Partnering with MAI & VetsWork
Posted on May. 5th, 2019
Tillamook Estuaries Partnership is incredibly excited to welcome Chris Sutherland to our team as our Restoration, Education, & Community Engagement (RECE) Assistant! Chris was placed with TEP through Mount Adams Institute’s VetsWork: Environment program, an eleven month AmeriCorps career development internship program for military veterans in the natural resources management, public lands, and environment sector. Scott Bailey, one of TEP’s Project Managers and supervisor for our RECE Assistant, is excited to mentor Chris in his pursuit of a career in natural resources. Scott will have Chris work with TEP Staff and partners throughout our five focal watersheds so that he can experience a broad range of natural resource management activities.
Chris is a retired Coastguardsman who thoroughly loves working in habitat restoration and enhancement. He holds a degree in environmental science/studies and geography. Chris’s passion is working in the field and he just wants to do his part to improve the environment. During his first month at TEP, Chris dove head first into restoration work a Hoquarton Slough, removing blackberry, ivy, and vetch with the Tillamook Bay Watershed Council. He also worked to provide outreach about social programs available in the area to those displaced from homeless campsites along the trail. A significant portion of Chris’s time with TEP will be spent at the Native Plant Nursery working with Nursery Coordinator Maysa Miller, the Oregon Youth Authority crew and TEP volunteers. Chris is grateful to be here and looks forward to working with all of TEP’s amazing partners and volunteers, and gaining broad experience working within TEP’s different programs.
Photo by Mount Adams Institute