IJNR Invigorated Despite Journalism’s Woes

Shaping Fresh Plans and Programs for 2009

Dan Moulthrop, host for Ohio Public Radio's popular program,"The Sound of Ideas," recorded Lake Erie noises during the 2008 Great Waters Institute. The picnic table had no comment. IJNR photo by Adam Hinterthuer.

We have started 2009 in good financial shape and high spirits. As January activities get under way, we have more than $310,000 in the bank and no debt. Our staff is eagerly preparing for what we hope will be three vigorous expedition-style journalism programs. With help from our Council of Advisors and our Board of Trustees, we also will be exploring new ways to provide practical support for the 500-plus members of our Community of Fellows in this turbulent era of digital technologies, economic darkness and daunting newsroom conditions—from furloughs, freezes and defaults to forced sales, closures and bankruptcies.

Despite the formidable scheduling conflicts that journalists faced during the 2008 election campaigns, IJNR helped a total of 43 reporters and editors to expand their knowledge about difficult issues of water, energy, climate, food production and land use that affect communities throughout North America. In addition, our full-time mentoring program enabled scores of other reporters and editors to improve their storytelling skills.

Of course, we can't claim credit for the good coverage that resulted, nor for saving salamanders, not even for inspiring ranchers, miners, loggers and regulators to hug each other. But we can accurately say this: The sustained efforts by hundreds of our alumni, the Fellows of IJNR, have contributed to better public understanding of many complicated environment topics.

New Expeditions, Vast Territories

The need for better public understanding is great. For many news-media companies, this period of bankruptcies, defaults and fierce uncertainties is extremely painful for journalists. In-house funding for travel, training and professional development at newspapers, TV and radio stations has been sharply curtailed. As a consequence, we think the work of IJNR is more important than ever. At the same time, changes of leadership during 2009 in Washington, DC, and in many state and provincial capitals will pose major challenges—and opportunities—for many journalists.

In response, IJNR plans to conduct several timely expeditions this year, including our inaugural version of the Puget Sound Institute. Using Seattle as a hub, the program will examine pressing issues that confront a resilient yet vulnerable estuary and its entire watershed. Other trips in 2009 will explore national and regional energy, air and water issues as illustrated in the Four Corners region, and a cluster of equally newsworthy topics facing the Great Lakes Basin—using Lake Erie and its communities as Exhibit A.

For 2010 and beyond, we aspire to create programs for Appalachia , the Great Plains, the Gulf Coast and Canada's boreal forest, among other venues. We welcome your ideas for all of these imminent and potential undertakings. Visit IJNR's Expeditions page for details about the 2009 Institutes.

A Different Kind of Award Program

Honoring Reese Cleghorn, Trustee Emeritus

At its business meeting in November 2008, the IJNR Board of Trustees voted unanimously to establish an awards program to honor the 11 years of exceptional service of Reese Cleghorn, a founding member of the Board who has just completed his final term.

Many readers of this newsletter already know that Reese had a long career as a newsman and editorial writer. He reported and edited for the Atlanta Journal, South Today, the Charlotte Observer and the Detroit Free Press before beginning a distinguished, two-decade tenure as dean of the University of Maryland 's College of Journalism. He is president emeritus of American Journalism Review. Reese still teaches popular courses in journalism ethics and persuasive writing at the College, while also writing a couple of books. Throughout his career, he has inspired many young and talented journalists. Not too many years ago, when one of his granddaughters decided to be Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz for Halloween, Reese escorted her around the neighborhood dressed convincingly (and sometimes singing) as the Cowardly Lion. The next Halloween, when his granddaughter dressed up as Madeline, Reese donned a handsome habit to escort her as an extra-tall version of Miss Clavel. But we digress…

In appreciation of Reese's many contributions to the birthing, expansion, development and cherished independence of IJNR, the Board is building an endowment fund to support the awards program, which will bear his name.

• We anticipate selecting two or three Reese Cleghorn Fellowship winners annually, on average, from the ranks of IJNR Fellows—newcomers and "alumni" alike.
• With assistance from the Council of Advisors, the IJNR staff will make the awards to "relatively young journalists who demonstrate uncommonly strong ethics, talent and promise."
• Each winner will receive a $2,000 cash prize at the time of selection. That recognition will be complemented, over a period of up to a decade, by multiple opportunities for specialized professional development and personalized career support.

More details about the program will appear in future newsletters and on the IJNR Web site.

