We are very pleased to welcome two new members of the WeedWise team.
This spring the WeedWise program welcomes Samantha Kelly and Pavlina Slezak as our newest team members!
The WeedWise program is pleased to welcome two amazing experienced and knowledgeable technicians to our team. These positions are pivotal in our efforts to manage invasive weeds across Clackamas County. They support the work of our WeedWise specialists working in every watershed in the county, and also support post-wildfire recovery efforts.
Samantha Kelly is returning to the WeedWise program for her second year as a WeedWise Technician. We are super excited to welcome Sam back again for another season. Sam has a wealth of experience in plant identification and in managing invasive plants.
Prior to joining the WeedWise program, Sam worked in Yellowstone National Park treating invasive plants and helping to protect the natural wonder of the world’s first national park. Sam has also worked for the Bureau of Land Management at the West Eugene Wetlands, managing invasive plants while improving habitat for threatened and endangered prairie plant species and an endangered butterfly. Sam has also worked on in Northern California in various capacities on several ecological and botany related projects.
Pavlina Slezak joins the WeedWise program this season, after working with or partners at West Multnomah SWCD as a GIS and Field Intern. We are super excited to welcome Pavlina, and benefit from the knowledge and expertise she brings. In the short time Pavlina has been with the District, she has demonstrated her wealth of knowledge and is greatly contributing to collective work.
Growing up in Portland, Pavlina is very familiar with the region and the natural resources of our region. Pavlina has has also worked as a botany technician in Pacific Northwest forests, as a GIS Specialist mapping wetlands across the western U.S., as a crew member on a Clackamas County vegetable farm in addition to her most recent work as a GIS & Field Intern for West Multnomah SWCD.
Sam and Pavlina are supporting WeedWise Program management efforts across Clackamas County. They will be contributing to nearly all of our implementation efforts, and will also be focusing much of their time to protecting natural areas in the Mt Hood National Forest during post-wildfire recovery and infrastructure redevelopment.
Learn more about Samantha and Pavlina as well as our other staff on the Our People section.