About Us

Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative (SOFRC) is the pivotal organization for Southwest Oregon forest restoration. We collaborate and coordinate with other regional NGOs, government, and business leaders to create successful restoration projects.

We identify and evaluate strategic opportunities, assess and develop projects, engage in multiparty monitoring, and produce analysis to guide policymaking. Our work also extends to Oregon’s fire and forestry-based curriculum for schools and workforce development.

In 2017, SOFRC and our partners released a framework for forest recovery in the region: the Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Restoration Strategy—Rogue Basin Strategy for short. Six years in the making, this plan lays out a 20-year path to healthy forests across public and private lands.

For those involved in rolling out the Rogue Basin Strategy, SOFRC is a central source for:

project development and coordination,

communications tools,
supporting cooperating partnerships,
capacity building,
analysis and data management,
community, state and federal agency liaison, and

developing working groups and zones of agreement.

Put to Practice

The Rogue Basin Strategy

Integrated Land Management: A Rogue Leadership Forum and All Lands Workshop

Our Mission

The Southern Oregon Forest Restoration Collaborative engages with diverse constituencies on forest health and wildfire risk projects to support resilient landscapes, thriving communities, wood manufacturing, and workforce development.

Supporting

Agencies & Organizations

Our success would not be possible without our valuable partners who provide funding, expertise and shared knowledge in support of our mission. We are grateful for their ongoing support.

Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Medford
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Central Point
Bureau of Land Management Medford
Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
Oregon Department of Forestry, Southwest Oregon District Central Point
Oregon Department of Forestry, Southwest Oregon District Central Point
Lomakatsi Restoration Project
Rogue Basin Partnership
The Nature Conservancy Oregon
Rogue Forest Partners
Oregon Department of Forestry, Southwest Oregon District Central Point
Oregon Department of Forestry, Southwest Oregon District Central Point
OSU Southern Oregon Research & Extension Center
Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council
Want to help?

Support SOFRC with your tax-deductible donation today!

SOFRC Board Members

Terry Fairbanks

Terry Fairbanks

Executive Director

Terry became executive director of SOFRC in March of 2019 after briefly serving as board president. As a forester and silviculturist for 33 years, she worked for the USFS Forest Service on the Mt. Hood, Willamette, and Umpqua national forests in a variety of positions including a short-term assignment as regional silviculturist, before transferring to the Bureau of Land Management in Medford in 2003.

During her career at the BLM, she worked on instituting stewardship contracting and agreements at the district and state levels. She helped form the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) and was an early contributor to the development of the Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Strategy. When the BLM Western Resource Management Plan revision started, Terry guided the incorporation of dry and moist forest types into the development of the uneven-aged management strategy.

She received a B.S. in Forest Management from the University of Idaho in 1987, studied English at the University of Oregon, and attended Mt. Hood and Lane community colleges.

Jim Wolf

Jim Wolf

Treasurer

Jim retired from the Oregon Department of Forestry as their fire program analyst in 2005. He was the project lead on Oregon’s Communities At Risk Assessment and led the staff work on the implementation of the Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act of 1997. During his 29 years with ODF, he worked in forest management, forest practices, and fire as both a forester and a manager. His fire experience has been primarily related to fire behavior, planning, and management. He served on state incident management teams for 20 years as a Fire Behavior Analyst, Situation Unit Leader and Planning Section Chief, and as an Air Attack Group Supervisor for the district. He was a member of the national Complex Incident Management (CIMC) cadre. Jim has a BS in Forest Management from Oregon State University.

Jim’s work spans in scale from local to state to regional. Locally, he has completed local and county-level CWPP risk assessments, coordinated two county CWPP efforts and a two-county local coordination group, and is assisting in development of landscape forest restoration assessment and strategy. At the state level, he contributed to the Oregon Wildfire and Poverty Report. Regionally, he recently completed his role as the agency project manager for the West Wide Wildfire Risk Assessment, a project sponsored by the Council of Western State Foresters and Western Forestry Leadership Coalition.

 Greg Perkinson

Greg Perkinson

Board Member

Greg was appointed Vice President for Finance and Administration at Southern Oregon University (SOU) in December 2017, where he oversees a broad range of campus operations and works closely with the university President on policy and operational issues. He oversees eight SOU departments: Business Services, Budget Office, Human Resources, Facilities Management and Planning, Campus Public Safety, Information Technology, Service Center, and University Housing.