Welcomes & Farewells

Staff Changes at IJNR

New Faces on the Bus

During 2008, IJNR happily welcomed two new members to our staff, one at the headquarters office in Missoula and the other in Madison, Wisconsin.

Meg Nelson joined us as development director. Based in Madison, she brings more than 25 years of non-profit experience to the job. Her prior work included organizing, planning, policy development, lobbying, and an executive directorship. Mostly though, Meg is known as a fundraiser. Over the course of her career, she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to help non-profits do good work. Her experience includes assignments with policy-oriented groups and land trusts. She has worked on the local, state, regional and national levels. Although Meg currently lives in the Midwest, she spent more than 20 years in Montana and she loves the West. To say that she looks forward to her business trips to IJNR headquarters is an understatement.

Meg is an avid canoeist and kayaker. Although she is primarily a river enthusiast, her home in the Midwest has given her the opportunity to canoe the Boundary Waters and to kayak on the Great Lakes. She says she has come to relish the horizon line from the Great Lakes almost as much as she savors the silhouettes of the Rocky Mountain Front. Both are unbroken by human activity, she says, and both represent the kinds of wild landscapes that she cherishes. Meg also enjoys gardening, "putting up" vegetables, and spending time with her young nieces and nephews.

Melissa Mylchreest , our new administrative assistant in Missoula, hopped aboard the IJNR bus with a fairly diverse skill set, having done everything from hand-dismantling old barns to cooking in classy restaurants and teaching on the college level. She is a strong subscriber to the jack-of-all-trades philosophy, but still considers herself master-of-very-few. However, she does hold a B.A. in creative writing and an M.S. in environmental writing. Currently a freelancer, she has written pieces for newspapers, journals and Montana Public Radio.

At IJNR, Melissa cheerfully does whatever needs doing—which includes some writing, and also encompasses such things as ministering to ailing computers, navigating the tricky world of technology, befriending the FedEx Kinko people, and resetting database passwords for forgetful Fellows. A staunch 13th-generation Northeasterner who wandered West, Melissa has been delighted to find that life in Montana is, in fact, very enjoyable, too, although the ocean is conspicuously absent. When she's not working, she writes for fun, conducts culinary experiments, braves Missoula 's bike lanes, and contemplates getting another masters degree in her free time.

Farewells and Best Wishes

In the early summer, we bid farewell to two wonderful colleagues, both of whom have taken good jobs with other organizations.

Anita Maxwell, who served IJNR with good humor and tireless agility, packed up and moved, along with her husband Cole and young daughter Hannah, all the way to Ketchikan, Alaska. From what we gather, southeast Alaska has been nice to them so far, although the area gets about 20 times as much rain as Missoula. Anita is working for the Ketchikan Arts Council, putting her organizational skills to good use as she grows webbing between her toes. At IJNR, Melissa is Anita's successor.

Chris Bryant (Pacific Northwest 2000), who was one of our associate directors, designed and led several of our best recent programs in Oregon and the Rockies. In June, he joined The Nature Conservancy as director of outreach for Western Montana. Now he is heavily involved in the Montana Legacy Project, TNC's collaborative effort with the Trust for Public Land to protect through public ownership about 320,000 acres of forested land belonging to Plum Creek Timber in the "Crown of the Continent" region. Chris explains the still-unfolding project to many neighboring constituents. His new job also lets him to spend more time at home with his growing family. (He and his wife Julie and their three-year-old daughter Isabella welcomed newborn Benjamin in May.)

We already miss Chris, and we wish him all the best. In the summer, IJNR began a search to fill the position that Chris left. That job opening attracted 25 excellent IJNR Fellows as applicants. But as the sharp downturn in the U.S. economy grew even worse in the early fall, we decided to suspend the search indefinitely. In the meantime, Lynda Mapes (High Country 1998) will be helping IJNR on a part-time basis to shape, plan and conduct the 2009 Puget Sound Institute. Lynda remains a top reporter at The Seattle Times.

How We Met the Big Challenge

This past year was economically grim the world over—and probably nowhere more so than in the world of journalism. Despite the difficulties, IJNR was fortunate to pull through in good fiscal and psychological shape. With the astounding generosity of Fellows, Institute speakers, Trustees, staff members and friends, IJNR met and exceeded the daunting $112,500 goal of its challenge-grant campaign, which ended in August.

