OARS at the Grand Canyon and Canyonlands Field Institute in Moab, UT. Michael was Manager of Sand Flats Recreation Area, Moab, home of the famous Slickrock Bike Trail from 1998 to 2004. He is also a licensed landscaping contractor and Master Gardner.
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Tamsin McCormick
A native of Zimbabwe, Tamsin has lived in the Four Corners states of the US since 1977. She holds Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degrees in Geology, and has been teaching college courses in geology on the Colorado Plateau since 1993. She has served as a naturalist guide on river and land-based trips since 1994 and conducts geology excursions for Plateau Restoration and the Moab River Rendezvous. She joined Plateau Restoration as a Board Member in 1996 and is currently the organization's Executive Director. Tamsin has Adjunct Faculty appointments at Utah State University in the Department of Environment and Society and Department of Wildlife Resources.
