Board and Staff
Shannon Straight
Executive Director
Shannon’s teenage hikes amongst the buffalo, elk, deer and birds in Teddy Roosevelt National Park left an indelible impression. A stark contrast from the fairgrounds, rodeo arenas and carnivals where he grew up selling confections (cotton candy) and grease (hand dipped corn dogs) in his family’s summer season mobile concession business. Following graduation from The University of North Dakota in 2000, he served two terms as a *VISTA Volunteer in Alaska and Vermont. After a decade splitting time between working for an educational non-profit in Alaska, harvesting apples in Vermont and owning his own summer mobile food business in ND, the 2011 Flood brought Shannon home to North Dakota and Minot. While rebuilding four family homes, he often found relief and renewal while camping and hiking in the North Dakota Badlands. Camping and backpacking trips became a refuge for quiet before the buzz of being ‘on’ for the busy public engagement during the summer food event season.
Like the Flood of 2011, the Covid Pandemic of 2020 canceled most of Shannon’s summer food business, yet provided an opportunity for a long-held dream to hike the entire Maah Daah Hey Trail. In May of that year, he and a friend hiked ‘The Deuce,’ the 48 miles south of Medora. In October 2020, Shannon backpacked alone the remaining 96 miles from Sully Creek Campground to the CCC Campground south of TRNP North Unit. Days on the trail were filled with bird songs, deer, unrelenting ND wind, coyotes calling out in the night and stars that illuminated the skies where he camped. Shannon is grateful to have the Badlands and the TMDHT in ND. He is indebted to a few hunters that helped with extra band-aids and salve that allowed him to care for a wounded left foot as he hobbled to finish the trek into the CCC campground that cold October day.
Shannon hopes to build upon the solid legacy and foundation of BCA’s founding members. He is determined to collaborate with all those willing to preserve and protect our sacred spaces. He is an avid traveler with extensive backpacking experiences in favorite places such as Alaska, Colorado, Nepal, Tibet and recently Tanzania. He is a consumer, drives an F350 diesel that pulls his hot dog trailers and is a proud conservationist.
Laura Anhalt
Secretary
Laura Anhalt grew up an Army brat and settled in North Dakota in 1976. Laura and husband Tracy Potter have been married for 44 years and have two adult children.
Laura, a receptionist, began working for state government in Governor Sinner’s office. Then worked for 21 years as the Tax Department receptionist and Wellness Coordinator, earning the Lt. Governor’s Worksite Wellness Silver Award. Since her 2015 retirement Laura has completed YogaFit’s 200-hour Teacher Training Certificate. She is also a volunteer reader for the State Library’s Talking Books program.
As Wellness Coordinator Laura did research on the importance of wilderness and urban green spaces to our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. Her love of camping has highlighted the need for wilderness preservation. She is especially interested in preserving or restoring silence and dark night sky in our special places, the places that feel like you’re the only human there.
Laura is currently serving as Secretary.
Lillian Crook
Founder and Lifetime Board Member
redoakhouse.com
Lillian Crook is one of BCA’s founding voices. Growing up on the family ranch in southwestern North Dakota near Pretty Butte and the community of Rhame, Lillian has a lifelong history of explorations into the Wild. Her grandfather was a founding member of the Little Missouri Grazing Association and took her to the top of Bullion Butte as a very small child. A retired academic librarian, Lillian lives in Bismarck and frequently canoes or kayaks the Little Missouri and Missouri rivers. Her first Wilderness experience was in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico as a young girl. She takes strength from the eloquent words of her favorite contemporary writer, Terry Tempest Williams: “If you know wilderness like you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go. We are talking about the body of the beloved, not real estate.”
Christine Hogan
President
Christine traces her love of wilderness to her earliest memories as a little girl growing up in Colorado with its wild and trackless mountains and forests. She recalls that child’s sense of gratitude for the wild and pristine places open to explore if one was simply willing to carry a pack.
