Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC) Members

 

Dr. William Palmer, President of the Tall Timbers Research Station, an organization dedicated to wildlife research and conservation activity. He has degrees in zoology and wildlife sciences and has been working to restore grassland habitats on 100,000 acres of public land in Florida. He is the author of many papers on the environment of bobwhite, wild turkeys, and on the effects of prescribed burning for Southern forests.

 

 

Rick Dolan, Director of the Florida Forest Service. Rick Dolan began his career at the Florida Forest Service in 1993 as a Forest Ranger in the Perry District. He was promoted to Senior Forest Ranger at Goethe State Forest in 1996 and in 1999, became the first Forest Area Supervisor for the newly created Wildfire Mitigation Team located in Bunnell, Florida. In 2000, Mr. Dolan transferred to a traditional Forest Area Supervisor position covering Alachua and Gilchrist counties. Mr. Dolan was promoted to the Operations Administrator position in 2010 and has been the Waccasassa Forestry Center Manager for the last 9 years. Mr. Dolan has been on the Florida Red Incident Management Team for 20 years, working his way up from Division Supervisor trainee to Incident Commander Type 1. He has led the team nationally on wildfires in Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, and numerous in-state assignments including hurricane responses.

 

Alissa Lotane, is Director of the Florida Division of Historical Resources and Florida’s State Historic Preservation Officer. She has been with the Florida Department of State since 2003, working in many areas of the Division – reviewing state and federal undertakings for impacts to historic properties, managing large scale state grants for rehab of historic structures, then supervising Florida’s historic preservation grants program, and later serving as the Department of State’s grants administrator and historic property manager. Ms. Lotane was the Bureau Chief of Historic Preservation and Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer from 2011 to July 2022, where she supervised Florida’s federally mandated programs and responsibilities under the National Historic Preservation Act. As our newly appointed SHPO, she continues oversight of the Bureau of Historic Preservation, and additionally takes on responsibility for the Bureau of Archaeological Research and the Bureau of Historical Museums, which includes the Museum of Florida History and historic sites Mission San Luis, Knott House Museum, and The Grove Museum. Ms. Lotane holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology and a Museum Studies Certification from Florida State University and a Bachelor’s degree in History from Troy University. During her time as a graduate student, she worked summers at the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, the Appleton Museum of Art, and the Ocala Museum of Art. Ms. Lotane is a contributing author in Unearthing the Missions of Spanish Florida, with a chapter titled “An Analysis of Artifacts and Archaeology at 8JE106, a Spanish Mission in Florida,” published in late 2021 by University of Florida Press.

 

Lynetta Usher Griner, Officer of the Usher Land and Timber Company in Chiefland. She has been an attorney for 28 years, leaving private practice to work for her family timber business. She gained valuable experience in land-management issues as a former member of the Governing Board of the Suwannee River Water Management District. She has also worked with Friends of Fanning Springs, a citizen-support organization for Fanning Springs State Park. Plus, she was also a member of the Florida Forever Advisory Council, which evaluated Florida Forever projects when the program was set up as a replacement for Preservation 2000.

 

Elva Peppers is president of Florida Environmental & Land Services Inc., assisting private clients, municipalities, and agencies to develop permittable and sustainable projects. Ms. Peppers held positions with DEP and two private environmental consulting firms and has 25 years of experience in the environmental field. She graduated from FSU with a degree in biology.