Austin joins Montezuma Land Conservancy with twelve years of partnership and trails planning experience with Washington Trails Association, delivering nationally-renowned youth and adult volunteer and staff conservation programming.

From coalition development to trail planning, Austin has worked with state, federal, and private landowners to build consensus around aligned goals and priorities for statewide and community forest projects. His largest of which involved developing a 60 mile multi-use trail plan for Washington's Department of Natural Resources in the 50k acre Teanaway Community Forest.

His work has been particularly focused on building inclusive stewardship programming and reducing barriers for participants to get into the world of conservation and stewardship. He is most passionate about supporting volunteers and staff to achieve a sense of place and belonging in the outdoors while focusing on the need to conserve, preserve, and protect these wild environments.

A rock nerd at heart, Austin holds a BA in geology from Whitman College and hails from the misty Pacific NorthWest. Now residing in Dolores, Austin enjoys board games, whacky packrafting adventures, learning how to mountain bike, and spending time on trail with his partner and their dog.