Moving to Minot as a junior in high school and then to Bismarck in 1975 where she began her law practice, Christine discovered and fell in love with North Dakota's Badlands. Captivated by the beauty of the rugged terrain, the abundant wildlife, and the clear, open sky, she and her family made many of their happiest memories hiking, kayaking, and camping in the Little Missouri River valley.
Christine is a defender of North Dakota and holds that all of us – citizens to government to industry - have a shared duty to protect her.
Christine has served as Treasurer, and is currently serving as President.
Jennifer Morlock
Jennifer (Thomas) Morlock grew up on a small farm in rural Grant County in the shadow of Heart Butte Hill, six miles from Lake Tschida and thirteen miles south of Glen Ullin. She is the tenth of fifteen children who were brought up in a true agrarian lifestyle, raising all their meat and vegetables, milking cows, and walking the half section of grassland to the barn every day. With woody creek bottoms, teepee rings, granite boulders, and prairie flowers, this is where her love for the prairie was formed.
After studying at Dickinson State College and Bismarck Junior College, Jennifer married her partner in life and work, Loren Morlock, in 1978. Loren and a business partner opened Dakota Cyclery in Bismarck in 1980. Alongside raising three children, Jennifer enjoyed the perks of Dakota Cyclery’s involvement in the community, organizing and participating in road and mountain bike racing, canoeing and racing, cross country skiing, and gardening. She became Vice President of Dakota Cyclery in 1990.
The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation approached Dakota Cyclery in 1994 to become partners and set up a mountain bike rental shop in Medora called Roughrider Adventures. The Maah Daah Hey Trail was still in the planning process, but as the trail was completed over the next five years, the Morlock family loved to take semi-monthly trips to Medora to ride the trails as they were being built. It allowed them to see the Badlands up close and personal, and Jennifer’s passion for the region continued to grow.
Jennifer wrote grants for the Rough Rider Bike Club, and she built trails in Minot, Fort Ransom, and Prairie Knights Marina. Jennifer and Loren were co-directors of the Prairie Rose State Games Mountain Bike Races. Jennifer was on the North Dakota State Trails Task Force for North Dakota Parks and Recreation, and she served as a board member of the Maah Daah Hey Trail Association from 1999 to 2001. Dakota Cyclery Mountain Bike Adventures was incorporated in 2001 and they received their permit from the United States Forest Service to operate guided tours and a shuttle service on the Maah Daah Hey Trail. In 2004, Dakota Cyclery sold their building in Bismarck to make a permanent move to the Medora area. Dakota Cyclery has partnered with North Dakota Tourism to work with journalists and photographers from the United States, Canada and Europe to promote the Maah Daah Hey Trail. In 2012, Dakota Cyclery received the Governor's Award for International Tourism.
Running a tour company and bike shop in North Dakota’s top tourist destination creates an opportunity to draw attention to the beauty of the Badlands while also educating guests about the importance of preserving the ecosystem.
Sarah Vogel
Hailed as “a giant killer in ag law” by The Nation, Sarah Vogel is an advocate, author, and one of the foremost agriculture lawyers in the United States. Her debut memoir, The Farmer’s Lawyer, shares her historic fight as a young single mother during the 1980s farm crisis when she took on her first case and sued the federal government on behalf of thousands of farmers nationwide who were in danger of losing their farms and livelihoods.
The first woman in US history to be elected as a state Commissioner of Agriculture, she was born in North Dakota to a family with roots in the Nonpartisan League (NPL) and has fought for decades to implement the politics of the NPL. She has received numerous awards and honors, including a Distinguished Service Award from the American Agricultural Law Association and a Lifetime Achievement award from Democratic Nonpartisan League of North Dakota.
Vogel is best known for her work as lead counsel on the major national class action case, Coleman v. Block. More recently, she was a co-counsel on the massive Keepseagle case that remedied decades of the USDA’s race discrimination against Native American ranchers and farmers.
She has been a member of BCA for many years.