Greg formerly led The Boeing Company’s Consolidated Facilities Operations and Maintenance (CFOAM) program, based in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. He served in the public sector for over 34 years and was also a mission support senior officer in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Colonel in 2009.

Greg received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Kent State University and a master’s in architectural engineering from Penn State University. He is a registered architect in California.

Marko Bey

Marko Bey

Board President

Marko is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Lomakatsi Restoration Project. Lomakatsi’s ten regional ecosystem restoration programs and associated workforce initiatives are a primary result of his work. Most essential has been his leadership in the orchestration and formation of collaborative partnerships — partnerships that are strengthened by a wide variety of stakeholders, including federal and state agencies, Native American tribes, organizations, private landowners, and community members.

Marko has 26 years of experience working in forestry and ecosystem restoration, from the ground up. He has worked throughout six western states and a variety of ecological communities, most extensively in the forests and watersheds of southern Oregon and northern California. Working locally, regionally, and nationally to advance the full spectrum of ecosystem restoration, green job creation, and forest-based community revitalization, Marko participates in a variety of strategic coalitions, committees, and interdisciplinary teams, both regionally and nationally.

Jim Fong

Jim Fong

Jim retired from the Rogue Workforce Partnership as Executive Director in 2022. As the region’s federal and state-authorized Local Workforce Development Board, this non-profit organization catalyzed and created dynamic workforce solutions with leaders from business, K-12 education, higher education, workforce, labor, economic development, human services, healthcare, and other community partners.

Jim also previously served as a Senior Associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Deputy Administrator and Regional Manager for the Oregon Department of Human Services, Program Manager at The Job Council, and Assistant Director of Cooperative Education at the University of Arkansas.

Jim is a graduate of Rutgers University with a B.S. in Environmental Planning – an interdisciplinary degree combining masters-level coursework in urban and regional planning with studies in natural resource management, systems thinking, and the ecological sciences. He’s also served as a founding board of director for the George Street Natural Foods Co-op in New Brunswick, New Jersey; board member for the United Way of Jackson County, Oregon; member of the Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and faculty for the National Governor’s Association Policy Academy on Cross-Systems Collaboration.

Darren Borgias

Darren Borgias

Board Member

Darren serves as the Southwest Oregon Conservation Director for The Nature Conservancy and has worked in the region since 1987. He collaborated on the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project, guiding the Conservancy’s partnership role there and in the Rogue Forest Partners. The Conservancy brings science to bear on project design, multi-party monitoring, community engagement, and a landscape approach. He coordinates the Rogue Basin Fire Learning Network and the Ashland Prescribed Fire Training Exchange. Darren secured grants to research and publish regional fire histories, and ongoing work on stand reconstructions. Darren has published on the ecology and botany of Southern Oregon, a biography of C.B. Watson, southern Oregon’s first conservationist, and is a co-author of the Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Restoration Strategy. He earned both his B.S. and M.S degrees in biology and ecology at Western Washington University.

Chris Chambers

Chris Chambers

Vice President

Chris represents the local Fire Chiefs Association on the SOFRC board and through them communicates with both Josephine and Jackson counties. An Ashland native, Chris has worked at Ashland Fire and Rescue since 2002. A graduate of the Oregon State University College of Forestry, Chris worked for the US Forest Service and BLM for 5 years in silviculture, fire, botany, and wildlife, and fisheries biology.

At Ashland Fire & Rescue, Chris coordinated National Fire Plan fire safety grants for 6 years, was a co-author of the 2004 Ashland Community Wildfire Protection Plan and 2005 Jackson County Integrated Fire Plan. He participated in the genesis and ongoing implementation of the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project and led the formation of the Ashland Firewise and Fire Adapted Communities programs. He also coordinates the management of Ashland’s municipal forestlands. Chris works on a team of five western fire departments for the International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire Department Exchange program, or FDX, to help fire departments across the country develop or further wildfire safety programs.

