From the Newsletter Archives

During this 20th anniversary year, we look back into the newsletter archives

Winter Solstice 1999 issue

A very special guest will be present at the next meeting of The Badlands Conservation Alliance, to be held in Dickinson at Gate City Federal Bank (204 Sims Street) on Friday, January 7, 2000, at 7 p.m. sharp. Joining us will be Bart Koehler, the Director of the Wilderness Support Center, a division of the Wilderness Society. The Center, based in Durango, Colorado, was formed to help protect wild places by collaborating with grassroots groups to build effective, successful wilderness campaigns. The WSC has developed a “wilderness toolbox” that can be used by conservationists nationwide to build a framework for wilderness protection. Bart is a very well known character on the conservation scene and it is a delight to have him join us.

Previously, Bart was Executive Director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, and in the vanguard of campaigns that resulted in the Tongass Timber Reform Act of 1990, protecting over 1.3 million acres of wild lands. For his work, he was awarded the Alaska Wilderness Federation’s Olaus Murie Award, and SEACC was named Conservation Group of the Year by the National Wildlife Federation.

He has also worked for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition from 1991 to 1995 and was a regional representative for the Wilderness Society in Wyoming from 1973 to 1979. As the Coordinator for the Wyoming Wilderness Project, he helped gain wilderness protection for well over one million acres of Wyoming wilderness. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Wyoming Wilderness Association, the Alaska Wilderness League, and the Advisory Board for the Adirondack Project.

Postscript: Bart went on to be BCA’s champion and funding from the Wilderness Support Center was critical to BCA for many years. He and his wife, Julie, continue their BCA membership to this day.