Colleen presenting the San Juans (Lizard Head Pass) as a Forest Ambassador for the GOCO-funded San Juan Stewardship Project.
When asked what she likes best about the Durango area, Colleen Magee-Uhlik said without missing a beat: the scenery. “I am coming from a place where there are no mountains or forests—having them in one place is breathtaking.” And now she gets to work in them every weekend as a Forest Ambassador!
Colleen started with MSI in May 2021 as the organization joined San Juan County and San Juan Mountains Association in implementing the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO)-funded San Juan Stewardship Program. She immediately jumped into the fray by designing fire warning posters for installation at important trailheads to send the project’s Leave No Trace message. As a Forest Ambassador, she hikes the trails all weekend interacting with visitors and talking about forest stewardship. During the week, she works as MSI’s Natural Resource Specialist on projects such as Silverton Ecology Camp, Citizen Science Water Quality project, and the MSI-Fort Lewis College Environmental & Climate Institute.
Colleen comes to us from San Diego where she was working for the San Diego Zoo in their Education department. She is currently finishing her certificate in Sustainability and Behavior Change from University of California San Diego and is exploring notions of conservation psychology: how do we get people engaged in environmental issues, how do we coax people to change their way of thinking and to embrace that change. The role of communication—and being aware of how one way of communicating can have very different impacts depending on your audience, Colleen has found, “is especially important to the field of environmental research or any topic that has the potential to be polarizing. The conservation—communication—change spectrum is an area I want to really focus on.”
We sat down with Colleen over an iced coffee in downtown Durango to talk about her new role with MSI.
Walk me through a day in the mountains as a Forest Ambassador.
I’m lucky enough to be exploring my new home and the recreation it has to offer through work. Every weekend I’m stationed at different trails in the area, where I spend the day hiking and exploring, stopping to engage with people I meet along the way. I’m usually out hiking for 8-10 hours a day, where I have the opportunity to chat with anywhere from 30-100 people.
Colleen examines her work on creating educational posters on fire prevention.
What has been the most rewarding moment?
This is more of a personal reward, but I’m amazed by how this work has strengthened my connection to nature and conservation in just a few short weeks. Of course, I’ve appreciated and been passionate about nature for my entire life, but never before have I had the opportunity to be this immersed . Hiking in the wilderness areas around Durango, where earth and time stretch for miles and centuries, has been truly awe-inspiring for me. It has imbued me with a stronger sense of purpose and personal stewardship to be an advocate for that very special connection to the planet.
What has been a challenging one?
Actually, one of the hardest things for me to overcome here was the elevation change. I’ve lived at sea level for the past 11 years and have never even visited such a high altitude before. It was definitely a few weeks of feeling ill (and very out of shape on the trails!) while I adjusted. It’s been beneficial to me as a Forest Ambassador as we have many visitors joining us from sea level or lower altitudes in Texas, New Mexico, and California and it offers me the chance to empathize with them, share my personal experience in that transition, and offer alternatives to still enjoy recreation while respecting the body’s physical limitations with altitude.
You talk about Conservation Psychology. Tell me why this is important to you.
The research talks about how humans are typically not receptive to change. So what do you do when you need people to change their mind or their behavior? How do you change the way you communicate about an issue that helps connect with people and build bridges as opposed to reinforcing division? A lot is at stake in our forests. How do we tell the story of the forest in ways that is compelling to many different people and helps change their behavior.
What do you think conservation means to the world?
Colleen talks about forest health to a group of Silverton Ecology Camp participants, June 2021.
One of my favorite parts of conservation is how multi-faceted it is- in fact, the reason I moved to Durango was to explore a new facet of conservation with MSI. I come from a background focusing on wildlife conservation and protecting animals around the planet, and now have the opportunity to focus on this very special region and its abundance of natural resources. The thing is, it’s truly all connected because we are all connected through this planet we share. I believe that conservation comes from the realization that our world is full of so many natural wonders, and we were tasked with protecting them- it's our responsibility to our children, and their children, to preserve the future of our planet. And it really is now or never and requires us all to come together.
You mentioned wildlife and you used to work at the San Diego Zoo. What’s your favorite animal in the wildlife conservation realm?
That’s a tough one, because I truly am passionate about all of them! But red pandas and Fennec foxes make me melt, and I think okapi are really cool- they're a relatively recent scientific discovery that live in the deep forest of Africa, and they look like a cross between a giraffe and a zebra!
Leave me with some final words of inspiration.
Colleen and Loki—her frequent companion on the trails and waterways.
I am a strong believer in that the earth belongs to the next generation, and conservation is our legacy. I’m drawn to environmental education and communication because of the empowerment that comes with showcasing people’s huge capacity to enact change. I will leave you with a quote that has inspired me for many years. In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught. Baba Dioum
** Update August 2021 **
Colleen has accepted the Communication and Outreach Assistant position with MSI. We are excited to have her stay on!
