Meet Our Team

 
 
 

Ashley Downing

Executive director
 

Ashley Downing joined Wildfire Adapted Partnership as the Executive Director in October 2017.  Before coming to Durango, she was the Program Manager for a nonprofit working to protect environmental and agricultural interests in Nevada’s Walker River Basin.  In this position, she oversaw conservation programs, stakeholder outreach and performed grant and fiscal management.  Since June 2019, Ashley has also served on the Board of Directors for Fire Adapted Colorado, a statewide network that serves individuals and organizations that are committed to reducing the negative impacts of wildfires in the state.  Ashley is also on the Steering Committee for the Southwest Colorado Rocky Mountain Restoration Initiative (RMRI) and the Coordinating Council for the Southwest Colorado Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP).

Ashley holds a BS in Journalism with a minor in French from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MA in Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California.

 

Bill Trimarco

Archuleta county coordinator
 

Bill has lived in the mountains of the Western US and Canada for most of the last 40 years and currently resides in Pagosa Springs. He is an avid outdoorsman who has always been concerned with healthy wildlands. He has worked with Wildfire Adapted Partnership and its partners since 2012. Besides his outdoor pursuits, he is a martial arts (Aikido) instructor, musician and knows the underside of a pickup truck.

 

Alex Graf

Western La plata county and san juan county coordinator
 

Alex joined WAP as the Montezuma County Coordinator in April of 2019 and moved to La Plata County Coordinator in June 2022. He grew up in the foothills of the Catskill mountains in New York State and attended college in the Hudson Valley where he graduated with a BA in Environmental and Urban Studies.

Alex has called Durango home since 2017 and has since developed a love for the deserts, mountains and rivers of Southwest Colorado. He is focused on community preparedness and scaling wildfire adaptation to match the risk level we take on when living in fire-prone/adapted places. He is also an avid flatpicking bluegrass musician.

 

Ryan Cook

Eastern La Plata County Coordinator

Ryan joined WAP as the Eastern La Plata County Coordinator in spring of 2023. He grew up in Michigan and attended Oakland University where he graduated with a BA in Psychology. He moved to Durango in 2013 for a job with the conservation corps and he’s lived in the area ever since.

Ryan began his career in wildfire mitigation in 2014. He is an experienced crew leader and has completed countless fire mitigation projects across La Plata County. He is passionate about fire mitigation and enjoys helping people protect themselves and their property from the dangers of wildfire. Ryan is an avid outdoorsmen and loves spending time in the mountains. In his free time he enjoys fly fishing, hunting, playing guitar, and spending time with his wife, son, and two dogs.

 

Celeste Moore

Montezuma and Dolores County Coordinator

Celeste joined Wildfire Adapted Partnership as the Montezuma County Coordinator in March of 2024. Celeste is a born and raised Durango local who grew up learning to appreciate and protect the canyons, rivers, and trails of Southwest Colorado. Especially any cryptobiotic soil!

She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Fort Lewis College with experience in local Regenerative Agriculture. Celeste is motivated to maintain healthy forests while also promoting community wildfire resilience amidst a changing climate. Outside of work, she spends time with her fur baby, Pepperoni, and focuses on low waste living. 

 

Amanda Sutton

Administrative Coordinator

Amanda joined Wildfire Adapted Partnership as the Administrative Coordinator in June 2022. Prior to moving to Durango, she was a full time student and stay at home mom in Julian, CA. She recently graduated from the University of Arizona with a BA in Sociology. Before that, she was an Aviation Electrician in the US Navy.

Her passion for people and a better tomorrow is prevalent in her conservation practices, permaculture education, and wildfire education. More than anything, Amanda enjoys spending time in nature with her kids and spouse.

Meet Our Board

Les Kole

BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIR AND NEIGHBORHOOD AMBASSADOR FOR DEER VALLEY ESTATES (LA PLATA COUNTY)

Les is a retired Recreation and Park Director, with 35 years of service in various locations throughout California. His last 22 years were spent in the San Bernardino Mountains, where he had a great deal of experience working with the local USFS on many projects. He has written many grants for development projects, with a high rate of success. Les has a Master Degree in Recreation and Park Administration and has served on several Statewide Boards as well as an elected Director on a local Fire, Water and Sewer District. Quality-of-life issues are what brought Les to Colorado, and to the Deer Valley Estates subdivision. Once settled into a new home, Les became involved with FireWise of Southwest Colorado (now WAP) and has served as the Neighborhood Ambassador for Deer Valley Estates since 2006. Les also wrote the Community Wildfire Protection Plan for Deer Valley Estates and helped the subdivision attain Firewise Communities USA recognition.

