Click on each photo to learn more each member of our crew.
STAFF
2024 CREW LEADERS
2024 WILDERNESS INTERNS & PACKER APPRENTICES
MASTER PACKERS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Corrie Williamson, Chair
Corrie grew up in the foothills of Virginia's Appalachian Mountains, but has made her home in Montana since 2013, working in outreach, communication, and education. She has worked as a youth conservation crew leader with the Student Conservation Association, been a guide and educator in Yellowstone National Park, and taught writing, communications, and environmental studies at Carroll College and Helena College. She is currently the Senior Outreach Manager at American Prairie. She is also a writer, and the author of two books of poetry, including a Montana Book Award finalist. She spent 7.5 months of 2020 living in a remote, off-grid cabin in southwest Oregon for a Wilderness Writing Residency. She is always looking for ways to weave together her love for storytelling and language with her devotion to wild places.
Todd Harwell, Secretary
Todd was born and raised in Akron Ohio. His father, Ish, infected him with a love for the outdoors early on. He received a Masters’ degree in public health epidemiology in 1993 from the University of Pittsburgh and has worked in public health for over 30 years in Pennsylvania and Montana. Todd, his wife Elena and their three boys moved to Montana in 1997 and his passion for exploring the wild places of Montana, particularly the “Bob,” grew exponentially. He has been a long-time volunteer for the foundation.
Kristina Gillispie, Board Member
Krissy was born and raised in Montana, where a strong love for the wild was instilled. As early as an infant she was tagging along with her parents on fishing and hunting trips in the Bear Paw Mountains. She spent high school and college years chasing peaks in Western Montana, Wyoming and Alaska. During a volunteer trail maintenance trip in the Scapegoat Wilderness, she learned about volunteer packer opportunities and applied to be an apprentice in the first year of the BMWF’s packer apprentice program. That was eight years ago, and she has been packing for the BMWF since. She currently resides in Helena and owns a private practice for mental health counseling. When she’s not in the mountains with her dog Ripp and her mules, you’ll find her at the gym chasing her other passion as a competitive bodybuilder.
Morgan Marks, Board Member
Morgan grew up in Pennsylvania and, thanks to Montana Conservation Corps, moved to Montana to serve on a trail crew in 2008. She has been calling Montana home ever since, with the exception of a few stints living abroad in Australia when she served as a Rotary International Peace Fellow studying conflict and peace, and Zambia when she served with the United States Peace Corps promoting aquaculture in the eastern part of the country. Morgan started volunteering with BMWF in 2012 at the film fests in Helena, and it's one of her favorite events! Morgan is an avid angler and hunter. Conservation work, localized peacebuilding and conflict resolution are passions of hers. She is also a writer in her spare time and runs a small business venture. Creating safe space for connections to be fostered and strengthened, and for dialogue to be shared between people is her goal. Morgan currently works for Montana Wildlife Federation (MWF) where she is the point of contact for North-Central and Eastern Montana for MWF. She has diverse experience working in the non-profit sector, the private sector, and with the Montana state government. Morgan loves the Bob (!!!) and she's very humbled and excited to serve on the Board of Directors to conserve and protect one of her favorite wild places.
Caleb Stewart, Vice Chair
Caleb came to Montana after college in 2008 to serve as a crew member with the Montana Conservation Corps on a field crew in the Frank Church Wilderness in Idaho. He returned to lead a crew in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in 2009. It's here Caleb fell in love with wilderness and developed a passion for public lands. He spent the next five years working for the Forest Service in the Bob Marshall at Big Prairie. After working with the MCC crews for several years, Caleb decided he wanted to return to MCC and help foster a similar passion and experience for other young people. He is currently the Recruitment & Admissions Manager for the MCC in Bozeman. In his free time, Caleb enjoys biking, hiking, exploring new areas of western Montana, and spending time with his partner Tierney and their sweet aussie Honey.
Bill Avey, Board Member
Bill served in the USDA Forest Service for forty years, retiring in January 2022. He was lucky enough to spend about 36 years of his career exclusively in Montana. While earning his Forestry degree from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, he started on the Bighorn Forest as a Forestry Technician. During his career, he served as a Forestry Technician, Forester, Wilderness Manager on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, District Ranger on Gallatin National Forest where he was responsible for a large chunk of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, and Regional Deputy Director of Fire and Aviation. He spent the last 10 years of his career as the Forest Supervisor of the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, where he was responsible for about 1/3 of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. He is the only Forest Supervisor of the BMWC to ski with the wilderness rangers into Gates Park on the winter snow survey. He also served as Acting Deputy Regional Forester for Region 1 in 2018 and Acting National Fire Director in 2021. In retirement, besides serving on the BMWF board, he is trail running, skiing, camping, serving on the board of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees and assisting with a firewood bank and homeless care. He and his wife Crystal Coffey-Avey (also a FS retiree) live in Helena, MT and have two adult daughters that live in Idaho and Montana. They also have a yellow lab named Kimber.
