Over an eight-year stretch, Stone-Manning saw a community come together and demand that the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot rivers be restored for generations to come. The result was the ongoing Milltown Reservoir Superfund site project, which will eventually remove Milltown Dam.
Next Monday, Stone-Manning begins her latest journey - as Democratic Sen. Jon Tester's Missoula field director.
“We all know what Senator Tester stands for - small farmers and ranchers, small business, opportunities for all Montanans. Those are exciting things to be able to work for and towards,” Stone-Manning said. “And I get to stay in Missoula to boot.”
The field director's job is to ensure that Tester stays in touch with his constituents in western Montana.
“As executive director of the Clark Fork Coalition, Tracy has an outstanding track record of working with all folks, bridging divides to make Montana a better place,” Tester said. “She is a smart, well-respected and an effective leader in our state. She brings valuable experience, and I know she will serve western Montana very well.”
Stone-Manning served as the Clark Fork Coalition's executive director since 1999. Before that, she was the founding editor of Headwaters News, a daily online Web site, and executive director of Five Valleys Land Trust.
“Tracy made an enormous contribution to the organization and the cause for a clean and healthy watershed, and we wish her well in her new work,” said Tom France, president of the coalition's board of directors. “We expect a smooth transition to new leadership, and tapped Karen Knudsen, who has been with the coalition since 1993, to be acting director.”
The coalition will begin a search for a permanent executive director this month. It plans to have that position filled by April.
“It has been deeply gratifying to work on behalf of the river and the communities alongside it,” Stone-Manning said. “The coalition's successes have all come at the hands of citizens who deeply care about the watershed. It's been a true honor to work with them.”
Stone-Manning watched a community coalesce around an idea that became much larger than simply protecting water quality in the Clark Fork River Basin.
“We were building a community that is conservation,” she said. “We helped shepherd that idea through. People get it. They want to stop fighting. They want to work together for the protection of the Clark Fork. We're seeing it happen.”
Stone-Manning will be joined by two other Missoula residents on Tester's staff.
Dayna Swanson is Tester's deputy state director, and Deborah Frandsen will serve as a field representative and state grants coordinator.
Swanson was the Montana Democratic Party's regional director during Tester's U.S. Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Sen. Conrad Burns. She previously worked as a renewal underwriter for Missoula's Big Sky Underwriters.
In 2000, Swanson worked for Nancy Keenan's congressional campaign and later served as a coordinator for the Montana Women Vote Project.
Frandsen worked on Tester's finance staff during his successful Senate campaign. She previously served as development director of Missoula Aging Services from 2001-04. Before that, she worked in Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign and helped Mark O'Keefe's Montana gubernatorial campaign in 2000.
Reporter Perry Backus can be reached at 523-5259 or at pbackus@missoulian.com
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)