Mikhail is a wildlife biologist and GIS specialist for the Altaisky Zapovednik, a nature reserve in the Altai Republic. Mikhail spent two months in the US, attending the 1998 ESRI User's Conference in San Diego and working on several GIS projects in Montana. These included analyses of the detrimental impacts of jettisoned "Proton" rocket boosters in the hinterland of the Altai, as well as distribution maps of rare and endangered species in the Altai region. Mikhail took advantage of our lab's association with the University of Montana and delivered lectures for both students and faculty. When he wasn't mired in Spatial Analyst, Mikhail hiked in the Mission Mountains Wilderness and challenged himself on some of Montana's best whitewater. You can send email to him at paltsyn@mail.ru.

Gennady is the Director of the Russian Far East Forestry Experimental Station in Kamchatka, Russia. While in Missoula, Gennady spent time transforming his paper maps of Kamchatka's Conifer Island into digital spatial data. Conifer Island is the only conifer forest in Kamchatka and is currently threatened by logging.
Rich in species biodiversity, Kamchatka is threatened from international logging and oil and gas ventures. When he wasn't digitizing, Gennady spent time writing articles for conservation journals and delivering lectures at the University of Montana. Each detailed the need for a forest protection plan and the establishment of additional protected areas for some of Kamchatka's rarest and most vulnerable places. Email Gennady at
genn@mail.iks.ru

Anatoli and Sergey came to Montana from Vladivostok, Russia to learn to use ARC/INFO. Both are fisheries biologists working to protect wild salmon stocks in the Russian Far East. Thanks to generous donations of ArcView GIS and Spatial Analyst software from ESRI, they are using GIS to develop spatial data sets of wild salmon stocks in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais. They plan sharing this data with their North American counterparts in an effort to map and understand the distribution of wild salmon in throughout the north pacific ecosystem. Contact Sergey at tinro@tinro.khv.ru

Lyubov came to Missoula after participating in our GIS training sessions held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. A soils scientist by training, Lyubov spent six weeks honing her GIS skills in our Missoula office and used ArcView GIS to generate maps detailing the dessertification of central Uzbekistan. During the course of her stay, Lyubov generated several maps and spatial data sets of Uzbekistan's Kyzyl-Kum desert. Send an email to her at kapl@map.silk.org

Originally from Murmansk, Russia, Oleg lives and works in Tokyo as a Project Coordinator for the Friends of the Earth-Japan. Oleg works tirelessly on a campaign to protect and preserve the Russian Far East's most biologically diverse areas. Dubbed, the Siberia Hotspot Project, Oleg and other FOE-J collaborators, are using GIS and the visual impact of maps to aide them in their work. While in Missoula, Oleg became proficient with PC ARC/INFO and our map digitizer. Contact Oleg at siberia@foejapan.org