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Dwayne Bondy
Dwayne Lyle Bondy was raised to adulthood on the north side of the Missouri River in Valley County, Montana. His parents were both young children when they moved with their parents in 1917 to homestead ‘free’ land in northeastern Montana and southern Saskatchewan. His great grandparents were homesteaders as well, relocating from New England, Ireland, and Norway to new opportunities in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Dakota Territory, and western Canada. Many family stories and recollections from these earlier times were fortunately passed down to him.
A curious fascination with these stories led Dwayne to expand his knowledge of this era of time during completion of graduate studies in landscape architecture at Kansas State University. People who had lived during the homesteading years of the early twentieth century, many of them Montanans, were interviewed and allowed to elaborate on what they had experienced. It is presumed that most if not all of the participants interviewed are no longer alive, but their stories deserve to live on. Before and After the Plow: Recollections of those Who Lived Before Us is one way to preserve these memories, especially in relation to the natural eco-systems so drastically impacted.
Kenda Herman
Botany Data Assistant
Montana Natural Heritage Program
Kenda Herman is a biologist with a background in environmental science and plant ecology. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Montana-Western in 2012.
Kenda has spent most of the last 20 years working in support of land management, research, and conservation, including operating a small business designing functional landscapes for restoration, habitat enhancement, and water conservation projects using ecological concepts.
Kenda lives in Helena and is the Botany Data Assistant at the Montana Natural Heritage Program.
Mark Majerus
USDA Agronomist/Botanist (Retired)
I am a native Montanan, raised on a ranch west of Lewistown. Attended grade school in a one-room country school. Received a BS and MS in Forestry/Range Ecology from the University of Montana-Missoula. Was first employed as a Research Associate with the Reclamation Research Unit MSU-Bozeman working on coal strip-mine reclamation. Served 31 years at the USDA-NRCS Plant Materials Center-Bridger, MT. I have extensive seed collection experience in MT, WY, China and Mongolia.
After retirement I self-published ‘Forage and Reclamation Grasses of the Northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountains’. Also consulted on the Research and Development of the ‘Native Seedster’ a seed stripping machine.
Now I reside in Helena and am co-chair of the Reclamation and Landscaping Committee for the Montana Native Plant Society.
Krystal Weilage
Greenhouse Manager
The Native Plant Program, Montana Tech
Krystal Weilage has worked in many areas of restoration for approximately 30 years. She has spent much of that time seed collecting, seed cleaning, and treating seed. She currently works at Montana Tech as the Greenhouse Manager. She has also grown and installed native plants in Butte for the past 10+ years.
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