Scott Chitwood, Chair Port Angeles
Scott became solidly connected to the aquatic world while growing up in northern Virginia. From the age of 12, all of his free time was spent on a river and a large reservoir close to his home. He attended the University of Washington and earned his B.S. in Fisheries Management in 1978. He worked many seasonal jobs with the UW, WA Dept. Fisheries and National Marine Fisheries Service. His first permanent position was with the Quileute Tribe where he served as Technical Services Manager in the Fisheries Department. He worked for a brief time at the Makah Tribe managing river fisheries. Scott became immersed in state-tribal co-management while working for the Quinault Indian Nation as the Senior Biologist in the Fisheries Division. In 2001 Scott was hired as the Fisheries Manager for the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. Soon after, he was asked to take on the role of Natural Resources Director where he remained until retirement in 2018.
Cheryl Lowe, Vice Chair Port Townsend
Cheryl grew up playing in the woods, camping with her family and exploring the outdoors. She has been involved in conservation and natural resources for most of her career, with an emphasis on plant communities, habitat restoration, and community engagement. She worked for land trusts, a native plant botanic garden and most recently, Jefferson County WSU Extension’s Water Programs, where she coordinated projects and introduced adult learners to the many opportunities for volunteering with local organizations like NOSC. Cheryl has been a dedicated NOSC volunteer since 2013, when she was first introduced to fyke netting at Discovery Bay. Over the years, she has participated in spawner surveys, numerous plantings, education programs and writing articles for the NOSC newsletter. When not hiking, gardening or volunteering with NOSC, she leads field trips with the Natural History Society and participates in other local conservation efforts. She holds a BS from Cornell University and an MS from University of Delaware.
Patrick Johnson, Treasurer Jefferson County
Patrick was born and grew up in Sunburst MT, a small town of a few hundred people eight miles south of the Canadian Border on the edge of the great plains within sight of the Rocky Mountain Front and Glacier Park. Patrick and his wife Peg moved to Port Townsend from Helena MT about nine years ago. They walk on the beach nearly every day with their English Setters who “run like the wind, climb the bluffs like mountain goats and swim in the water on even the coldest days.” They regularly kayaked on the Blackfoot, Jefferson and Missouri Rivers and rafted on the Middle Fork of the Flathead River bordering Glacier Park but have not braved kayaking on salt water.
Patrick was involved with a farm that his younger brother still operates and spent part of his time driving a tractor, bucking bales, feeding cows and chopping holes in the reservoir ice. Among his memories is going ice fishing with his twin brother when the temperature hovered around thirty below and everyone eagerly looked forward to the Chinook Winds that blew from the west down the slope of the Rocky Mountains quickly raising the temperature by as much as fifty degrees within a matter of hours.
Of course, Montana is well known for its lakes and rivers. It is a flyfishing mecca widely popularized, much to the consternation of many locals, by the book “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean and the film that followed. Patrick is a very beginning fly fisherman with little hope of achieving any degree of competence. He puts his waders to good use volunteering with the NOSC salmon surveys on Chimacum Creek and the WDFW salmon traps.
Patrick retired from a career in public health and health policy with state government where he worked to develop and advocate for environmental and public health policies and regulations addressing a broad spectrum of issues. He has served on many not-for-profit boards and has particular interest in governance. He is a long -time volunteer with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and other behavioral health organizations.
Gabe Meyer, Secretary Port Townsend
Gabe grew up in central Arizona, but still nurtured a love for the ocean and conservation. He graduated from Brigham Young University - Hawaii with a degree in Marine Biology, but also studied Conservation Biology, Ecology, and Habitat Restoration. After helping restore an extinct stream in Hawaii, Gabe left to join the Washington Conservation Corps Restoration team with NOSC. Currently, he works as a Marine Stewardship Educator at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center helping educate school groups on marine conservation efforts in the Salish Sea. Gabe spends his free time taking care of his two dogs, Bullitt and Senna. He also is a hobbyist baker, and loves to challenge himself with difficult french pastries. Gabe loves bringing communities together in the name of conservation, as well as seeing the maintenance of functional and intact ecosystems.
Lexi Wagor Port Angeles
Born and raised in and around Seattle, Lexi developed a deep respect for the world around them. Lexi holds a B.A. from the Evergreen State College, where their studies focused on the intersections of human culture and the natural environment. As a member of the Washington Conservation Corps, Lexi served on a crew in Olympia that conducted forage fish spawning surveys all over the Salish Sea and later as NOSC's Education and Outreach individual placement. Drawn to community-centered conservation through their time working with NOSC, Lexi now works to help others build stronger relationships with the landscapes that nourish them as the Community Relations Manager at North Olympic Land Trust.
