Steve Rouse, President
Steve has lived in southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley since obtaining his B.A. from U.C. Berkeley in 1979. He started Rogue Valley Electric and is experienced with builders, developers, and the County land use process. His passion is preserving and restoring Rogue Basin farmlands and floodplain habitats. “Most of southern Oregon’s river floodplains are critical habitat for endangered coho salmon and deserve protection. This has been largely ignored during the development process. My Rogue Advocates work provides a voice for the voiceless.” Steve previously served on the North Applegate Watershed Protection Association board, co-chaired the Applegate Sustainable Aggregate Project, and co-founded SAVE (Save Applegate Valley Environment).
Hugo Hamblin-Agosto, Treasurer
Hugo Agosto is a Southern Oregon native from Grants Pass. He is a practicing land use professional in governmental and consulting capacities, focusing on housing policy and geomatics. Having previous experience working with various environmental and agricultural protection policies, he values the often complex relationship between growth and preservation. He has a Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning and Real Estate Development from Portland State University. He’s an avid hiker with his two huskies (Atlas and Nova), and likes to spend his time in the kitchen crafting new recipes with local ingredients.
Pepper Trail, Secretary
Pepper is a retired wildlife biologist (Ph.D., Cornell University) and has been actively involved in the conservation and management of southern Oregon’s public and private lands for over 20 years. He has been a leader in the efforts to establish the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and to preserve the wildlife habitat provided by the Bear Creek Greenway. Pepper is past President and present Conservation Chair of the Rogue Valley Audubon Society. His goal is to preserve open space, farmland, and wildlife habitat in the Rogue Valley, with the conviction that healthy communities depend on a healthy environment.
Jimmy MacLeod, Board
Jimmy has lived in the Williams Valley for 30 years. He is a wildcrafter, guitar maker, fine woodworker, and subsistence farmer. He has been active for years in the protection of southern Oregon’s native forests. Jimmy studied Environmental Education at Sonoma State University, was a docent at Fairfield Osborne Nature Preserve in Sonoma County, California, and has served on the board of the Sugarloaf School, part of William’s Sugarloaf Community Association. Jimmy is passionate about organic farming and permaculture and is interested in the promotion of sustainable land use for both rural and urban areas of this bioregion.
Robin Elliott, Board
Robin has lived in Wilderville, Oregon for 45 years, an unincorporated area in Josephine County near Grants Pass. Originally from the Chicago area, she got involved in land use when an aggregate mine was proposed to operate on the road where she lives. After the appeal won at the Land Use Board of Appeals, she joined the Lower Applegate Advisory Committee for multiple years serving as a board member, secretary, and chairperson. Robin holds a bachelor’s degree in Art and a Master of Science in Education from Southern Oregon University. She has worked as a teacher, tree planter, production potter, and picture framer. She is an avid gardener, hiker, artist and believes in living a simple and sustainable existence.
Jamie Talarico, Board Advisor
Jamie is an outdoors enthusiast with a passion for fresh food whether it be foraged or farmed. She has lived in Southern Oregon for the last five years but found her love of wilderness after moving to Lake Tahoe California in 2010. After hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail and WWOOFing in various parts of the country Jamie set roots in Ashland to finish her undergraduate business degree at SOU focusing on sustainability and sovereignty of food systems. In Oregon, Jamie has worked in the recreational cannabis industry as a “jack of all trades”, but most enjoys connecting with craft producers in the Rogue Valley. She hopes to empower communities to seek education about their natural surroundings.
Jamin Giersbach, Mission Control (Technology, Digital Strategy & Research)
Jamin brings a rare blend of tech expertise, creative vision, and research experience to Rogue Advocates. Growing up in New York City’s Soho and DUMBO art world, he developed an eye for design and storytelling early on, skills he later put to use as a set designer and stagehand in the theater. Before moving into tech and marketing, Jamin worked as an archaeologist in Arizona and New Mexico, which sparked his lifelong interest in human relationships with the land. After founding several successful cannabis businesses in Oregon, he turned his focus toward digital marketing, technology, and land-use advocacy. Today, Jamin manages Rogue Advocates’ technology, communications, research, and finances, helping keep the organization running smoothly and strategically from behind the scenes.
Gary Schrodt, Board
Gary and his family arrived in the Rogue Valley in the early eighties from Taos, New Mexico where he directed the Taos Environmental Association while caring for forty acres of rural homestead and studio, sculpting native hand collected hardwoods that were exhibited nationally in prominent art galleries. Upon arrival in Ashland, Gary agreed to serve on the board of Headwaters Environmental Organization. From an Ashland Saturday Market experiment he created Schrodt Designs, Inc., a secondary wood products manufacturing company that handcrafted environmental gift designs repurposing waste wood from regional mills combined with recycled hand blown glass, copper and brass. Schrodt Designs grew to employ up to fifty employees distributing internationally to over six thousand accounts that included Harry and Davids, The Nature Company and The Smithonian. He currently tends his rural wildlife habitat near Emigrant Lake that includes organic family orchard, vineyard, garden and happy laying hens. When time allows, he hikes and kayaks wilderness places and returns home to write songs and play ‘em.