Staff and Board
General inquiries: info@standingtrees.org
Press inquiries or to reach Standing Trees Executive Director, Zack Porter:
zporter@standingtrees.org; (802) 552-0160
Facebook: @standingtrees | Bluesky: @standingtrees | Instagram: @standing_trees
Zack Porter, Executive Director
Zack Porter is a co-founder of Standing Trees and a passionate advocate for America's public lands. Born and raised in New England, Zack developed a deep bond with wild nature at an early age, and he has dedicated his personal and professional lives to the cause of its protection and restoration. Zack's career in public land management and wildlands advocacy began two decades ago with the US Forest Service in Washington's North Cascades and Idaho's Northern Rockies. After studying at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Montana, Zack worked for a decade to protect wild rivers, mountains, and prairies as Western Montana Field Director for the Montana Wilderness Association and Campaign Director for All Against The Haul. Among Zack's proudest accomplishments during this time were working with indigenous communities in the US and Canada to successfully block ExxonMobil from expanding Tar Sands strip mining operations in northern Alberta, and protecting wildlife and wildlands from motorized recreation and resource extraction. Returning with his family to New England in 2018, Zack worked with Northeast Wilderness Trust and Conservation Law Foundation, meanwhile co-founding Standing Trees to fill a gap in the regional environmental nonprofit community. Today, Zack is grateful for the opportunity to serve as Standing Trees' Executive Director. When not working to protect wild places, Zack can be found exploring them with his wife, daughter, and black lab.
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Chris Gish, Community Organizer
Chris is a community organizer and long-time farmworker who grew up in Central Vermont and now resides in Richmond, VT. He has been involved in a range of community organizing projects, including work to retire Burlington, Vermont’s McNeil wood-burning plant, city council campaigns, free food projects, and land defense against fossil fuel pipelines. A University of Vermont graduate, Chris cares deeply for working people and sees protecting public lands as a vital piece of the broader struggle to build a livable future for people and all our more-than-human kin. He is extremely excited to be working with the Standing Trees community and invites you to reach out with any enthusiasms, questions, ideas, dreams or feedback. When not working to protect New England’s forests, you might find Chris hiking, paddling, sharing food with friends, or on a run somewhere in the hills.
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Bob Galvin, Vermont Statehouse Lobbyist
Now in his third year advocating for environmental issues at the Vermont Capitol, Bob is thrilled to be working as Standing Trees’ lobbyist at the State House in Montpelier. Bob has a background in scientific research — he studied marine biology at the University of Delaware and worked for eight years conducting wildlife research all across the country. Bob cares deeply about wild places and all the organisms that live there, and couldn’t be more excited to work with Standing Trees on issues that are important to him as an individual and essential for our collective survival. Outside of work, Bob is an avid outdoorsperson, and loves to hike, observe wildlife, rock climb, and snowboard across the wonderful state of Vermont.
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Ava DeCamillis, Wildlands Organizer Intern
Ava recently joined Standing Trees as a Wildlands Organizer Intern. She’s currently in her third year at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, VT, studying environmental studies and anthropology. Having grown up in Maine and now living in Vermont, Ava has a deep love and appreciation for New England’s wild places. Through her studies at Saint Michael’s, she has also developed a passion for human relationships with place and the natural world. She’s excited to be organizing events and getting involved with the community to build awareness and enthusiasm about protecting New England's beautiful, wild places. In addition to loving the outdoors, Ava also enjoys music and fiber arts.
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Mark Nelson, Board President
Mark is a retired financial services executive who retired early to commit his time and energy to conservation, environmental, and social work. Mark works to raise awareness of the importance of letting our forests recover and become old, and to be the voice for those that have no say in decisions that have an impact on them – the wildlands and wildlife. Since retiring, Mark has dedicated much of his time to protection of Vermont forests and waters. He was Chair for the Vermont Sierra Club Executive Committee from 2014 to 2018. He is a founding member of Standing Trees Vermont and a member of Wild Forests Vermont. Mark is also Chair for the Association of Vermont Conservation Commissions and the Ripton Conservation Commission, and is an Advanced EMT, Wilderness EMT and firefighter with Ripton Fire & Rescue, and Middlebury Regional EMS.
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Rachel Smolker, Board Member
Rachel Smolker is codirector of Biofuelwatch where she works internationally to raise awareness and campaign on the impacts of large scale bioenergy on climate, the environment and human rights. Her work has spanned from local grassroots organizing to participation in the United Nations conventions on climate and biodiversity. She is on the steering committee of the Campaign to Stop GE Trees, is a member (former board member) of the Global Forest Coalition, has served as a reviewer for the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and has engaged in various campaigns more locally in Vermont. Rachel has a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Michigan, and worked for many years as a field biologist prior to joining Biofuelwatch. She is author of numerous peer reviewed and popular articles, reports, and a book (To Touch A Wild Dolphin). Rachel lives in Hinesburg, Vermont.
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Geoffrey Gardner, Board Member
Geoffrey Gardner is a writer and has also been a lifelong tenants’ rights, climate and environmental activist in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont. His poems, translations of poetry and essays have been published widely. Until retiring, he was a member of the English Department faculty at Tufts University from 1984-2014. He lives in Bradford, VT.
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Zak Brohinsky, Board Member
Zak was drawn to wild places from early in his life and is a proud owner of our collective public lands. Although Zak fell in love with the mountains, fields, streams and forests of New England, his love of wild places has taken him far and wide. Those personal interests transitioned to a professional career rooted in conservation and applied land protection. With degrees in natural resource management from Plymouth State University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Zak set out working on behalf of the land - from the mountains and rainforests of Olympic National Park all the way to the shores and ridgelines of Squam Lake in New Hampshire. Today, with Resilience Planning & Design, Zak works with communities and land trusts throughout the northeast, from Pennsylvania to Maine, on long-term, strategic planning efforts aimed at balancing community needs with natural resource protection. Most often, Zak’s professional focus is on conservation, open space, and recreation planning initiatives in northern New England. Zak is thrilled to bring his knowledge in natural resource management, municipal regulations, and non-profit governance to Standing Trees. Zak is also the Chair of the Board of the Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative, a non-profit renewable energy advocate and installer based in New Hampshire. Zak lives in Vermont with his wife and son who can all be found on skis or bikes depending on the season.​
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Talasi Brooks, Board Member
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Jerry Curran, Board Member
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