Driving Change Together
The Dedicated Team Behind Washington's Forest Conservation
Our Passionate Team of Environmental Advocates
Work to Preserve the Legacy Forests
of WA for generations to come.
Brel Froebe
Interim Executive Director
Brel Froebe (they/he) is an educator and community organizer living in the occupied Lummi and Nooksack territory of Bellingham. They received an MA in Urban Education and Social Justice at the University Of San Francisco, and have spent the past decade facilitating youth-led action through restorative justice, critical pedagogy, art, and outdoor education. They are also active in campaigns to decriminalize homelessness.
Brel grew up along the Middle Fork Nooksack River, and is passionate about doing what they can to protect the surrounding forests and watersheds. Their involvement with CRF started in 2021 in a successful effort to cancel the “Upper Rutsatz” timber sale above the Middle Fork Nooksack, and since then have been working with communities across Western WA to build the legacy forest protection movement.
Carly Lloyd
North Sound Region Coordinator
Carly (she/they) is from Ute land in Dillon, Colorado, where she grew up among mountains and rivers fostering her love for the outdoors. Now, they are living on Lummi and Nooksack land in Bellingham, Washington studying at Fairhaven College with a concentration in Place-Based Ecological Justice, Knowledge, and Storytelling and minors in Salish Sea Studies and Spanish. At CRF, she focuses her work on Whatcom and Snohomish counties, and loves inspiring passion for these forests and lands through community engagement and advocacy. In their free time, Carly loves exploring the mountains and rivers of western Washington and spending time with their friends.
Jim Oliver
South Sound Region Coordinator
Jim Oliver (they/he/you-know-who) grew up in the woods among beautiful Legacy forests and is proud to still live among them again today. They have been a forest advocate since 2009, working with the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project in eastern Oregon, the successful campaigns to save the Elliott State Forest in western Oregon and the McKay Community Forest in northern California, and the Tar Sands Blockade in east Texas. Jim joined CRF in 2023 to develop CRF’s volunteer surveying program and coordinate CRF efforts in Thurston, King, Pierce, Grays Harbor, and Mason Counties. In their free time they enjoy gardening, basketball, backpacking, hot springs, and backpacking to hot springs.
Nina Sarmiento
Olympic Region Coordinator
Nina (she/her) was born in New York city on Munsee Lenape land. She moved across the country after earning a bachelors of science degree in biology from SUNY Binghamton in 2016. She has always loved science education and been passionate about leaving this planet better than she found it. In New York she helped Citizens Campaign for the Environment win multiple campaigns to protect drinking water and the Hudson river watershed. In Washington she has found a home on Elwha S’klallam land. In her free time she likes to do yoga and explore the forest for native mushrooms, wildflowers, and birds. She also works as a tour guide for Magic Forest Tours, an ecotourism company she started that allows her to share her knowledge of the ecosystems on the Olympic Peninsula with visitors from all over the world. Nina coordinates CRF efforts in Jefferson and Clallam Counties, and represents CRF in the Elwha Legacy Forest Coalition.
Olive Koffer
Communications Coordinator
Olive (they/them) is a graduate student and community organizer living in Olympia, Washington on the traditional homelands of the Squaxin Island Tribe. They earned their BA in International Political Economy from the College of Idaho in 2021, and are completing their Master’s of Public Administration at the Evergreen State College. Olive joined CRF in 2023 as the Communications Coordinator and is passionate about protecting our forests, watersheds, and native plant communities. In their free time, Olive enjoys exploring the mountains and forests in Western Washington, hiking and backpacking with friends, gardening, and foraging for mushrooms. They are passionate about mutual aid, community organizing, and harm reduction.
Justin Patterson
Operations Manager
Justin (he/him) brings a wide range of experience assisting high growth organizations develop efficient operations and install
forward-thinking operational processes. Having hiked and explored forest systems all over the country, Justin believes in the power of preserving our natural resources, not only for recreation and conservation, but as critical pieces in the climate crisis. He is an alum of Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. In his free time, you can find Justin and his dog hiking in the Cascades or enjoying a concert in Seattle, where he lives.
Our Board of Directors
Mark Boyar
Board Member
Mark Boyar is a graduate of Stanford University and a former product manager for a medical software company. Mark formerly served on the boards of the Cascade Land Conservancy, the Washington Trails Association, the King County Conservation Futures Advisory Committee, and has been a Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust board member since 1995. Mark is an advocate for conservation in the Snoqualmie Valley and Central Cascades and has worked on many public land acquisitions, including the 2014 Alpine Lakes Wilderness expansion and the ongoing restoration of the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Valley. Mark helped organize the Upper Snoqualmie Cooperative Weed Management Area and King County citizen science "Weed Watchers" program and is motivated by the threat that invasive weeds pose to habitats worldwide.
Mary Jean Ryan
Board Member
Mary Jean Ryan is former Chair of the Washington State Board of Education, and a former City of Seattle executive. She served as a Senior Non-Resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution. She is a skilled public policy professional, experienced fundraiser, nonprofit executive, and board member. Over the past year, she has been working in cooperation with the Northwest Watershed Institute to advocate to the Washington State Legislature for increased funding for the Trust Land Transfer Program, and to permanently protect legacy forests surrounding Dabob Bay. She is a passionate conservationist and committed to working to change the policies that govern the management of Washington State forestlands.
Eirik Steinhoff
Board Member
Eirik Steinhoff has a PhD in English from the University of Chicago, and teaches or co-teaches critical and creative reading and writing (among other things) at The Evergreen State College in Olympia and in prisons in WA and NY. He was editor of the Chicago Review from 2000 to 2005 and co-editor of Black Box: A Record of the Catastrophe (2015). His essays have appeared in Arcade, Counter-Signals, Floor, and Postmedieval. In 2009, his translations from Petrarch’s Rime Sparse appeared as Fourteen Sonnets (Albion Books), and in 2018 a collection of pamphlets he circulated in the vicinity of the Oakland Commune was published as A Fiery Flying Roule (Publication Studio/Station Hill). Most of his teaching and research in recent years has revolved around the question, “What needs to be the case for things to be otherwise?”