PLJV Staff
The PLJV benefits from a staff with a wide range of professional experience, including non-profit management, bird conservation science, Geographic Information Systems, policy and strategic communications. The staff also has worked with a diverse set of organizations, from state and federal wildlife agencies and non-profit groups to Silicon Valley high-tech companies. Together, they make up a dynamic team prepared to implement all elements of the PLJV Master Plan.
Anne Bartuszevige, Conservation Science Director
Anne joined the PLJV in 2008 as Conservation Science Director and brings a wealth of experience focused on grassland ecosystems, avian science and private lands conservation. Anne most recently worked at Oregon State University’s Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Union, Oregon. There, she studied the change in territory occupancy of Red-tailed, Ferruginous and Swainson’s hawks on a northeast bunchgrass prairie known as the Zumwalt. Anne earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hope College in Holland, MI and a master’s degree in biological sciences with a conservation biology emphasis from Illinois State University (ISU). While at ISU she studied pesticide contamination in grassland songbirds in Illinois. After completing her master’s degree, Anne attended Miami University in Ohio and received a Ph.D. in botany in 2004. During her Ph.D., she studied the spread of an invasive shrub to new forest fragments. Anne also has extensive experience working with PLJV partner organizations such as the USDA Forest Service, USDA Farm Service Agency and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and The Nature Conservancy. She also has already published a dozen scientific publications in her young career.
Mike Carter, Joint Venture Coordinator
Mike brings to the PLJV 20 years of experience in the bird conservation field. He joined the Joint Venture in May 2001 after serving as executive director of the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, a non-profit organization he founded in 1988. The Observatory, formerly named the Colorado Bird Observatory, employs more than 20 full-time staff members specializing in conservation-based research and public education about Rocky Mountain and Great Plains birds. Mike also served in the Peace Corps from 1985-1986 in Liberia, West Africa. While in Liberia, he worked as a biologist and conducted bird inventories of a newly formed Liberian national park on a grant from the World Wildlife Fund. He has twice returned to Liberia with teams from the American Museum of Natural History on grants from the National Geographic Society to continue work on documenting birds of that country. Mike received his master's degree in zoology in 1984 from Oklahoma State University where he studied wintering Northern Harriers and Red-tailed Hawks on a tall grass prairie in Oklahoma. He has given more than 80 presentations at technical meetings and contributed to mainstream publications such as Birding and Bird Conservation and technical publications such as The Auk, Audubon Field Notes and Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, as well as proceedings, transactions and chapters in books.
Barth Crouch, Conservation Policy Director
Barth brings 33 years of working in bird conservation to the PLJV. He joined the Joint Venture staff in May 2008 after serving on the PLJV Board of Directors from 1997 through 2008. Prior to working for the PLJV, he was a regional wildlife biologist for Pheasants Forever, Inc. (PF) for 18 years. While with PF, Barth worked with volunteers and natural resources agencies in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Before PF, Barth worked as a conservation officer and an assistant regional supervisor for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks from 1975 to 1990. He graduated from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology with a bachelor's degree in geological engineering in 1970. He then joined the U.S. Air Force, successfully attended their Officer Training School (distinguished graduate), and served as a missile launch officer until 1973. He then earned a bachelor's degree in wildlife and fisheries sciences from South Dakota State University in 1975. During his career in wildlife conservation, he helped start the Kansas Association for Wetlands and Streams, a non-profit devoted to conserving, restoring and protecting the wetlands and riparian areas of Kansas. He was recognized by the Environmental Law Institute in 2005 as their National Wetlands Award Co-Winner in the Wetland Community Leader category.
Christopher Rustay, Conservation Delivery Leader
Christopher joined the PLJV in January 2003 and currently serves as the Conservation Delivery Leader. He started working for the JV as the Shortgrass Prairie Bird Conservation Region coordinator, a role he also served prior to joining the PLJV staff. Previous roles have included the New Mexico Partners in Flight coordinator from 1999 to 2002, where he compiled and wrote the first New Mexico Flight Plan and developed partnerships and habitat projects throughout the state including North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) proposals, one of which became the first Standard NAWCA Grant awarded in the state. While in New Mexico, he has also worked for Hawks Aloft as their songbird coordinator, organizing bird surveys for agencies such as the USDA Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Christopher has mapped nesting raptors and conducted raptor counts at potential wind power generation sites in Texas. He has conducted more than 50 USGS Breeding Bird Surveys in New Mexico since 1988. His prior professional experience has been in the arts grants management and social service fields. Christopher has been involved with Audubon New Mexico since 1986. He has served as a member of the New Mexico Bird Records Committee and on the board of the New Mexico Ornithological Society. He earned a degree in psychology from Oberlin College in 1982.
Megan McLachlan, Geographic Information System (GIS) Analyst
Megan joined the PLJV in 2007 as GIS Analyst, and is a member of the Great Plains GIS Partnership in Grand Island, Nebraska. Megan has a strong interest in prairie wildlife and habitat conservation, in particular the application of Farm Bill programs as conservation tools. Megan earned a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Colorado State University in 2001. She then worked as a GIS analyst and biologist for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory and as a biological technician for the USDA National Wildlife Research Center. In 2007, she received a master’s degree in rangeland ecology and a GIS certificate from Oklahoma State University. For her thesis, Megan conducted landscape-scale spatial analyses to examine the influence of habitat configuration and composition on bird use of shortgrass prairie, and evaluated land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as breeding bird habitat in the shortgrass prairie. She also worked on a collaborative research project aimed at determining how to better target CRP enrollment and management for wildlife conservation, the resultant economic costs, and policy changes needed to drive such efforts.
Linda Foster, Office Manager
Linda has more than 18 years of office and business management experience. She has worked with Air Force defense contractors at military installations. As a technical field coordinator, her 8 ½ year tenure at Nellis AFB, included working with McDonnell Douglas Corp.; the BDM Corp. on the Multinational Operational Test and Evaluation of the F-16 fighter jet; and Cubic Corp. on the Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation System used for simulated air combat. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Denver. As a volunteer, she worked as an accounting technician with the City of Thornton. She also brings more than seven years of non-profit experience with Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory. Linda joined PLJV in April of 2007.