I love the Little Missouri River Valley, the badlands, and all the still wild or partly wild places in North Dakota. With only 3.9% of the state in the public domain, the private interests surely have enough to extract. I have realized that we are going to have to fight for the badlands. The forces of industrial development never sleep. My new book, The Language of Cottonwoods: Essays on the Future of North Dakota, addresses the issues of the badlands — a chapter on the oil boom, and a chapter on the Little Missouri, which I regard as sacred. I am alarmed by the possibility that the bridge may be built. I am alarmed by the development plans that the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation is pursuing. I know that we cannot win the fight without disseminators, writers, lecturers, media types. I don't feel that I have anything to bring to the BCA that is not already there, but I want to put my body where my mouth has been. We may need to engage in protest and even civil disobedience if we want to preserve/conserve what we love for the next generation, and six after that.
Clay is currently serving as Vice President.
Darrell Dorgan
Darrell Dorgan, a resident of Bismarck, North Dakota, and President of Dakom Communications/Dorgan Films, an independent video production company specializing in historical documentaries for television, real estate, and other business ventures is the newest member of the Badlands Conservation Alliance Board of Directors. Dorgan worked as a journalist for more than twenty-five years. The Executive Director of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame from 1997 to 2010, where he spearheaded the NDCH of F fundraisers, planning, design, and building, and oversaw the building of its permanent collection, he is also the former owner of the Lewis and Clark Riverboat based on the Missouri River in Bismarck.
His long career as a journalist included the Prairie News Journal as well as a news anchor for a number of television and radio stations in North Dakota and the region. He has written and narrated and produced documentaries including films on Theodore Roosevelt and TR’s North Dakota years. Educated at Bismarck State College, the University of North Dakota, and the University of Minnesota and has served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, he is a member of DAV, VFW, AMVETS, and the Elks, and has served for nearly thirty years on the State Historical Society Foundation Board.
Dorgan is a firm believer in open meetings and open records, and believes, “Any man who wants to be ignorant and free wants what never was and never will be.” (Thomas Jefferson)
Bill Knudson
Treasurer
Bill has lived nearly his entire life in western North Dakota. He was absent for a few years so as to learn that this is a pretty amazing part of the world. His mother grew up between Golva and Bullion Butte and was the only family member of five who did not stay and farm in that area. His father was raised along the tracks of the Soo Line Railroad in the north central part of the state moving from town to town as his dad, a depot agent, was “bumped” by seniority from one town to the next. Bill decided to go to work for his dad who had recently started a real estate appraisal business after many years as a small town banker in 1975. Recently retired after a forty-four year career Bill calls Mandan home. Bill discovered in his job that the value inherent in real estate includes many components not mentioned in the “legal bundle of rights”. The sense of place derived from land—the history we and others before us have created. That geology, topography and a commonly recognized beauty all create value as well. That this value that has been heart felt by many people creates special places which need to be preserved through good stewardship.
Bill finds solace in nature. He has spent a lifetime learning to appreciate his surroundings and continues to be in awe under the Dakota sky. It has become his goal that this same chance exist for his seven grandchildren and those people who may grace this land in a hundred years and beyond.
Bill is currently serving as Treasurer.
Jon Rask
Jon Rask is a scientist whose research interests span the fields of astrobiology and space biology and focuses on the search for life on other planets and moons. Jon’s interests in space exploration were sparked by observations he made as a child at the family farm southwest of Mandan, that centered on life’s ability to survive the extreme conditions of North Dakota droughts and winters. During his time at NASA, Jon has led desert, hydrothermal, and polar field expeditions on six different continents that explored the coevolution of life and the Earth. He also led Spaceward Bound North Dakota, a teacher-centered scientific expedition that featured site visits in the Badlands.