For those who opted to hide under rocks for the past year, here is a quick refresher on what the hoopla was all about: In 2007, the Challenge Fund for Journalism selected IJNR from among a large roster of competitors to receive a hefty matching grant. The CFJ is a rather new consortium of four large donors to journalistic causes. Its members include the Ford Foundation in New York, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, the McCormick-Tribune Foundation in Chicago, and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in Oklahoma City. In our view, CFJ's stature made it an honor simply to have been selected to participate in the competition.

What, exactly, was the CFJ's 12-month challenge to IJNR? The deal was this: If we could raise $112,500 in new donations from individuals (not from foundations or corporations) by August 8, 2008, then CFJ would provide a matching award of $75,000. By the end of an arduous year of networking, phone calls, letter writing, house parties, personal visits (and trips to the bank), we blew all prior IJNR fundraising records out of the water. Fully 45% of our locatable alumni (201 journalists) donated to the challenge campaign, as did all 11 members of the Board of Trustees.

Altogether, IJNR Fellows donated more than $30,000 to the cause. Sixteen of the 33 expedition "classes" had participation rates of 50% or higher. Only five classes had participation rates below 30%. Fellows of High Country 2007 took the cake for “Most Philanthropically Friendly” class, with an amazing 94% of Fellows contributing. The 1995 High Country and 2006 Energy Country classes were close behind, with participation rates of 67% and 64% respectively.

We also received about $31,000 in repeat donations (gifts that didn't count toward the Challenge total because they came from individuals who previously donated). So IJNR actually raised a grand total of $145,262 from individuals and families—seven times greater than the highest amount we had ever raised from individuals in a single year! Our deep gratitude goes out to everyone who supported the Challenge. Please rest assured that many future Fellows thank you as well.

New Kudos for Fellows

Broad Reporting, Big Awards, Bold Startups

Tom Henry on assignment in Greenland

Tom Henry (Great Waters 2003 and Great Waters 2008), environment reporter for The Blade in Toledo, continues to receive well-deserved praise for the four-day package of nine climate-change articles he produced last fall after a trip to Greenland. The idea for the reporting trip came from Tom's editor-in-chief and co-publisher, John Robinson Block. Mr. Block was perplexed by mainstream press coverage of global warming, which he thought overlooked the angle of human adaptation to climate change. For a mid-sized newspaper in an economically depressed city, the Greenland project was a major financial commitment.

"My purpose in doing this series," recalls Tom, "was to show people that climate change is not about polar bears. It's about people." The package also included two columns, two photo galleries, and audio slide show and several video interviews with climate scientists. The narrative of Tom's series of stories starts in Greenland but then weaves its way to Toledo, other parts of the Great Lakes region and even Capitol Hill before coming full circle to conclude in the Arctic. Tom took this interconnected approach, hoping to make distant phenomena seem more relevant to lives of people in Ohio . But such connections aren't often obvious or easily made, Tom argues. "Changes occurring to Greenland should be a wake-up call for the rest of the world," Tom wrote in one of the pieces. "Or, to put it simply… It's about you and me and our ethics. That's right. Our ethics."

In December, Columbia Journalism Review noted complaints that such ambitious, expensive reporting can be done only at such major news outlets as The New York Times, but efforts such as Tom's for The Blade "are a reminder that all is not lost in our troubled industry." Congratulations, Tom!

Crews apply herbicides to spartina in Willapa Bay, Washington.

Ed Jahn (Southern Cascadia 2002) has won the Alfred I. Dupont Award from Columbia University for his exceptional TV documentary, "The Silent Invasion." Ed produced the film as a special report for his popular magazine-format program, "Oregon Field Guide," which airs on Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland.

The documentary examines harmful environmental and economic effects of exotic plants and animals (feral pigs, nutria, starlings, purple loosestrife, yellow star thistle and spartina) that are invading Oregon and other regions of the West from all parts of the globe. Ed and his work is also being featured in January in a PBS documentary entitled, "Telling the Truth: Best in Journalism 2008."

Jeff Barnard ( Pacific Northwest 1999) completed a two-week fellowship at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Science at Duke University. Jeff, who reports for The Associated Press from Grants Pass, Oregon, told us recently about this opportunity to speak with scores of Duke faculty members, including specialists in climate change, wetlands restoration, forestry, wildfire, nanotechnology, cap-and-trade policy, clean-water engineering, sonar effects on whales, and deep-sea mining around geothermal vents. Besides all that, Jeff confirms, "the local barbecue and beer were excellent."

Paul Rogers (High Country 1997, Pueblo Country 1998, Wildfire 2001) shared with his colleagues at KQED Public Television in San Francisco the first-place honor in the Society for Environmental Journalism's Seventh Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The award recognized a multi-media story produced by Quest TV about harmful effects that old lead bullets have had on endangered California condors.

