Dr. DeSutter received his BS and MS degrees from South Dakota State University (Brookings, SD) in 1994 and 1998, respectively, and his PhD from Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS). After completing a Post-Doc with the USDA-ARS (Ames, IA) he was hired in 2006 as an Environmental Soil Scientist by the Department of Soil Science at North Dakota State University (Fargo, ND). His research interests are saline and sodic soils, reclamation of energy-extraction impacted soils, distribution of mercury and other trace metals in surface and subsurface soils, phosphorus losses from freeze-thaw systems, and instrumentation for measuring soil physical and biological parameters. DeSutter teaches Soil and Land Use and Environmental Field Instrumentation and Sampling.
Marty Bennett
Marty Bennett is an environmental engineer with 24 years of experience investigating and hiding old dirt piles and stream reconstruction in Montana, Nevada and Idaho. He graduated from Montana Tech with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering in 1997. Not being easily discouraged he got his master’s in Metallurgical Engineering/Mine Waste in 1999.
As a project manager, he has managed a wide variety of tasks for large and small projects from inception to final closeout. For state, federal, and private agencies, he has been involved with site investigations, risk assessments, engineering evaluation/cost analyses (EE/CAs), reclamation designs, bid documents, construction oversight, and post-reclamation monitoring. He is a Senior Project Engineer with Pioneer Technical Services, in Butte, Montana.
Virginia Brown
Virginia Brown is a Senior Soil Scientist at Duraroot Environmental, LLC, based out of Chicago, Illinois. She has worked on the environmental side of numerous projects within the oil & gas, transmission, and renewable industries. Ms. Brown specializes in finding soil science-based solutions to stormwater, erosion, and restoration challenges. She is experienced in establishing native vegetation and currently involved with projects that are implementing pollinator habitat on right-of-ways.
Cameron Duquette
Received MS from Oklahoma State University, working on a PhD in Range Science from North Dakota State University on the effects of patch-burn grazing on grassland bird community composition and nest success and forb flowering phenology.
Bob Flesher
BS in Earth Science, Geology Option from Montana State University. Minors in Hydrology and Soil Science. Experience of over 30 years in the Natural Resources Industry including surface and underground mine geology, exploration, engineering, assay lab, mill operations, permitting, and mine planning. Most recently worked for MTDNRC in the Conservation Districts Bureau assisting with stream permitting and transferred to the AML program with MTDEQ in April 2019 as a Senor Environmental Project Officer.
Mike Johnson
Everyone recognizes that drones will be a part of the Energy Industry. Mike brings expertise on the subject as a manned and unmanned aviator, as well as unmanned aircraft program manager. He helps to innovate new ways of bringing value to our customers while sharing what drones are currently doing within the industry and what the future holds. Mike is currently the Vice President of SkySkopes where he oversees major corporate initiatives. Prior to joining SkySkopes in 2016, Mike served in the Air Force after he was commissioned from the United States Air Force Academy.
In addition to being a program manager during his career, he led missions around the world flying C-17 transport planes and the unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk.
Ryan J. Klapperich
Ryan J. Klapperich is a Principal Hydrogeologist at the EERC, where he is working for the Oil and Gas Group at the EERC to evaluate the potential for carbon dioxide storage in geologic formations. Mr. Klapperich is also studying methods and approaches that can reduce the volume of oil field wastes disposed of through injection and beneficial uses for produced water. He holds M.S. and B.S. degrees in Geology, both from UND. Mr. Klapperich has authored and coauthored numerous reports and publications.
Aaron Larsen…
Aaron is a 2001 graduate of the University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND) with a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. Following graduation, Aaron spent 5 years working as an Aquatic Ecology Research Technician with the Illinois Natural History Survey (Sullivan, IL). From 2006-2019, Aaron wornnked with the North Dakota Department of Health’s Division of Water Quality (Bismarck, ND) as an Environmental Scientist, focusing on aquatic assessments of rivers and streams throughout North Dakota. Currently, Aaron is the manager of the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality’s Watershed Management Program (Bismarck, ND).
Trever Miller
For 28 years Trever has worked in all aspects of Environmental field operations with a focus on Emergency Spill Response.
He is a recognized name in Emergency Management, Spill Coordination, and Training; his expertise has been gained from a diverse range of emergency response situations relating to pipeline ruptures, train derailments, truck rollovers, well blowouts, offshore releases and phantom spills. Although well versed in all spill aspects, Trever specializes on inland water spill response.
