Greg King Returns to Leadership Position at Siskiyou Land Conservancy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEWS RELEASE

July 7, 2009

Greg King Returns to Leadership Position at Siskiyou Land Conservancy

Will Continue to Advise NEC On Klamath River issues




Contact:
Greg King, President/Program Director
Siskiyou Land Conservancy
707-498-4900
gking [at] asis.com


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arcata — Siskiyou Land Conservancy announced today the return of its board President, Greg King, to his post as Program Director.

King returned to the position on July 1 after two-and-a-half years with the Northcoast Environmental Center, where he worked as Executive Director and Klamath Campaign Coordinator. King will continue to advise the NEC staff and board on Klamath issues.

“Naturally the Executive Director’s job was all-consuming, I expected that,” King said today from his Arcata office. “But as negotiations to remove Klamath dams ramped up this work became just about as challenging.”

King traveled every month to negotiating sessions with PacifiCorp and other parties to secure removal of four dams on the Klamath River. Sometimes travel demands took him away from home for two weeks in a month.

King said recent events provided an opportunity to transition back to leading the non-profit land trust he founded in 2004. These events include the NEC’s withdrawal from the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement — due to its “untenable giveaway to farmers at the expense of fish,” said King — and near completion of a parallel agreement with PacifiCorp to remove the company’s dams from the Klamath.

“Last November the NEC’s financial situation forced us to make some drastic changes within the organization,” said NEC President Pete Nichols. “Afterward Greg was tenacious and dedicated enough to maintain the NEC’s important presence in Klamath negotiations, and he was instrumental in raising much of the income needed to fund the position. The NEC and the North Coast community are indebted to Greg’s good work.”

King founded Siskiyou Land Conservancy five years ago as a mechanism for protecting small, privately held parcels of land containing unique or threatened habitat. The organization currently owns two properties: 80 acres of pristine rare plant habitat on the North Fork Smith River, and 160 acres of spawning habitat for Endangered Coho salmon on the South Fork Eel River. SLC also holds a conservation easement protecting 148 acres on the South Fork Smith River, a parcel containing the easternmost redwoods on the Smith River.

In early 2007 the California State Resources Agency awarded Siskiyou Land Conservancy a $450,000 grant to purchase 160 acres on the Siskiyou Fork of the Smith River. However, SLC was forced to return the funding to the state when King accepted the Executive Director’s position at the NEC.

“With my position at the Conservancy open there was no staffer and no money to administer that grant, a task that would have required a half-time position for six months,” said King.

Nonetheless, SLC is revitalizing its Private Lands Program, said King. “Small landowners continue to request our help, so we know this is an important program."

King added that SLC is developing a Sustainable Communities Program to complement the organization’s habitat conservation work. SLC’s most recent Sustainable Communities project is a student-run garden at Jacoby Creek Elementary School in Arcata, which broke ground in April.

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Greg King
President/Program Director
Siskiyou Land Conservancy
707-498-4900
gking [at] asis.com