By Shannon Lukens for Steamboat Radio/Blizzard Broadcasting.
The Western Resilience Center recognized the contributions of local community groups and leaders at the Environmental Leadership Awards Ceremony Thursday at Bud Werner Memorial Library. The 12 recipients were honored for making a lasting impact through climate action, collaboration, and community leadership.
Here’s the list, with longer descriptions below.
- Town of Hayden — Government Leadership Award
- Jeff Morehead — Lifetime Achievement
- High Altitude Geothermal — Sustainable Business
- Patrick Stanko — Yampa Valley Connector
- Shea Speer — Rising Leader
- Shannon Lukens — Shining Star
- Norm Weaver — Volunteer of the Year
- Nikki Durkan — Educator of the Year
- John Twitchell — Lifetime Achievement
- The Knott Ranch — Land Stewardship Award
- Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority — Environmental Cairn
- Northwest Colorado Council of Governments — Partner of the Year
2025 Environmental Leadership Award Descriptions, from the Western Resilience Center
Name: Town of Hayden
Title: Government Leadership Award
Description: For the geothermal Hayden Industrial Park and showcasing how community development can benefit community, economy and environment.
Town of Hayden, with its lead-by-example geothermal industrial park, called the Northwest Colorado Business District (NCBD), models the ways small local Colorado governments can jump scale and be big leaders in economic development and the clean energy economy when long-term renewable energy solutions are integrated into planning and acted upon.
Town of Hayden, with its 2,000+ residents, is on the front lines of impact with the planned 2028 closure of Hayden station. For decades the Hayden Power plant and Twentymile coal mine have provided Northwest Colorado with jobs, essential tax revenue, electricity, and deep ties to electricity generation.
In the face of a possible loss of 55 million in assessed value, which is double the Town’s current assessed value, to proactively diversify and bolster its economy and community, Town of Hayden is developing the Town-owned NCBD, a 117.1-acre greenfield business and industrial park. 58 acres are currently in development in Phase 1 with 15 lots from approximately 1 to 5 acres. The project is rapidly gaining success: in November 2025 Amazon became one of the anchor businesses at the park, paving the way for new business activities in Hayden that also serve the region.
Significantly, NCBD is the state’s first geothermal energy district industrial park, offering businesses low energy costs at a time of surging utility bills. To finance and operate the thermal energy network, the Town developed a geothermal municipal utility, which charges businesses for their energy use over time (rather than paying upfront) and reducing participating customers’ energy costs by roughly 40% compared with conventional heating systems.
Town of Hayden inspires the region and nation with its fearless leadership and readiness to forge economic development pathways that build our clean energy economy and serve its economy, community and environment.
Name: Jeff Morehead
Title: Lifetime Achievement
Description: For years of dedicated service to the development of the Yampa River Botanic Park and the education of its visitors.
Narrative: For nearly 30 years, Jeff Morehead has shown what true service looks like, first as the Yampa River Botanic Park’s first volunteer and later as a dedicated employee. He has given his time, talent, energy, and heart to the park, and his ingenuity is behind many of the systems that quietly keep the park growing and thriving.
With a background in construction and mechanics, Jeff brought remarkable skill to building and maintaining the park. He invented simple solutions to complex problems, many of which he patiently taught staff so we can steward them into the future. Jeff single-handedly moved and placed massive rocks in his garden, just one example of his perseverance and creativity.
Jeff cares deeply about the Botanic Park. With a private gate into the Park, it truly became an extension of his home, and nothing was ever left unfixed.
Jeff is also an unsung marketing hero. He taught himself photography, video, websites, and social media, promoting the park. He talked it up to visitors on his winter airport shuttle rides, and they would return in the summer and say, “hey, I met this guy.” Sometimes, those visits also resulted in donations to the park, often in honor of Jeff.
Jeff has touched every corner of the Botanic Park and countless lives along the way. Jeff’s legacy lives on in every bloom, every volunteer, and every visitor.
Name: High Altitude Geothermal
Title: Sustainable Business
Description: For your vision, courage, and commitment to navigating the coal-to-clean-energy transition in support of regional decarbonization.
Narrative: High Altitude Geothermal is being recognized for implementing their vision to create new clean-energy jobs in the face of coal plant closures.
