Outdoor Alliance Welcomes Kira Minehart as Forest Planning and GIS Coordinator

Outdoor Alliance is excited to welcome Kira Minehart as Forest Planning and GIS Coordinator, and the newest member of our team. Learn more about Kira and what she’ll be doing at Outdoor Alliance.

Where are you based and what do you like to do outside?

I am currently based in Corvallis, Oregon where I enjoy spending time among the lichens, ferns, and quizzical geology of the Pacific Northwest. This landscape provides many opportunities for outdoor recreation, but lately, backpacking, bikepacking, and packrafting have consumed most of my time outdoors. 

Tell us about your role at Outdoor Alliance, and what you’ll be working on.

As the Forest Planning and GIS Coordinator, I work to support efforts related to the Forest Planning process across several national forests. Our team works closely with local, regional, and national organizations to ensure that outdoor recreation interests are wholly represented in the forest planning process. Specifically, I use stakeholder engagement, GIS, and data visualization to understand and advocate for place-based recreation needs in national forest lands.

You’re currently pursuing your PhD, how does that work intersect with what you’ll be doing at Outdoor Alliance?

I currently split my time between OA and pursuing a PhD at Oregon State University. My PhD seeks to understand the complex interactions between outdoor recreation, climate change, ecosystems through GIS and data science. This research informs my work here at OA as climate change (and its myriad impacts) affects both ecosystems and outdoor recreation alike, both of which OA seeks to protect. I believe that understanding and communicating these impacts is vital for conservation in a climate-changed world; a goal I am working towards through both of these positions.

What are you most looking forward to about this role?

I am looking forward to learning more from our partnerships with grassroots leaders across the nation. These partner organizations contribute so much time, passion, and creativity towards outdoor recreation access and public land stewardship. Our public lands, and the outdoor recreation experiences they support, would not be the same without the contributions of these folks.