Staff

Timothy Preso

"Wilderness and wild things, I learned, are not merely to be enjoyed on summer backpacking trips--they also must be defended."

I first fell in love with wilderness as a teenager in northeastern Oregon. I grew up in a rural culture focused on ranching and rodeos -- neither of which held much interest for me. But amidst the high peaks, alpine lakes and great expanses of open country in the Eagle Cap and Hells Canyon wildernesses, I found something in the local area that I could love too.

Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso hiking up Hoodoo Peak near the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park

That was where the seed of my career as an Earthjustice lawyer was planted, but it took its time in sprouting. After graduating from Oregon State University in 1987, I began a career as a newspaper reporter in Bend, Oregon. By chance more than anything else, I ended up covering environmental issues in central Oregon in the midst of the controversy over logging some of our nation's last old-growth forests. That controversy vividly illustrated the power of litigation as a tool for social progress, as a series of lawsuits brought by lawyers for Earthjustice (then the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) to protect the northern spotted owl completely transformed management of northwest national forests, protecting thousands of acres from the chainsaw. Wilderness and wild things, I learned, are not merely to be enjoyed on summer backpacking trips -- they also must be defended.

So I went to law school. My original plan was to complete three years of legal education at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., then head directly back west to jump into the middle of the fight to protect our public lands and wildlife. But the journey turned out to be a bit more complicated. I spent a year as a law clerk for Judge Harry T. Edwards on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. I took a job as an attorney with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin.

Some of the Earthjustice staff in Bozeman: Attorneys Abigail Dillon, Doug Honnold, and Tim Preso

But while my focus strayed for a time, I never lost a passion for wild lands and wildlife. I ended up supplementing my already abundant workload as a private firm lawyer by representing Defenders of Wildlife in their legal fight to defend the reintroduction of red wolves in eastern North Carolina against a challenge by local county governments.

That litigation ultimately yielded a major victory affirming the federal government's authority to protect and restore imperiled wildlife, and I was proud to be a part of it. Inspired by that experience, I decided it was time to look for work that was closer to my heart. Quite fortunately, my own internal searching corresponded with Earthjustice's search for a new staff attorney in Bozeman, Montana. So in March of 2000, my wife, Karen; daughter, Alex; and I finally made our long-discussed journey back to the West.

Tim with wife Karen and daughter Alex in Grand Teton National Park

We have never looked back. Bozeman sits on the northern boundary of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the most intact wildland ecosystem in the lower-48 states. Wildness is never far from your doorstep here. Fall brings black bears down from the mountains to the chokecherry bushes that line the running trail near my home. Spring is heralded by the calls of migrating sandhill cranes overhead as I step out to get the morning paper. You could start walking on a trail beginning not far from my front door and stitch together a route that would take you all the way from Bozeman to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and you would hike through magnificent wilderness the entire way, in the company of elk, moose, bison, grizzly bears and wolves.

Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso

As a staff attorney in the Bozeman office, it is my privilege to speak for these wild places and wild creatures in the federal court system. Incredibly, some people -- altogether too many people -- can look at the amazing landscapes of the Northern Rockies and see only places to log, drill for oil, and mine. It has always been so. Ever since its founding as the world's first National Park in 1872, Yellowstone has been threatened by short-sighted schemes for one commercial development or another.

It is only through the efforts of past generations that we can enjoy today the great natural bounty of wildness that remains in the Yellowstone ecosystem. Now it is my work -- and our generation's responsibility -- to make sure that natural bounty is passed on to the next generation, so that my daughter, Alex, and someday her children can develop their own love for wilderness amidst a great expanse of open country.

Timothy Preso is a staff attorney in the Bozeman office of Earthjustice. He received a BA in journalism from Oregon State University in Corvallis, then worked for several years as an award-winning reporter for a newspaper in Bend, Oregon, covering environmental issues. Tim returned to school and graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. He clerked for a federal court of appeals judge before joining a DC-area law firm. His interest in wilderness protection and preservation brought him to Earthjustice in 2000. He lives in Bozeman with his wife Karen and daughter Alex.

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Created: January 3, 2006