As a new rural, veteran-owned firm led by former coal miner Matt Cooper, High Altitude Geothermal delivers practical, locally rooted climate solutions while helping Northwest Colorado navigate the coal transition. The company specializes in geothermal vertical drilling and loop installation, enabling the deployment of highly efficient ground-source heat pump systems that dramatically reduce energy use and carbon emissions compared with conventional heating and cooling. In our area’s extreme winter conditions, these systems cut peak electric demand when our grid is most stressed, lowering customers’ utility bills and relieving pressure on our power distribution grid.
By harnessing the consistent temperatures beneath Colorado’s high altitude soils, the business provides reliable year-round comfort while eliminating the need for fossil fueled heating and cooling. Their work directly supports state and local goals for carbon reduction and sustainable economic development in the Yampa Valley and beyond.
Name: Patrick Stanko
Title: Yampa Valley Connector
Description: For offering steadfast leadership that emphasizes collaboration and highlights common interests among agricultural and environmental entities in the Yampa Valley.
Narrative: In addition to being a fourth generation rancher, Patrick Stanko is an engineer by trade. He brings this precision to his work on the Yampa White Green Roundtable and as the Community Agriculture Alliance Resource Coordinator for the past eight years. Stanko and his wife, Jan, are parents of two, raise livestock guardian dogs, run Emerald Mountain ranch and have a wedding venue. Patrick is President Routt County Conservation District Board and holds many seats throughout the county.
The Stankos share their agriculture and range management knowledge with the community by hosting Ag 101 classes for new landowners and community leaders, and host Ranch Days classes for fourth graders every year. Their ranch is often the site of agricultural research studies.
Patrick is respected and trusted in Routt County by those representing agriculture and conservation, often bringing both sides together with their common interest. He is a model for how we can build a resilient community together by joining knowledge of these two important industries for the benefit of all.
Name: Shea Speer
Title: Rising Leader
Description: For being an exceptionally dedicated student, intern, and volunteer with unwavering commitment to learning and contributing to environmental causes.
Narrative: The Rising Leader award recognizes young members of the Yampa Valley community who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment to local climate action and sustainability initiatives.
Shea Speer started volunteering with Western Resilience in 2023 in all ways possible: planting trees at Muddy Slide burn scar and annual ReTree events, and helping with wet meadow restoration in California Park. She also was co-president of the Steamboat Spring High School Eco Club. During an internship with Western Resilience Center in the summer of 2025, she completed an elaborate project conducting forest regeneration surveys and analyzing two years worth of data to draw relationships between post-fire tree growth and other variables like slope angle, aspect, and distance to seed sources. She also created a picturebook about reforestation and its importance for local educational organizations.
In December of 2024, Shea earned her Associate of Science degree from Colorado Mountain College and graduated from high school in December 2025, a semester early. Shea has recently been accepted into Williams College in Massachusetts where she will pursue a degree in Environmental Studies with minors in Math and Coastal and Oceanographic Studies.
Between Shea’s “can do” attitude, incredible intellect, and pure passion for the work, she has demonstrated impressive capability and impact.
Name: Shannon Lukens
Title: Shining Star
Description: For unwavering dedication to community building through accurate, timely and impactful local news coverage.
Narrative: Shannon Lukens brings her extensive reporting and broadcasting experience into the service of the Yampa Valley each day, spreading information on important local news and events to the community. Shannon currently is the News Director, Website and Social Media Manager for Steamboat Radio, and is a DJ on Easy 94.1. Shannon has worked and volunteered for dozens of different media groups and organizations over the years, including the likes of ESPN, CNN and CNN Headline News. That’s not including her work managing social media for multiple businesses and organizations, and announcing for sporting events ranging in level from youth to the world stage.
Despite all of this, she most enjoys covering issues happening at home in the Yampa Valley.
Thanks to Shannon’s reporting, Steamboat Radio is a go-to resource for the most timely and accurate breaking news updates. She keeps the community safe and informed through the fun times, but also through those times that are difficult and uncertain. She shares it all with the heart that can only be achieved by someone who is reporting on their own neighbors and hometown – and she does it all while still upholding the highest standards of accuracy and ethics.
