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Board of Directors

Rick Russman, Chair
Richard Russman has been a practicing attorney for 31 years in Exeter; was a New Hampshire State Senator for ten years, from 1990 to 2000, having served as Chairman of the Environment Committee for 8 years. He is National Chairman of the National Conference of State Legislatures on the environment; co-founder of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators; board member of the National Environment Trust in Washington, DC; board member of the SPNHF; co-founder and chairman of Friends of Kingston Open Space, and Board Member of Rockingham County Land Trust.

Amanda Merrill, Vice chair
Amanda Merrill is Program Associate for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the University of New Hampshire. A former member of the board of trustees of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, she currently serves on the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance board of directors and the Durham Planning Board. As a five-term member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, she served on the Environment & Agriculture committee and the Science, Technology & Energy committee and sponsored successful legislation focused on solid waste, clean air, energy planning, and land conservation. Mandy has lived in New Hampshire for over forty years.

Jim Bassett
Jim joined Orr & Reno in 1985 after a judicial clerkship with Chief Judge Andrew Caffrey of the U.S. District Court in Boston and several years in practice with the Boston law firm of Hale and Dorr. Committed to Orr & Reno's long tradition of community service, Jim was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, and since the 1980's has served in both state and local government, including many years as Chairman of the Canterbury Planning Board. He also volunteers his time for numerous charitable and nonprofit organizations.

Sarah Bonneau
Sarah (Cici) Bonneau is an Environmental Consultant with a Master's Degree in Environmental Studies from Antioch-New England Graduate School. While at Antioch one of her internships was with the District Coordinator for Vermont State Act 250, one of only two environmental land use plans in the United States. She is currently in her seventh year on the Board of Directors and third as secretary for her local non-profit mental health agency, Monadnock Family Services. She has also served for 12 years on the Board of Directors for the Campaign on Ratepayers Rights. Elected to the N.H. House of Representatives in 1992 she served concurrently on the Resources, Recreation and Development Committee and the Science and Technology Committee. During her term ending in 1998 she served again on the Science and Technology Committee and was appointed as the representing Democrat on the Ethics Committee. Born in Keene, N.H. Cici has remained in the Monadnock Region where she has lived along the Connecticut River in Westmoreland for the past 25 years.

Thomas N. Masland
Thomas Masland is a Director and Shareholder of the Concord law firm of Ransmeier & Spellman P. C, where he chairs the Land Conservation Law Group. Tom is a New Hampshire native, graduated from Princeton University in 1973, and received his law degree from the University of Maine School of Law in 1978. For over ten years Tom has concentrated his practice in estate planning, estate and trust administration, probate law, planning for landowners, and land conservation law. He also represents land trusts and other conservation organizations. Tom is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a member of the New Hampshire Estate Planning Council and of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. He serves on the Boards of two local land trusts and is a frequent speaker on estate planning and land conservation topics.

Merle Schotanus
Merle Schotanus has over 30 years experience in New Hampshire natural resource management, and conservation and resource protection. He is a retired Army Colonel who lives in Grantham, NH. He holds BA and MA degrees in political science from Ripon College and the University of Wisconsin, respectively, and is a graduate of the National War College. His Grantham tree farm was named New Hampshire Tree Farm of the Year and New England Tree Farm of the Year in 1978. Merle was the president of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners (NHTOA) from 1979 to 1982 and led the expansion of NHTOA from a regional to a statewide organization during that time. He also chaired the State Cooperative Extension Advisory Council during the same period. He represented Grantham and four other Sullivan County towns in the NH House of Representatives for 14 years beginning in 1985. He served on the House Environment and Agriculture, Appropriations, and Public Works committees and concentrated on natural resource and environmental legislation. He is a former Trustee of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. In 1999, he was appointed to the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees by Governor Jeanne Shaheen. He is now serving his second term on the University System Board of Trustees and is in his 10th term as Grantham's Town Moderator.

John R. Schott
John Schott is a former educator, federal government official and international consultant. He attended Haverford College and Oxford University (Oxford, Eng.) and received his Ph.D. from Harvard. He has taught at Harvard, Wellesley College, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. A former Selectman (in Francestown), he has served on many non-profit boards and has chaired those of The Nature Conservancy (N.H. Chapter), New Hampshire Public Radio, the N.H. Timber-Tourism Coalition and the Overseers of the Community Economic Development Program at Southern New Hampshire University. He is a past president of the N.H. Timberland Owners Association and was the initial vice chair of the State's Foresters Licensing Board. He has also been Chairman of the Board of the Rivermead Retirement Community (in Peterborough). He has lived in New Hampshire for more than forty years, and now resides with his wife, Diane, in Fitzwilliam.

Roger Stephenson, APR
Roger was national field director for the League of Conservation Voters and provided campaign support to environmental leaders in both major parties running for congress. He later developed the LCV Education Fund and was its first executive director. Roger worked in both Clinton-Gore administrations under Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the Director of the National Park Service from 1995-1999 as an advisor on communications and external relations. He was the Interior representative to the Council on Environmental Quality in 1998 and 1999, where he managed program development and stakeholder relations for President Clinton's American Heritage River initiative. At the end of 1999 Roger returned to New England to serve non-profits, government and businesses through private practice in public relations.

 
 
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