Swan Valley Connections welcomes new leadership

After seven years as its leader, Rebecca Ramsey is stepping down as the executive director of Swan Valley Connections, a nonprofit in the Swan Valley dedicated to conservation and education.

The executive director position will be broken into thirds, welcoming Luke Lamar, Sara Lamar and Ty Tyler into leadership roles focused on different elements of the executive director position, like conservation, operations, education, board management and fundraising.

The Pathfinder reached out to the outgoing and incoming leaders to learn more about them. There will be a gathering at the Condon Community Hall on Feb. 24 from 6-9 p.m. to celebrate the transition.

Rebecca Ramsey

A few weeks before the new leadership celebration, Rebecca Ramsey - the outgoing executive director of Swan Valley Connections - was explaining the way that ponderosa pines smell.

Ramsey stood close to an old ponderosa and breathed deeply. She said people identify butterscotch or vanilla, and it's particularly poignant when the trees have had a lot of sun.

There's no other place in the state like the Swan Valley, Ramsey said about a week later over the phone. So wild and nestled between two designated wilderness areas - the Bob Marshall and the Mission Mountains - and two tribal nations - the Confederated Salish and Kootenai and the Blackfeet Nation.

"It really has been the greatest privilege of my life to lead this organization," Ramsey said.

Ramsey started with Swan Valley Connections in September 2017. In 2016, the Swan Ecosystem Center and Northwest Connections - two other organizations devoted to the area - had merged to form Swan Valley Connections and Ramsey was a part of stabilizing that transition.

"One of the things I'm most proud of is actually developing, broadening and deepening our relationship with our Indigenous neighbors," Ramsey said.

During Ramsey's tenure, Swan Valley Connections, in partnership with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, took over ownership and management of the Elk Creek Conservation Area, located at the confluence of Elk Creek and the Swan River. The Mission Mountains Youth Crew program was started in collaboration with the CSKT, the Salish Kootenai College and the Flathead National Forest. And, Swan Valley Connections now has a tribal board member representative.

Ramsey is proud of the diversity of Swan Valley Connection's board, employee retention, increased fundraising and having received a bit more notoriety, especially after being a part of Life in the Land, a documentary film and podcast series about people interacting with Montana's land, water and communities.

Ramsey's not sure what's next for her, but she has no intention of leaving the area and knows she'll stay in Montana. She is excited to see the new leadership at Swan Valley Connections develop using a different leadership model.

"We have been a progressive organization in leading by example and I feel like this is sort of my final legacy move by implementing this model," Ramsey said.

Luke Lamar

Luke Lamar likes to joke that he hasn't made it far in life because currently, he only lives and works about two miles from where he was born.

A self-described "outdoorsy person," Lamar loves the seemingly unlimited recreation possibilities in the Swan. Hiking, camping, exploring and fly fishing in the summer. Hunting in the fall.

"For me, it's perfect," Lamar said.

Growing up outside influenced Lamar's conservation ethic, which centers around wanting to make sure future generations have the same opportunities to do all the outdoorsy things he has been able to do. Lamar said Swan Valley Connection's focus on experiential programs plays into that ethic. Coming up in that vein are a tracking class on Feb. 24, naturalist courses in the summer and Wildlife in the West, a college field semester program.

Lamar started working for Swan Valley Connections before it was named thus. He worked for Northwest Connections seasonally in 2003 and was the conservation director for the Swan Ecosystem Center starting in 2014.

Moving into his new role as conservation director for Swan Valley Connections, Lamar gets to keep working on a lot of the stuff that he's used to and is interested in. He'll oversee the nonprofit's conservation programs, work with Fish & Wildlife Services on wetland restorations, with private landowners on mitigating bear interactions and with homeowners on fuels reduction during fire season.

"I have a lot of respect and admiration for the organization's founders and was fortunate enough to have known all those individuals, and know them well," Lamar said. "They're some of my conservation heroes." These heroes include Anne Dahl, the founder of the Swan Ecosystem Center and Tom and Melanie Parker, founders of Northwest Connections.

Sara Lamar

Sara Lamar was first introduced to Swan Valley Connections through a college program that she attended, which she now teaches.

In 2011, as an undergraduate student at the University of Vermont, Lamar got a "random email" with a subject line that said something like, "Study wildlife in Montana."

"And I was sold," Lamar said.

Before this opportunity, she hadn't been further west than Pennsylvania. Lamar grew up about 45 minutes from New York City, near the Long Island Sound, in an urban landscape. She said she sometimes misses the ocean, but that's about it.

The college program was originally the Northwest Connections program called Wildlife in the West. Lamar went through the program at age 19 and was overwhelmed to learn that major carnivores like grizzly bears and wolves live outside of Yellowstone National Park, and so near the communities nestled in the valley.

After Wildlife in the West, Lamar went home and finished school, but quickly came back to the Swan Valley to intern with Northwest Connections in 2014, which is also when she met Luke, her now husband. She landed a full-time job in 2015 and only left for a stint to get her master's degree from Idaho State University in environmental sociology.

So much of what Lamar loves about the Swan Valley was fostered in her first experience of the area, her "lightning moment," as she calls it. As she has taught various programs at Swan Valley Connections, Lamar has seen others have that lightning moment, something she said she feels really privileged to be able to experience.

"(I remind) myself every day that it's also never something to take for granted," Lamar said.

In her new role, Lamar will focus on educational programming, external connections and board management. She'll continue to teach and she's excited to think about the organization more holistically, instead of being hyper-focused on education.

Ty Tyler

Ty Tyler encountered something common to probably far too many Seeley Lake and Swan Valley residents, despite being the newest to the area. He hit a deer last week on his drive from the Swan Valley back to Missoula.

The vehicle he hit the deer in doubles as his home. Tyler has been living on the road in a converted Sprinter van for the past seven years. The van is now in the shop, he's driving a rental and is grateful for a temporary apartment he decided to rent in Missoula.

Tyler's first day on the job and in the Swan Valley was Feb. 1. Before working at Swan Valley Connections, Tyler was the stewardship director for a national climbing advocacy organization called the Access Fund for 11 years.

Tyler wanted to branch out from the Access Fund to gain new skills and establish some roots. Living on the road made it difficult to build community and invest in a place, he said.

"I have friends everywhere," Tyler said. "But it's isolating."

Swan Valley Connections does incredibly interesting and compassionate things for people and the landscape, Tyler said, and in his role - bringing more than 30 years of experience working for nonprofits - he hopes to help the organization stabilize, keeping it doing cool and even better work.

In a fundraising and business development role, Tyler said his big responsibilities will be developing resources for the organization to succeed, or in other words, making sure Sara and Luke have the money they need to do their jobs, he said.

Tyler said Montana has always intrigued him, and he's excited to explore the Swan Valley and build connections to the people and the place.