Paul Rogers Leaves the IJNR Board

Paul Rogers has completed an 11-year span of exceptional service to IJNR as a member of the Board of Trustees, including more than eight years as the board's chairman.

In his resignation letter in mid-January, Paul wrote: "My wife Leigh and I were delighted to learn recently that we are expecting a second child. The baby is due this summer. As many of you know, we already have a three-year-old son. I work two jobs, at the San Jose Mercury News and at KQED in San Francisco. I have been concerned over the past year or two that I haven't had the time to devote to IJNR that the organization deserves, and with a newborn on the way, my availability is only going to decrease."

Paul also expressed confidence in IJNR's future: "With a growing contingent of new and very thoughtful and accomplished members," he said, IJNR's board "is among the strongest that we've ever had, and stands ready to meet the challenges ahead."

As our board chairman for eight years, Paul has been what Wallace Stegner would have called a "sticker"—a loyal and steadfast person who would stick to his promises, give generously of his time and shoulder his responsibilities rather than slack off or drift away. Stegner often argued that the American West needs more "deeply lived-in places" where people are stickers...and where communities can become durable as a result. Although Paul grew up in the Midwest and went to college in Indiana, I have come to think of him as a Westerner, a steward of the West, and a sticker whose dedication, patience and skills helped make it possible for the community called IJNR to become durable.

Write a Review—Help IJNR Win $5k!

GuideStar is an outfit that gathers and publicizes information about nonprofit organizations. Turns out, they're giving away some money to the organization that garners the most reviews on the GuideStar website during the month of February. It's fast, simple, painless and free, and giving us a couple minutes of your time could enable us to win $5000. Help us out! Simply go to the GuideStar website, type IJNR into the search box, and when our name pops up, click on "Write a Review." Fill out the short form (really, it doesn't have to be long at all), and voila, you're done. Thanks in advance for your help. And we'll be sure to let you know if we win!

Upcoming Institutes

We have four fantastic Institutes planned for 2011, and the deadline for the first one (Great Waters Institute) is fast approaching! This Institute (no less than the 10th annual Great Waters Institute) will, like 2010's trip, take a lap around Lake Ontario. Starting and ending in Toronto, journalists will explore issues of storm-water run-off, aquatic-biology research, wind energy, invasive species, freshwater supplies, Atlantic-salmon, wetlands protection, water-level fluctuations, toxic hot spots, and population density. The trip will be conducted April 29-May 6.

GWI Application Deadline: Friday, March 25, 7pm Mountain Time

Also on the list of 2011 expeditions is a Puget Sound Institute.  This  expedition will be based in the Puget Sound estuary, and will visit Hood Canal, the Duwamish Waterway, the Port of Tacoma, as well as the Skagit River delta.  Topics covered will include land use, agriculture, salmon fisheries, oyster cultivation, development, snowpack, climate change, pollution, and forest-use. PSI 2011 will be July 8-16.

PSI Application Deadline: Friday, June 3, 7 pm Mountain Time

Rounding out the list of full-length 2011 offerings will be an Energy Country Institute, November 4-12, will be based in Albuquerque and travel through Colorado and northern New Mexico.  Issues covered  during the trip will include new renewable energy technology as seen at Sandia National Labs and elsewhere, fossil fuel use and production, climate change, America’s energy future, water use, and Native perspectives on energy development.

ECI Application Deadline: Friday, September 30, 7 pm Mountain Time

We are also planning to conduct a short, intensive Institute on Asian Carp, based out of Chicago, sometime during autumn 2011. More information on this expedition will be available soon. 

For those of you who have been meaning to apply for a second (or third, or fourth) Institute—go for it!  If you have a colleague or friend who might be a good candidate for a Fellowship, suggest to him or her that now is the time to apply!

Email applications are strongly encouraged.  If you have any questions about the format or content of your application, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Around IJNR:

A Year in Review

We had quite a year at IJNR during 2010. To recap: 

We conducted two fantastic Institutes around the Great Lakes, including the Beaver Island Reunion Institute.

