Our Team
Eric Kash Kash
Director
Eric is a biologist with a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources and Mathematics from Lewis-Clark State College and an associate’s degree with advanced GIS emphasis. He is an enrolled Nez Perce tribal member who has resided in Nimiipuu Country most of his entire life. Eric has strong bloodline attachments to the Wallowa Bands of the Nez Perce and the Cayuse people where many of his ancestors were prominent leaders. Since 1997, Eric’s work history with the Nez Perce has included positions in Water Resources, Wildlife, Forestry, Fisheries, and Bio-Control. For the past many years, Eric was responsible for greenhouse management, data management, and invasive and native plant inventories in the Selway Bitterroot, Frank Church Wilderness of No Return, and the North Fork Clearwater country. Throughout his entire career, Eric has managed to work full-time, pursue his education, and raise 4 children. In his free time, he enjoys studying the history of the Nez Perce, sharing his knowledge with family and friends, wood cutting, working on cars, hunting, fishing, and traveling the region his ancestors once inhabited.
Angela Sondenaa, PhD
Hétes’wits Wétes Program Leader
Angela is a Certified Senior Ecologist with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife science from Oregon State University and a PhD in Botany from the University of Idaho. She is a Siletz tribal member who moved to the Nimiipuu homeland in 1990 and started working for the Tribe’s Wildlife Division in 1998. Her career has focused on habitat management as a means to conserve rare species and unique communities. As a project leader, she administers a diverse portfolio of projects including the Hétes’wits Wétes wildlife management area, Rare Plant program, and the Condors in Hells Canyon restoration initiative. She also engages with federal lands management actions and policies that impact treaty-reserved resources. In her free time, she enjoys reading, gardening, kayaking, and working with her horses.
David Moen
Conservation Biologist
David is a seventh generation Oregonian with family roots in the Grand Ronde Valley. David acquired his Bachelor’s degree in Los Angeles in Cultural Anthropology and Biology. After an internship on the California condor recovery project on the central coast of California, he returned to his home state to earn a Master’s degree at Portland State University. His thesis topic: the “Bio-Cultural Recovery of Condors in the Pacific Northwest.” After working for five years as a condor field biologist, he moved to Lewiston, Idaho in 2016 to spearhead the Tribe’s condor feasibility study, and he continues to work developing the Tribe’s Hunter Stewardship Program.
Blair McClarin
Hétes’wits Wétes Field Botanist
Blair graduated from Lewis Clark State College with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology. He was hired by the Tribe’s Wildlife Division in 2001. He is the lead field biologist for the Hétes’wits Wétes wildlife management area and is responsible for annual breeding bird and vegetation monitoring as well as habitat management and restoration activities. He enjoys botanical forays, bird watching, fly fishing, camping, and the occasional golf game.
Gina Rickman
Administrative Assistant
Gina has served the Tribe in a number of roles for over 27 years, including as an administrative assistant for the Wildlife Division beginning in 2009. Gina enjoys the outdoors, rides into the woods, looking for and photographing wildlife, and her growing family (2 children, 6 grandchildren, and 1 great-grandchild).
Louie Scharnhorst
Hétes’wits Wétes Crew Leader
Louie started with the Hétes’wits Wétes Program in 2002 after initially working on the Salmon Corp crew within the Tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resources Management.
Riley Lozon
Hétes’wits Wétes Technician II
Riley started with the Hétes’wits Wétes Program in 2006 after several years as a fisheries technician with the Tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resources Management.
Leland Mitchell
Tekinkéecet Waq'iswíitoqt Technician II
Lee started with the Tekinkéecet Waq'iswíitoqt Program in 2004 after many years of Tribal service with the Department of Fisheries Resources Management and Environmental Restoration & Waste Management Division’s cultural resource program.