Jon is also a farmer rancher in Morton County and sees first-hand the effects of climate change on the local environment. Throughout his career, Jon has championed the importance of training the next generation, preserving native ecosystems, learning from our rural communities, and emphasizing the critical role that food production plays on Earth and in space. Rask has received numerous NASA honor awards and is the recipient of the United States Antarctica Service Medal. His work has been featured by TEDx, museums, radio, and television, and is published in the proceedings of international conferences and scientific journals.
Brandy Chaffee
Born and raised in North Dakota's Red River Valley, specifically the towns of Grafton and Hoople, Brandy Chaffee is a self-proclaimed "adventure enthusiast" whose greatest joys include spending time with her grandchildren, Beckham and Apollo, hiking and camping, water recreation, bird watching, writing, reading, and DIY renovations. She currently resides in Fisher, MN and works for her alma mater, the University of Minnesota Crookston, as its director of alumni and donor relations, and chief development officer.
In addition to the past 9 years with the U of M Crookston, her career has included a variety of roles in education and non-profit organizations, focused on strategic planning, relationship building, communication, marketing, creativity, and leading others. Prior to her current role, she held positions as a director of development with the University of North Dakota Foundation and Alumni Association, public relations and marketing manager for the Grand Forks Park District, and served on the North Dakota Recreation and Parks Association board of directors. She also worked as assistant athletic director and senior women's administrator for the U of M Crookston following her time as a student-athlete in women's basketball and achieving her degree in sport and recreation management. Brandy currently serves on the advisory committee for the Fargo Park District Foundation, focused on the fundraising and building of the Fargo Parks Sports Center.
Brandy's love for western North Dakota began as a child traveling and camping with her parents, sisters, and grandparents. Those early years would provide a foundation to the inevitable curiosity she carries today, a craving for outdoor adventure and the incredible fulfillment that comes from spending time along the trails, within the mountains, and among the wildlife and enamoring vistas. Sports and recreation have always been a significant part of her life, but it was several years ago when the Maah Daah Hey Trail became the true catalyst for her reignited love for these spaces and places.
Brandy shared, "Nothing is quite like my home state and the Badlands of North Dakota. I am so proud of it, and drawn to it. The idea of preservation, respect, and gratitude for the land is something I didn't realize was planted deeply within me, until I opted to spend intentional time within it. North Dakota and the beautiful, majestic Badlands are fully embedded in my fiber."
Past Staff and Board Members
Elizabeth Loos
Dr. Loos is a Pittsburgh native and a graduate of the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University, who first came to North Dakota in 1995 as a summer researcher for Delta Waterfowl. Before moving permanently to Bismarck in 2013, she divided her time between North Dakota and Louisiana, conducting her Master’s research in Ornithology (Louisiana State University) and her Ph.D. research in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology (University of Louisiana) on the North Dakota prairies. From 2004-2007 she served as Research Director for Delta Waterfowl at its national headquarters in Bismarck.
Dr. Loos has served as BCA's executive director.
Jan Swenson
Jan Swenson grew up with the Big Missouri, measuring life’s passages against a backdrop of cottonwood bottoms. That draw was transferred to the wilder rhythms of the Little Missouri and into the sere landscapes of the Badlands. Jan’s organizational skills combined with a propensity for volunteer activism at the grassroots level, led her to BCA and her previous staff position.
Jan lives in Bismarck with husband David, but yearns for her time out west. She is lucky enough to call a little piece of land near Grassy Butte her own, and hopes her wild elder years will bring her nearer the land she loves.
Jan has served as BCA's executive director.
Rich Brauhn
An avid outdoorsman, hunter and conservationist, Rich retired from Dickinson State University where he served for 21 years as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Rich served for eight years on the Bureau of Land Management's Regional Advisory Committee for western North and South Dakota and eastern Montana.
He and Mary Ann remain in Dickinson where they raised three children and are now grandparents and continue to be involved in many community activities including American Legion and more.
Gary Cummisk
Gary Cummisk exemplifies the conservationist's focus on humankind's "place" within the natural world: combine professional and personal interests in geography, anthropology, poetry, fine arts, and add physical challenge.
