Board of Directors

Bill Mast, President

Bill grew up farming with a deep appreciation of the natural world.  He has a BS degree in Wildlife Management  from Oregon State University.  In 1987 he founded Wildlands Inc., an environmental restoration company. Wildlands Inc. works with private and public entities to help design and implement solutions to environmental problems.  Bill is currently retired but continues to farm and raise cattle

Marc Harvey

Marc graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies from Prescott College in Arizona. He retired from a career as an environmental compliance manager for a regional brewery and currently volunteers for the Lyle Community Council, for the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, and for over a decade as a Mid-Columbia Fisheries board member. He currently lives in Lyle, WA where he enjoys spending time with his two grandchildren, gardening, practicing karate and tai chi, paleontology, and cooking.

Mike Hannigan

Mike teaches 8th grade science and coaches the Columbia High School Bruin XC team in White Salmon, Wa. Mike has worked with students studying amphibian populations in our community and water quality before and after Condit Dam removal. Key interests are seeing healthy rivers and native fish in our region. In his spare time, Mike enjoys trail running and working on old cars.

Cyndy Smith-Kuebel

Cyndy grew up in Western WA with a family that hiked, camped, skied, and fished nearly every weekend. Cyndy earned a BA in environmental studies at The Evergreen State College, and then a MS in biology at Central Washington University. During graduate school, Cyndy joined the USFS Cle Elum Ranger District in Silviculture. After a few seasons, she became the district rare plant botanist, which led to writing a field guide to the Wenatchee National Forest sensitive plants and noxious weeds.
Still in Ellensburg and with a young daughter who was going to get summers off, Cyndy switched gears, earning a BA in education from CWU that has allowed her to teach science in the Wahluke School District for nearly 20 years, most of that spent at a junior high level wrangling 8th graders. Cyndy teaches science in the hopes that she can pass to the next generation a love of and concern for the environment we are all part of, because these students are our future decision makers.

Dave Bouta

David grew up within a large family in the Pacific Northwest where many of their vacations were camping in the forests or at the seashore. This gave his family an awareness of the environment. That passion to be outdoors and passion to care for our public spaces continued with his own family and many years of Scouting. Today the passion for being outdoors and volunteering in support of maintaining our public lands and improving our water ways continues strongly.

Dale Bambrick

Dale was born and raised in western Washington and has lived his entire adult life in the Yakima River Basin. For him, being a natural resources professional was a labor of love for over 37 years.  Dale started at Grant County (PUD), spent nine years in the Yakama Nation Fisheries Program, served as a regional director at WDFW, and spent a couple of decades as the Columbia Basin Branch Chief with NOAA Fisheries.

Salmon habitat, its stewardship, protection, and restoration, was a central focus of Dale’s career. He feels extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to do such meaningful work. Dale looks forward to continuing that tradition by supporting the good work of the RFEG.

Rainer Hummel

Rainer graduated with a M.Sc. in Forest Sciences from the University of Freiburg in Germany.  He came to the Pacific Northwest through the international fellowship program of the World Forest Institute in Portland.  After a career in the private, public and non-profit sectors, he retired from the Washington Dept. of Natural Resources in 2020.  Rainer and his wife manage a family farm of forest and pasture along Rattlesnake Creek in the White Salmon valley.  He enjoys volunteer work with outdoor groups, backpacking, backcountry skiing, tree climbing and loves spending time with his three grandchildren.