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California Nature Conservancy Names New Leader

First New Executive Director in 16 Years

San Francisco, CA — December 11, 2000 — Graham Chisholm has been named head of The Nature Conservancy of California - effective January 10, 2001. The Nature Conservancy is the world's largest land conservation organization, and the California program is its biggest chapter. Chisholm has worked for The Nature Conservancy for the past eight years, including the last two as head of the Nevada chapter.

"All of us in The Nature Conservancy of California are very pleased to welcome Graham Chisholm back to California," said Donn B. Miller, Chairman of the Board. "He is a creative leader and one of the Conservancy's stars. With the population of this state increasing by 18 million over the next 25 years, we need strong and determined leadership. Graham's skills and his proven commitment to conservation in the West suit him ideally to carry our mission forward."

"I look forward to leading The Nature Conservancy of California in a new era of conservation," said Chisholm. "The Conservancy's California program has grown and changed tremendously in recent years, as has the state. We have to make sure that the Conservancy and our private and public partners are equal to the challenges facing us. Our mission is to safeguard the state's finest natural habitats before unplanned growth takes its toll. I am excited about working in ways that demonstrate how conservation and a robust economy go hand in hand."

Chisholm, 41, has dedicated his career to environmental policy and practice. As director of The Nature Conservancy of Nevada, he put the organization on a sound financial footing, increased private fundraising by nearly half, and oversaw the completion of ecoregional plans throughout Nevada. As director of the Stillwater Marsh-Pyramid Lake Project in Nevada in the early 1990s, he headed a major conservation initiative whose outcome guaranteed that the lake and associated wetlands would not dry up, while ensuring a continued supply of water for the region's towns and farms. The project, in which Chisholm and the Conservancy worked collaboratively with federal, state, local, and tribal partners, involved thorny issues of water policy, water rights, and conflict resolution among a number of contending interests. "Graham has been instrumental in helping federal land management agencies achieve mutual conservation goals," said Bob Abbey, the Bureau of Land Management's State Director for Nevada. "As a result of Graham's leadership, we have made great progress in protecting sensitive environmental resources. His departure is a loss for Nevada and a real gain for California."

Chisholm replaces The Nature Conservancy of California's long-time chief Steve McCormick, who resigned in June to become co-director of a conservation and natural resources consulting firm. Chisholm worked under McCormick in the late 1980s in California, and later, as director of the Nevada chapter, reported to McCormick, who was the Conservancy's Western Division vice-president as well as director of the California program.

Prior to heading the Conservancy's Nevada chapter, Chisholm was founder and executive director of the Great Basin Bird Observatory, a non-profit organization that is coordinating Nevada's first statewide inventory of breeding birds and developing a bird conservation plan for the state. He simultaneously co-founded another non-profit, Great Basin Land and Water, that is dealing with water issues involving the Truckee River.

Chisholm also served for three and a half years as legislative assistant to a United States Senator in Washington, D.C., working on natural resource and Native American issues. Chisholm was born in New Hampshire and lived most of his first eight years in Europe. Later, his family moved to Schenectaday, New York and then to Bellevue, Nebraska, a suburb of Omaha. Chisholm earned his B.A. from Creighton University in Omaha in 1980 and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. His wife, Kelly Cash, is a longtime employee of The Nature Conservancy who is working with ranchers in Arizona and New Mexico. The couple has two children.