Officers

Sheldon Kinsel, President

Sheldon is a political scientist who has worked on the staffs of two congressmen and a U.S. senator.  He has been involved in dozens of legislative, political and issue campaigns, as a congressional staffer, political operative, lobbyist and grassroots organizer. For much of his career, he has been involved in some aspect of natural resources and environmental work, starting as a fire lookout, firefighter and seasonal ranger for five summers with the Forest Service while he was in college and working on the Environmental Quality Staff of the Tennessee Valley Authority.  For the past 20 years, he has been a public policy consultant.

Sheldon has a long interest in climate change.  In fact, a historian researching the origins of the climate change movement found that as a young environmental lobbyist testifying before a U.S. Senate committee in 1977, Sheldon was the first representative of a conservation group to ever warn Congress about the potential harm of climate change.

Steve Rich, Vice-President

Steve is a rancher in Arizona and is also a writer, poet, filmmaker, lecturer, range consultant and natural resources educator. His clients have included ranchers, corporations, state and federal resource management agencies, livestock producer groups, universities and Native American Nations. He is a holistic resource management educator who stresses a holistic approach to managing natural resources in his consulting and educational work. Among its many other advantages, his management approach sequesters vast amounts of carbon in soils and natural systems. His writing has covered a range of natural resources issues, including those related to climate, and he has testified as an expert witness before Congress on CO₂ sequestration in natural systems. A man of many talents, Steve is also an award-winning sculptor.