NAWM Members
Members receive weekly issues of Insider’s Edition and bimonthly issues of Wetland News per year. If you are a member already, you may read the latest issue of Insider’s Edition and Wetland News (NAWM’s membership newsletter) by logging in to your Members' Portal. NAWM membership benefits information.
NAWM is looking for photos of our members working in the field—whether inside or outside, regulation or restoration, monitoring & assessment—or mapping & management of wetland resources. We would like to feature photos of wetland professionals doing a wide range of activities in the field of wetland science, policy and management. Please email these photos to Laura at laura@nawm.org for use on the NAWM website and/or in our membership newsletter, Wetland News.
The NAWM membership includes state, tribal, federal, and local wetland managers, regulators, researchers, field scientists, academics, private consultants, and more. These wetlanders work across the United States in a wide variety of wetlands and related aquatic resources. To celebrate the important work that NAWM members are doing, each month NAWM shines the Member Spotlight on one member to learn more about the good work they are doing to protect and restore our wetland resources, how they came to work in wetlands, and how being a member of the Association benefits their work. If you would like to nominate a member for a future Member Spotlight, please reach out to Portia Osborne, NAWM Assistant Director, at portia@nawm.org. View Member Spotlight Archive.
Karen Menetrey
I work for Rio Grande Return, a 501c3 non-profit organization that specializes in low tech process-based restoration for riverscapes and other ecosystems unique to the arid southwest. My job title is Director of Ecological Opportunities, which reflects my optimism and enthusiasm for supporting all aspects of our organization’s work. We primarily conduct on-the-ground restoration projects, but we are increasingly more involved in water planning, advocacy and policy.
What is your favorite part of your job?
iMy favorite part of my job is organizing volunteers and teaching them to build beaver dam analogs in high elevation headwater streams. The hydrologic response is so immediate and satisfying! Volunteers understand how reconnecting the floodplain and creating wetlands creates a healthier riverscape, and there is innate pleasure derived from building with wood and sediment in a stream.
What is one of your biggest professional accomplishments?
My biggest professional accomplishment was managing the New Mexico River Stewardship Program at the New Mexico Environment Department for 12 years, through periods of time when funding was insecure. With dozens of dedicated partners, the program completed about 80 river and wetland restoration projects. It was recognized as a successful program when recurring state funding was authorized in 2023 (NM Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund) and is now a securely staffed program with increased annual funding. wetlands.
What is your favorite wetland, or type of wetland, or wetland species? Why?
My education was in geology and ground water hydrology. Professionally, I journeyed from protecting ground water, to restoring streams and wetlands, to cleaning up ground water contamination, then back to streams and wetlands. Wetlands intrigue me because they occur at the intersection of surface and ground water. I have two favorite wetland types: 1) beaver-dominated wetlands because they are so dynamic and biodiverse, and 2) ciénegas (desert springs) because water-rock interactions create unique water chemistry and plant assemblages that can result in beautiful oases.
How did you end up working in wetlands?
What advice do you have for someone interested in getting started in wetlands work?
My advice to someone wanting to get involved in wetlands is to learn about wetland plants, recreate near wetlands, and do field work, whether it is volunteer or paid work!
How long have you been a member of NAWM?
I have been a member of NAWM consistently for four years. My favorite benefit is the annual meetings. I enjoyed presenting, being on panels, connecting with wetland scientists from around the country, and seeing wetlands in West Virginia, Nebraska, and Washington during the annual meetings. I’m also enjoying being a mentor in the MARSH Mentor
How have you participated in NAWM (e.g., attended webinars, contributed to project workgroups, attended annual meeting, etc.)?
What is your favorite benefit of being a member of NAWM?
What is your favorite NAWM memory?
If you would like to nominate a member for a future Member Spotlight, please reach out to Portia Osborne, NAWM Assistant Director, at portia@nawm.org.
View Member Spotlight Archive.
Members receive weekly issues of Insider’s Edition and bimonthly issues of Wetland News per year. If you are a member already, you may read the latest issue of Insider’s Edition and Wetland News (NAWM’s membership newsletter) by logging in to your Members' Portal. NAWM membership benefits information.
NAWM is looking for photos of our members working in the field—whether inside or outside, regulation or restoration, monitoring & assessment—or mapping & management of wetland resources. We would like to feature photos of wetland professionals doing a wide range of activities in the field of wetland science, policy and management. Please email these photos to Laura at laura@nawm.org for use on the NAWM website and/or in our membership newsletter, Wetland News.
