Panel Speakers
Ray Rasker, Executive Director of Headwaters Economics
Laura Ziemer, Director of Montana Water Project for Trout Unlimited
Jeff Welch, CEO Mercury Advertising
Presentation Overview
The potential costs associated with mitigating climate change have received much attention, but what do Montana businesses stand to lose if climate change goes unaddressed? Join us for this panel discussion on what global warming could cost our fishing and tourism industries, and the expense of increased fire activity in our state.
Speaker Bios
Ray Rasker
Ray has written widely on rural development and the role of environmental quality in economic prosperity, and is well known in policy circles in the U.S. and Canada. He has a Ph.D. from the College of Forestry, Oregon State University, Masters of Agriculture from Colorado State University, and Bachelors of Science in Wildlife Biology from the University of Washington. Ray also holds an affiliate position at Montana State University in the Department of Ecology.
Laura Ziemer
Laura opened the Montana Water Project office for Trout Unlimited in August of 1998. In Montana, Mrs. Ziemer has expanded Trout Unlimited's water leasing program through legislative improvements to the program as well as completing a number of stream restoration projects by converting irrigation water rights to instream flow rights. Before joining Trout Unlimited, Mrs. Ziemer had been practicing public-interest environmental law since 1993 as an attorney with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund) out of Seattle, Washington and later in Bozeman, Montana. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, graduating cum laude from the Law School while earning a Master’s Degree in Resource Ecology with honors from the School of Natural Resources.
Jeff Welch
Jeff is a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Mercury Advertising, the Bozeman, Montana firm specializing in the geotourism market. His company’s clients include the Montana Tourism Office, Big Sky Resort, Big Sky Convention and Visitors Bureau, First Interstate Bank, Rio Fly Lines and the Conservation Alliance among others. Jeff entered the advertising business as a writer in the St. Louis area and is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. When he is not in the office he can usually be found floating a river or learning about the local food movement from his wife.
This is the second lecture of a four lecture series.
Location: Big Sky Community Library at Ophir School, Big Sky, Montana
Time: 7:00 pm
Co-Sponsored by:
Big Sky Institute
Big Sky Chamber of Commerce
For more information, contact Danielle Blank, Senior Outreach Coordinator of NPCA's Yellowstone Field Office at 406.222.4478 or dblank@npca.org.
