About Us

Our Mission

Sage Steppe Wild works to protect, conserve, and restore western wildlands and wildlife.

Meet our Board

George Wuerthner (President) - George is a professional photographer, writer, and ecologist. He has visited hundreds of mountain ranges around the West, more than 400 wilderness areas, more than 200 national park units, and every national forest west of the Mississippi. George is the author of 38 books on environmental issues and natural history including Welfare Ranching, Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy, Energy: The Delusion of Endless Growth and Overdevelopment, Thrillcraft, and Keeping the Wild. His most recent publication is Protecting the Wild.

Karen Klitz (Secretary) - Karen had a career as scientific illustrator for the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. She illustrated Cuckoos of the World  by Robert B. Payne, for Oxford University Press. She has family roots in the sage steppe and studies the impacts of livestock grazing in Nevada, particularly how cattle impact beaver and trout habitats in the Intermontane West and how these ecosystems have changed over 30 years of research and field documentation.

Glenn Monahan (Treasurer) - Glenn holds a Geology degree from Montana State University. He worked as an oilfield geologist before settling into a career as a public school science teacher. He has worked as a seasonal park Ranger in both Yellowstone and Mt. Rainier Nation Parks. In 1996, he founded Upper Missouri River Guides, offering guided multi-day canoe trips on Montana’s Upper Missouri National Wild & Scenic River for 23 years. On the Missouri River, Glenn witnessed the ravages of public lands cattle grazing - destroyed cottonwood riparian ecosystems, invasive plants, fouled campsites, and displaced wildlife - which led to decades of anti-grazing activism. He is the author of the guidebook, “Montana’s Wild and Scenic Upper Missouri River”.

Jonathan Ratner (Director) - Jonathan has extensive knowledge of federal land management agency methods and practice, with a specialty in public lands livestock grazing. He has been monitoring and commenting on grazing cases in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado for the last 20 years. Prior to that he studied endangered species such as the grizzly bear, lynx, wolverine, and marten for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, the US Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.

We use the best available science, field work, and expert knowledge to educate the public and pressure the agencies to do the right thing for our public lands and wildlife.