Fellows having a day at the beach – and doing some good journalistic work too, of course.

Fellows discuss cormorants with expert speakers.

We got a brand new website.

We turned 15 years old! And we kicked off our 15th anniversary with a summer gathering, at Frank and Maggie Allen's home in Missoula.

We reconnected with more than 75 alumni during the IJNR Reunion Dinner held once again at the home of Frank and Maggie in Missoula, Montana, in conjunction with the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference.  Also in conjunction with the SEJ conference, we conducted a full-day Wildfire field trip. 

And we received generous donations from old and new donors alike, including lots of fellows. We especially want to thank those of you who donated during our year-end appeal, and remind others (in case you thought you’d missed your opportunity), it’s never too late to support IJNR!  Please help future Fellows by making a donation today.

IJNR on the Web

We first want to thank the Fellows who took the time to participate in our online survey. The information we gleaned will help us with recruiting, fundraising, and increasing IJNR's visibility in the future.

And while we're on cyber-subjects, we'd like to mention — once again — the IJNR online community. We bring this up because we see the extended IJNR family as a resource, a network of committed and creative journalists spread throughout the nation. We believe that more and better communication within that network will lead to potential opportunities for everyone involved: increased awareness of job openings, collaboration across media types — or across the country, inspiration for stories, mentoring between generations of journalists.

IJNR has an ever-growing Facebook presence, via both a "person" (IJNR Connect), and a group (IJNR). We've become "friends" with nearly 200 Fellows, but there are still a lot of you with whom we have yet to connect! "Friend" us if you're on Facebook, and you'll be kept up-to-date on all of IJNR's activities (including reminders about upcoming deadlines, opportunities, and Institutes).

In the coming months, we also want to increase Fellow activity through our Facebook group: we hope to begin discussion threads about regional topics, nationwide topics, the craft of journalism, and perhaps even a "help" thread, where folks can post questions to fellow Fellows, regarding issues of writing, reporting, sourcing, and story-shaping that have stumped them.

And, last but not least, we'd like to remind all Fellows once again about the IJNR database. It's not only a fabulous resource for tracking down fellow IJNR alumni, but also a searchable cache of over 2,000+ experts (speakers from IJNR's many Institutes). Need a fisheries expert? Search the database. Looking for a forester in Oregon? Search the database.

The database is also a venue for you to share your work. Through the showcase feature, you can upload links (or text) for stories that you have written or produced. These links then get placed on our homepage, under "News Stories." The results? You gain increased visibility for your work, and important environment stories find a wider audience.

To access the database, please follow the link on our website . If you have forgotten your log-in and password, please contact or database@ijnr.org

And last but not least... Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, @ijnr_connect!

Postcards from IJNR Fellows...

Updates

Sky Barsch Gleiner (Acadian 2004) has taken the reigns at a long-standing outdoor publication. In 2010 she purchased Vermont Sports magazine, a monthly publication dedicated to human-powered sports, such as hiking, biking, running, paddling, and rock climbing. Of the magazine's readership and the adventure of running a publication she says, "Our readers are generally very environmentally aware, especially because they take advantage of the outdoors. I'm very excited, and learning a lot."

Pam Ferdinand (Acadian 2000) dropped us a note recently: "I live in Chicago now with my fiance and our 3-year-old daughter (and another on the way, due in mid-May). Since the MIT Science Journalism fellowship in 2003-2004, I've been freelancing and also wrote a book with two other women journalists [see more book information below]... I've been writing a blog (www.pamelaferdinand.com) and trying to come up with another book idea. My fiance, Mark, is an IT professional and a photographer, and we've got a photography business that is doing well (www.markthomasphoto.com); he also does documentary photography in India. And our daughter is in preschool and a delight!"

Costas Halavresos (Acadian 2000) retired in October 2010 from his post as Maritime Issues Reporter and Host on the CBC–Radio One program Maritime Noon. When he told us "I'm now in the process of becoming a spice merchant," we didn't believe him at first. But he is! In his first post-radio endeavor, he is peddling curries, masalas, herbs, peppers, spice mixes, and even bilingual cookbooks at the Historic Halifax Farmer's Market and other venues.