 

Paulette Church

VICE CHAIR AND NEIGHBORHOOD AMBASSADOR FOR FALLS CREEK RANCH (LA PLATA COUNTY)

A native of Phoenix, Paulette holds a BA in Education from Arizona State University and a MA in Educational Technology from the University of Northern Iowa.  She has educated students from pre-school to graduate school in Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa, and Colorado. She received the 2010 William Funk Award for Community Building from the Colorado Nonprofit Association for establishing the multi-tenant nonprofit center focused on education called The Commons in collaboration with the Southwest Conservation Corps. As a former member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary in the Minneapolis region, she has worked to improve public safety on the waterways and has seen firsthand to dramatic results of improving the quality of water in streams, rivers, and lakes.  She has served as the Falls Creek Ranch Firewise Ambassador since 2015.  

In 1999, she and her husband Clyde moved to Durango where she served as Executive Director of the Durango Adult Education Center for 14 years, retiring in 2013. Education, service to others, and collaboration are her core values and they are the essence of Wildfire Adapted Partnership.  She and Clyde have been active in area fire mitigation work since moving to Durango and are pleased to see so many residents take forest health and fire mitigation work seriously.

 

Bruce Short

TREASURER AND NEIGHBORHOOD AMBASSADOR FOR CEDAR MESA RANCHES(MONTEZUMA COUNTY)

Bruce is the owner of Short Forestry LLC, a forest management consulting firm based in Mancos, Colorado. He has over 49 years of professional forest management experience with the US Forest Service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and as a private consulting forester. He also has 49 years of wildfire and incident management experience across the country. He has worked as a forester in North Carolina, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Colorado; lived in 11 states and one foreign country; and visited 44 of the states and four other countries.

Bruce holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Forestry and Conservation from North Carolina State University, and is a Certified Forester by the Society of American Foresters. He is a member of the Society of American Foresters and of the Association of Consulting Foresters and was elected a Fellow of the SAF in 2010. He was a US Forest Service Certified Silviculturist from 1981 until 2008 and the Regional Silviculturist for the USFS Rocky Mountain Region from 1999 until 2004.

 Bruce resides on 8 acres of piñon – juniper woodland in southwestern Colorado with Shar, his wife and hiking partner of over 42 years. They have two grown sons – Christopher and Stefan. He is one of the Neighborhood Ambassadors for Cedar Mesa Ranches subdivision.

 

Al Myatt

SECRETARY AND NEIGHBORHOOD AMBASSADOR FOR LOMA LINDA HOA (ARCHULETA COUNTY) 
 

Al Myatt retired from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Forestry Services in October of 2015. His forestry career spanned 41 years. From the mid 1970’s until his retirement he was the Director of the Forest Regeneration and Tree Improvement Programs for Oklahoma, as well as the Forest Management operations throughout the Great Plains in Central and Western Oklahoma. 

He holds dual Bachelor’s Degrees from Purdue University in Wildlife Biology and Forestry.  While attending Purdue University Al was employed for several summers by the US Forest Service in Idaho on the Powell Ranger District cruising timber, wildfire suppression, tree planting and other forest management practices.

Throughout his career, Al has authored and co-authored numerous forestry publications and chaired several national and regional meetings, as well as partnerships with companies and organizations, such as Huber Engineered Woods, OGE and Weyerhaeuser Corp.  He has also served as a member and chair of the local community planning commission for over twenty-five years.

 

Duane Nelson

Board Member and Neighborhood Ambassador

Duane and wife Tami moved La Plata County in May. 2019.  Duane quickly got involved in local wildfire mitigation efforts, serving a two-year term on the La Plata County Wildfire Advisory Board from 2021-2023. He became a Neighborhood Ambassador for Pine River Ranches, leads community mitigation projects and manages maintenance of common spaces and roads for the community HOA. 

Duane retired in 2017 from a 38 plus year career with the US Forest Service in California, Alaska, Hawaii and Colorado. He most recently served for 10 years as District Ranger on the El Dorado National Forest in northern California, where he provided leadership on a complex and highly visible ranger district with a full range of programs. He was an Advanced Agency Administrator for large wildfires.  Duane graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor’s Degree in Forest Management and did graduate studies in Forest Management and Silviculture at Washington State University. In 2018, he contracted with County and local community fire safe councils in northern California to manage fuel reduction projects and wrote successful grant proposals to agencies such as Cal Fire, Pacific Gas and Electric and Sierra Nevada Conservancy.

Duane is an avid outdoorsman, hiker and a member of Trout Unlimited, with keen interest in fly-fishing and the protection and management of aquatic resources to provide for healthy cold-water fisheries.