Two Countries, One Forest
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About Us

Board Members

Roberta Clowater, Chair

Roberta Clowater is one of the founding members of Two Countries, One Forest. She is the Executive Director of the New Brunswick Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Roberta has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of New Brunswick, and a Master of Arts degree in Regional Planning and Resource Development from the University of Waterloo. She has worked for the past twenty years in leadership roles for non-government conservation organizations in New Brunswick. She is a part-time faculty member at St. Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick. Her professional appointments include being Chair of the New Brunswick government's Protected Natural Areas Provincial Advisory Committee, a member of the Task Force on Forest Diversity and Wood Supply (2005-2009), and a founding member of the New Brunswick Wildlife Council (1997-2000).

Dirk Bryant, Vice-Chair

Dirk Bryant is the Nature Conservancy’s Director of Conservation Programs for the New York State Adirondack Chapter. During his eleven years with TNC Dirk has served on the executive committee of the Staying Connected Initiative (SCI), helped lead SCI connectivity initiatives in the Adirondack-Tug Hill and Adirondack-Greens linkages and worked on several major land protection projects (totaling more than 113,300 hectares). Previous to this, he served as Co-Director of the World Resources Institute’s (WRI’s) Forest Program. During his 12-year tenure at WRI, Dirk founded Global Forest Watch, a network of non-governmental organizations, universities and other partners who map and monitor forest development and condition across most of the major forested regions of the world. He also led the first map-based assessment of remaining intact forests and historic loss of forest cover (The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Economies on the Edge, 1997) and of potential threats to the world’s coral reefs (Reefs at Risk: A Map-based Indicator of Threats to the World’s Coral Reefs, 1998). Dirk has a Masters degree in Environmental Management from Duke University, and served as a Peace Corps fisheries volunteer (Senegal, 1984-6).

Conrad Reining, Secretary

Conrad Reining is the Associate Director of the Arts and Sciences Development Office at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. In this position he helps ensure that more than 40 academic departments and programs have the resources necessary to carry out a wide range of research, teaching, and service activities. Between 2001 and 2013 he was the Eastern Program Director for the Wildlands Network, where he was responsible for coordinating conservation planning, outreach and fundraising for a large portion of eastern North America. A major focus of his work was the development of a trans-border network – a Wildlands Network Design – of linked conservation areas in the Northern Appalachians of the northeastern US and southeastern Canada. As a board member of Two Countries, One Forest (2C1Forest), he has supported the development of a comprehensive conservation strategy for the Northern Appalachians. He also collaborated with more than 20 other organizations to establish the Staying Connected Initiative, which is dedicated to conserving critical habitat linkages in the Northern Appalachians. He is co-developer of a framework for measuring and monitoring landscape connectivity at large scale, and was part of a team that identified best management practices to reduce the impact of transportation infrastructure on wildlife in Vermont. Conrad holds a Masters degree from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and a BA degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Gillian Woolmer, Treasurer

Gillian holds a Masters degree in Mineral Exploration and Mining Geography, an Advanced Diploma in GIS and a Certificate in Conservation Biology.  With an early career in the mining sector Gillian transitioned to the world of conservation in 2000 when she joined the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) at its head office at the Bronx Zoo in New York. In 2004 Gillian moved to the WCS Canada program where she now holds the position of Assistant Director. Gillian splits her time between the operational management of WCS Canada and it conservation programs, including leading its Northern Appalachian Program. Gillian has applied her spatial mapping and analysis skills to a multiple conservation planning projects in the Northern Appalachians including the Human Footprint of the Northern Appalachians and identifying priority areas for conservation in collaboration with 2C1Forest. In addition Gillian provides operational support for 2C1Forest and manages the 2C1Forest Northern Appalachian/Acadian Ecoregion Conservation Planning Atlas hosted by DataBasin.  Gillian grew up outside London in the U.K. but now resides in Toronto, Canada with her family and three cats.

Louise Gratton

Louise Gratton is a consultant in ecology and conservation. She has a Master’s degree in Biology from UQAM (1981) and 35 years of experience in these fields, including 12 as Science Director of Nature Conservancy Canada, Quebec region. Over the years, she has worked with federal and provincial agencies, non-governmental organizations, municipalities, promoters, and landowners across Quebec. Louise is a founding member and acting secretary of the Appalachian Corridor and has been on the board of Two Countries, One Forest from its inception. Both organizations focus on the protection and sustainable development of the Northern Appalachians ecosystems. Over the years, she has received several awards recognizing her commitment to biodiversity conservation, including in 2011 the Pierre-Dansereau Award from the Quebec Biologists Association and in 2014, 

Kateri Monticone

Kateri Monticone is the Science and Planning manager of Quebec for Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). Since 2008, she has led several conservation projects on private land including research, land acquisition, stewardship and enhancement. She now also manages the development of Quebec’s strategic landscape conservation plans.  She holds an undergraduate degree in biology (2000) and a master’s degree in Environmental science (2007) both from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Katerie also spent two years as a researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones de Ecosistemas Costeros in Cuba (2004-2006). 

Margo Morrison

Margo Morrison is the manager of conservation science with the Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC's) Atlantic Region. She manages the development of strategic landscape conservation plans that identify where NCC should work, the species and habitats NCC needs to protect, their health and the threats to them.




Nancy Patch

Nancy works for the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation as County Forester in Franklin and Grand Isle Counties. She was a consulting forest in Vermont for 15 years, operating her own consulting firm for 6 of those years. Nancy holds a B.S in Forestry from the University of Vermont (UVM), an M.A in education from UVM, and an M.S. in Plant and Soil Science from Texas A&M University-Kingsville. She also served in the Peace Corps (Argentina 1992-94). Nancy was a member of the board of directors for The Vermont Land Trust for nine years, serving as chair for two years. More recently Nancy helped form and continues to serve on the board of Cold Hollow to Canada, a regional conservation partnership in the Green Mountain Linkage area of the Northern Forest.