The NAWM membership includes state, tribal, federal, and local wetland managers, regulators, researchers, field scientists, academics, private consultants, and more. These wetlanders work across the United States in a wide variety of wetlands and related aquatic resources. To celebrate the important work that NAWM members are doing, each month NAWM shines the Member Spotlight on one member to learn more about the good work they are doing to protect and restore our wetland resources, how they came to work in wetlands, and how being a member of the Association benefits their work. If you would like to nominate a member for a future Member Spotlight, please reach out to Portia Osborne, NAWM Assistant Director, at portia@nawm.org. View Member Spotlight Archive.
Janice Martin
Janice Martin works for the Quinault Indian Nation, Division of Natural Resources. She assists the Quinault Tribal Community and staff to identify, map, protect and get to know and embrace their Reservation Wetlands and those on their Ceded lands.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I love fieldwork with my coworkers and tribal members. I enjoy the opportunity to share the key role wetlands play in our quality of life. By coming into this world as someone who is not Tribal affiliated, I feel that I have become a better ecologist, teacher and advocate for both wetland ecology and generational knowledge. It has been my extraordinary joy to learn, share and grow in our mutual understanding of the interdependence people, animals, and plants have with wetlands. For Indigenous people like the Quinault, Traditional Ecological Knowledge is crucial to their way of life but has been challenged and severed in many ways. To be but a small part in the rebuilding of these remarkably unique customs for both the future generations and our planet makes my soul sing.
What is one of your biggest professional accomplishments?
Being amenable in this everchanging astonishing life. I have redesigned and revamped my career to the needs of the era: from an-on-air radio personality, to student, fourth grade schoolteacher, landscaper, NGO advocate, environmental consultant, and small business owner, ecologist trainer and noxious weed technician. I am fortunate to uproot myself from the big city to a small coastal town. I am blessed to work with the First Peoples. All of my meanderings have brought me here to be an advocate for the wetlands (who are unable to speak for themselves). I have a great affinity to initiate a Quinault Wetland Action Community, to assist in enjoying and protecting wetlands.
What is your favorite wetland, or type of wetland, or wetland species? Why?
All wetlands are so uniquely beautiful. I love stomping around in my hip waders in the tidal flats amongst the marsh wrens and their carefully woven cattail nests. I find great pleasure in a forested wetland that is barely recognizable as a wetland if it were not for the swamp lanterns and buttressed tree roots, hiding pools of high ground water. My favorite has to be the peat bogs that have become a spiritual respite for me. The quiet is incredibly spiritual. I am able to connect with why I do this work between mounds of sphagnum moss, cranberries and the fragrant dusky smell of Indian Tea.
How did you end up working in wetlands?
I used to go hiking a lot. I liked to identify the plants. I went back to school at the ripe age of 30 and studied botany at the University of Washington. Learning about policy, the Clean Water Act and the scientific underpinnings provided the bait and I was hooked. Thanks to people like Kern Ewing, Linda Storm, Estella Leopold, and Sarah Cooke just a few of my mentors who went before me. As I hope to share with a Quinault Youth who will carry the torch into the next generation.
What advice do you have for someone interested in getting started in wetlands work?
Volunteer. Shadow Professionals. Come prepared, with questions “what do you like/not like about your work and why?”, “What would you do differently?”, How did you get here?”. There are so many avenues to take. Get excited, and don’t do anything for the money. It won’t make you happy. It never has.
How long have you been a member of NAWM?
I was a member of the ASWM (Association of State Wetland Managers), before they became NAWM. Approximately 2018.
How have you participated in NAWM (e.g., attended webinars, contributed to project workgroups, attended annual meeting, etc.)?
I have attended webinars, annual meetings and have presented a webinar or two for the group.
What is your favorite benefit of being a member of NAWM?
The webinars, the recorded webinars that are available to members, the workshops and the trainings.
What is your favorite NAWM memory?
“Changing the Narrative” the unveiling. There is so much more we can do through social media and education for the non-wetland person.
If you would like to nominate a member for a future Member Spotlight, please reach out to Portia Osborne, NAWM Assistant Director, at portia@nawm.org.
View Member Spotlight Archive.