Steve Schnee – President

Steve, along with his wife Jean, came to Bozeman in 1974. They opened their original business, the Cobbler’s Corner Shoe Repair, in July ’74. Developing and expanding, the business evolved into Schnee’s Boots & Shoes – a retail, mail order, internet, and manufacturing enterprise. After operating their business for 32 years the Schnees sold the company and retired in 2005. Steve has been active in the Bozeman community for over 30 years while serving in a variety of capacities for numerous non-profits in the Gallatin Valley, including the Downtown Bozeman Association BOD, Business Improvement District BOD, Tax Increment Financing BOD, Bozeman Parking Commission, and Bridger Bowl BOD. Additionally Steve has a 25+ year relationship with Reach Inc. and is currently serving on Reach’s Business Advisory board. The Schnees have been longtime supporters of the Gallatin Valley Land Trust and are one of the founding sponsors of the Bozeman area National Trails Day celebration. Steve looks forward to working with GVLT’s Community Trails Program to expand, improve and maintain the Main Street to the Mountains trail system. Steve’s personal interests include backpacking, snowshoeing, skiing, bicycling, and enjoying his two new grandsons.

Mike Wheat – Vice President

Mike is a native Montanan. He is married to Debby (Craig), a Helena native, and has three sons and a daughter. Mike and Debby have lived in Bozeman since 1981.

Mike received a law degree from the University of Montana School of Law in 1978. After graduation, he worked as a Deputy County Attorney in Butte, Montana until 1981, at which time he moved to Bozeman and established a private law practice where he worked until 2009. Mike was appointed to the Montana Supreme Court by Governor Brian Schweitzer and took office on January 5, 2010. He was elected for another term on November 2^nd, 2010.

Mike has served on the Board of Directors of Child Care Connections (a local non-profit), the Bozeman Public Library, and the Montana Trial Lawyers Association.

He was elected to the Montana State Senate in 2002 and served through the 2003 and 2005 legislative sessions. During that time, he served on the Judiciary Committee (Chairman, 2005), as well as Local Government, State Administration & Veteran Affairs, and Natural Resources Committees. He also served on the Environmental Quality Counsel.

Mike and his family are avid outdoor people who love hiking, skiing, fishing and spending time at the family cabin in the Tobacco Root Mountains.

Mike Riley – Treasurer

Mike moved to the Gallatin Valley in 1981 to attend graduate school at MSU. He has been a partner in On Site Management, Inc., a general contracting company, since 1987 and is currently its General Manager. Mike is a graduate of the University of Delaware and holds a Master’s Degree from MSU. He is a former board member and president of the Bridger Bowl Association, and has also served on the board of Big Brothers and Sisters of Gallatin County. When Mike is not skiing or fishing he is probably riding a bike. He and his wife, Jackie, have two children in college.

Valorie Drake – Secretary

Val is the Director of Finance and Administration for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.  Her formal education was in general business with a focus on accounting, and her passion is for healthy lands, rivers and wildlife. Her interest in land use planning led her to serve on the Gallatin County Planning Board in the early 1990s helping to develop the first County Land Use Plan. She has participated in the development of rural zoning districts (one of which contains important mule deer winter range and another with a river network and riparian resources), and she served on a committee advising the Gallatin County Commissioners on how to do zoning.  She and her husband enjoy doing wilderness river trips, and she floats, hikes or skis most weekends.  She also enjoys sharing good food and wine with friends, walking her dog as the day begins, and reading.

Bill Cochran

A lifelong visitor to Montana whose family owns a ranch in the north central part of the state, Bill moved here in 2006 after 23 years working in the bicycle retail world.

“I started coming here in 2001 to visit my sister, and fell in love with the mountains and the beauty here in the Gallatin Valley.  I bring to the board the experiences of running a small business, and all which that entails, and also serving on the board of a large cattle operation. Certainly very different modes of business that have each taught me different ways of looking at how things can be accomplished.”

Bill also worked on and helped to establish a 13 mile rail trail in Seattle, an effort which took a small group of volunteers over 10 years to fund and complete. Over the past three years as a GVLT volunteer, Bill has helped grow the Longest Day of Trails into a successful annual fund raising and membership event for GVLT.  From this effort his desire to help with GVLT’s mission has grown.

Active in the local cycling community, Bill is currently serving as acting chair of the Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board, is involved in local race promotion, and races regionally. “I love being outside here, whether it’s cycling, hiking, cross country skiing, or playing hockey.”