A former Assistant professor of geography, anthropology and education at Dickinson State University, Dr. Cummisk earned his doctorate in geography at the University of Oregon, having completed a masters program at Cornell University in creative writing and a masters of science in natural resources at Central Washington University.
Gary is a published, award-winning poet, and encourages his students and others to integrate science, culture, art, and personal perspective in the classroom and beyond.
He and his partner Gia, who is also a geographer, have now settled on the west coast.
Tom Dahle
Tom Dahle is a gentleman’s gentleman, and provides a champion role model in his work with the Boy Scouts of America. A devoted Scout Master, he routinely gets his scouts out into nature and teaches them the simple lessons often neglected in our modern world. Tom always looks for the big picture, tying local and national history into the natural setting of landscape and wildlife.
Public accounting was been his vocation for 29 years, the last 24 in private practice, but his prior experience as a high school math instructor may explain his affinity for working with youth. Tom also serves on the steering committee for the Prairie Climate Stewardship Network, a faith-based group focusing on world climate change.
Now living in Fargo, Tom and his wife Karen Oby can usually be found at any community event requiring an extra pair of hands or inspiring social consciousness.
Tom has served as BCA's treasurer.
Deborah DeMarey
When Deborah DeMarey arrived in Dickinson, she brought fresh observation to conservation, cultural and social issues in the Badlands. Deborah is an active member of her community wherever she lives, an avid bird watcher.
Having spent her childhood years in New England, DeMarey came to the Great Plains to earn her doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to her return to the prairie landscape in 2004, DeMarey served as assistant professor of biology at Chown College in Murfreesboro, NC and held the same position at Dickinson State University, where she had the unique position of oversight for the greenhouse in Murphy Hall, collaborating with DSU students, the University of North Dakota and Cornell University on research projects.
Dr. DeMarey challenges her students to consider a diverse range of perspectives on wildlife, land management and rural issues, and she provoked those insights within BCA membership activities.
A. Jay Grantier
The youngest son of Jay N. Grantier and Clara (Winter) Roesner Grantier, Jay lived a childhood rooted in the early ranching history of western ND. His father worked cattle drives up from Texas, ranched in the Killdeer Mountain and Tobacco Garden vicinities, and was an original member and president of the McKenzie County Grazing Association. His schoolmarm mother came out alone from eastern ND to find herself, her love and her life in the September-May romance that the elder Grantier inspired.
Jay spent his teen years at the Three V’s Ranch where his love for the Badlands on horseback burrowed deep.
Most of Jay's adult working years were spent in Colorado where he furthered his love for the outdoors. His work-related international travel increased awareness of environmental issues on a global scale — especially as regards population densities, and the need for foresight and protection of Wilderness.
Grantier "came home" after retirement, devoting time to BCA, his family, the ND Cowboy Hall of Fame, a love of flying, and more. Eventually, he settled on the west coast and he now lives in Minnesota, where he has children and grandchildren nearby.
Jay has served as BCA's president.
Mary Herak Sand
Mary Herak Sand and her husband Rob lived in the Killdeer area, not far from where Rob's maternal grandparents homesteaded. Mary's work background has included waitressing, library work, mental health counseling, and education, mostly in western Montana, where she grew up on a farm and ranch, the second of nine children. Rob and Mary have one son, Chris, and a grand-daughter, and they now live in western Montana near to Chris and Stevie. Mary’s hope is that North Dakotans will continue to stand together to preserve the beauty, serenity, and openness of the Badlands and grasslands; the uniqueness of the ranches and rural communities that exist within and around them; and the purity of the air and water that nourish them.
Craig Kilber
Craig graduated from NDSU where he served his senior year as president of the student body and he has worked as a Business Development Analyst for the company InterceptEFT.
