Ever since moving to Durango in 2009, Kat had been an amazing contributor to DNS. She participated in our fall and winter trainings, and quickly rose to the ranks of Senior Naturalist through her ongoing participation in our programs. In addition to her volunteer teaching with Children Discovering Nature and Surviving and Thriving in Winter, she has helped us with our after school Nature Club and our Summer Camp. She has logged more hours than any other volunteer for the past three seasons. As a former elementary school teacher, she has much to add to our programs beyond her joyful disposition and love for kids and the outdoors. We are so grateful to all Kat’s hard work and are proud to have a plaque with her name on it join the list of volunteers of the year hanging at the Nature Center.

JJ is a retired aquatic director, day camp coordinator and Red Cross program instructor. She has been an active DNS volunteer naturalist since 2002 and served on the board of directors through 2009.

“Someday, I want to be a teacher of things like trees and birds, like a Park Ranger” from Erika’s journal, age 10.

Although Erika went to engineering school in Vermont, she always wanted to be in Outdoor Education. She attended nature walks, and watched carefully, learning the ways of Park Interpreters and DOW Rangers. After countless hours in a cubicle while raising her two boys in Seattle, she kept thinking back to her woodsy aspirations. In 2003, she married a Durango man who also had two kids, and made the move to the area. Now back among the trees and working as an independent technical writer, she volunteers for DNS in the Fall, Winter, and Spring.
After four years of volunteering, she is planning to return to school for her degree in the Environmental Sciences. “I hope to take the knowledge from these courses and be a better naturalist for DNS in the future!”

Linda has lived in the Durango area for over 30 years. She graduated from Fort Lewis College with a BS in General Biology and a Natural History endorsement. Linda also received an MA in Environmental Studies from Prescott College. She has been a middle school science teacher (Life and Earth Science) for Durango School District for over 20 years and a Project WILD Project/ Learning Tree facilitator for 12 years.

She helped coordinate the River Watch Network Program in the Durango Schools and worked in collaboration with the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado Water Conservation Board to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum around the Animas River watershed, entitled Animas River Curriculum Project. She was awarded Project WILD Project Learning Tree Facilitator of the Year in 1995. Linda joined the volunteer team of naturalists at DNS in the fall of 2007.

Orien moved to Durango in 2007.  Prior to that she lived in Flagstaff Arizona.  She loves hiking, skiing, biking, and being on the river with her family.  She holds an MBA and works in Institutional Research at Fort Lewis College.  She voulunteers at Durango Nature Studies because she wants to share her love of nature with the area children, and because her children are now thanking her for all the forced marches she took them on.  
 

Estella grew up with an appreciation of nature thanks to her father and has many fond memories of fishing, hiking and observing the outdoors with her family.  She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Fort Lewis College with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry and has worked in aquatic ecology for over 5 years.  

She is passionate about sharing her love of nature with others and cherishes the sense of place that wilderness and roadless areas provide.  In addition to enjoying gardening, backpacking, rafting, telemark skiing, traveling and camping, Estella also plays fiddle in a local folkicanagrass band with her husband, Brad Bartlett, called Wild Mountain.