About Friends of the Owyhee
Our Mission & Values
Friends of the Owyhee exists to promote conservation advocacy, stewardship, and responsible recreation in the Owyhee region. We work collaboratively with conservation and recreation groups, landowners, ranchers, Indigenous Tribes and Nations, sportsmen and women, and government agencies to help ensure the Owyhee’s unique ecological, cultural, and recreational resources are protected for future generations to experience and enjoy.
Staff
Tim Davis
Executive Director
Tim's roots run deep in Malheur County. Born in Nyssa, Oregon and going to school K-12 in Adrian, Tim has seen the landscape from many perspectives. He first learned from and came to appreciate the Owyhee’s wildness as a child. He then felt a need to protect this region, and did just that as a rangeland firefighter. Now, as the Executive Director of Friends of the Owyhee, he is enthusiastic about introducing people from near and far to the beautiful Owyhee he has loved his whole life.
Tim started Friends of the Owyhee during his tenure as a Correctional Officer for the Oregon Department of Corrections at SRCI in Malheur County, and transitioned to the full-time Executive Director in January 2019. Tim also participates in the Southeastern Oregon Recreation Advisory Council (SEORAC) and serves on other community-based committees as well.
Tim is most at home around a campfire or driving a desert road. In his free time, he enjoys rummaging through local historical archives, exploring historical sites, and any researching anything related to the Owyhee. Tim cares deeply about seeing the Owyhee cared for future generations. As he likes to say, “it's not about the moment, it's about the future.”
Andrea Bonadiman
Campaign Coordinator
Andrea loves to immerse herself in art, design, and nature. A passion for the outdoors and wildlife stems from her youth. The love of the flora and fauna of the natural world is deeply seeded within Andrea. While earning a degree in natural resources and wildlife among various certifications in ecology, conservation, etc. at Treasure Valley Community College, she spent many hours volunteering on various projects with Idaho Fish and Game and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Andrea’s art and design directly correlate with her love of conserving the natural world, featuring symbiotic relationships between species and connections of land and species. Graduating from Oregon State University in 2023, with a degree in Digital Communication Arts and Graphic Design and a resident of Malheur County most of her life, she has grown to love the wilderness of the Owyhee Canyonlands. Her passion for protecting what is right in her backyard and beyond is fierce. Andrea’s adoration and education of the natural world, art, and design interfuse with her new position with Friends of the Owyhee. Working towards bringing the community and the outdoors together while conserving these wild places.
You can often find Andrea fishing, hiking, creating art from animal skulls among other mediums, and spending time with her family.
MJ Winter
Community Organizer
Some of MJ Winter's earliest childhood memories involved leisurely excursions up the Lower Owyhee canyon with its magnificent pinnacles, spires, and thumbs of rock towering above the trout-filled river. Those impressions formed a life-long, deep commitment to protecting the Owyhee she grew up with for future generations to enjoy.
MJ's degree was in biology from Metro State University in Denver, CO. A desire to raise their four children near loving grandparents brought her back to the Ontario area, where she worked for the State of Oregon for 25 years. She was one of the founding Board members of Friends of the Owyhee, served on the Board twice, has volunteered in several capacities, and now works as a Community Organizer to help connect the people with the mission and goals of FOTO: to conserve resources, protect and steward the landscape, and recreate responsibly (and joyfully) in the beautiful public lands of the Owyhee.
Board of Directors
Larry Sullivan
Board Chair
A retired lawyer and long-time resident of eastern Oregon, Larry knows the truly great outdoors when he sees it. After growing up in the Midwest and the East, he eventually moved west for law school at University of Oregon, where he spent as much time as he could in the outdoors, hiking and backpacking in the mountains of Oregon and Idaho. He credits Friends of the Owyhee with expanding his horizons to include the vast Owyhee Canyonlands beyond the frequented Leslie Gulch, Succor Creek, and Lake Owyhee. His goal as a FOTO board member is to instill that same appreciation in others, especially those who live in the area but who haven’t experienced sightseeing, hiking, and camping in the vast, rugged Owyhee.
.jpg)
Rhett Lawrence
Vice Chair
Rhett grew up getting lost in the Blue Ridge Mountains of upstate South Carolina. A former attorney, he's been engaged in the Oregon conservation community for more than 20 years, now working for Forth, a transportation electrification non-profit in Portland, Oregon. Rhett enjoys backpacking and paddling with his wife and daughter around western Oregon, but fell head over heels for the Owyhee Canyonlands on a 2015 visit to southeastern Oregon. He's excited to bring his legal and conservation experience to FOTO’s efforts to protect one of the most special places on the planet.
Erik Feibert
Board Member
Growing up in Brazil led Erik to a passion for surfing and exploring the long Brazilian coastline. With a B.S. in Agronomy and an M.A. in Biology, he returned to Brazil for his graduate research and focused on plant ecology in the Brazilian scrub forest. He has served as a research assistant at the Oregon State University Agricultural Experiment Station in Ontario, OR since 1990, primarily focusing on irrigation and nitrogen management to reduce nitrogen and water use in local crops including seed production of native forbs. Erik enjoys hiking, biking, and backpacking. He has been captivated by the wonders of the Owyhee region since becoming involved with FOTO. He is happy to be part of an organization that promotes the conservation of public lands.
Lauren Wallace
Secretary
Lauren Wallace (she/her) is originally from eastern Kentucky and a lifelong lover of the outdoors. She grew up surrounded by colorful woods and abundant wildlife, and was deeply thankful to find the same on moving to her current home of southwest Colorado. She spends most of her work days reading and writing about America's public lands as Associate Grants and Donor Communications Director at the Conservation Lands Foundation—her dream job! In her free time, she enjoys learning to climb, road-tripping with her partner Josh, and reading mysteries with her eleven-year-old orange cat (who always guesses the twist at the end).
Lauren has an undergraduate degree in music and communications. She has held various administrative and creative roles, her most recent being with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. She loves to build meaningful connections and has a passion for equitable access. These values drew her to both a career in conservation and Friends of the Owyhee. She is grateful and thrilled to serve as a new board member and to be a part of FOTO's strong and meaningful work for public lands!
Siri Jackman
Board Member
Siri fell in love with the desert in 1972 on her way to start school at Oregon State University. While living on the west side of Oregon, she was always looking for reasons to get to the east side of Oregon. In her younger days, she spent summers doing ornithology field work in eastern Oregon. In 1997, her main career as a nurse midwife brought her to Ontario. After retiring in 2013, she began a second career collecting native seed for the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies. Many hours were spent in the Owyhee and she honed her botanical skills. A trip to Anderson Crossing in 2021 introduced her to Friends of the Owyhee, and she became an avid member with so much admiration for the organization's goals and accomplishments. Siri is a lifelong hiker and backpacker and loves birding, gardening, and quilting. She is the proud mother of four grown children.
Shane Davila
Board Member
Raised amidst the farm fields and desert landscapes of southern Idaho, Shane Davila developed an appreciation and love for nature, one that was deepened by his studies at the University of Idaho, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Resources with an emphasis in ecology and non-game management.
Shane’s first passion is landscape photography, and he hopes that his photographs convey the intrinsic value of natural places, what he calls “The Poetry of the Wilds.” With over 25 years as a landscape photographer and nearly two decades as a real estate agent, Shane brings a unique blend of skills to Friends of the Owyhee.
Currently residing in Boise, Idaho, Shane spends a week each spring kayaking down sections of the Owyhee River and its tributaries. A deep connection to the Owyhee is what drives Shane’s commitment to conservation and stewardship. He also enjoys paddleboarding, trail running, and backpacking with his dogs Charlie and Shadow.