Roy Jacobs, Board Member
Roy has deep connections across the Montana landscape as someone that has been a hunter, guide and conservationist along the Rocky Mountain Front for decades. Roy has served a hunting guide around the country, including time as a bear guide in Alaska. Having returned to his Montana roots, Roy has explored and guided across the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, turning that knowledge and love of place into being an passionate advocate for preserving the wilderness of the front. Roy was front and center for the passage of the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act in 2014, which expanded the Bob Marshall Wilderness by 67,000 acres. When not in the wild, Roy can be found working his craft as a taxidermist at his ranch in Pendroy.
Keegan Rumsey, Board Member
Keegan grew up in the mountains and woods of Montana and found it only natural to work for the Forest Service when she left home. She spent 20 seasons working in the Bob both out of Spotted Bear Ranger District and then the east side of the Bob where she spent many years as a wilderness ranger for Rocky Mountain Ranger District. She’s long considered the Bob her home and has resided within walking distance of the Wilderness since moving to the east side in 2005. In 2018, she switched gears and became a massage therapist starting her own practice in Choteau. She’s studying to become an equine therapist to add horses and mules to her clientele on the Rocky Mountain Front. Her passion still remains in the wilderness and she prioritizes logging miles in it nearly as much as when she worked there. Her mode of travel is either trail running, with her horse and mule or occasionally on skis. Her trail running ranges from daily jaunts from her home in the Teton to long runs across the complex. She’s spent her life exploring wild places but she considers this place in particular, the Bob, her home.
Chris Steffen, Board Member
Chris moved to Kalispell with his family in 2020 to be closer to nature. Before moving to the Flathead Valley he lived in North Carolina and attended Appalachian State University where he met his wife Abbie. They have two children together, Helen and William, who keep them very busy. Chris has been working professionally as a software developer for 12 years and has spent time working for Bank of America and Amazon but now works for a small start up called Fetcher. Although his career keeps him in front of a computer screen his heart belongs in the woods and Chris does his best to get out and enjoy nature whenever possible. Since moving to Montana he's traded camping in the Smokies for backpacking in the Bob but wherever he calls home he's sure to find a piece of nature nearby. Chris is a lifelong learner and loves to try his hand at new hobbies and since moving to Montana he's enjoyed learning to fly fish and ski and hopes one day to actually be good at them.
Randy Gayner, Treasurer
Randy grew up in Cleveland Ohio and moved to Montana after he graduated from college. He came to Glacier Park in 1976 to work for the summer but never left. After working for the National Park Service as a backcountry ranger for several years, he founded Glacier Guides and added Montana Raft Company five years later. For the next 35 years he ran these businesses guiding visitors through the wilderness areas in Northwest Montana, emphasizing Leave No Trace ethics and an appreciation for these areas, hopefully adding many advocates for our wild lands. Randy, his wife Kerin and their four daughters enjoy hiking the trails and floating the rivers of wild landscapes throughout the West. Randy and Kerin also enjoy skiing, golfing, sailing and bird watching.
Chris Eyer, Board Member
Chris is the owner of Eyer Electrical Construction Inc. and is a third generation electrician in Montana. He’s a contract packer running a string of mules through the Bob throughout the summer, and is also owner of Heart W Saddlery making custom mountain saddles and tack. His great grandfather homesteaded on the banks of the Blackfoot River in 1889 near Helmville. Chris lives near that homestead in Ovando at the foot of the Scapegoat Wilderness. He holds an Associate Arts degree from Marymount College Palos Verdes, a Bachelors Degree in Philosophy from the University of Montana, and a Masters Degree in Buddhist Studies from the University of Sunderland U.K. When he isn’t working he is volunteering for the Bob Marshall Wilderness as a packer, or you might find him is laying a fly on a riffle while floating down the Blackfoot river.
Margosia Jadkowski, Board Member
Margosia first joined the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation as staff in 2015, then returned as a board member in 2023. Originally from Maine, Margosia's professional work focuses on connecting communities to the landscapes around them through community-driven conservation and recreation projects. Her experience includes organizations such as the City of Savannah, Georgia, Whitefish Legacy Partners, and currently The Wilderness Land Trust as Director of Marketing & Communications. She holds a master’s degree in Sustainability and Environmental Management from Harvard University, and a BA in Geology from Colby College. Margosia is based in Whitefish, Montana.
