Jenny Tollefson

Jenny Tollefson lives in Missoula, Montana where she works as Stewardship Director for Five Valleys Land Trust. Jenny has taught environmental education, directed a field science institute in Glacier National Park, served on the state board of the Montana Environmental Education Association, and worked as an ecological planner and technical writer for various conservation groups. She conducted her master’s research on riparian fire regimes in the western Cascade Mountains of Oregon and obtained her MS in botany through the University of Vermont’s Field Naturalist Program in 2001. With funding from a Switzer Leadership Grant, Jenny worked with the New Hampshire Chapter of The Nature Conservancy on ecological assessments and conservation planning in the upper Connecticut River Watershed. Before moving back to Montana in 2005, she worked with Hudsonia Ltd., a non-profit environmental research and education institute, to identify and map ecologically significant habitats in the Hudson River Valley and to help conservation organizations, government agencies, and local residents incorporate ecological information into local land use and conservation planning. Jenny is committed to bridging the gap between scientists and non-scientists, both by applying the results of ecological research to on-the-ground conservation and management and by translating scientific findings into a language that the decision-making public can understand and act upon. In her role as Stewardship Director at Five Valleys Land Trust, Jenny oversees stewardship of 200 conservation easements and 3,000 acres of fee lands across western Montana; advises and supports landowners on land management and ecological restoration; and coordinates research, education, and restoration partnerships with universities, agencies, tribes, NGOs, and community members.