Letter from the Director - The Board of The Tributary Fund - Partners in Mongolia -

Letter from the Director

I’m thrilled to announce that Dr. Jane Goodall has accepted our invitation to speak in Bozeman. As a leading scientist, she embodies the values of The Tributary Fund. Dr. Goodall’s message is simple: each of us makes a difference. Having spent a lifetime researching chimpanzees, she brings authority with her insights, and passion to her call to action. We are honored to help her share her message. If you are interested in sitting with TTF, we have a limited number of reserved tickets. Call us and we’ll save you a space--first come, first serve! The event is April 28, 2008, 6:00pm, at Montana State University’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The doors open at 4:30pm. The event is co-sponsored by Montana State University’s Wallace Stegner Chair.

We have more good progress to report! We are in the final steps of completing our new strategic plan. Our film, "Buddha and the Big Fish," has been viewed by thousands of people worldwide (to see the film, go here). We are gearing up for the second environmental education summer camp on the banks of the Uur River in Mongolia and we recently hired David Gilroy, fisheries biologist extraordinaire, to take our taimen data and present it to Mongolian politicians working on conservation policy. Additionally, we are collaborating with religious leaders in Montana to cooperatively address sustainable resource management and environmental stewardship in 2008. TTF is looking forward to expanding our model world-wide by engaging communities in conservation solutions by connecting religious, scientific and community leaders. Thanks to you, our model is really working!

Happy spring,

Betsy Gaines Quammen

The Staff and Board of The Tributary Fund

MADELEINE CONDIT
Madeleine is a Senior Client Partner in the Chicago office of Korn/Ferry International as well as a senior member of the firm's Board Services specialist team and Consumer Markets. For the past eighteen years, she has assisted clients in building proactive senior management teams in a broad spectrum of industries including financial services, publishing, retail, industrial, technology and not-for-profit.

SARAH DAVIES
Sarah is a fundraising professional with broad experience on environmental non-profit productivity, technical capacity, and positioning in the conservation arena. Having worked in both the NGO and foundation communities, she is also appreciative of the issues facing each party in terms of grant making and grant seeking. She runs her own company, Sarah Davies Consulting.

LIZ GIBSON Liz is currently an independent real estate consultant based in Bozeman, Montana. Prior to establishing her practice, she was an Asset Manager for the U.S. General Services Administration and managed one of GSA's national repositioning priorities, the adaptive use of the National Historic Landmark Tariff Building in the District of Columbia as a 172-room boutique hotel.

PETER MATTHIESSEN
Peter is an award-winning author of At Play in the Fields of the Lord  and The Snow Leopard. He continues to write books and articles and is a vocal and active conservationist.

WOODWARD WICKHAM
Woodward Wickham is a consultant on institutional development for foundations and other non-profit organizations. He retired from the MacArthur Foundation as vice president and senior program advisor after 12 years in 2002. At MacArthur he oversaw grants totaling $25 million annually in a range of fields, including documentary film, public broadcasting, human rights, and philanthropy in developing countries.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: BETSY GAINES QUAMMEN Betsy founded The Tributary Fund after initially visiting the Eg-Uur watershed and Dayan Derkh Monastery ruins in 2001. She has a Master's of Science from University of Montana in Environmental Studies and is a PhD candidate at Montana State University in Religion and Environmental History. She has served on the national board of directors of the Sierra Club and worked with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, American Wildlands, Montana State University's Center for Native American Studies, Wallace Stegner Program and many other conservation groups.

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: SUSAN HIGGINS Susan joins The Tributary Fund as its new Development Director. She has a 25-year career in natural resources management with a focus on linking watershed science with policy change. As a trained facilitator, she’s enjoyed collaborations with public agencies, community groups, scientific researchers, and universities. Susan holds an undergraduate degree in biology from St. Lawrence University and a masters in natural resources management from the University of New Hampshire. Currently she serves on the Board of the Montana Outdoor Science School and is Co-chair of the Montana Watershed Coordination Council.

PARTNERS For our work in Mongolia, have teamed with a Mongolian NGO, the Taimen Conservation Fund, Mongolia's Gandan Monastery, and the Mongolia Taimen Project which is comprised of scientists from Tthe University of Wisconsin-Madison, The University of Nevada-Reno and The University of California-Davis. We also have a Montana partner, Livingston-based Sweetwater Travel Company.

Click on photos to enlarge