Jim Pearson Jefferson County
Jim came to the Olympic Peninsula in the early 1970s and fell in love with it's mountains, forests, and rivers. He’s lived here ever since. He’s been a long time NOSC volunteer, participating in beach seining, restoration planting, the Real Learning/Real Work education program, and coho salmon surveys. His favorite volunteer activity has been conducting chum salmon surveys on Chimacum Creek that allows him to share his love and knowledge of his home creek with other NOSC volunteers. Jim has a Masters in Public Administration and had a career in Jefferson County government. He administered the County’s Shoreline Management Program, authored the County’s Surface Water Management Plan, and was involved in wetlands protection, stormwater management, and non-motorized transportation. Jim was an avid white water kayaker who paddled most of the Olympic Peninsula’s rivers. In addition to the excitement and scenery, kayaking enabled him to observe over time the dynamic interplay of forests, hydrology, and geology that creates salmon habitat. He’s been deeply impressed by the skill and commitment of the NOSC staff and their capacity to plan, finance, and carry out landscape scale projects such as the Marrowstone Island bridge/Kilisut Harbor channel restoration.
Vern Bessey, SecretaryJefferson County
Vern was born and raised in Port Angeles, where he developed a love for the outdoors camping with the family and backpacking in the Olympics. He left in his early 20’s and worked for the US Forest Service, BLM, and National Park Service before settling into a job with a city as environmental programs manager. During those working years he completed a BS degree in Environmental Science and a Masters in Environmental Management. Upon retirement, Vern and Vida returned to the Olympic Peninsula and settled in Port Townsend. Vern has been a NOSC volunteer since 2016, participating in chum and coho salmon surveys and habitat restoration projects. He enjoys gardening, live music, hiking, and exploring wild places. Vern believes strongly in NOSC’s mission to restore salmon habitat and help educate the next generation and looks forward to helping support this important work.
Andy Brastad, Vice Chair Clallam County
Andy and his wife moved from Gainesville Florida to Port Angeles in August 1979. He had numerous jobs from 1979 to 1985 working for NOAA in the Foreign Observer program monitoring fish catchments on Korean and Japanese stern trawlers; helping with a halibut population study (i.e. documenting catch data on an antiquated long-liner) in the Kodiak/Seward area for the International Halibut Commission; tracking salmon with radio transmitters sewed into their gut for a study on the importance of log jams in the salmon life cycle (WDNR); and documenting the smolt migration patterns, physical damage, and motility rates through two dams on the Elwha river (ONP). From 1985 to 2020 he was employed by Clallam County working in natural resources programs, environmental health and human services. His work included watershed management planning, ground and surface water programs, instream flow rule development, water quality protection strategies for shellfish growing areas and he also represented Clallam County in numerous natural resource planning committees. He retired in August 2020 as the Director of the Health and Human Service Department. In his personal life he likes to fill his free time doing physical activities. He enjoys hiking, bicycling, riding and fixing his Harley which he has been doing for over 40 years. For relaxation he practices Qi Gong, an ancient Chinese meditation practice to improve heath, and once a week he teaches Qi Gong at the Port Angeles Senior Center.
David Thielk Jefferson County
David was born and raised in Detroit. In his junior year of college, two electives (environmental sciences and biology) transformed his world view. He left engineering behind and completed a BS in Fisheries. He came to Washington State in 1976, taking a job with the University of Washington and then the National Marine Fisheries Service, focusing on the relationship between water quality and fisheries health. David completed an MS in fisheries from the UW. He meandered over to the Olympic Peninsula in 1988 with his wife, Yuko. His professional life includes working as a field biologist on St. George Island, AK, in Prudhoe Bay, AK, in Cook Inlet, AK, and Hood Canal, WA, teaching high school in Port Townsend, writing technical content and curriculum material as a contractor, and working as a school improvement consultant in twenty plus school districts in Washington state. Always ready for a local adventure, Dave picks mushrooms all over the peninsula, has fished the Elwha, Hoh, Sol Duc, and others, kayaks and stand-up-paddles the waters around Port Townsend, backpacked (including a climb up Mt. Olympus), and bicycles on and off road all over Jefferson County. For fun, Dave plays traditional American fiddle music for dances, manages a monthly square dance in Port Townsend, and calls dances all over the northwest and beyond.