Columbine Culberg

Columbine has spent more than 15 years developing and implementing programs that connect people and nature.  She began her career as an outdoor science educator, and has spent the years since then developing science and conservation policy and communications programs for businesses, organizations, and government agencies.  Along with her consulting work as the principal at Honeydew Consulting, Columbine is the Director of Environmental and Community Affairs at Montana Import Group. Columbine holds an undergraduate degree in Ecology and Cultural Anthropology from Mills College, and a M.S. in Natural Resource Management and Behavior from the University of Michigan.

Columbine attributes her love of nature and her compulsion for stewardship to being raised on a ranch in the back of a canyon close enough to the southern California coast to feel an occasional ocean breeze.  Since then, she has lived in San Francisco, Baja California, Italy, Michigan, Palau, Washington, D.C., and now spends her time between Santa Barbara and Bozeman.

Katy Harjes

Katy, along with her husband, is the co-founder of Willow Spring Ranch Montana, a certified organic, predator friendly ranch. They raise organic, grass fed lamb, and are devoted to managing their land sustainably as well as ensuring their lambs have low stress, high quality lives. They practice non-lethal predator control and seek to maintain a balance between the agricultural and wildlife areas of their ranch. Their concerns about dwindling natural resources, how food affects our health, and a desire to treat the animals we all eat with respect, prompted them to leave Chicago in 2008 and relocate to Bozeman to start their business. The Harjes’ own and operate their business on permanently conserved land that the original owners placed in a conservation easement with GVLT.

Katy grew up in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York, where she spent her summer days living in her bathing suit, swimming, sailing, and exploring the woods and shale gullies of Keuka Lake.  Winters were completely devoted to skiing. This love of the outdoors stayed with her thru her ‘urban phase’ living in New York, where she earned her MA in Mass Media & Photography from the New School for Social Research and worked as a photo editor for Condé Nastand American Express Publishing. After leaving New York, her relationship with land conservation began when she and her husband worked with the Rural Land Foundation of Lincoln Massachusetts to place part of an old dairy farm they purchased into conservation. Later, while living in Mill Valley, California, she was an admirer and supporter of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. When she is not spending time with the sheep, her horse, tending to the chickens, ranch cats or dogs, Katy enjoys white water kayaking, skiing, cooking and quietly taking in the beauty of the Gallatin Valley.

Stuart Jennings

Stuart moved to Bozeman in 1968 ultimately earning two degrees from MSU, one in Geology and the other in Land Rehabilitation. He worked for MSU for 17 years as a researcher and in 2006 was a founder of the Reclamation Research Group, a Bozeman-based business specializing in restoration of degraded land. He has supported GVLT over many years as a trails enthusiast including a ten year campaign to rebuild and restore the M Recreation Area. Stuart is a passionate Nordic skier and has groomed the Bridger Creek Golf Course ski trails since 2001 as a community service. Stuart was formerly a member of the US Biathlon Team and competed nationally and internationally. His wife Karin was the first employee of GVLT after founder Chris Boyd.

Marty Ostermiller

Marty was born and raised in Bozeman and is a Director of Finance RightNow Technologies (soon to be Oracle). Prior to RightNow, Marty created a start-up payment card company, consulted for software companies, and worked in the travel industry from Europe.  Additionally, Marty has taught two courses in international business at MSU and is now in the second year of growing “The Gift of Food” annual food drive event on behalf of the Gallatin Valley Food Bank.  Marty is crazy about his wife and two young sons, and is an avid whitewater kayaker, skier, climber, trail runner and traveler.

Sally Sands

Sally received a Masters Degree in Social Work and a Masters Degree in Counseling from Washington University in St. Louis, MO and a PhD. from the University of Minnesota. She has taught clinical psychology and educational psychology and has supervised student teachers. Sally also worked as Director of Special Events and Community Relations for Dayton-Hudson Department Store Co. and as an independent management consultant specializing in organizational development. She moved to Montana with her husband Bob in 1995 and has tremendous respect and appreciation for the work of GVLT.

Alison Totten

Alison learned to treasure the beauty of the area at an early age while spending her summers at the family’s ranch in the Sunlight Basin. Having grown up in Philadelphia she and her husband, Charlie, decided to make the West their home. They moved to Bozeman over 15 years ago to follow their dreams of opening a restaurant. After running the Sweet Pea Cafe & Bakery together for almost ten years, Alison now spends her time running around after her two children, Willy & Lizzie, and chasing her dog around on Peet’s Hill.