Staff
Landis has a graduate degree in forestry resources management from the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College. She has worked for Maine Audubon, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Earthwatch Institute. She lives near the Royal River in Yarmouth with her twin daughters.
An avid fly fisherman and restoration enthusiast, Matt has completed successful river restoration work for Trout Unlimited, including the Swett Brook Dam removal project in the Crooked River watershed near Sebago Lake. The project restored access to three miles of prime spawning habitat for native landlocked salmon migrating out of Sebago Lake, and for native brook trout in the watershed.
Board of Directors
Nick is the Staff Scientist and Watersheds Project Director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Forestry. His professional background includes work in PCB contamination; wetlands delineations; wildlife surveys; and analysis of fish, soils, surface and ground water. Prior to working at NRCM, Nick worked at an environmental consulting firm, the Center for Marine Conservation, and the Marine Biological Laboratories in Woods Hole. Nick resides in Hallowell and is an avid duck hunter.
Curtis Bohlen is an ecologist with a lifelong interest in all things aquatic and semi-aquatic. He is the Executive Director of the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership at the University of Southern Maine. Curtis has worked as a restoration ecologist with Trout Unlimited in Augusta, his past peripatetic, interdisciplinary academic life included a stint as a Congressional Science Fellow on Capitol Hill, a period working on ecological economics at the University of Maryland, and eight years at the Environmental Studies Department of Bates College In his spare time he reads to his kids and rows on the Royal River.
Dave Courtemanch spent much of his career with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection as the Director of the Division of Environmental Assessment, responsible for monitoring and assessment of the state’s lakes, rivers, wetlands, marine, and groundwater. He developed many of the state’s water quality standards. A focus of his work has been biologically-based water quality standards and biomonitoring methods for assessment of water quality. He was also involved in the defeat of Dickey-Lincoln and Big A dam proposals; Edwards Dam and other dam removal projects; analysis and licensing of major dischargers; the initial detection and removal of dioxin; analysis of mercury contamination; treatment of color, odor and foam in Maine’s rivers; development of statewide environmental flow criteria; and most recently the Penobscot River restoration project. He now works with The Nature Conservancy in Maine.
A long-time resident of Greene who established a private practice in Surgery in Lewiston, Greg brings a deep connection to the Androscoggin to the Maine Rivers Board. “My early experiences with the Androscoggin were characterized by joy as well as sorrow. The former, through white water paddling near the headwaters at Errol, New Hampshire; The latter, through paddling near my new home on Gulf Island Pond in Greene. There, I found all manner of trash discarded into the river ranging from old tires to rusting barrels. Even worse was the penetrating aroma which emanated from the river each summer, the result, I learned, of a history of perversion of the river’s personality from scenic waterway to industrial waste system. Thankfully, through the efforts of Ed Muskie and a host of subsequent activists, legislative and grass roots work has gradually prevailed. I played my small part by serving in the Androscoggin River Alliance, a group of citizens dedicated to improving water quality in the Androscoggin. While not uniformly successful in our efforts it’s certainly been gratifying to see generous sections of the river attain an attractive appearance, and to see a return of aquatic and flying wildlife there. How poignant and entrancing it has become to anticipate the return of the haunting call of the loons each Spring!”
Susan Davies is an aquatic biologist with an MS in aquatic entomology from the University of Maine. She led the Biological Monitoring Section, and then was Water Quality Standards Coordinator at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for most of her environmental career. She has also worked extensively with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the European Commission, to provide technical expertise in use of aquatic organisms as water quality indicators. Susan’s work experience include lots of field biology, “bug-counting”, and data analysis with lots of great people, and she now especially enjoys musical connections playing rhythm and percussion for a big group of great fiddlers in and around Belfast.
Dan Gayer is an avid angler who lives in Cape Elizabeth with his family. When not he’s not fly fishing, Dan is a tax accountant with Baker Newman Noyes. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard University and he earned a juris doctor cum laude from the University of Maine School of Law.
Daniel Kusnierz, Water Resources Program Manager for the Penobscot Nation, has served the Nation since 1993, overseeing the protection of Penobscot territory waters and tribal uses of those waters. He has developed a watershed-wide water quality monitoring program with more than 95 weekly-sampling locations, set up a laboratory, and conducted investigations of toxic contaminants (including dioxins, furans, PCBs and mercury) and their impact on the aquatic environment. His expertise also includes investigations of algal blooms and nutrients, dam removal, biomonitoring using aquatic insects, and assessing and controlling non-point source pollution. Daniel uses the water quality data for permitting, licensing, and affecting policy change. He participates in numerous state, regional, and national working groups to ensure the tribal perspective is represented.
Rick Lawrence owns and manages a tree farm along a mile of the Fifteenmile Stream, a major tributary of the Sebasticook River. He uses the river in all seasons, for swimming, skating, skiing and paddling. Rick retired from teaching after 33 years. He has strong interests in conserving rural ways in Central Maine, including forestry, agriculture and recreation.
Jeff Reardon is a Project Manager for the Atlantic Salmon Federation. For many years Jeff worked as the New England Conservation Director for Trout Unlimited, overseeing the permitting and design of the Penobscot River Restoration Project. He is a graduate of Williams College who has been working on river conservation in Maine since moving home to Maine in 1994.
We fondly remember Clinton “Bill” Townsend, 1927-2016 Former Maine Rivers President and founding board member.
Bill’s passion for the environment was rooted in his deep love of fishing and Maine rivers. He was been awarded the River Network’s “River Hero Award,” Gulf of Maine Council on the Environment Visionary Award and Down East Magazine’s Environmental Award. Bill served on the boards of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, the Maine Council of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, and Somerset Woods Trustees, Maine’s oldest land trust. He has served on the Boards of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the Maine League of Conservation Voters. He served previously as United States Commissioner to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, and on the Land for Maine’s Future Board and the Land Use Regulation Commission. Bill practiced law with the firm of Perkins, Townsend, Shay and Talbot in Skowhegan.
Sharri Venno spends most of her water time on Penobscot Bay but has spent the last thirty years of her life thinking about the health of the Meduxnekeag River in Aroostook County, and lately the larger Wolastoq-St. John international waters, as an Environmental Planner for the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians (HBMI). MBMI is one of eight Maliseet (Wolastoqey) Tribal Nations in North America, In her spare time she helps her family maintain Hiram Blake Camp on Cape Rosier, and hangs out with her 80-something year old parents. Sharri joined the Maine Rivers board because “John Banks from Penobscot Nation roped her into it” ….and adds “it’s a good group of people with a wonderful mission.” She brings a northern Maine perspective into the mix.
For many years Chuck practiced law in Washington D.C., most recently at Wiley Rein LLP, where he is now of counsel and Chair Emeritus of their International Trade Practice. Chuck has been an Adjunct Professor of International Trade Law at Georgetown University Law Center and a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School. Chuck has acted as pro bono counsel on a number of river restoration issues involving the Penobscot, Kennebec, Sebasticook, and St. Croix Rivers. He has been president of Islesboro Islands Trust and serves on the Board of the Island Institute. Chuck has six children and nine grandchildren, and is an avid fly fisherman and devoted fan of Duke basketball.