Granite State Conservation Voters Alliance

The Political Voice of the New Hampshire Conservation Community
PO Box 1891 Concord, NH 03302 (603) 746-2331

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 is Program Associate for the Center for Undergraduate Research at the University of New Hampshire. A former member of the board of trustees of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and the Durham Planning Board, she currently serves on the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance board of directors. 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 earned her B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and her Ph.D. from Dartmouth College and has lived in New Hampshire for over forty years.

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 (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 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.

Charlie Niebling is director of public affairs with New England Wood Pellet in Jaffrey NH, the largest manufacturer of renewable wood pellet fuel in the northeastern US. Previously Mr. Niebling served as vice president for policy and land management with the Society for the Protection of NH Forests from 1997-2005. Mr. Niebling has also worked as a private natural resource policy consultant, and as executive director of the NH Timberland Owners Association, the state's forest landowners and forest industry trade association. Mr. Niebling has degrees in forestry from the University of Vermont and the Pennsylvania State University. A New Hampshire native, Mr. Niebling currently resides in Boscawen with his wife Mabel and four children. He is active in community affairs, having served as a school board member, conservation commissioner, master plan committee chair, water commissioner and library trustee. Niebling is a 1996 graduate of Leadership New Hampshire and a licensed professional forester.

Phil O'Brien worked for 30 years in advancing environmental goals first as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and subsequently for 14 years with Arthur D. Little, Inc. where he managed a wide variety of environmental projects principal among them, the beddown of the first squadron of operational F-15 fighter aircraft at Luke Air Force Base; the environmental impact evaluation of a proposed, deepwater supertanker offloading port facility in the Gulf Of Mexico; and, the environmental impact evaluation of developing the Point Arguello Oil field off Point Conception in California. He is retired and lives in New London with his wife Doris. He holds a Bachelors degree from Brown University in geology; a Master of Science Degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in petroleum geology and a Ph.D. degree from The Pennsylvania State University in groundwater hydrology. He also worked as an exploration and research geologist for Shell Oil Company in the Gulf Coast area for seven years. Phil came to New Hampshire in 1990 at the invitation of then Governor Gregg to become Director of the Waste Management Division at the Department of Environmental Services a position in which he served until 2003. He then became Executive Director of the Lake Sunapee Protective Association a position he held until full retirement in 2005. Phil served on the Governor's Solid Waste Task Force; the New Hampshire Comparative Risk Project; and is a graduate of Leadership New Hampshire. He is a licensed professional geologist in New Hampshire.

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 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.