New executive director leads conservation commissions

Casey Lewis has spent a lot of her professional life outdoors.

From attending undergraduate school in Salt Lake City where she fell in love with camping to volunteering as a marine conservationist in Madagascar, Lewis has focused her life around wildlife and conservation.

Her most recent adventure just began as she steps into her new role as executive director of the Flathead Basin Commission and the Upper Columbia Conservation Commission.

“I am really excited to have a bigger reach and span to collaborate with and do bigger and more exciting things,” Lewis said, who served as a member of the commission prior to taking over in her new position.

The Flathead Basin Commission has been serving the Flathead watershed for four decades. Created in 1983 by the Montana Legislature, the group was made to monitor and protect water quality and natural resources in the Flathead Basin. They also do work that focuses on aquatic invasive species, and more recently on threats to overall water quality, such as leaching septic systems.

The Upper Columbia Conservation Commission, called UC3 for short, was created by the Montana Legislature in 2017. Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka, brought forward the bill that created the commission in response to invasive mussels found in Tiber Reservoir and Canyon Ferry.

“Working with [the commissions] was one of the best partnerships I have had,” Lewis said, noting that she continues to build on those relationships in her new role. “It’s nice to work with people who are excellent.”

Lewis attributed much of the successes from working with the commissions to Kate Wilson, the former executive director of the groups, as well as the other staff members.

Lewis, originally from the Chicago suburbs, has a master’s in environmental science and management from Portland State University.

During her undergraduate degree, Lewis studied abroad in Turks and Caico studying marine life. Upon finishing her undergraduate degree, Lewis spent six months abroad volunteering as a marine conservationist in Belize, Madagascar and Thailand. She wrote her graduate thesis on invasive mangroves in Hawaii, and she looks forward to continuing that conservation work for the commissions here in the Flathead.

The Flathead has been home for Lewis for over five years. However, 10 years ago, Lewis and her partner worked on Big Mountain for a summer to live in the Flathead just to be here. They always wanted to move here permanently, but worried about finding housing and jobs in the area.

In 2018, when Lewis finished her masters program, the pair moved to the Flathead after Lewis accepted a job as the environmental coordinator for the city of Kalispell, where she worked most recently.

She worked for the city for over five years, focusing on protecting and improving local water quality.

“I started with the city of Kalispell at the local level and now I get to take it to the regional watershed level,” Lewis said.

There is currently a bill going through the Legislature that looks to combine the Flathead Basin Commission and UC3 into one entity: the Western Montana Conservation Commission, sponsored by Sen. Cuffe.

Overtime, the commissions and their goals overlapped, Cuffe said, meaning that it was time to consolidate the two groups into one. Cuffe sought to combine them as a part of Gov. Greg Gianforte’s red tape initiative.

The result, Senate Bill 83, which looked to take the action, passed through the Senate without problem. However, the legislation was tabled in the House Natural Resources Committee on March 15. If it were to pass, Lewis would become the executive director of the Western Montana Conservation Commission.

Lewis looks forward to upcoming projects for the commission to take on. Currently, she said, they are working on an education outreach campaign to spread awareness for clean water, called Montana Waters Clearly Connected Campaign. It is expected to fully launch soon.

“I always love learning new things and taking on new challenges,” Lewis said. “I am sure this first year will be a lot of learning.”

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.