Columbia Land Trust welcomes Jason Miner as its next Executive Director. Miner brings more than 25 years of conservation leadership in the Pacific Northwest, with experience spanning nonprofit management, state policy, land protection, and environmental law. He joins the Land Trust as it completes a major capital campaign and plans for its next stage of growth.
Most recently, Miner served the State of Oregon as a special advisor, where he designed the governance and spending plan for the largest natural resources damage settlement in state history and implemented the Private Forest Accord, which improves aquatic habitat on 10 million acres of private forestland. Before that, he spent seven years as Natural Resources Policy Director in the Office of the Governor. There, he led the Natural Resources Cabinet, managing a $1.3 billion budget across fourteen state agencies. As Natural Resources Policy Director, notable accomplishments included representing Oregon in the removal of four Klamath River dams, the largest river restoration and dam removal project in American history, and crafting the plan that kept the 83,000-acre Elliott State Forest in public hands.
Miner has emphasized tribal partnership as central to his work. He represented Oregon in consultation with tribal nations across Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. He supported the Yakama Nation in obtaining Superfund designation for Bradford Island, secured restoration funding for the Klamath Tribes after the Bootleg Fire, and negotiated co-management agreements that prioritized tribal sovereignty.
Miner also brings deep nonprofit experience. As Executive Director of 1000 Friends of Oregon, he led a fourteen-person staff and a twenty-member board. Miner grew the organization’s reputation and donor base, raising $4 million primarily from major donors and expanding its $1,000-and-above donor circle to more than 100 members. Prior to joining 1000 Friends, he directed The Nature Conservancy’s three-state Berkshire Plateau landscape program, led river restoration as Conservation Director at The Freshwater Trust, and practiced environmental law at Ball Janik LLP.
Miner arrives at a pivotal moment. Columbia Land Trust has conserved more than 64,000 acres along 230 miles of the lower Columbia River and has matured from a startup into a strategic regional leader. This chapter calls for an executive who listens to a seasoned staff, closes the capital campaign alongside the donors and landowners who built it, and strengthens partnerships with tribal nations and rural communities across Oregon and Washington. Miner pairs humility and resolve, along with a connection to the Land Trust that dates to his board service with Three Rivers Land Conservancy, which later merged with Columbia Land Trust.
To learn more about Columbia Land Trust, visit columbialandtrust.org.