Frank Vitale, Board Member
Frank is a professional farrier, packer, and former U.S.F.S. firefighter. He learned the packing trade from old timers at Glacier National Park while doing restoration work. Frank volunteers to pack multiple BMWF volunteer trips every year. His initiative to recruit young packers lead to the creation of BMWF’s Packer Apprentice Program.
HONORARY BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Smoke Elser, Honorary Board
After graduating from the University of Montana , Smoke spent the next forty-five years as a wilderness outfitter in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and has spent more than 50 years as an instructor in packing, horsemanship and minimum impact camping. Smoke is past President of the Montana Outfitter & Guides Association and Professional Wilderness Guide’s Association, Past President of Back Country Horsemen of Missoula and charter member. He is a frequent guest speaker at the University of Montana Forestry and Wildlife classes and is a member emeritus of the advisory board for the College of Forestry and Conservation. He serves on the State Board for the Montana Back Country Horsemen, the advisory Council of Elders for MWA and is currently active on the USFS Region I Pack Train Board. He is an instructor at the Nine Mile Wildlands Training Center, Region I, USFS and a certified NOLS “Master of no Trace” instructor. He has not missed traveling in the Bob Marshall each and every year for the past 54 years.
Joel Holtrop, Honorary Board
Joel Holtrop served as the Deputy Chief of the National Forest System Deputy Area at agency headquarters in Washington D.C., from March 2005 until October, 2011. In this capacity, he oversaw the strategic and national program leadership for the 193 million acre National Forest System of forests and grasslands located in 42 states and Puerto Rico. His natural resource management emphasis areas include ecosystem management, engineering, forest management, rangeland management, lands, minerals, geology management, recreation, heritage, wilderness (including the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex), wild-scenic rivers management, watersheds, fish, wildlife, air, and rare plants. Holtrop’s love for the outdoors and natural resources started at an early age—11 years old to be exact—when he chose his life’s work after he met a park ranger on a family camping trip. His distinguished Forest Service career spanned more than 34 years. He launched it on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. He later served on the Eldorado National Forest, California, Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon, and Hiawatha National Forest, Michigan. Subsequently he became deputy forest supervisor on the Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin, and forest supervisor on the Flathead National Forest, Montana. It was in this capacity that he developed a special appreciation for the wonders of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, taking multiple trips into the Bob whenever time allowed.
Dave Owen (03/1930–11/28/2022), Honorary Board
Dave was born in 1930 in Madison, Wisconsin. During high school he worked as a railroad section hand and harvested local crops. After graduating, he served two years in the Army airborne infantry. 1950 found him working seasonally for the Forest Service on the old Cabinet National Forest pulling ribes (wild gooseberry) bushes as a part of the effort to control white pine blister rust.
From 1951-1954 Dave attended the University of Montana School of Forestry. During the summers he worked as a smokejumper. Following graduation he began a career with the U.S. Forest Service. During the early years he worked on lands that would become the Selway-Bitterroot, Gospel Hump, Frank Church and Great Bear Wilderness. Work included trail and telephone line maintenance and construction, smoke chasing and substitute packing (when the regular packer was fired or quit early).
In 1958, Dave was promoted to District Ranger on the Big Prairie Ranger District on the Flathead National Forest where he served until 1963. Following that, he moved on to ranger positions on the Nine Mile and Superior Districts on the Lolo National Forest. In 1976, Dave returned to the Flathead National Forest where he served as Ranger on the Spotted Bear District until his retirement in 1985.
During his tenure on the Spotted Bear District, Dave was a key player in using the Limits of Acceptable Change process to develop a new management plan for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. He was instrumental in implementing the first fire management plan in the Complex. He also played a key role in developing the concept of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation. In spite of his administrative duties, Dave was firm advocate of getting people on the ground to do real work. As he said many times, “I want crews out there throwing dirt to the tree tops”.
Since retirement Dave has continued to do volunteer trail work with the Big Sky Bible Camp and the Bob Marshall Wilderness foundation. He and his wife, Kay, also spend a lot of time working on their tree farm in the Swan Valley.
It is interesting to note that three of Dave and Kay’s four children and one granddaughter have worked trails in the “Bob”. Son, Russell, is currently and Assistant Fire Management Officer on the Rocky Mountain Ranger District, Lewis and Clark National Forest.
