Speakers Kris Olsson and Janet Kahan of the Huron River Watershed Council, and Diana Kern of Legacy Land Conservancy will join in a panel discussion about the importance of protecting our watershed, and how conserving land protects our water.

  

 Kris will give us an overview of the wide range of the Huron River Watershed and how it protects us from extreme rain and flood threats. 

 

Janet will share information about the Council’s school outreach programs. 

 

And Diana will focus on how preserving land protects our water quality and prevents flooding.

 

Kris Olsson joined the Huron River Watershed Council in 1992. She specializes in GIS analysis, landscape ecology, and local land use planning and ordinance development. Kris works with local governments and land protection organizations on promoting land use planning and policies that protect the watershed. She also trains local residents to become involved in their local government planning efforts. Kris earned two Masters of Science (resource ecology, natural resource policy) degrees at the University of Michigan.

 

Janet Kahan has volunteered for the HRWC since the mid-90's.  Currently she coordinates a school outreach program to help students learn more about keeping our watershed healthy. Before retirement she was the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Math/Science Coordinator, and prior to that she was the science and environmental education consultant for Ann Arbor Public Schools.

 

Diana Kern has extensive executive leadership background and a passion for nonprofit management, fundraising, and governance. Diana joined Legacy Land Conservancy at the beginning of 2019 and brings a conservation lens.  Diana has lived in Michigan for over 50 years and grew up in the country where farms, farming, rural heritage and natural spaces were part of her life. Diana has served on numerous nonprofit boards, committees and task forces over the years, including joining an all-volunteer group of community leaders in 2013 to raise over $1.6 million to fund the build and the opening of the Ann Arbor Skatepark at Veterans Memorial Park in west Ann Arbor.  Currently Diana serves as a board member for The Ark (Where Music Lives) in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is a member of the Ann Arbor Host Lions Club. When not working on land conservation issues, she can be found bird watching, enjoying friends and family, and listening to music.