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Minot
Bringing communities and oil and gas industry together Tessa Sandstrom & ND Petroleum Foundation reach out to communities MINOT T
By ELOISE OGDEN
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Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.com essa Sandstrom and the North Dakota Petroleum Foundation reach out to many communities in the local area and across the state. Sandstrom, originally from New Town, is the executive director of the Foundation, based in Minot. She began working at the N.D. Petroleum Council in 2012.
“I had been working in Washington, D.C., for Senator (John) Hoeven and wanted to get back to North Dakota,” Sandstrom said.
When the communications manager position with the N.D. Petroleum Council opened up, she was hired and returned to the state.
NDPC provides governmental relations support to more than 550 companies involved in all aspects of the oil and gas industry including oil and gas production, refining, pipeline, mineral leasing, consulting, legal work, and oil field service activities in North Dakota, South Dakota and the Rocky Mountain region. It is supported by members of the American Petroleum Institute who have interests in North Dakota and South Dakota.
Eloise Ogden/MDN
Tessa Sandstrom, executive director of the North Dakota Petroleum Foundation, is shown at weigh-in at a fi shing derby. It is an annual charity tournament to raise money for Planting for the Future programs.
“It was a very memorable first week,” Sandstrom said. “It was a couple weeks before the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference and 2012 was a big year so just starting a new job, getting ready for that and within that week we surpassed California to become the number three oil-producing state. There were a lot of media calls and within a day or two we surpassed Alaska to become the number two so even more calls. It was a very busy week.
“It wasn’t uncommon in those days to probably field, depending on what was happening, anywhere between 10 to 30 media interviews a week – a lot of national (media),” she said.
Sandstrom graduated from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks in 2006 and interned with the State Historical Society of North Dakota for the summer. In the fall she got a job with Clearwater Communications in Bismarck. She was there about a year when she joined Hoeven’s gubernatorial reelection in 2008, spent a year working with the Governor’s office before going over to Hoeven’s U.S. Senate campaign and then was in Washington, D.C., for about a year. Overall, she served in various capacities with Hoeven’s office and campaigns.
“I enjoyed writing so I went to school for journalism communications,” she said.
With Clearwater Communications she did quite a bit of writing as the communications specialist and and other work.
“When Hoeven’s campaign was looking for a communications person, Ron Rauschenberger, recommended me,” Sandstrom said. “It was an opportunity and one you really can’t pass up,” she said.
Rauschenberger retired from state government in 2017. He was chief of staff to former governors John Hoeven and Jack Dalrymple before working as Gov. Doug Burgum’s senior adviser.
Now Sandstrom’s work involves the N.D. Petroleum Foundation with the mission “to provide and support education and outreach opportunities relating to the petroleum industry, develop and advance quality of life initiatives, and promote and enhance the conservation heritage of North Dakota.”
The N.D. Petroleum Council started doing outreach activities in 2008, Sandstrom said. She said seminars for teachers were done for several years before that.
In 2009 the Petroleum Council held the first Bakken Rocks CookFest.
“From there it just continued to snowball,” Sandstrom said, adding, “Pick up the Patch came in 2012.
“The North Dakota Energy Education Career Awareness started earlier but that started to grow as more activity happened and teachers were more interested in how oil and gas is developed and what kind of training or education their students might need,” she said. That program includes teacher education seminars and has been done for at least two decades.
“All those activities have been housed under the Petroleum Council for several years and then in 2018 they decided to roll that into a separate 501c3 nonprofit,” she said.
Sandstrom took a brief leave of absence from the Petroleum Council to help Rep. Kelly Armstrong with his campaign and after that assumed the N.D. Petroleum Foundation position in 2019, with an office in Minot.
A tree program, one of the programs of the Foundation, was started about three years ago.
“It’s been a very popular program,” Sandstrom said. “I think we’re around 134,000 trees since we started in 2018.” She said the majority of the trees are on projects meant for future habitat on private land.
The program is throughout the state but she said the majority of the trees have been in Kidder, Burleigh and Morton counties. “But next year I have quite a few applications for Mountrail,” she said.
“Landowners apply, send us a map of where their project is going to be and a general idea of what they want. We reveiw it to make sure it’s going to be good for habitat and then our contractor will meet with them to finalize their plans. We’ll order trees and it’s all free to the landowner. All we ask in return is that they help provide the workers or volunteers to help plant the actual trees.” The landowner’s also responsible for prepping the land for planting.
She said they like to have a minimum of seven volunteers to help plant the trees. “Ten to 12 is about perfect to help with some of the extra errand-running type things,” she added. The plantings usually are done mid-May to the beginning of June.
Sandstrom explained how the project came about with the petroleum organization.
The annual Bakken Rocks CookFests started in 2008 when activities were really picking up in the oil patch and people were asking a lot of questions, Sandstrom said.
“One of the board members said, ‘We’re going to have a barbecue,’” Sandstrom said. She said the first events were held in Killdeer and on a farm near Belden located between New Town and Stanley.
Bakken Rocks CookFests have been held in 24 different communities, Sandstrom said.
She said turnout for the CookFests have been up to or more than 2,000 people attending an event. She said they are working on which communities CookFests will be held next year.
Sponsors pay for the food and personnel from oil field companies cook the food.
“One of the things I always try to do is get volunteers from the local community to volunteer on behalf of an organization and then we make a contribution to that organization, like Mohall 4-H kids were amazing this year,” she said.
The event gives local residents the chance to learn more about the oil and gas industry. meet the employees of companies working in their area, and enjoy a barbecue. There’s also games and activities for kids,
There’s also live music. “We try to get local talent,” Sandstrom said.
“It ends early – 7 o’clock,” she added.
A scholarship program was under NDPC for a long time but when the foundation was developed, it was rolled into the foundation when it became a 501c3 organization, Sandstrom said.
She said a fishing derby is held the Wednesday before the cookouts at the 4 Bears Marina, west of New Town. The charity tournament helps raise money for the Planting for the Future programs.
Sandstrom said 53 teams took part in the fishing derby this year and the event raised about $16,000 for conservation projects.
The foundation also participates in a youth advisory council, headed up by the Lignite Energy Council. Several students from throughout North Dakota are on the advisory council and participating in various seminars throughout the summer to learn about the oil and gas industry, coal industry, ag industry and tourism was added as well, Sandstrom said.
A history project has been on hold, but plans are to resume it, Sandstrom said.
“We’ll be talking to some of the oil veterans, their oral history on video and recording and produce some short two to three minute mini-docs based on their stories and also publish some brief articles on them,” she said.
Submitted Photo
Tessa Sandstrom, executive director of the North Dakota Petroleum Foundation, hands out awards at a Bakken Rocks CookFest! held in Mohall.
