Tanya is excited to be a member of the WSCC team, joining in November 2020. She comes to the North Fork Valley from just outside of Death Valley where she dedicated five years working on behalf of the Amargosa Basin, first as Stewardship Program Manager and most recently as their Executive Director.
Tanya grew up and has spent most of her life in the rural west from Tuba City, AZ to Shoshone, CA, Cortez, CO to Ridgecrest, CA, Walla Walla, WA to Holbrook, AZ with stints in other places. She is happy to set aside her wandering ways and settle into the North Fork Valley community. It was trailwork that set her on a conservation path and she was later able to merge her commitments to conservation, communities, and passionate individual stewards through collaborative land management initiatives. She solicited community input for watershed restoration efforts in Canyon de Chelly, AZ and helped amplify community voices for legislative protection of desert lands in the northern Mojave Desert. She had always hoped her German Studies degree from Whitman College in 2005 would lead to a career in public lands conservation but went back to school at Northern Arizona University in 2010 for an MS in Environmental Science and Policy just to be sure.
Email Tanya for Conservation Center conversations (or just conservation chat)!
Jake joined the Conservation Center team in March 2017 and is honored to serve as WSCC’s watershed coordinator. Jake graduated from Greenville College in 2002 with a B.S. in Environmental Biology. His early work history focused around developing stormwater wetland basins and riparian corridors for improving domestic water quality. He has worked with municipalities, agencies, universities, and private landowners to implement watershed scale habitat management practices. In addition to his work in habitat restoration, Jake has spent nearly 10 years in the geothermal drilling industry, operating heavy equipment and managing small work crews to install energy efficient heating and cooling systems in the midwest. Jake lives in Paonia with the 3 most amazing girls on the planet where they enjoy camping, hiking, fishing, biking and floating, through the incredible vistas of the North Fork Valley.
Expect a speedy reply when you email him here.
Ben joined the Western Slope Conservation Center in 2019. He grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the University of Vermont in 2012 with a B.S. in Environmental Science. His interest in public lands began after college, when he worked as a Wilderness Ranger in the Weminuche Wilderness in San Juan National Forest. Travelling throughout southwest Colorado that summer, the natural landscapes and breathtaking scenery ingrained a desire to defend wild areas for future generations. After a second summer working as a Wilderness Ranger in the John Muir Wilderness, he moved into a role as a Wilderness Fellow with USFWS, writing baseline Wilderness character monitoring reports for Wilderness areas within wildlife refuges in Alaska and Nebraska. After working for a few years in water quality, Ben is excited to focus his efforts on protecting and preserving the public lands on the Western Slope. In his free time, he enjoys long distance backpacking, hiking, snowboarding, and relaxing with a good book.
You can reach Ben here!
Heidi Hudek is an entrepreneur, a creative, and a mother. She owns her own business as a Bookkeeper, and is a professional musician and photographer. Heidi is a community advocate and connoisseur of locally grown foods. Heidi has been a Bookkeeper for various organizations for 4 years, including retail, restaurant, and design businesses, and she specializes in non-profits. She has been Treasurer, Secretary, and Executive Director of three nonprofits, and has been a Bookkeeper for six nonprofits. While raising her son as a single mom, Heidi has lived in Delta County since 2005. She sees the North Fork Valley as an inspirational place, worthy of celebration. She enjoys cooking at home with locally grown foods and values the land and water we enjoy here. Heidi works to build community connections and collaboration, and to provide arts education for kids.
