PRESS RELEASE

Sheoships is Cayuse and Walla Walla, an enrolled citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and becomes the first enrolled member of a Gorge Treaty Tribe to lead the 46-year-old conservation organization.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Melissa Gonzalez 
Acting Public Engagement & Communications Director
239.404.9248 (Cell)
melissa@gorgefriends.org

Kevin Gorman
Executive Director
503.756.0823 (Cell)
kevin@gorgefriends.org

PORTLAND, Ore., April 7, 2026 – Today, Friends of the Columbia Gorge announced the appointment of Gabe Sheoships (pronounced SHOE-ships) as executive director, effective May 1, 2026. A widely respected Indigenous leader, environmentalist, advocate, and educator, Sheoships brings more than two decades of experience in conservation, Indigenous land stewardship, fisheries science, environmental education, ecological restoration, and community building throughout the Pacific Northwest. Sheoships will take over from Kevin Gorman, who has led Friends since 1998. One of the largest place-based conservation groups in the Pacific Northwest, Friends led the public campaign to create the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area over 40 years ago. 

“The Gorge has been a part of my world since childhood. To be the first Native leader of an organization protecting, preserving and stewarding the Columbia Gorge is a great honor,” said Sheoships. 

Sheoships served for the past six years as executive director of Friends of Tryon Creek, a community-supported nonprofit started in 1970 dedicated to making Tryon Creek State Natural Area a place where everyone can find or build their connection to nature. Over the past decade, he led the organization through a period of significant growth by expanding community access, integrating traditional ecological knowledge and storytelling into education programs serving tens of thousands of people annually, and successfully completing a $3 million capital campaign to build a new education pavilion. He started at Tryon Creek in 2016 as the organization’s education director.   

“After a rigorous search, we were thrilled to see Gabe rise to the top. His life experiences, fisheries background, and nonprofit leadership make him the right person at the right time to lead Friends of the Columbia Gorge,” said Pleschette Fontenet, board chair of Friends of the Columbia Gorge. 

Sheoships is no stranger to Friends or to the land conservation community across Oregon. For years he worked with retiring executive director Kevin Gorman through the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts’ Oregon Land Justice Project—a network Sheoships co-founded to strengthen relationships between Oregon land trusts and Tribal communities. Long before his appointment, he had been a trusted partner to Friends’ Public Engagement and Land Trust teams, making this transition one grounded in established trust and shared history.  

“I’ve known Gabe for over six years through his outstanding work to help land trusts connect with Oregon Tribes. He is greatly respected within the conservation and Tribal communities, and I’m excited to see where he takes the organization,” said Kevin Gorman, Friends’ retiring executive director (1998-2026). 

For Sheoships, leading Friends is as personal as it is professional. The Columbia River Gorge – Nchi-Wana – is the ancestral homeland of his people. As a 500th-generation Oregonian and enrolled citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, his family’s connection to this landscape runs deep. His grandfather fished at Celilo Falls, and Sheoships has spent his career working to protect the Indigenous First Foods and waterways of the Columbia River Basin through science, education, and ecological restoration. Sheoships holds a Master of Science in Fisheries Biology from Oregon State University and an appointment with Portland State University’s Institute for Tribal Government. 

Sheoships steps into a role shaped by nearly 27 years of transformational leadership from Kevin Gorman, who joined Friends in 1998. During that time, the organization grew from eight staff and one office to 22 staff and three offices across Portland, Hood River, and Washougal, with net assets rising from $750,000 to more than $26 million. Under Gorman’s watch, Friends defeated numerous large-scale inappropriate development proposals, secured important legal victories for the Gorge’s scenic and natural resources, and permanently protected nearly 1,800 acres of land through its land trust—including the popular Mosier Plateau and Lyle Cherry Orchard preserves. Regarded as one of the most effective conservation organizations in the Pacific Northwest, Friends played a critical role working with community partners to aid first responders during the height of the Eagle Creek fire.  

Sheoships’ appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the Gorge. Federal and state funding cuts, shifting political dynamics, and mounting development pressure are testing the durability of the National Scenic Area’s protections. Proposed changes to U.S. Forest Service management — including potential consolidation and increased logging on federal lands — could have lasting consequences for the Scenic Area for generations to come. Meanwhile, funding for the Columbia Gorge Commission has come under pressure in both Salem and Olympia, raising concerns about the Gorge’s ability to withstand real estate speculation, commercial sprawl, and large-scale industrial development. 

“Gabe is the right leader for this moment,” Friends’ retiring executive director Kevin Gorman reflected. “The work we do at Friends goes far beyond protecting scenic views. Gabe’s deep tribal connection to the Gorge and experience in building authentic community partnerships will be invaluable in meeting the conservation challenges facing the Columbia Gorge in the decades ahead.” 

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About Friends of the Columbia Gorge

With over 4,500 members, Friends of the Columbia Gorge is the only conservation organization exclusively dedicated to protecting, preserving, and stewarding the Columbia Gorge for future generations. 

We protect and enhance the scenic, natural, cultural, and recreational resources of the Columbia Gorge. For over four decades, we have successfully advocated to protect the Gorge from irresponsible development, purchased scenic and sensitive lands for long-term preservation, and worked with community partners to foster a larger culture of Gorge stewardship by connecting thousands of students and volunteers to the Gorge’s wonders.  

Friends maintains offices in Hood River and Portland, Oregon, as well as Washougal, Washington.

Learn more about Friends of the Columbia Gorge: