Our Staff
Rim to Rim is a small organization with one part time Director and one Project Manager. RRR also has an intern program, with Interns working on vegetation propagation, monitoring and maintaining restoration sites, and community outreach.
Kara Dohrenwend, Director
Kara moved to SE Utah in 1993 to serve as a caretaker at nearby Horsethief Ranch. After moving into town and working with other organizations in Moab, she started Wildland Scapes, a for profit desert and riparian restoration company and landscape contractor. Wildland Scapes has shifted focus to propagating and selling plants in the Moab area, as well as some project planning work. Around that same time, over lunch at Honest Ozzies Café, Kara and some friends were discussing ways to engage local youth and community members in land management through hands on mapping, invasive removal and planting projects in Moab’s watershed. That discussion eventually led to the creation of Rim to Rim Restoration. Over the years, Wildland Scapes has supported Rim to Rim Restoration’s work of removing invasive plants from sensitive areas and facilitate native plant regeneration.
Kara holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley in Landscape Architecture with an emphasis on urban stream restoration, and a minor in City Planning. Additionally, she holds a Utah landscape contractors license, a Utah water rights certification, and is a certified Natural Resource and Conservation Service Technical Service Provider for Conservation Action Planning for Pollinators.
Kara serves the local community in many ways that relate to the work of Rim to Rim Restoration. She is an elected member of the Grand Conservation District, appointed to the Moab Water Conservation and Drought Management Advisory Board, is a founding member of the Bee Inspired Gardens Initiative, and has facilitates the SE Utah Riparian Partnership. She previously served on the City of Moab Planning Commission and on the Youth Garden Project board, and continues to stay active in local planning efforts.
Kara is passionate about finding ways to regenerate native plant communities in challenging settings found in the Upper Colorado Plateau through collaborations and partnerships with other organizations and efforts.
Ray Williams, Mayberry Property Manager
Ray Williams has lived in Moab off and on since 1976 when he spent the summers working for his Uncle Mitch at Tag-A-Long Tours. He moved here permanently in 1986 and recently restored his great grandfathers home on 100 N as his residence. He is the propagation center manager at Mayberry and the general repair man, logistics coordinator and all round troubleshooter. His time in Moab has also included driving for Sysco, working as the frozen food manager at Moonflower, and a season with Western Rivers. He can often be found at Mayberry enjoying the time away from people, and figuring out how to meet our most recent challenge.
Matt McEtrrick, Project Coordinator/Ecologist
Matt has worked for many federal agencies and non-profits, building trails and teaching trail building skills, conducting ecological monitoring, treating non-native plants, planning restoration projects, revegetating degraded sites and working with at-risk youth in the outdoors. He has also guided hundreds of outdoor trips ranging from multi-day southwestern river trips, to survial skills classes, to multiweek mountaineering expeditions on some of the highest peaks in North America.[
Our Board
From its inception until now, Rim to Rim has intentionally operated with a small focused group of board members building the organizational foundation. With established groundwork, organizational success, and looking to the future, we are currently looking to expand our Board of Directors. If you are interested in serving in this capacity, please contact us.
Rusty Wheaton, Chair
Ginny Carlson, Vice Chair
Delite Primus