Paul is Quest's managing editor, in addition to serving at the natural resources and environment writer for the San Jose Mercury News. He is also chairman of IJNR's Board of Trustees. According to SEJ, "Judges found the Quest piece on the condors to be mesmerizing and haunting with amazing storytelling and excellent use of video."

Daniel Grossman (High Country 1998) has won the Science Journalism Award in the radio category given by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dan reported and produced the documentary about global warming and sea-ice sheets, entitled "Meltdown Inside Out," and Walter Cronkite narrated it. (Walter hasn't been on an IJNR trip yet.) Dan won similar AAAS awards in 2003 and 2005 in the online category.

Jim Motavalli (Acadian 1998), editor of E, the Environmental Magazine, recently published Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery. The book is dedicated to the memory of former IJNR staffer Andrew Weegar, who planted the idea in Jim's head somewhere along the Penobscot River while they were rafting and canoeing during the Institute.

Part adventure story and part cultural analysis, Jim's book examines the adventures of a mountain man turned media-stunt man. From August to October 1913, at the age of 43, Mr. Knowles went alone, naked and without supplies, into the Maine woods, vowing to live for two months by his own devices. The stunt, sponsored by the Boston Post, increased readership for the newspaper but later proved to be a hoax, one of several examples of nature fakery in the early 20th century that Jim discusses in this account.

William Randolph Hearst backed a second naked wilderness foray by Mr. Knowles, this time in California and with sanctioned observers. A third expedition would have put Mr. Knowles in the Adirondacks with a naked woman, but that opportunity fizzled when she quit, realizing she would have to endure cold weather and kill wild animals. Jim's book shows the humor in these exploits, but its also describes a skilled woodsman with a sincere love of the outdoors who reflected the back-to-nature movement of his time.

Fresh Starts and Startups

Bill Dawson (Salmon Country 2005), a former environment reporter for the Houston Chronicle, has started an online magazine venture called Texas Climate News, under the auspices of the Houston Advanced Research Center, a non-advocacy nonprofit institution. Bill recently told us that he is also writing the introduction for a completely updated edition of The Impact of Global Warming on Texas, a book to be published soon by University of Texas Press. He still teaches environment courses at Rice University and writes freelance pieces for the Center for Public Integrity and the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media.

LeAnn Spencer (High Country 1996), a former environment and science writer for the Chicago Tribune, continues to enjoy her self-invented job as editor and publisher of A Prairie Journal, an online magazine that she founded in 2006.

Photo from recent issue of A Prairie Journal

The publication provides a creative forum for writers and artists whose works reflect human relationships with the prairie and related landscapes—what LeAnn describes as "the complex network of grasses and wildflowers, oak savannas, wetlands and the wildlife they shelter." The prairie once covered North America 's midsection from Indiana westward to the Rocky Mountains and stretched from Manitoba into Texas. Today, LeAnn notes, less than five percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains. She hopes that A Prairie Journal can inspire more artists and writers to "share their work that showcases this breathtaking landscape as well as provide provocative commentary on the changes we have wrought upon it."

Ron Meador (High Country 1998, Golden Gate 2000, Wildfire 2001, Great Waters 2003), a longtime reporter, editor and opinion writer for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, recently relinquished his post as executive director of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness to become media-relations director for Fresh Energy, an advocacy group based in St. Paul. Fresh Energy promotes policy changes that contribute to cleaner, more efficient and fairer energy systems and that address problems of global warming. The group also seeks to help credible, engaging information about energy issues and solutions reach the public through traditional and new forms of media.

Frank Clifford (High Country 1995), former environment editor for the Los Angeles Times and author of The Backbone of the World: A Portrait of a Vanishing Way of Life Along the Continental Divide, has been writing freelance pieces on several major issues since he took a buyout from the troubled newspaper in 2007. He also has relocated to his beloved New Mexico and now makes his home in Santa Fe.

Florangela Davila (Pacific Northwest 1999, Wildfire 2001), who left The Seattle Times last May after distinguishing herself on the environment and race-and-ethnicity beats, is now freelancing for KPLU Public Radio, a Seattle/Tacoma affiliate of NPR. She also lectures at the University of Washington. Florangela was a founding member of IJNR's Council of Advisors.

