Happy 2024!

We hope this letter finds you happy and healthy this holiday season!  In the spirit of reflection on the year that is ending and  appreciation for wonderful moments that inspire long-lasting memories, we're happy to share some of our highlights from 2023 with you!  (you can view even more pictures from our year at this link)

Our biggest news this year is about Susan Jane’s professional changes.  After 14 years at the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC), she made the big decision to leave and start a new organization, Silvix Resources!  Silvix is a non-profit environmental law firm focused on federal forest law, policy, and collaboration with a mission of using those tools to advance the conservation, restoration, and stewardship of western public lands.  If this sounds a lot like what SJ’s been doing for the past many years, that’s because it mostly is 🙂 

However, the move to Silvix gives SJ the flexibility to continue her existing work, while also engaging in new efforts, particularly empowering Tribes to bring their perspectives to federal land management.  This new organization has allowed Susan Jane to work in coalition with aligned colleagues to advance important policy objectives like old growth forest protection, wildfire risk reduction, and Tribal inclusion in land management decision making.  In this new capacity, SJ has increased her work-related travel, which has been a blast and allowed her to catch up with friends scattered across the west. 

Two important pieces of this work include SJ’s work on the Northwest Forest Plan and her career-long efforts to protect old growth forests.  First, in June, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed SJ to the federal advisory committee chartered to assist the Forest Service in updating the Northwest Forest Plan, which guides forest management on national forests home to the northern spotted owl.  SJ was even elected co-chair!  This is a huge honor and will definitely be a primary focus of her work this year, as the committee intends to provide the Secretary with consensus recommendations by the end of 2024.  

Second, SJ has also been working with a coalition of conservation organizations on a national effort to protect old growth forests in response to President Biden’s executive order on the conservation of these forests.  The Forest Service recently announced that it is moving forward with a policy to protect old growth forests across the country, some of which SJ and her colleagues helped develop.  SJ got her start in conservation fighting to protect these forests, so this is an exciting development.  

As if that weren’t enough, SJ continues to teach Forest Law and Policy at Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland.  Her student reviews from 2023 were excellent, and Paul thinks that’s why the law school assigned her her biggest class yet - 38 students! - for Spring 2024 🤯  Q1 2024 is going to be a very busy time! 

Paul continues his work at Cinder and as COO of the parent company, Vital Enterprises.  Cinder continues its Diversity and Inclusion work, including working with clients to help diversify their workforces while enhancing their culture to be more welcoming and supportive for people historically excluded from the workplace.  As COO for Vital Enterprises, Paul gets to work with colleagues leading several other organizations to improve internal communication, enhance culture, and provide employees with a great HR experience.  Expanding his involvement with the regional workforce development board, Paul went out to Washington, D.C. for the National Workforce Board annual conference in March and joined a statewide committee to drive continuous improvement to workforce programs across Oregon.  Paul also facilitated racial equity training across his organization, for Cinder clients, and with the staff of United Way of Lane County, Oregon. 

We started the year in Borrego Springs, CA with SJ's parents.  We enjoyed several trips out to John Day - the dogs love the open spaces and we still love seeing our friends there.  Paul returned to Nova Scotia for the first time in 12 years to reconnect with his family and celebrate his grandmother’s 100th birthday.  It was a great chance to spend time with friends and relatives as well as a unique rural community that has a great sense of mutual care.  Paul returned to Indiana at the end of the year and got to visit with his nieces and nephews - they are quick visits, but we pack in a lot of laughs in the time we have.  And of course in June, we had our Garden Party - the biggest yet!  The weather was awesome and people visited into the wee hours of the morning.  Our next Garden Party is June 8th, 2024 where we will be celebrating our 50th birthdays and 25th wedding anniversary - consider yourselves invited: it will be a great night!  

Our big trip this year was to Peru (visiting Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu) and Ecuador (including a Galapagos cruise).  It was awesome!  Both locations are hard to get to and we’d been planning to go in 2020, so we were excited to finally get to see them both.  Machu Picchu is breathtaking in it’s remoteness and incredible masonry work.  The Galapagos Islands are interesting for their scientific history, but in particular we really loved the snorkeling!  We saw numerous sharks, turtles, penguins, sea lions, dolphins, rays, lobsters... and way too many beautiful fish to count.  For those of you curious to see what we saw under the water, here’s a fun video of some of the highlights of our dives.  Really incredible! You can view more pictures from this trip here

The dogs are doing well.  Indy turned 10 in April and Niki turned 9 in September, and both are in great shape and get lots of exercise.  We took a few weekend trips to dog-friendly rentals and the dogs love checking out new places and taking in new smells.  They travel very well and we enjoy watching them adapt quickly to new places as soon as we arrive 🙂 

That about wraps up 2023 for the Browns.  We hope 2024 is a great year for you and your loved ones - please let us know how you’re doing! ❤️

Love,

Susan Jane & Paul