Sara Shipley Hiles (Pacific Northwest 1999) sent word of a move to a new job and a new state. Amidst all the changes, at least she won't have to remember the name of a new town! "I have gotten a full-time teaching gig. My husband and I moved from Bowling Green, Kentucky to Bowling Green, Ohio this August. Tom is vice president for university advancement at BGSU and I'll be teaching journalism full-time starting in January. I even get to teach environmental journalism, yay! Looking forward to my new job and to future Institutes."

George Homsey (Acadian 1997, Pueblo Country 1998) caught us up on his recent doings from New York state, where he is in a PhD program for City and Regional Planning at Cornell. He also received a master's degree in the same program, and spent five years helping communities before returning to school. He remembered his days covering environment issues as a journalist, and adds "I am studying sustainable practices in small cities — so I haven't strayed too far."

Mike O'Connell (Energy Country 2009) has been busy over the past year and remains so, but that didn't prevent him from updating us on his myriad activities. He was a finalist for the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University, a good thing all on its own. However, the experience turned out to be a fortuitous one also, as it led to his collaboration with an Energy Country 2009 speaker, Craig Allen, on a film that is currently in production. He is also eager to see his award-wining footage of Mountain Top Removal appear in the film The Lost Mountain, which is premiering at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Mike has been on the road as well, shooting film and reporting for "six weeks in Queensland and New South Wales. And in the spirit of 'Going Where the Story Leads' I'll be returning to Australia via Jharkland, India this spring to finish shooting." And just to round things out, he's headed north from his home in South Carolina to get a healthy dose of winter: "I'm doing another short film on the Wilderness 100 Mile Sled Dog Race in Greenville, Maine. Cara and I are working together to shoot this event and have some fun in one of our most favorite places on the planet."

Natalie Pawelski (High Country 1995, Savannah River 1999, Wildfire 2001) took a new position as Vice President of Cater Communications East, in March 2010. Cater Communications is a nationwide consulting firm specializing in communications and public policy. Previously, Natalie worked as CNN's Environment Correspondent, and as Vice Consul for Political, Press, and Public Affairs at the British Consulate-General in Atlanta.

Jessica Robinson (Willamette Valley 2008) found a new job after taking some time off from radio. Her new position is with the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public radio stations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. She'll be serving as the Inland Northwest Bureau Chief, based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and focusing on news in Idaho and Eastern Washington. Of her hiatus from radio and reporting she says: "Never let it be said that quitting your job during an historic recession and moving to Mexico where you know nobody to learn Spanish and find yourself is a bad idea." Sound advice, indeed.

Awards

Sammy Fretwell (Low Country 2001) has been named the South Carolina Sierra Club's Media Person of the Year for his work in covering the environment in 2010 as a staff writer with The State in Columbia. Most recently, he chronicled the story of a poor, rural community whose drinking water is being threatened by a sewage dump site that state regulators said would not contaminate the environment. In 2009 and 2010, he and a colleague received numerous national and state awards for their investigative series on missteps at South Carolina's environmental protection agency, including first place in 2009 in the Society of Professional Journalists' Green Eyeshade awards for public affairs print reporting and second place in the Society of Environmental Journalists Carmody investigative awards for 2009.

Michelle Nijhuis (Wind River 2005) has won a prestigious fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation. The mission of the organization is to "foster, promote, sustain and improve the best traditions of American journalism," and provides stipends to support journalists while they pursue a year-long investigative reporting project. During 2011, Michelle will be researching radical measures to conserve endangered species in a project called The New Ark: Rescuing Rare Species in an Age of Global Change.

Lily Raff McCaulou (Blue Mountain 2006) updated us on her recent adventures: "Last year I was lucky enough to get a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship, and I spent 9 glorious months in Ann Arbor, studying at the University of Michigan and working on an independent research project. This summer I managed to turn my project into a book proposal and sell it to Grand Central Publishing, in New York. Yay! Now I'm working on the book full-time, with plans to go return to The Bulletin this summer. My book is part memoir and part journalism. It tells the story of how and why I learned to hunt, starting about four years ago."

