OLYMPIA — Two statewide boards that award grants for parks, trails, farmland preservation, habitat conservation, and salmon recovery received new Governor-appointed members and leadership.

Governor Chris Gregoire has appointed Elizabeth “Betsy” Bloomfield, Yakima, and Peter Mayer, Vancouver, to serve on the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board. She also reappointed Bill Chapman, Mercer Island as the board’s chair.

The Governor also appointed Okanogan County Commissioner Donald “Bud” Hover to chair the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.

“We're very excited to have these folks as part of both of these boards,” said Kaleen Cottingham, director of the Recreation and Conservation Office, which supports the boards in their work. “They bring with them a diverse array of experience, expertise and perspectives – from rural and urban, and eastern and western Washington.”

Bloomfield is the executive director of the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy in Yakima. She previously worked for The Nature Conservancy as its director of the Eastern Washington Forests Program and as a regional lands agent with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. She is committed to working collaboratively to conserve the state’s diverse and treasured landscapes.

Mayer is the director of the Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation Department. He previously was the assistant city manager and director of the Parks and Recreation Department for the city of Mercer Island. He also is the former president of the Washington Recreation and Parks Association. He enjoys mountain biking, racquetball, soccer playing and officiating, hiking, camping and traveling.

Chapman is a partner with the Seattle law firm of K&L Gates, where he handles land use and environmental compliance issues. Chapman is a founder and the current president of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, a nonprofit organization created in 1990 by a group of concerned citizens to save the forested landscape along Interstate 90 from Cle Elum through Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle. He also is a founding board member and past president of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for grants to local communities to acquire land for outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat protection. He is active in Washington's outdoors as a hiker, mountain climber and parent.

Hover, in addition to his duties as county commissioner, serves as president of the Board of Okanogan County Energy and is the president of the board of directors for the Okanogan County Electric Coop. He also chairs the Upper Columbia Salmon Recovery Board. Hover is a member of the Washington State Association of Counties’ Legislative Steering Committee, National Association of Counties Public Lands Steering Committee and the Washington Timber Counties Group. He enjoys hunting, fishing and hiking.

The Recreation and Conservation Funding Board awards grants for a range of outdoor recreational opportunities and helps the state conserve important lands. Since 1964, the board has awarded more than $1 billion for more than 4,700 projects in every county of the state. The grants have leveraged nearly $700 million in local contributions, bringing the total investment to more than $1.7 billion in Washington’s great outdoors.

The Salmon Recovery Funding Board was created by the Legislature in 1999 to administer state and federal funds to protect and restore salmon habitat. Since 1999, the board has awarded more than $477 million in grants to more than 1,700 projects in 31 of the state’s 39 counties. Grant recipients have contributed more than $196 million, bringing the total investment to more than $673 million.