Restore the Delta Steering Committee
Gary Adams
Gary Adams was raised primarily in West and Central Contra Costa County. He spent time as a youth exploring area creeks and hills, as well learning about area flora and fauna. His childhood vacations were spent visiting family in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana on farms and ranches and always partaking in fishing or hunting excursions. These early experiences shaped Mr. Adamıs activities and interests for his adult life.
After 30 years of a successful career in heavy equipment manufacturing, and 17 years as a contract specialist and officer with the Department of Defense,
Mr. Adams has been actively engaged in fishery and Delta issues on behalf of the West Delta Chapter of the California Striped Bass Association where he served
as Chapter President from 2003 to 2005, and State Board Vice President from 2004 to 2005. Presently, Mr. Adams is serving as State Board President of the
California Striped Bass Association. Mr. Adams has a dream for the Delta a Delta that is drinkable, farmable, swimmable and fishable for his children,
grandchildren, and future generations.
W. Mick Canevari
Mick Canevari is the Director of University California Cooperative Extension programs in San Joaquin County. He oversees UC programs in Agriculture and
Natural Resources, 4-H youth development, Nutrition Family, and Consumer Sciences. He conducts research in Agronomy crops and Weed Science in San Joaquin
County. He also develops publications on agricultural issues and conducts state, regional, and county meetings on various agricultural topics.
Linda Driver
Linda Driver, a Stockton native, has traveled the world and still likes Stockton best. Ms. Driver, a teacher for 14 years, teaches kindergarten through
12th grade in the Independent Study Program for Lodi Unified. She believes in the power of education as a change agent and wants to create a generation of
students who are stewards of the Earth. Her affiliations include: Adopt A Watershed, San Joaquin Watershed Partnership, Sierra Club, National Science
Teacher's Association, National Education Association, California Teacher's Association, Lodi Educator's Association, Stockton Sailing Club, and Sea Scouts.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans manages Friends of the River's conservation staff and provides overall direction for its conservation programs. Mr. Evans was hired by Friends
of the River in 1988 and has served as its Conservation Director since 1990. He has more than 30 years of conservation policy experience in public lands
and resource issues. He successfully encouraged federal agencies to identify more than 3,000 miles potential Wild & Scenic Rivers and has played a key role
in the legislative expansion of the federal and state Wild & Scenic Rivers Systems in California. In 1988, he coordinated the environmental coalition that
successfully opposed the Bureau of Reclamationıs proposal to sell additional Central Valley Project water and lobbied in 1994 for the passage of the Central
Valley Project Improvement Act. He served on the CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Committee and has also been the lead person in Friends of the River on California
water policy issues. Mr. Evans co-founded and has served on the steering committees of many of the coalitions administered by Friends of the River, including
the Environmental Water Caucus, California Wild Heritage Campaign, Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, and the California Hydropower Reform Coalition.
He previously was Executive Director of the Butte Environmental Council in Chico.
Bill Jennings
Bill Jennings is currently Executive Director of the California Sports Protection Alliance, and environmental champion for the California Delta over
the last 20 years.
William Loyko
Stockton resident Bill Loyko works with several area organizations in the areas of water, governance, and environmental and social justice.
Married with five children and two beautiful grandsons, Mr. Loyko is active in the Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton, a grassroots group focused on
water privatization in Stockton and city governance, the Stockton Catholic Diocese Environmental Justice Committee, and the Presentation Church Environmental
Justice and Social Justice Committees. Mr. Loyko is an outspoken opponent of the privatization of operations and maintenance of the Stockton Municipal Utilities,
and is a regularly requested speaker at public forums discussing the pros and cons of privatization efforts. He is also the founding member of the Water Allies
Network, a multi-cultural, multi-racial network of grassroots organizations committed to building a movement to ensure secure and equitable access to clean water
as a human right. Mr. Loyko also serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Boys Scouts of America, Greater Yosemite Council.
Roger S. Mammon
Roger Mammon was born in San Francisco, grew up in the East Bay, and has now lived in Oakley for 24 years. A former police officer and manager in the automobile
finance industry, Mr. Mammon has fished all his life and took up hunting as a young adult. management indce Cadet and Police Officer for 3 years. Mr. Mammon
loves both sports as they allow him to be outside and on the water. He is serving in his second term as President of the Lower Sherman Island Duck Hunters
Association -- a group of local sportsmen and women who enjoy hunting in State Wildlife Management Areas. He is also a Board Member of the West Delta Chapter
of the California Striped Bass Association, and is a member of the Committee to Save Our Shoreline in Oakley. He has seen a number of changes in the Delta over
the past two decades that are disturbing, and he looks forward to helping Restore The Delta.
