December 11, 2000

MIKE CLARK LEAVING HELM OF GREATER YELLOWSTONE COALITION

Conservation Leader Will Focus Full-time on Region's Open Space

Bozeman, Montana: Mike Clark, who led the triumphant campaign to protect Yellowstone National Park from a potential mining disaster, has announced he is leaving his job as executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

In six and a half years as the most prominent voice for protecting Greater Yellowstone, Clark has put vision and energy behind a long list of landmark conservation efforts. Those efforts include: wolf recovery, land exchanges that replaced "checkerboard" ownership with large blocks of publicly-owned land, and the recent decision to restore clean air and quiet in Yellowstone Park with a new form of wintertime access.

"Mike Clark has been a compassionate, articulate leader for GYC and a voice for the wildlife and wild places of this region that can't speak for themselves," said Stephanie Kessler, Chairwoman of the organization's Board of Directors. "Thankfully, we won't lose his optimistic, forward-looking ideas about creating a better future for all residents of Greater Yellowstone. He will simply be applying them in new ways.

"Mike will leave GYC in excellent shape, with an outstanding staff and a reputation for credibility and effectiveness," Kessler added. "Our board has already initiated a nationwide search for a new executive director."

Clark intends to stay in Bozeman and focus his energy on a specific challenge facing the region¹s environment and economy.

"I want to spend time working to ensure that ranching survives in this region and determining how we can keep open spaces for both wildlife and people," said Clark. "If our big valleys become chopped up by subdivisions and 20-acre weed lots, this ecosystem will peel apart."

Clark will help with GYC's search for a new executive director. The board expects to complete the process by spring.