Al Christopherson, Honorary Board
Al is a native Montanan and received a BS in Forestry from the University of Montana,’71, and a MS in silviculture from Utah State University in ’73. Al’s career with the U. S. Forest Service covered 33 years in 2 two regions and five forests and a 2 year position as the national liaison with the Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
His career work involved presale forester, silviculture and resource management and 18 years in line officer positions. He was a member of the task force for the Frank Church of No Return Wilderness administrative study team which was also useful in furthering the coordinated management of the Bob Marshal complex.
While District Ranger on the Hungry Horse Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest, he was involved with the establishment of the first Bob Marshall Foundation, it’s work projects and subsequent annual projects and support. His interest remained as he transferred to the Helena National Forest as Resource Staff Officer and Deputy Forest Supervisor. He retired in 2005 and became Director of Habitat Stewardship Services for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Al recently retired from RMEF to enjoy time hunting, fishing, and volunteering with the Elkhorn Restoration Committee for the Elkhorn Wildlife Management Area.
Al believes strongly in the role of volunteerism and partnerships with agencies to help get mutually agreed upon mission work accomplished.
Joe Franchini, Honorary Board
*People love the backcountry wilderness for many reasons. For Joe Franchini, it's the people he meets in the woods.
"Some of the nicest people I've met in this world I've met in the backcountry," he said last week. A successful businessman, Franchini grew up in New Jersey but always had a love for horses and cattle. He rode horses in endurance races and raised Scottish Highlanders. In the early 1980s, he read a story in the Smithsonian magazine about a foundation being formed to support and complete projects in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
About 30 people nationwide showed interest in coming to Montana, but when push came to shove, only Franchini, a friend and another couple showed up at the Hungry Horse Ranger Station that summer to actually do any work. Franchini eventually gave up life in New Jersey and moved permanently to Montana, where he has business interests in Columbia Falls, including a partnership in the Nite Owl Restaurant. He continued to volunteer with the Forest Service and the Bob Marshall Foundation, working on dozens of projects over the years, from trail crew grunt work to packing in supplies by mule train.
He says he lives his life by a simple motto: Do something good and someone will know you were here.
The Franchini Family Foundation continues to provide financial support to the Bob Marshall Foundation, and Joe, at age 77, hopes to work on some projects this summer after a few years away from the woods.
*Franchini photo and Bio from a 2012 Hungry Horse News article written by Chris Peterson
Ray Mills, Honorary Board
Ray’s fascination with the mountains began when he was 10 years old. His grandfather took him fishing on the Blackfoot Reservation. Fishing wasn’t that good so they drove up to Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. There Ray saw two Park Service pack strings winding their way up to the pass. He remembers telling Grandfather Mills, “That is what I’m going to do when I grow up”. Ray kept his promise to himself. As soon as he graduated from high school he went to work for the Forest Service on the Rocky Mountain District of the Lewis and Clark National Forest. His career spanned 45 years, from 1955-2000, all on the same district. He was always involved in trail management, much of which was in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. His favorite part of the job was the last 20 years when he combined trail and wilderness supervision and animal packing. During his career, Ray worked with a variety of volunteer groups including the Sierra Club, the East Slope Backcountry Horsemen and the Wilderness Treatment Center.
Following retirement, Ray began working with his brothers, Ron and Tucker, in their outfitting business, Mills Wilderness Adventures of Montana. It keeps him active in the “Bob” summer and fall.
Ken Ausk (9/16/1934–12/2/2014), Honorary Board
Ken started traveling and hunting in the Bob in the late 60's and says it was love at first sight. For many years he tried to get 40 days under canvas every year but never quite made it - 38 was the best he could do while still trying to make a living. He's seen a lot of the Bob and there's a lot he probably will never see, but he claims all of his travels were good. In 1973 he and three friends became worried about the direction the regulations and management policies might be headed and the fact there was no money to administer Wilderness, so they founded Back Country Horsemen. The purpose of the organization was to serve as a sounding board for the Forest Service, provide logistical support for work projects, represent horsemen concerning horse issues, teach responsible low impact horse methods, and to protect the resource. BCH continues today and has grown to include chapters in 25 states, with over 13,000 members carrying on the tradition, and providing volunteer trail work and packing support for other volunteer groups, including the BMWF. Years ago Ken was extensively involved in the formation of the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) concept for the Bob Marshall Wilderness Management Plan which has helped protect the resource. Ken is retired from Bonneville Power Administration and says he is honored to be placed on our Board with Smoke Elser and Dave Owen who he has known and respected for many years.