Growing up in western ND allowed him to explore just about every butte and ravine in the Badlands. From hunting, hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing — yes, he claims it is possible to rock climb on Sentinel Butte — each part of the Badlands offered something different. For five summers during college, he worked on the Maah Daah Hey Trail crew for the US Forest Service. While on the crew, he built new trail, maintained existing trail, constructed campgrounds and fought wildland forest fires, giving him an appreciation for the rugged environment and all that it offers.
Craig believes that, with more and more development of the Badlands' natural resources, there needs to be more attention to preservation and responsible development to ensure future generations can also enjoy the Badlands. While on the board, he held several offices. He and his family live in Fargo.
David Kingman
For over 20 years, David owned and operated a housing development and construction business in the Minneapolis area. Like many others, he migrated to North Dakota and the Bakken for business opportunities when the Minneapolis housing market dried up. He found, like so many others, that he had overlooked North Dakota in the past while pursuing an interest in hiking, backpacking, and mountain climbing in Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Oregon and Europe.
Discovery of the incredible beauty of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the surrounding badlands of the Little Missouri National Grassland led to a passion for exploring and experiencing this dramatic landscape. In the three years that he worked in Watford City, David hiked well over a hundred times in the North Unit of the Park.
He is a firm believer in the mission of BCA, bringing new eyes to ND conservation, and serving as an ambassador-advocate for the Badlands landscape. He is now living in Montana.
Mariah Lancaster
Mariah Lancaster moved to rural Halliday, ND from New Hampshire after her family bought their place here in 2000. She claims, "We felt at home from the beginning."
Home-schooled through her younger years to allow her family to travel extensively in the lower 48, Mariah is now taking colleges classes and is active in Dickinson State University's International Club. Her love for animals and the outdoors is ever present, and she works as a horse trainer.
Mariah spent her formative years exploring the native prairie in the company of her brother, and is a kayaker, photographer, biker, and horse woman. Her love of the openness of ND's "simple beauty" and the ruggedness of the Badlands motivates her concern for changes that are occurring due to oil development, impacting the quality and diversity of life. "I feel the area is different and unique, and I believe that more of it needs to be protected and preserved."
Mariah has served as BCA's vice president and newsletter editor.
Carol Jean Larsen
Carol Jean's sense of adventure as an adult can be traced to her childhood in "pre-TV" Watford City, ND. School picnics and summer Sundays were spent chasing up and down the buttes of nearby Theodore Roosevelt National Park. She fondly recalls that she was the one who always ventured to the very edge of the highest point and dared to look down.
Years later she returned to North Dakota and settled in Bismarck. She was reintroduced to the Badlands through backpacking hikes, and in the last 10 years, has become aware of the environmental challenges facing the grasslands and the ND Badlands. The words of poet T. S. Eliot are poignant for her: We shall never cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. Carol Jean treasures this land that she has come to know in a different way.
Subsequently in retirement, she has hustled off to Washington, DC for various conservation trainings and lobby opportunities, written letters, made calls to the U.S. Forest Service, raised money and learned new concepts such as "suitable for wilderness." She believes that BCA, networking with other like-minded groups, can make a difference. She lives in Bismarck.
James McAllister
James spent his formative years between Boston’s urban scene and summers back on the family farm in Vermont where he was born. He completed his doctorate at the University of Kansas, taught in Pennsylvania for a few years and was finally drawn to North Dakota in 1999. His strong geology background led him to the unique stratified landscape of the Badlands where he was smitten by the seasonal richness, and dismayed by the expanding oil and gas development.
Dr. McAllister was an associate professor of biology at Dickinson State University. He continues to do research during the summer breaks, most recently alternating between sites in Utah and Minnesota. Current research has emphasized the ichthyofauna (fishes) of disturbed areas. The "fishing" efforts provide a baseline for assessing changes as the environment undergoes restoration.
Armed with an acute bent of humor, the sensibility of a fledgling dryland farmer, and attention for detail, James brings much to the board.
James has served as BCA's secretary.
Lynn Morgenson
Native to the plains of Nebraska, Lynn and her family have been North Dakota residents for over 30 years. Both she and her husband Greg carry prairie spirits and expertise reflected in horticultural careers.