Trever responded to and managed over 600-medium to large scale release situations. He is involved with initiating, developing and implementing the Incident Command System (ICS) for clients in most release situations and helping companies to contain and remediate a release situation in all weather conditions.
Trever worked with an International Consulting company to develop response plans. He also worked with the Washington State Department of Ecology to develop the Puget Sound Global Response Plan. He also developed spill contingency plans and tactical data sheets for eight of the largest Oil and Gas Companies and pipeline companies in the world.
With his extensive knowledge and experience he develops and instructs training classes for industry throughout North America and most recently provided instruction to Oil and Gas Companies in the Middle East.
Daryl Ritchison
Daryl Ritchison is currently the Director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) through North Dakota State University (NDSU). He spends his time on research, public outreach and development and enhancement of tools for NDAWN, a network of 139 weather stations located throughout North Dakota, eastern Montana and Minnesota. He also presents short and long term forecasts for the state of North Dakota and the upper Midwest and is a well known public speaker on various topics. Previous to his current position he worked for 25 years as a meteorologist at various midwestern television stations including WDAY-TV and WDAZ-TV and WDAY-AM. Throughout his career he has spoken to hundreds of groups on NDAWN usage, weather, climate, weather risk management, public relations, serving as Master’s of Ceremonies, giving motivational talks and additional topics.
Karl Rockeman
Karl is the Director of Water Quality for the ND Department of Environmental Quality ( formerly Department of Health). Since starting with the Department in 2004 he has worked in the animal feeding operation and NPDES permitting programs. Karl grew up on the family farm in northwest North Dakota and obtained a degree in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at NDSU and is also a registered professional engineer. He currently resides in Richardton ND with his wife Jessica.
Kevin Sedivec
NDSU Extension Service &Â Grasslands Research and Extension Center
Current Position: Extension Rangeland Specialist – NDSU Extension Service, Range Professor – School of Natural Resource Sciences, and Interim Director – Central Grasslands Research and Extension Center
Started working for NDSU in 1989
Took over as Interim Director of Central Grasslands Research and Extension Center in October 2016
Located on the Main Campus in Fargo in the School of Natural Resource Sciences and Research Center near Streeter
Education
B.S in Zoology – Wildlife Management
M.S. in Animal and Range Sciences
Ph.D. in Animal and Range Sciences from North Dakota State University in 1994
Started working on reclamation and remediation of lands disturbed by energy development in 2013. Other areas of interest include impacts of Kentucky bluegrass on the biodiversity of rangelands, grazing systems, noxious weeds, range nutrition, late-season grazing options, cover crops, and prescribed burning.
Guy Welch
Guy Welch has worked for the North Dakota Public Service Commission as an Environmental Scientist in the Reclamation Division since 1998. He is responsible for reviewing surface coal mining operations and reclamation plans for compliance with rules and regulations. His primary areas of responsibility include land use, revegetation and wildlife. Guy conducts mine inspections to ensure companies are following their approved mining and reclamation plans, and monitors revegetation activities through final bond release. Guy has a B.S. in Range Science from the South Dakota State University. In the past, he has worked as a Soils and Range Conservationist for other state and federal agencies. He grew up on the family farm near Ludlow, SD and continues to be involved with the operation. He is a member of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR) and the Society for Range Management (SRM).
Miguel Wong
Miguel Wong holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, a MSc in Hydraulic Engineering from IHE-Delft (the Netherlands), and a PhD in Civil Engineering from University of Minnesota. His more than 20 years of professional experience have involved hydrologic modeling, hydraulic design, river mechanics analysis, and managing multi-disciplinary engineering teams. Miguel has been with Barr Engineering since 2006 and has worked in several sediment transport modeling and stream geomorphology assessments, including work as part of flood risk reduction and ecosystem restoration projects from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local sponsors.
Dr. Carissa Wonkka
Dr. Wonkka received her BS from the University of Massachusetts and her MS And PhD from Texas A&M University. She also obtained a JD from Suffolk Law School with a focus on land use and environmental law. She is currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Nebraska and is starting a position as Research Ecologist with the Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, USDA ARS in Sidney, MT this spring. Her research focuses on applying resilience theory to develop effective plant community restoration that promotes productive, sustainable rangelands. She also studies trait-based community assembly as a framework for restoring invaded rangelands and for increasing resistance to invasion.
