Kenai Peninsula Watershed Forum’s Executive Director of 18 years has announced that he is stepping down but not before he trains a successor.
Robert Ruffner said he and the board of directors carefully considered the timing of the decision.
Ruffner: “I feel like we’ve really accomplished a lot of good stuff and the organization has really changed over the years and my time to go out and enjoy the stuff I like to do has become more limited and I have two kids now so I was really looking to reduce my work load. That’s exactly why I want to step down, it’s a really good time for me and it’s a good time for the organization and the board of directors is really solidly behind the organization and fallowing their mission.”
Ruffner said over the years he has watched the organization successfully bloom in their mission of conservation by cleaning up pollution in the Kenai River and implementing more fish friendly culverts for fry, smolt and adults.
Ruffner: “The ability for fish to migrate to the habitat they need was disrupted by roads and culverts and they just recently summarized all that. We’ve fixed something like 65 culverts on the Kenai Peninsula over the past 15 years and that’s opened up dozens and dozens of miles of habitat that was otherwise inaccessible to these fish.”
According to Ruffner the Forum will open up the position soon and hopes to fill it by about April or May so that he can work closely with the new executive director for a smooth transition.
After that he said he is excited to remain involved with conservation but also able to enjoy Alaska with his family.