At this past Saturday's Annual Meeting and 50th Anniversary Celebration, held at Ivy Creek Natural Area in Charlottesville, the VWC board voted in the two slated board members. We welcome Bark Koelher and Tim Mahoney to the VWC board and look forward to all that they will bring to the organization.
Bart Koehler has been VWC's Special Advisor for about a decade and has been helping us for several decades, but now joins the board as a member. Bart is one of the most respected wilderness leaders in the United States. He worked 19 years with The Wilderness Society and from 1999-2011, was Director and then Senior Wilderness Campaign Director of TWS’s Wilderness Support Center in Durango, CO. After being the coordinator of the American Wilderness Project for several years, Bart has been trying to learn how to retire while being on the boards of directors of a number of wilderness conservation groups across the country.
During the course of his four-decade career, he has helped many bedrock grassroots groups, including the Virginia Wilderness Committee, secure permanent protections for numerous areas encompassing over 10 million acres of public land...from Wyoming to Alaska, from Nevada to New Hampshire, and beyond. Bart helped with successful passage of wilderness legislation for Three Ridges and The Priest in 2000 and Virginia Ridge and Valley Act in 2009.
Although he lives in Florida, Bart’s ties with Virginia Wilderness Committee go back to the 1970s when Bart learned the ropes of wilderness advocacy from our own Ernie Dickerman. After Ernie’s death, Bart helped VWC team up with mountain bike leaders to develop the Shenandoah Mountain Proposal, and he continues to advise us. In his spare time Bart is also a singer-songwriter. One special song by Bart is "The Ernie Song", which he wrote as a tribute to our own Ernie Dickerman.
During the course of his four-decade career, he has helped many bedrock grassroots groups, including the Virginia Wilderness Committee, secure permanent protections for numerous areas encompassing over 10 million acres of public land...from Wyoming to Alaska, from Nevada to New Hampshire, and beyond. Bart helped with successful passage of wilderness legislation for Three Ridges and The Priest in 2000 and Virginia Ridge and Valley Act in 2009.
Although he lives in Florida, Bart’s ties with Virginia Wilderness Committee go back to the 1970s when Bart learned the ropes of wilderness advocacy from our own Ernie Dickerman. After Ernie’s death, Bart helped VWC team up with mountain bike leaders to develop the Shenandoah Mountain Proposal, and he continues to advise us. In his spare time Bart is also a singer-songwriter. One special song by Bart is "The Ernie Song", which he wrote as a tribute to our own Ernie Dickerman.
Tim at Humpback Rocks Tim had a 40 year career in conservation and public lands, working for Sierra Club, The
Wilderness Society and the Pew Charitable Trusts and as a private consultant, representing
groups such as the League of Conservation Voters, Campaign for American Wilderness, Alaska
Native corporations, and land conservancies in the Northwest and Southern California. In all,
he worked on wilderness legislation for lands in 40 states, including the Alaska National Interest
Lands Conservation Act, the 1984 Virginia Wilderness Act and the Omnibus Public Land
Management Act of 2009. The nature of this work involved coordinating with leaders in state
and local campaigns, direct contacts with members of Congress, the Administration and staff, determination of strategy for campaigns and direct negotiation.
Tim first learned from and worked with Ernie Dickerman in the 1970’s when he worked for The Wilderness Society. In 1991, he and his wife Sharon Newsome purchased a log home on Little North Mountain in Shenandoah County with a sweeping view of the Valley, Massanutten Mountain and the Blue Ridge. They moved full time to the Valley following retirement in 2015 where they live with their little dog Max and Tim’s two Kubotas. Tim is active in the local Take A Hike group and a member of Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
Wilderness Society and the Pew Charitable Trusts and as a private consultant, representing
groups such as the League of Conservation Voters, Campaign for American Wilderness, Alaska
Native corporations, and land conservancies in the Northwest and Southern California. In all,
he worked on wilderness legislation for lands in 40 states, including the Alaska National Interest
Lands Conservation Act, the 1984 Virginia Wilderness Act and the Omnibus Public Land
Management Act of 2009. The nature of this work involved coordinating with leaders in state
and local campaigns, direct contacts with members of Congress, the Administration and staff, determination of strategy for campaigns and direct negotiation.
Tim first learned from and worked with Ernie Dickerman in the 1970’s when he worked for The Wilderness Society. In 1991, he and his wife Sharon Newsome purchased a log home on Little North Mountain in Shenandoah County with a sweeping view of the Valley, Massanutten Mountain and the Blue Ridge. They moved full time to the Valley following retirement in 2015 where they live with their little dog Max and Tim’s two Kubotas. Tim is active in the local Take A Hike group and a member of Friends of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.
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