There are two new faces at San Isabel Land Protection Trust to replace former executive director, Brian Riley and land protection specialist, Kevin League. Riley left the organization to work with the Peace Corps administration in Panama and League took a position in Colorado Springs.

Ben Lenth is the new Land Protection Specialist at San Isabel Land Protection Trust (SILPT) in Westcliffe. He is not only on the job, but already out taking documentation photos of some of the 103 properties already in the trust program.

Lenth grew up in Niwot in the northern part of Colorado. He comes to Westcliffe via Queretero, Mexico where he and his wife, Buffy, worked for the Peace Corps for more than two years. While there, they studied and worked in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, a protected region in central Mexico.

Buffy is currently working with the U.S. Forest Service while Ben settles into his new job. He has been in Westcliffe now for just a few weeks. Lenth comes to the community with a Masters degree in Ecology from CSU-Fort Collins. Prior to that, he studied biology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, was a tour guide in Alaska and worked in Washington surveying rivers for state parks and studying the importance of salmon ecologically and culturally.

“I’ll be working with landowners,” he said. “I have one grant to do now. I’m excited for this job. I feel I can be productive here.”

The other new face at SILPT is Katherine Ripley-Williams who will fill the position of executive director at the organization. She plans to be living in Westcliffe fulltime by November and is looking forward to being an active part of the community.

Ripley-Williams is currently the executive director of the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation and has had an extensive public service career. She grew up in the Rocky Mountain West. Born in New Mexico, she then graduated from Wheat Ridge High School outside of Denver. After obtaining a masters degree in public administration from the University of Colorado-Denver, she immediately went to work for the Denver Metropolitan Air Quality Council.

  She later became the Vice President for Development at the University of Colorado Hospital (UCH), an affiliate of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver from 1999 to 2002 before moving to California to accept the position of vice president for Development for the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, Inc. an independent nonprofit organization of the San Francisco Veterans Hospital. At the UCH she was involved with a major capital campaign to build the new 46-acre medical research campus at the former Fitzsimons Medical Base.

She and her husband, Roland, have been building a straw bale house in Hat Creek Ranch south of town that is now complete and their home. She said that she is excited and is honored to have the opportunity to lead the San Isabel Land Protection Trust, however, filling the shoes of the Trust’s first executive director, Brian Riley, will be a challenge but one she is looking forward to. Ripley-Williams said she is studying the issues and looking at various options, such as how to provide technical, financial, and educational assistance to landowners and the community and continue to protect land in this beautiful valley. She knows with the help of Ben, staffers Annie Layman and Holly Wray, and the dedicated board of directors, the organization will continue to be a model for other land trusts to emulate. 

Both Lenth and Ripley-Williams bring diverse experiences to SILPT that promise to build and expand the organization. Since 1995, SILPT has worked closely with private landowners to protect more than 33,000 acres in the region. SILPT protects ranch, farm and forest lands, wildlife habitat, scenic views for public enjoyment, and historic resources. It also sponsors Art for the Sangres, its largest fundraising event, to be held Sept. 26 at the historic Pines Ranch. For more information, please visit www.sanisabel.org.

– Jacque Keller