Executive Director Hired
Bismarck, ND, January 11, 2020
Badlands Conservation Alliance, a 20-year-old North Dakota conservation organization that bills itself as “A Voice for North Dakota’s Wild Places,” has hired Dr. Elizabeth Loos as its new Executive Director. Dr. Loos replaces the group’s longtime director, Jan Swenson, who has retired.
Dr. Loos is a Pittsburgh native and a graduate of the Rachel Carson Institute who first came to North Dakota in 1995 as a summer researcher for Delta Waterfowl while completing her Ph.D. in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Louisiana, dividing her time between North Dakota and Louisiana. From 2004-2007 she served as Research Director for Delta Waterfowl at its national headquarters in Bismarck.
In addition to her work for Delta Waterfowl, Dr. Loos has previous conservation experience as director of the Rainforest Action Group in Pennsylvania, as an organizer for Dakota Resource Council in North Dakota, and as a wildlife consultant with Western Plains Consulting in Bismarck. Most recently she has been employed as field director for North Dakotans for Public Integrity and legislative coordinator and organizer for the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition.
“We are excited that Liz is bringing her broad expertise in both natural resource conservation and non-profit organizing to BCA,” said Lillian Crook of Bismarck, the group’s Founder and current President. “Jan Swenson is a tough act to follow. We already miss her dedication and leadership over her long tenure with BCA, but we’re confident we have found the new leader who can lead BCA into a robust future.”
Badlands Conservation Alliance (BadlandsConservationAlliance.org) was founded in 1999 in response to continued encroaching industrial development on western North Dakota’s public lands, especially North Dakota’s National Grasslands and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The group says it “provides an independent voice for hundreds of conservation-minded North Dakotans and others who are appreciative of this unique Great Plains landscape.”
“Our mission is to ensure that the public lands management agencies adhere to the principles of the laws that guide them and provide for wise stewardship of the natural landscapes with which the citizens of the United States have entrusted them—for this and future generations,” Crook said.
BCA has prepared a proposal, Prairie Legacy Wilderness, to designate the remaining 40,000 acres of roadless “suitable for wilderness” areas in the North Dakota National Grasslands as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, under the federal 1964 Wilderness Act. The proposal will need Congressional approval.
Dr. Loos will start immediately, with an office in Bismarck.
Contact: Lillian Crook 701-290-6209
Dr. Loos can be reached at bca@badlandsconservationalliance.org