WOC Board Elects New Officers

by Nancy Debevoise

WOC’s board of directors elected new officers during a weekend board/ staff retreat at the HF Bar Ranch near Sheridan in late September.

Phil Riddle was elected president of the board, replacing Chip Rawlins, who had completed his two-year term as president. Phil joined the board in 1998, and was elected vice-president earlier this year. Until his retirement from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in 1995, Phil had spent 27 years as a regional wildlife supervisor and game warden. In 1998, Phil and conservation activist Robert Hoskins founded WILDPAC, a political action committee committed to legally ensuring that Wyoming’s wildlife is considered a public trust that cannot be exploited for private or commercial gain.

Laramie biologist and conservation activist Michele Barlow, who had served for two years as board treasurer, was elected vice-president.

Jim McNiece, who joined the board in 1998, will replace Michele as board treasurer. Jim, an avid outdoorsman and dedicated conservationist, moved to Wapiti in 1997 after retiring from a wholesale sporting goods business in California.

Current board secretary Joyce Evans was re-elected for a second term. Joyce and her husband live on a ranch near Saratoga that has been in her family since the late 1800s. She also works as a speech language pathologist at schools in Encampment and Saratoga.