Our Team

Resiliency Council

Meghan Breniman

Meghan was born and raised in a small agriculture community in Southern Monterey County. She attended Reedley College where she studied Forestry and Natural Resources and finished her college career in 2014 with a BS in Environmental Sciences from Fresno State.

After gaining some experience with an environmental consulting company, Meghan left to form Vermilion Resource Management, Inc., a forestry and environmental consulting firm in Shaver Lake. Vermilion provides services to a diverse set of clients, including small private landowners, researchers, universities, agencies, and public utilities. Meghan is a Registered Professional Forester and enjoys working with the community through their company and other volunteer efforts.

Meghan and her husband Quaid spend the majority of their free time outside hiking, camping, fishing and generally just trying to keep up with their dog(Abigail) and their toddler(Annabelle). They all enjoy spending time in the forest and helping with restoration efforts as a family. They are excited to welcome a second daughter to their family Summer 2023.

Angus Wicks

Angus Wick grew up in the Prather area and graduated from Sierra High School. He attended Humboldt State University and earned a BS in Botany. While in college he started working at a wetland restoration nursery and fell in love with the work.

He also worked in Sonoma and Marin counties growing for riparian and dune restoration projects. In April of 2020 he started working for SCE operating their forestry nursery. Just 4 months later the scope of SCE’s nursery changed and since then he’s been working to reforest lands burned by the Creek fire. He loves spending free time with his wife Erin and their two daughters Sierra and Eve. They love going camping, mountain biking and fly fishing.

John Mount

John R. Mount worked for Southern California Edison for 31 years, managing the company’s 20,000 acres of private land surrounding Shaver Lake. He has a total of 57 years in forest management starting with the Forest Service and then 15 years in private practice.

John has received the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award, Stewardship Award, and the Conservationist of the Year award from the western section of the Wildlife Society. He was the recipient of the Francis Raymond Award, as outstanding forester in California for 2010.

In 2010, he published a comprehensive book on forest management in the Sierra Nevada titled “Torching Conventional Forestry, the Artful Application of Science”.

He is a 1961 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a B.S. degree in forest management. John has 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. He has lived in the Shaver Lake area since 1961.

Kristin Rathmann Telles

Kristin Rathmann Telles grew up spending lots of time in the Sierras—at Bass Lake, Huntington Lake, and the YMCA camps at Sequoia Lake, specifically. Though they live on the Valley floor, she and her husband, Connor, have a cabin at Huntington Lake and spend considerable time there. They both love recreating in the outdoors with their two children—skiing, hiking, exploring, and playing in the lake.

Kristin has a degree in History from UCLA, a Social Studies teaching credential and a Masters of Teaching. While raising her family, she spent seven years serving on the Board of Directors for San Joaquin Valley Town Hall and several years volunteering in the library at the kids’ school. Both her time with Town Hall and her time in the library have strengthened her love of words, history, and the stories, places and experiences that connect us.

Sahara Saude Bigelow

Sahara Saude-Bigelow was raised in Tollhouse and attended Sierra High School. She left home for college and then proceeded to travel the world working with conservation organizations on three continents. While living in Indonesia, she finished a graduate degree in international environmental policy (Middlebury Institute of International Studies), gaining with her M.A. the awareness that development work is most meaningful when done in your own ‘community’. She returned home and has worked with California conservation groups for the last fifteen years. In 2015, she launched a non-profit consulting company, B6 Consulting.

Some of her favorite activities in the Sierra are snow skiing, kayaking, hiking and spending time in Shaver and Huntington Lake with family and friends. After the Creek Fire destroyed many of these areas and dozens of friends’ homes, Sahara wanted to help connect local needs with resources. She is dedicated to the long-term vision of thriving Sierra communities living within healthy forests. Sahara resides with her husband Frank and their two young daughters (3 and 6) in O’Neals, Ca.

Julianne Stewart

Juli was born and raised on the Georgetown Divide, located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. She attended Humboldt State University, graduating in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Forestry, with an emphasis in Hydrology. She spent the early part of her career working for SCE Forestry, using prescribed fire and applied silviculture to manage the Company-owned lands for water, wildlife, recreation and timber. In 2014, Juli left SCE to form Vermilion Resource Management Inc., a forestry and environmental consulting firm. Vermilion provides services to a diverse set of clients, including small private landowners, researchers, universities, agencies and public utilities.

Juli and her husband Ryan feel incredibly lucky to raise their daughters Juniper and Rowan in the mountains of the Central Sierra. Family adventures in the woods are one of their favorite pastimes, and they are dedicated to the management and continued restoration of these critical natural resources.

Juli is a Registered Professional Forester and a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Sierra Historical Society.

Riley Young

Riley Young was born and raised in the Shaver Lake area, where his father logged trees for more than 40 years.

Riley graduated from Fresno State with a BS in Ecology. Riley started his career with SCE Forestry working on the Shaver lands. For the last fourteen years he has been working for hydro electric companies in the Central Sierra.

He is happily married to his lovely wife Carolyn Young with whom he shares three amazing kids: Mason, Ivie , and Travis. Riley’s spare time is spent in the woods or coaching his kids sporting teams.