Barry Nelson
Barry Nelson is a Senior Policy Analyst in the San Francisco office of the Natural Resources Defense Council and is the co-director of NRDCıs Western Water Project.
Mr. Nelson has been active on California water issues for two decades, with a particular focus on protecting the Bay-Delta Estuary and its tributary rivers, and
on advancing sustainable water management policies. He was the chair of the successful campaign for the passage of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act,
the most important water reform legislation ever passed by Congress. He has been active in efforts to restore the San Joaquin River and implement the ambitious
ecosystem restoration, water quality and water management plans included in the plan adopted by the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. He has been a leader in efforts
to explore the connections between climate change, energy and water management. He frequently testifies before Congressional and state legislative committees
on water issues.
Prior to coming to NRDC in 1999, Mr. Nelson was on the staff of Save The Bay in Oakland, serving nine of those years as Executive Director. While there, he was
deeply involved in a wide range of issues including: preventing Bay fill, reducing the dumping of dredged material in the Bay, protecting and restoring wetlands,
establishing shoreline parks, creating educational programs and reducing toxic contamination.
David (Chicken) Nesmith
David (Chicken) Nesmith was born in Chicago, and grew up in Santa Maria, California. He studied Agriculture at Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo. After two years of
service in Vietnam, Mr. Nesmith came home to a life of political activity and advocacy. He was a local Sierra Club conservation staff person for 17 years in the
San Francisco Bay Area. He has also been a water person, leading ocean kayak trips for people challenging cancer, and he has been a white water rafting guide for
20 years, and leads rafting trips for inner city outings. He currently facilitates communications for almost 30 environmental and fishing groups, and a native
American tribe, all of which advocate for California water policies that lead to sustainable water use and ecosystem restoration.
Mike Robinson
Mike Robinson is a Delta farmer. Biography coming soon.
Sophat Sorn
Pastor Sophat Sorn is with the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Stockton. Founder of United Cambodian Families in Stockton, Pastor Sorn is a Khmer speaker for the Voice of Love, a program featured on Adventist World Radio. Pastor Sorn also serves on the board of the Stokton Sister Cities Association, as a member of the Cambodian-Thai Cultural Commission Project, and as Director for the Healthy Fish Education Project a program funded by the Department of Health Services focused on fish consumption and mercury contamination.
Pastor Sorn says that the word Delta encompasses a great deal: the people, the land, the water,
the landscape, economic livelihood, and all that live within the area. Pastor Sorn also believes
that by preserving the environment, we protect the health of others and ourselves.
Phoebe Storey
Phoebe Storey first developed an interest in water issues in the 1970's when serving on a research committee for the League of Women Voters for a study on the state water system. Almost thirty years later, she took up the sport of sculling and became familiar with the Delta by rowing regularly for hours in area waterways. Ms. Storey is concerned about the state of the channels, sloughs, and levees and the demands that people place on the system. She believes that these problems must be addressed for the sake of coming generations.
Ms. Storey is also interested in area waterways as an artist. She has painted, exhibited, and sold a number of paintings with area rivers as my primary subject.
Matt Vander Sluis
Matt Vander Sluis joined the Planning and Conservation League & PCL Foundation in September 2004.
He currently specializes in water policy, especially on issues concerning the California
Bay-Delta Estuary. He has testified in public hearings, submitted technical comments and
led outreach efforts on numerous Delta issues. He served as a policy expert on the Water
Education Foundationıs 2006 Bay-Delta tour. He also served as Lead Editor and Research
Director for the 2005 PCL/CLCV Everyday Heroes: Thirty Five Years of the California
Environmental Quality Act report. In 2003, Matt received a B.A in American Studies
from Stanford University. He has spent over nine years in leadership roles for international
human rights organizations and is interested in the intersection of environmental protection,
public health, and civil and human rights.
Doug Wilhoit
Mr. Wilhoit is CEO of the Stockton Chamber of Commerce. Biography coming soon.
