Barbara Hawke works with multiple coalitions in western Colorado to preserve the canyons, mesas, and forests of the gorgeous Dolores River Basin. As the Dolores River Basin Wildlands Coordinator, Barbara advocates for strong protections for iconic landscapes and important natural areas. Her work focuses on agency planning processes, cultivating a conservation ethic among community leaders, and promoting legislative protections for land and water.

Barbara’s love of nature was spurred by childhood field trips with her father, an earth sciences teacher in Michigan. Several family trips to Colorado instilled a love of the west that grew stronger over the years. Later, hiking the remote North Country Trail in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula birthed a desire to learn nature’s most intimate secrets.

After a long career in public administration in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Barbara plunged into conservation work with The Nature Conservancy in Boulder. She expanded upon her M.B.A. with a graduate specialization in Environmental Policy at the University of Colorado. Still seeking nature’s secrets, she monitored nesting and reproduction of raptors, bobolinks and lesser prairie chickens on Colorado’s eastern plains.

Colorado provided a strong platform for Barbara to develop her naturalist abilities in birding, lichenology, and rare plant conservation. After a stint as Executive Director of a local land trust in western Colorado, policy issues lured her to The Wilderness Society. Barbara is delighted to be working both on the ground and with public lands management agencies, protecting the region that shaped her mental landscape.