Janelle Dunlevy

Janelle Dunlevy

Board Member

Janelle is the executive director of the Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council. She began her career as an Oregon State Police, Fish & Wildlife Division Oregon Plan trooper and went on to be a consultant on wetland delineations and a fish passage project manager. As a leader of the Rogue Basin Coordinating Council (now Rogue Basin Partnership), she worked directly with Oregon’s natural resource agencies and the Rogue Basin watershed councils. Her passion is improving the conditions and coordinating the public use of Oregon’s rivers, streams, and natural resources. She earned a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and in Fisheries from Oregon State University and has been with APWC since 2010.

SOFRC Staff

Bella Witherspoon

Bella Witherspoon

Program Manager

As Program Manager, Bella coordinates with partners and community stakeholders, plans events, and helps manage SOFRC’s grants. Bella has six years of experience in the social science field, conducting qualitative research throughout her two degrees.

She attended Davidson College for her bachelor’s in environmental and social science, then went to the University of Southern Mississippi for her master’s in environmental policy, specializing in Emergency Management. She has served on several DEIJ boards and planned many events for various functions.

With her background in human geography, political ecology, and environmental justice, Bella is committed to fostering more just and effective solutions at the intersection of social, natural resource, and ecological concerns. Bella enjoys meditation, songwriting, and spending time in nature.

Christina Friehauf

Christina Friehauf

Marketing & Communications

Christina combines her love of the outdoors with a passion for public service and strategic communications. She enjoys finding unique opportunities to engage with residents and cultivate positive relationships with elected officials, community leaders, and partner organizations.

In addition to managing all things wonderfully creative for SOFRC, one of Christina’s areas of specialty lies in translating complex information into accessible communications. Her community outreach campaigns have shown statistical evidence of increased awareness and public support for landscape-scale restoration.

When not behind her computer, Christina spends her time exploring our beautiful public lands by foot, bicycle, and horseback, accompanied by her husband, Paul, and their Boxer-Staffordshire mix, Charlie.

Jennifer Payne

Jennifer Payne

Education Program Manager

Jennifer Payne has over ten years of experience in natural resources education. She obtained her BA in Liberal Arts from the New School, NYC, continued her studies in Sociology at Arizona State University, and has over five years of experience in public school classrooms as a credentialed teacher.

Through her dedication to social and environmental justice issues, Jennifer has developed curriculums, trained educators, and facilitated career pathways for students in schools that serve low socio-economic student groups. She has also designed program surveys and collected data on public awareness of environmental issues and used those findings to create municipal and county-wide multimedia outreach campaigns.

She lives with her husband, public artist and designer Gregg Payne, and her daughter, Isabella, in the Applegate Valley. She pursues creative writing and sculpture as she can.

Sofia Maciel

Sofia Maciel

Wildfire Resiliency Education Program Coordinator

Sofia brings a truly passionate teaching perspective to her position as Education Coordinator at SOFRC. With her understanding of local ecology, history, and the outdoors, she utilizes nature as our most impactful educator. Combining her six years of classroom teaching experience and her Master of Science in Environmental Education from Southern Oregon University, Sofia instructs people of all ages to better understand their outdoor community.

Some exciting projects she has worked on throughout her career include establishing and maintaining school gardens, hands-on live prescribed fire lessons, ecosystem restoration projects, soil quality, water quality, and macroinvertebrate testing, as well as creating sustainable growing systems like solar ovens or aquaponic grow towers with student engagement.

Sofia is committed to connecting more people to their place to care more deeply for one’s community and those they share it with, plants and animals included. On the weekends, you can find Sofia kayaking, rafting, camping, hiking, or exploring with her dog and friends.

 Keith Perchemlides

Keith Perchemlides

Information and Monitoring Manager

Keith is a conservation ecologist committed to effective habitat restoration. His experience includes planning and implementing restoration, land stewardship, and monitoring projects emphasizing adaptation and collaboration.

Before joining SOFRC, Keith was The Nature Conservancy’s Southwest Oregon Field Ecologist for 13 years, covering local forest, prairie, and wetland systems. Prior to that, he worked for the Forest Service’s Sierra Nevada Research Center in northern California and completed graduate research at OSU tracking fuels treatments in the Applegate Valley.

As the SOFRC Information and Monitoring Manager, he actively works with our RFP partners on a wide range of projects, including landscape-scale planning, multiparty monitoring, geospatial tracking, and map creation. A background in agriculture and social service broadens his perspective on our work.