The Clark Fork Coalition has hired Karen Knudsen as its new executive director.
Knudsen has been with the group since 1993 and has served in a variety of capacities, most recently as its communications director and acting director.
“We had many highly qualified candidates for this position, but Karen's broad skills and deep experience made her the natural choice,” said Tom France, president of the coalition's board of directors. “We are confident that she will build on the excellence and effectiveness that has marked the coalition since its launch in 1985.”
“I am thrilled and honored to be given the opportunity to serve the cause for a healthy watershed in this role,” Knudsen said. “I have a lot of passion, interest and history around the coalition's campaigns and am eager to contribute in new ways to the Clark Fork River's unfolding restoration story.”
Knudsen's plans for her first year at the helm flow directly out of initiatives she says “already have a lot of built-in momentum and are being guided by staff that have a tremendous amount of energy and expertise. I'm very fortunate to be stepping into this position when the organization is full speed ahead on so many fronts and when full-scale recovery for the river is just under way.”
She cites the recent return of trout to Silver Bow Creek - the Clark Fork's headwaters - and dropping levels of arsenic in groundwater at Milltown as “mere previews of the transformative change that's coming to the river.”
“These are extraordinary times,” Knudsen says, “and we're all lucky to be here, engaged and bearing witness.”
One of Knudsen's first official duties as the coalition's executive director will be to welcome teams of volunteers who will be gathering at Caras Park at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 21, to clean up trash along the banks of the Clark Fork River. “This annual cleanup is a great way for the community to come together to help out a river that's so vital to our lives,” Knudsen said .
The cleanup lasts until noon and is followed by a family barbecue at Caras Park. For details, contact the Clark Fork Coalition at 542-0539.
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