Site Supervisors: Erin Sexton, FLBS Senior Scientist & Phil Matson, FLBS Research Specialist

Current Position: CMP Conservation Priorities Coordinator and Secretariat & FLBS Research Assistant

Natalie first joined FLBS in 2019 as our second Big Sky Watershed Corps Member, bringing important capacity to work on behalf of the Crown Managers Partnership (CMP). CMP is a voluntary collaboration across natural resource managers in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem in northwest Montana, southwest Alberta, and southeast British Columbia. Natalie assisted with monitoring for Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) in Flathead Basin lakes and rivers, brought our AIS work to indoor and outdoor classrooms, inspiring the next generation, and assisted the CMP with telling our story through website communications and a new AIS story map, building on the initial work of our first Big Sky Member, Maggie Burnham.

Natalie brought creativity and enthusiasm to her work, bridging people and projects as she contributed to work across our international, federal, state and tribal agency partners, and FLBS. Natalie excelled at working with people of all ages and communicating the importance of protecting our Flathead fresh waters in innovative ways. Natalie did such an amazing job that she stayed on as an employee of FLBS working with the CMP, and is presently coordinating work on important conservation priorities across the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.

“Natalie’s Big Sky Membership with FLBS and the CMP was a win-win-win. In working with experienced scientists and mid-level agency managers in this region, Natalie added value to everything she worked on, and brought fun new ideas to on-going projects. She incorporated all of her Big Sky Corp Member training from volunteer monitoring to creating maps and interactive outreach and communication tools like story maps, which are still being shared widely today.”   ~ Erin Sexton