The USFS Elkhorn Ranch camp is among their favorite starting points for explorations in the Little Missouri National Grasslands.
Having raised three remarkable young people to adulthood, Lynn is always ready for one more walk through prairie grasses or at river’s edge. She and her husband have been on many BCA outings and shared their expertise of the fauna with participants.
Lynn served on the Board from 2013-2020.
Gerry Reichert
Growing up in the western North Dakota hub community of Dickinson, Gerry’s physician father focused the family on civic responsibility and sense of place. In college, Gerry worked summers for the Forest Service, tramping the backcountry while doing vegetative mapping. After successful years as a stockbroker with a national firm, Gerry returned to his early love of landscape, hiring on as Field Representative for The Nature Conservancy in North Dakota.
His TNC role procured an active membership in the Partners for Grassland Stewardship, a working group of ranchers, environmentalists, local community leaders, and government agencies that mediate Grassland issues. He has served as a member of the Resource Advisory Council for the BLM Dakotas.
While at home in Glendive, MT along the banks of the Yellowstone, Gerry and his family relish their time in the Dakota Badlands where his wife’s family raises horses and he has built a yurt.
Steve Robbins
Steve Robbins is our "big thinker." Often the inspiration for strategies that run off the beaten path, Robbins divides his year twixt Kansas and Montana and he and his wife, Susie maintain their ties and friendships from their time living in Dickinson when he was a DSU and she owned a ballet studio. Susie was also a librarian.
Steve’s journalism and humanities background led to a grant from the ND Humanities Council, and the chance to produce a three-year project: "North Dakota Wilderness and Regions of the Mind." Robbins interviewed a range of historical and political western North Dakotans in search of the meaning and intent of Wilderness. Presented in a variety of venues across the state, Robbins played both philosopher and ambassador, advancing open dialogue in an oftentimes controversial forum. These interviews are on file at Humanities ND.
A retired Professor of English, Steve helps keep BCA fresh and directed. He is the author of works of fiction and continues to write book reviews for BCA from wherever he lives or travels. He and Susie are the parents of two and the grandparents of two. Recently they walked Hadrian’s Wall in the United Kingdom.
Rob Sand
Rob Sand is the horseman on our Board. He is a proponent of hippo therapy, involving both community Seniors and children. His late parents, of Dunn Center and the Killdeer Mountains, were members of the "de Mores Riders," an equestrian group with a long tradition in the Badlands, and especially Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Rob, a long time activist on social issues including nuclear disarmament and tribal sovereignty, grew up along the big Missouri River in south central North Dakota. He and wife Mary returned to their roots several years ago having spent a portion of their adult life in Montana. Mary brought her Montana association with the Salish Kootenai College with her via the Internet, proving that outmigration on the northern Great Plains is fixable. Rob and Mary and others were instrumentental in the Killdeer Mountain Alliance, bringing together landowners and residents of the area in conversation about conservation topics. The Sands hosted countless family and friends over the years at their Killdeer Mountain place.
Rob has served as BCA's president and now lives with Mary in Missoula.
Carl Sorensen
Growing up in Sydney, MT country on the western border of the Badlands, Carl came to know the scoria buttes and ash draws of the Little Missouri National Grasslands on hunting trips with his father. Squaretop and Little Squaretop Buttes were often his compass — with Blue Butte on the Montana horizon signifying the route home.
Carl continues to hunt the Little Missouri landscape, making good use of his skills with spice and smoke. He is quick to acknowledge that going home empty handed does not lessen the enjoyment of time spent in the Badlands. Grown son Erik often accompanies Carl as he has since childhood, and Carl’s influence as teacher led Erik to a natural resource vocation.
Carl has served as BCA's treasurer and president and is featured in the film Keeping All the Pieces.
Tama Smith
Tama was born, grew up, and was educated in North Dakota. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from UND in 1988, she left the state to work on her masters degree at Michigan State.
