Brian S. Pasko, a leading strategist and advocate on environmental issues in Minnesota, is joining the Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness as Policy Director, Ron Meador, executive director, announced today.

“This is a huge stride forward in rebuilding our advocacy for wilderness,” Meador said. “Brian has depth in law, in lobbying, in organizing. He knows the issues and he knows how to map strategies, build coalitions and lead campaigns. And he cares passionately about the Boundary Waters. I could not invent a better person for this role.”

Pasko said, “The Boundary Waters is such a precious piece of public land that means so much for Minnesota and to Minnesotans. I am honored that the Friends has entrusted me with such an important responsibility.”

For the past three years, Pasko has been legislative coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Northstar Chapter, and was a principal negotiator for environmental interests in winning such important victories as the 2006 law reducing mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants and the 2007 law establishing renewable energy requirements for Minnesota utilities.

Pasko will assume his new duties Nov. 26. As Policy Director, he will lead efforts to shape policies and laws advancing the Friends’ mission “to protect, preserve and restore the wilderness character of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Quetico-Superior ecosystem.”

A key assignment will be building a new Friends campaign to oppose the sulfide mining projects taking shape in northern Minnesota, unless they can be shown in advance to pose no threat to the BWCAW and surrounding ecosystem.

“Friends has been without a full-time policy director for a couple of years now, and we’ve sometimes struggled to make our case on various issues,” said Meador, who joined the organization as executive director June 1. “On mining, especially, we’ve had to let our allies carry too much of the load for too long. Brian will quickly put us back at the top of our form.”

Although Pasko’s experience with environmental issues is wide-ranging, wilderness protection is his special passion. “This is a chance to focus my efforts – and all of my skills, talents and lessons learned from lobbying at the state Capitol – on protecting Minnesota’s only wilderness,” he said.

“And I’ll be doing this work within the only organization to place the BWCAW at the core of its efforts for 31 years now. How could anyone pass up such an opportunity?”

Carolyn J. Sampson, chair of the Friends board, said their complementary skills and backgrounds make Pasko and Meador a “dream team” for the Friends.

“In Ron, we found a longtime Minnesota journalist with strong management credentials and a record of writing persuasively on issues of wilderness, environment and science,” she said. “With Brian, we add an accomplished environmental activist with strengths in law, lobbying and organizing, who knows the mining issues as well as anyone. And both are paddlers who deeply love the Boundary Waters.”

Pasko earned his bachelor’s degree, with honors, from Northland College in Ashland, Wis., and his law degree from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. In addition to his work for the Sierra Club, he has practiced law in Cincinnati and Minneapolis and taught legal writing at the University of Minnesota’s law school. He serves on the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and is active in the Minnesota State Bar Association.

He is married to Kim Kelly, a family physician who practices in Crystal. They live in Minneapolis.

Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, based in Minneapolis, is a non-profit organization founded in 1976. Its mission is to protect, preserve and restore the wilderness character of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Quetico-Superior ecosystem. It has more than 2,500 member households.

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