Bringing Sustainability to Ranching Worldwide
Michael S. Stevens is the Co-Founder and Principal of Pioneer Mountain Group, an environmental consulting firm based in Hailey, Idaho. PMG provides a range of management, conservation, scientific and natural resource production and marketing services to clients including non-profit organizations, investment firms, and private landowners. The firm’s current projects are in the western United States, Latin America and Canada. Examples of PMG’s projects include leading large-scale conservation efforts in central Idaho, working on biodiversity conservation and sustainable beef production initiatives in Paraguay, working with The Nature Conservancy, Patagonia, Inc., and Ovis XXI to launch a line of wool products, and providing management and strategic advisory services to private ranches and investors. Please see www.pmgadvisors.com for more information.
From 2002 to 2011, Mr. Stevens served as President of Lava Lake Land & Livestock. During that time, Mr. Stevens helped launch Lava Lake Lamb and catalyzed multiple conservation efforts across over two million acres. Under Mr. Stevens’ leadership, Lava Lake received national recognition for its work, including the Cecil D. Andrus Leadership Award for Sustainability and Conservation and national rangeland management awards from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Mr. Stevens was named a “Hero for Wildlife” by Defenders of Wildlife for his work in pioneering practices that promote coexistence between wolves and livestock, which led to the establishment of the Wood River Wolf Project. Please see www.lavalakelamb.com and www.lavalakeinstitute.org for more information.
From 1996 to 2002, Mr. Stevens worked with The Nature Conservancy in Idaho and New Hampshire, where he received a Switzer Environmental Leadership Grant. His prior work experience includes the Teton Science School, Colorado Outward Bound School, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service.
Mr. Stevens received a M.S. from the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont, where he was a Switzer Environmental Fellow, and a B.A. in Biology from Middlebury College.
Mr. Stevens was born and lived in Spain until he was 11. He has traveled widely in South America, Asia and Europe and throughout the United States exploring wilderness areas and studying land use and conservation. He lives in Hailey, Idaho with his wife Liz Mitchell, an international environmental attorney.