But, it was always her intention to come back. On a happy day in 1995 she moved back to ND and chose Beach as home, where for 23 years she has had her pottery studio and showroom, Prairie Fire Pottery, which she owns with husband and business manager, Jerry DeMartin.
The prairie, badlands, and North Dakota’s sky define her pottery work. Highly influenced by the land and sky, they show themselves in her extraordinary glazes — both shapes and colors.
Defense of her landscape is defense of her artistry and her home.
Tama has served as Vice President.
Eve Suchy
Eve Suchy was born and raised on a small cattle ranch and farm south of Mandan, ND. She graduated from NDSU with a degree in veterinary technology, and worked as a vet tech in the Bismarck/Mandan area before switching over to NDSU nursing. She graduated and worked as a surgical nurse in Bismarck. She and her parents, Chuck and Linda, are still ranching and farming south of Mandan. Stewardship of prairie land and animals has always been a focus in her life.
Some of her fondest memories as a child were going out to the Badlands with family. Driving “The Loop” and hiking the trails were exciting, magical experiences. The Badlands have continued to be a place of adventure and restoration. Eve and her husband, Christopher Dopson, frequently head west for weekend hiking trips and were married overlooking the beautiful, rugged bluffs and rolling hills. They live in Mandan where they are raising their children, Josephine and Donovan, and Christopher is practicing law, and they are teaching their children the joys of the outdoors, hiking, and the wild lands of western North Dakota.
Eve claims, “Especially in this chaotic world, it’s never been more important to protect wild lands and wildlife. Our own well-being depends on it.”
Eve served on the board from 2017 to 2020.
Larry Thuner
Larry Thuner grew up as a farm kid in North Dakota just three miles south of the Canadian border, near the small — and getting smaller — hamlet of Hansboro, current population: eight. As Larry claims, "The farm raised grain and a dairy herd and five of us."
After college at NDSU and serving in the US Army, Larry spent 40 years with the Farmers Home Administration of the USDA and its “next generation” Farm Service Agency. He retired in June of 2005 as Farm Loan Manager for Stark, Bowman, Billings, Golden Valley and Slope counties where he made and serviced loans to farmers and ranchers who could not get credit elsewhere — usually to beginning operators and those having financial difficulties.
Larry's days were filled with biking, time in the Badlands and with his family, and restoration of vintage tractors. He drove his family’s 1938 John Deere in the Hansboro Centennial celebration.
Larry has served as BCA's treasurer and president.
Ron Treacy
Ron Treacy joined the staff at Dickinson State University as Director of University Relations in 2006 where he “fell under the spell of the badlands, the grasslands, and the wondrous Great Plains."
During his time living in Dickinson, Ron, an avid outdoorsman, hiker, backpacker and camper and could often be found — or not — in the Little Missouri River Valley.
BCA was fortunate to call on his 30 years as a communications and marketing specialist.
Known as a "marvelous motivator" and a builder of team spirit within his professional sphere, Ron applied that same approach to advocating natural resource protection and preservation.
Connie Triplett
Connie Triplett comes to BCA's Board with a wealth of public service. She served her community as a four-term Grand Forks County Commissioner, where her work included prevention of development on fragile prairie landscapes and siting of landfills in inappropriate settings. Connie was a member of the ND Executive Committee of the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation, and was a ND Recipient of the "Building Disaster-Resistant Communities" Leadership Award, presented by FEMA & NACO after the 1997 Grand Forks flood.
Triplett served three terms as a ND Senator where she sat on the Natural Resource Committee and “worked to ensure a balance between the interests of resource producers and the environment.”
Connie is a practicing attorney in Grand Forks, where she lives with husband Gerald Groenewold. She has two sons and a stepson. She and her family have visited the Badlands regularly over the past 30 years. She is a member of Prairie Partners and experiments with raising native grasses and wildflowers on her own small patch of saline land in the Red River Valley.
Connie has served as President.