Todd Neff (Energy Country 2006) chose not to return to his reporting job at The Daily Camera in Boulder after completing a Ted Scripps Environmental Journalism Fellowship at the University of Colorado. These days, Todd mixes work for the University of Colorado hospital with freelance coverage of oil shale and some climate-news reporting projects. His book manuscript about how the Ball jar company got pulled into the aerospace industry awaits reactions from prospective publishers. "We'll see how that goes," Todd says.

Jennifer Frazer (Acadian 2004, Wind River 2005) has become a science writer at The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder , Colorado , thereby increasing exponentially her chances of bumping into Todd Neff and Douglas Fischer. The acronym for her unit at the center is COMET (which we find easier to remember than Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology Education Training). Before she left her reporting job at the Wyoming Tribune Eagle in Cheyenne to join the center, she won an award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her story entitled "Getting to the Bottom of Mysterious Elk Deaths." Jennifer investigated a rash of mysterious elk fatalities that had baffled scientists and game wardens alike. Eventually, researchers identified poisonous lichen as the likely culprit.

Douglas Fischer (Energy Country 2006), who used to cover environment issues for the Oakland Tribune, is now the editor of DailyClimate.org, a non-partisan website that compiles and disseminates mainstream news and current science reports on climate change.

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Douglas is also a senior member of the editorial team at Virginia-based Environmental Health Sciences, the non-profit publisher of Daily Climate and Environmental Health News.

Franny White (Pacific Northwest 2007) has left the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick , Washington . As reasons, she cites "the tumultuous economy and uncertain future of journalism, plus a nagging feeling that I'm not doing quite what I want." She plans to pursue a master's degree in biology or environmental science, explaining that she has often felt jealous of her environment-news sources who get to be "out in the field, playing in nature." To help pay for her new phase of education, she is joining the staff of the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory just down the road in Richland, as a media-relations specialist.

Erica Curless (High Country 2007) left her reporting job for The Spokesman-Review in Idaho to make a bold career shift. After studying equine massage in Colorado , she decided to start her own horse and dog massage business, called Dog and Pony Show. "It's the best detox I could find!" Erica says. "I feel great and peaceful." In her spare time, she intends to write for horse publications.

New Kiddos of Fellows

Catherine Porter (GWI 2007), environment reporter for The Toronto Star, and her husband Graeme Burt have a new son named Noah. As of late December, Noah was seven months old and weighed 25 pounds—a growth rate during 2008 that put all mutual funds to shame. Graeme, who is 35 years older than his son, allegedly weighs 200 pounds. The couple's beautiful two-year-old daughter Lyla was born a few months before Catherine made the Great Waters trek. So far, there is no evidence that Lyla will inherit her mom's aptitude for throwing Frisbees.

Michelle Nijuis (Wind River 2005) and husband Jack Perrin welcomed their daughter Sylvia Wren Perrin into the world on September 26. Michelle is a freelance writer and a contributing editor for High Country News. It is too early to tell whether Sylvia Wren will type as fast as Michelle.

Craig Welch and Jennifer Langston(PNI 2000 and HCI 2007) remain record holders as the only IJNR Fellows to meet on an Institute and later get married to each other. Now they claim another distinction: They are the first IJNR Fellows to have a baby together. (Officially, IJNR has no policy about selecting offspring as future Fellows.

The baby, born in late September, is a lovely girl named Edie Catherine Welch. Craig will complete a book-writing leave of absence by April, when he expects to resume his duties as an environment reporter for The Seattle Times. Jennifer, meanwhile, is still on maternity leave until mid-March from her job as the growth reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

As we go to press with this newsletter, Hearst Corporation has announced its offer to sell the Post-Intelligencer because the magnitude of the newspaper's operating losses has become "unacceptable." If such a sale doesn't occur by mid-March, Hearst says it will pursue one of two other options—either changing to a digital-only operation with a greatly reduced staff or shutting down all operations. In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form. IJNR is deeply saddened by this development. Hearst's decision will also affect IJNR Fellows Robert McClure and Lisa Stiffler and their respective families. (Some happy news about Lisa appears below.)

Lisa Stiffler (Pacific Northwest 2001) and her husband Brent Roraback are thrilled with their gorgeous new daughter Lucinda June Roraback, who arrived in October. Lisa is an environment reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Lucinda June hasn't yet chosen a career path.

Adam Hinterthuer (IJNR's Great Waters assistant) and his wife Carrie have not yet stopped boasting about their brand new daughter, Brynn DeHart Hinterthuer. Born in early December, she already naps more frequently than her dad.