Denise Shirmer, Program Assistant
A.A., Business Computer Information Systems, 2000 (Mesa State College, Grand Junction, CO)
Denise joined the staff of Salmon Valley Stewardship in July 2007. She manages SVS’ business affairs including financial reporting for grants. She maintains the SVS website and manages distribution of internal communications such as direct mail correspondence and newsletters. Denise works on special projects such as volunteer recruitment and recognition and provides support for the organization’s many events. She recently was the SVS lead for a computer systems upgrade, overseeing the purchase of new equipment and software and networking. Denise and her husband moved to Salmon in 2001 from Grand Junction, Colorado where she worked as the computer operation’s Technical Support Specialist for City Market, Inc. She has volunteered her time to the Trails Committee, the Safe Routes to Schools Committee and the Recycling Committee.
Michelle Tucker, Botanist/Forest Restoration Program Manager
B.S., Plant Biology, 1994 (Boise State University, Boise, Idaho)
Certificate of Teaching, Natural Sciences, Secondary Education, 1998 (Boise State University)
Michelle joined the staff of Salmon Valley Stewardship in June 2009 as part of a special project to inventory and monitor declining aspen stands on the Salmon-Challis National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management Salmon Field Office. She is slated to assume some of Ms. Knudson’s Lemhi County Forest Restoration Group coordination responsibilities. Since Michelle moved to Salmon with her family in 2001, she has worked as an independent wetlands consultant. She serves as the director for the Salmon River Builders Association and has served on the board of the nonprofit Lemhi Afterschool Promise. Michelle was instrumental in bringing the Environmental Compliance for the Construction Industry course to Salmon in 2009. Previously, Michelle worked as a wildland fire ecologist and technical writer/editor and in this capacity she supervised the creation of seven separate Fire Management Plans for the Idaho Bureau of Land Management.
Standing: Adrienne Trapani, Denise Shirmer, Bob Russell, Jerry Myers, Russ Chinske, Gina Knudson, Dave Ellis
Sitting: Toni Ruth, Renee Snyder, Anita Andrus
Gina Knudson, Executive Director
B.A. Journalism, 1990 (Whitworth University, Spokane, WA)
Gina joined the staff of Salmon Valley Stewardship in July 2006 and became the executive director in January 2007. She has continued to work as a freelance journalist, publishing articles in High Country News, Big Sky Journal, Sun Valley Magazine, the Horizon Air inflight magazine, and the Idaho Falls Post Register in recent years. Prior to moving to Salmon with her family in 2002, Gina worked as the environmental public affairs officer for Mountain Home Air Force Base. In 1996, she received Air Combat Command’s Outstanding Public Affairs Civilian award. She later worked for the engineering firm CH2M Hill’s Boise office as a technical writer and editor. She has served as a Salmon City Council member and on the board of directors for the Salmon Arts Council and the Lemhi Afterschool Promise nonprofit organizations. In 2010, she was appointed to the Lemhi County Planning and Zoning Commission.
Rachel Layman, Lemhi County Farmers Market Manager
A.A., Spanish, 2002 (College of Southern Idaho)
Rachel took part in the market as a vendor with Odd Fellows' Bakery prior to being selected as market manager in 2011.
She first became highly interested in the local foods movement when she lived on an isolated ranch north of Stanley, ID. She was fortunate enough to grow our own greenhouse veggies on the ranch in the warmer seasons, but was shocked at the relative absence of local food from the nearby towns when she couldn't make it to a bigger city to grocery shop. Rachel soon realized how isolated central Idaho was from other functioning regional food infrastructures and was delighted to learn that Salmon had begun a farmers' market and was working to create a local foods community.
