Board of Directors

Brad Orstead
Board Chair
Brad is an award-winning, Montana-based wildlife photographer, conservation filmmaker, author, speaker, poet, and wilderness therapy instructor. His work can be seen on the BBC, PBS, Nature, Smithsonian Channel, ARTE, and Nat Geo Wild, as well as in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. His passion for conservation stems from spending years in the wild healing from unthinkable tragedy while finding his way out into the healing light of nature. Brad is a fierce advocate for all things wild and donates his time, images, cinematography, and writing to preserving and protecting the wilderness that saved him. His memoir, Through the Wilderness, is out with St. Martin’s Press.

Mary Campbell
Treasurer
Mary grew up in the suburbs of southern Washington state, prowling local wetlands and forest plots in search of butterflies and herps. Early on, watching, forlorn and helpless, as dump trucks gradually filled in a much-loved wetland, she recognized the ongoing threats to the habitats of her favorite creatures. At age 32, tiring of city life and unable to settle on a career, she left the city with her partner, to live in a yurt in the forests of Oregon, NW Washington, and finally, Yaak, MT, while operating a tiny business manufacturing children’s wooden blocks. Here in Yaak, circa 1998, she was immediately attracted to YVFC, as the only local organization advocating the conservation of forest habitat, and served a seven year term on the board. As a board member this time around, she hopes to be of service in advancing YVFC’s mission to create a Climate Refuge, as well as in fostering a positive working relationship between board and staff.

Lauren Strohacker
Secretary
Lauren Strohacker is a professional artist whose work emphasizes the nonhuman in an increasingly human-centric world. Born in coastal Ohio, she earned a BFA from The Ohio State University and an MFA from Arizona State University. In her site-responsive practice, Strohacker routinely consults and collaborates with wildlife/conservation organizations, artists, experts and institutions. Conceptually, her focus on wildlife and biodiversity reflects larger contexts of ecology, conservation, and politics. Her work has been described as a “brilliant gateway to these discussions about the futures of nature and humans as well as nonhumans’ places in those futures.” Strohacker is represented by Visions West Contemporary.

Douglas Balmain
Board Chair
Douglas is a writer and researcher whose work is focused on the intersection of human consciousness and environmental restoration. He moved from the Sierra Nevada region of Northern California to Wyoming in 2010 and has since spent the majority of his time working up and down the Rocky Mountain corridor of Montana and Wyoming. He continues to take on volunteer field work and writing assignments for a number of environmental organizations in conjunction with his own independent writing and research. He currently lives in an off-grid camp near the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest border in Montana.

Hannah Hernandez
Board Member
Hannah Hernandez, MS Hydrology, has dedicated herself to advancing the Rights of Water, Rights of Earth, and Rights of the more than human world. After learning the hard lesson that science is a useful tool but does not change opinions or behaviors, she has invested many years developing the capacity to understand human emotional landscape. For seven years Hannah has been a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, Reiki Master of the Usui-Tibetan Tradition, and an original Earth energy medicine practitioner. Recently, she has become A Work That Reconnects Facilitator in the deep ecology tradition created by Joanna Macy, PhD. Hannah is also an Inland Waters Master Captain, accomplished sailor, and lives aboard her sailboat Moon Shadow. She is forever a student of Earth, honing to the language of wind, water, fire, landscapes, animal beings, avian beings, and plant beings.

Ryan Friel
Board Member
Ryan Friel graduated from Colby College in Maine a long time ago with a degree in Government and a minor in English. This seemingly has nothing to do with his love of grizzlies and wild places, but did lead him into local Montana politics where he served a four-year term as a local city councilor. He and two best friends founded a literary journal called Whitefish Review, which he balances with work as a ski patroller in winter and fish guiding in summer. Thirty years in Northwest Montana and Bristol Bay Alaska have instilled a deep love of wild places and creatures, ever reminding him that our time is temporal, but the need for protecting natural resources is forever.

Pete Leusch
Board Member
Pete is a modern homesteader on Old Hwy. 2 in the Curley Creek area. He worked with YVFC on the Headwaters crew for 10 years and currently works in Home Health Care and serves as the Secretary of the Board for the Troy Farmer’s Market. Passions include the 4B’s: boating, biking, backpacking and skiing the backcountry.

Angelo Alderete
Board Member
Angelo spent most of his childhood years growing up in Colorado, where he enjoyed backpacking, fishing, photography, and all things outdoors. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from high school and served for 30 years. During this time, he was stationed in many parts of the world, and took advantage of each location to enjoy the surroundings. After retiring he desired to learn more about nature and wilderness and find ways to preserve its magnificence. He volunteers time and energy to this cause. He has served on several Nonprofit boards and supports several more. As a regular citizen with no formal training in Conservation, Forest Management, Silviculture, or Wildlife Management, the only thing he brings to the table is an appreciation for nature, curiosity, and a desire to learn how to blend the many interests in the Yaak Valley, so all people can enjoy what’s left of one of the last truly wild forests. Angelo splits time between Thompson Falls, MT, and the Yaak, and in his spare time likes to draw and hike.