New Books

Pam Ferdinand (Acadian 2009) has been busy writing a book for the past couple of years. All that busyness paid off, though: the book has been sold in several other countries and has now been optioned for a film! Three Wishes: A True Story of Good Friends, Crushing Heartbreak, and Astonishing Luck on our Way to Love and Motherhood, tells the tale of three women — all journalists, all single, all childless — and eight apparently magical, never-used vials from an anonymous donor.

Tim Gardner (Salmon Country 2005, Energy Country 2008) has written a book for teenagers. It's called Diminishing Resources: Oil, and is one of a four-part series for high-schoolers that also covers water, soil, and forests. Looking back on his sources for inspiration he says, "I first realized I could write a book on energy for kids during the Energy Country institute in 2008." Glad we could help!

Elizabeth Grossman (Golden Gate 2000) has released another book, this one is titled Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health and the Promise of Green Chemistry. In it, she explores the harmful world of synthetic chemicals that we have created and in which we currently live — and offers the suggestion that this is a problem we can fix.

Seth Muller (Klamath Country 2004) has recently released two books, and has two more on the way in 2011. The Mockingbird's Manual and The Day of Storms are both titles in his "Keepers of the Windclaw Chronicles," a series of stories for young readers that follow the adventures of a young Navajo girl as she reunites the human and animal worlds. "This young-reader fiction series is certainly inspired by my past work as an environmental journalist," Muller said. "The concepts of how we interact with the natural world and how we adopt policies and behaviors that benefit or degrade the environment play into the storyline's theme." A third book in the Windclaw series is forthcoming during spring of this year, as is Canyon Crossing: Experiencing the Grand Canyon From Rim to Rim, a creative nonfiction book that explores the Grand Canyon's corridor trails.

Todd Neff (Energy Country 2006) wrote to tell us that "I have finally published my book." From Jars to the Stars: How Ball Came to Build a Comet-Hunting Machine tells the remarkable story of the collaboration between the Ball Brothers — of canning jar fame — and NASA's Deep Impact comet mission, and the way in which this unlikely union shaped the future of space exploration.

Judy Pasternak (Energy Country 2009) Has published a book titled Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed, which tells the story of the Navajo peoples' complicated — and tragic — relationship with uranium mining and the United States government.

IJNR Fellows-in-training

Beth Casper (Salmon Country 2005, Willamette Valley 2008), along with her husband Michael and three-year-old-son Eli, welcomed a brand new boy to their family. Ewan Barrett Casper joined them in June. Beth took a moment to fill us in on what she's up to, now that she's the proud mother of not one but two adorable boys: "I'm no longer an employee at the Statesman Journal. I'm doing the stay-at-home mama gig for a bit. Of course I can't stay away from journalism completely so I'm doing freelance work for the paper — writing about the innovative Sustainable City Year program at the University of Oregon. The program teamed up with the city of Salem, so students are helping the city with some much-needed projects (like parks connectivity, pedestrian/bike friendly streets, etc). It's fun!"

Terry FitzPatrick (High Country 1997, Savannah River 1999) wrote to us recently to share some exciting news: "We received a special present this holiday season. Connor Jake FitzPatrick was born on Christmas Eve. Baby is healthy, as is mom. Hayde's mom is with us in Los Angeles for January to teach two yuppies how to change diapers." Terry also filled us in on his recent work: "I'm still working for the group Free the Slaves in Los Angeles, producing video documentaries and web stories on human trafficking around the world."

Ma Shumin (Willamette Valley 2008) and her husband Weifeng Li welcomed a son on November 19, 2010. Mason Li's name was chosen very carefully, as a blending of Chinese and American cultures: Mason stands for "son of Ma." Mom, Dad, and baby are all doing well and enjoying a cold New York City winter.