2011 T.W.I.N. Board Members

Dick Thiel, Chairperson Dick is one of the founding members of TWIN and has been active in wolf education since the 1970’s. He has worked as a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources employee since 1977, beginning his career as a biologist assistant at the DNR’s premier deer research facility – Sandhill Wildlife Area, located near Babcock, WI. Interested in the plight of Wisconsin’s wolves since the mid 1960’s (then considered extirpated), he began conducting research while in high school on how these magnificent creatures were eradicated from the state by interviewing those who were involved in the species’ demise. (Barely) earning a degree in Biology and Natural Resources Management from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1975, he continued his historical research, an effort that culminated – finally – in the book, The Timber Wolf in Wisconsin: the Death and Life of a Majestic Predator (University of Wisconsin Press – 1993). Meanwhile he and a handful of friends and relatives (among them fellow TWIN members) slowly documented the wolves’ return to the state along the Wisconsin-Minnesota border country. In January 1980 he became the DNR’s wolf biologist – a position he held until November 1989 (you can read about all of this in his second book: Keepers of the Wolves: the Early Years of Wolf Recovery in Wisconsin, also by UWP, 2001). In 1989 he returned to Sandhill Wildlife Area to create and run the Sandhill Outdoor Skills Center as a wildlife educator. Here he has remained! Not so the wolves! They followed Thiel into the Central Forest Region and Thiel documented their return there in the early months of the winter 1994-95. Since then Thiel has coordinated the DNR’s wolf monitoring activities in that portion of Wisconsin. He has written numerous scientific and popular articles on Wisconsin’s wolves. He teaches 2 TWIN Wolf Ecology workshops annually. He and his wife, Debbie, live in Tomah, Wisconsin and they both enjoy wolf howling and following the trails of local wolf packs in winter.

Robert Welch, Treasurer Robert was one of the founding-fathers and is the current and long-standing Treasurer. He has done this for years and has kept the books in excellent order. Bob is also a facilitator for workshops.

Don Bogdanske Currently in 19th year as TWIN secretary. Workshop facilitator with Chris Giese for the past 12 years. B.S., MAT from UW- Stevens Point ScD from Ripon College 2004 (Doctor of Science) Biology Instructor at Ripon High School (32 years) Adjunct at Marian University and UW-Oshkosh Paul F. Brandwein Fellow, Kohl Scholarship Recipient I enjoy being outdoors, fly fishing, being with family,reading, and doing science

Scott Thiel, member

Deb Thiel, Board Member Deb had the privilege of seeing the wolf population spring from the brink of extinction to it's return to a healthy population. She provides her support and ideas to the board and feels this grassroots organization has tremendous spirit, accomplishing much needed work today, staying true to it's mission to help educate others to better understand this magnificent creature's place in the wild.

Ray Leonard, member Somewhere on my path to becoming a Wildlife Biologist I got derailed and ended up as an Engineer. No complaints, I’m enjoying a great career - but I’ve never lost my desire to understand the intricacies of the natural world. I was delighted when gray wolves began colonizing my hunting area in the Central Forest Region in the mid-‘90s – my curiosity about their behavior and dynamics led me to join the WDNR Volunteer Tracker corps. As kind of a natural evolution, I’ve come to be a Regional Coordinator in the program, and wolf monitoring now occupies much of my free time – track surveys in winter and howling in the summer. Another avenue of that evolution has been my interest and participation in TWIN – where I’ve met some great like-minded people with a rational perspective towards wolves and a mission to increase acceptance through awareness. I enjoy learning from them, and in turn teaching others.

Norma Donavan, Member I grew up on a farm in Grant County and pretty much ran wild developing a deep love of the outdoors and especially anything involving wildlife. I won’t tell you how long ago that was except that it was before Saran Wrap and we still worked the fields with a team of horses. Employment pulled me to Madison where I languished until joining the Madison Audubon Society and later became a wildlife rehabilitator through the Dane County Humane Society. As much as I loved working directly with wildlife, it only made me more hungry to observe them in their natural environment. Rehab work was becoming popular so I began to scale back on it and started spend most of my weekends in the local wildlife areas. My experience with wolves began in the early 90’s as they started to come back to the central forests of Wisconsin. I had already become interested in the Sandhill area by then and had taken every course that the Sandhill Wildlife Area’s Skill Center offered. My favorite was tracking and with the region having so many sandy roads, the rest was a natural progression – the right skill, the right location and the right time. Not only were the wolves starting to repopulate the area but also porcupine, turkey and fisher. It was a rich time to be in the back country scouting the sand for new species and still is. The arrival of the wolves enriched not only my physical but my mental landscape as well and soon they, like tracking, became an obsession.