Name: Norm Weaver
Title: Volunteer of the Year
Description: For going above and beyond in support of the Routt County Climate Action Plan Collaborative Energy Working Group.
Narrative: The Volunteer of the Year award recognizes those individuals who have gone above and beyond the call of service to advance sustainability in the community.
This year’s award is presented to Norm Weaver for his support, dedication and many hours of volunteer work on and outside of the Routt County Climate Action Plan (CAP) Energy Working Group.
Norm has gone above and beyond in his support of the CAP Energy Working Group by conducting detailed analysis and modeling of building energy use in Routt County and supporting Western Resilience staff with his insightful recommendations for program implementation.
Norm’s enthusiastic contributions to the CAP are deeply rooted in his stellar education and work experience. Norm is a CU Mechanical Engineer and holds an MS from Stanford in Engineering Economic Systems. He has worked at the Stanford Research Institute, the Solar Energy Research Institute and the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden.
After Norm retired from the City of Fort Collins utilities and returned to Steamboat he began volunteering for Western Resilience, Yampa Valley Electric Association and as a board member at Energy Smart Colorado.
In his volunteer work for the CAP Energy Working Group, Norm has been an incredible mentor, helping Western Resilience staff develop an understanding of the region’s building stock and energy use. His friendly, thoughtful and enthusiastic support has made him an invaluable resource for the important work of carbon reduction in the region.
Name: Nikki Durkan
Title: Educator of the Year
Description: For going above and beyond in connecting students to real-world science and applications of environmental leadership.
Narrative: Nikki Durkan has been educating and inspiring students at Steamboat Mountain School for over 18 years. Her deep personal commitment to learning, mentorship and building authentic and enduring relationships with the natural world infuses her classes and the kinds of experiential learning opportunities she curates for her students. Nikki regularly collaborates with regional state and federal agencies, scientists and nonprofits to connect her students with the real-world challenges and technical work of snow science, soil moisture measurements, wet meadow restoration, tree planting, recycling and more. At a time when students yearn for a sense of belonging and opportunities to make a difference, Nikki’s people- and place-based approach to education and professional mentorship is essential.
In 2005, Nikki was competitively selected to participate in a Teacher at Sea program, joining a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship in Alaska. Nikki applied for the program as a professional development opportunity in order to expand her knowledge and integrate her own experiential learning into her classroom.
She also stands to be Western Resilience Center’s first participant in a new collaborative citizen science program, called CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network), that aims to measure precipitation across a range of geographic locations by integrating this effort into her class plan.
Name: John Twitchell
Title: Lifetime Achievement
Description: For a lasting legacy caring for and stewarding our forests.
Narrative: John Twitchell, who retired from Colorado State Forest Service in 2025 after more than 25 years of service and leadership, is a respected and celebrated professional forester, mentor, collaborator and visionary. John is a Society of American Forester (SAF) Certified Forester and SAF Fellow.
Since 2005, John has worked as District Forester at the SFS Steamboat Springs Field Office. John’s career has included extensive work managing the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic, the shaping of cross-boundary forest management and collaborative tools such as the Good Neighbor Authority and wildland firefighting and preparation. As a wildland firefighter and state representative for fire, John helped develop Routt and Jackson County’s Community Wildfire Protection Plans and served as a technical expert for policy and decision makers, from county commissioners to state and US representatives.
A key marker of John’s approach to land management is his careful and artful balancing of ecology, community and economics. John’s deep understanding and care of the forests and community partners has shown time and time again how the building of a resilient community and a healthy landscape are mutually beneficial and deeply intertwined.
Upon retiring from his full-time role as District Forester at CSFS, John is focused on the advancement of the Michigan River Camp project, a forthcoming training, research and experiential learning facility on the Colorado State Forest.
Name: The Knott Ranch
Title: Land Stewardship Award
Description: For the sustained investment in and demonstration of management practices at Knott Ranch that improve the land’s ecology and natural resources, building regional resilience.
Narrative: The Knott Ranch is a family owned and operated cattle and sheep operation situated along Trout Creek in southern Routt County. Five generations of the Knott family have lived and worked on the ranch since 1936, and have created a remarkable legacy of stewardship, community engagement, and lasting conservation of land and water.
The Knotts have worked with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust to place conservation easements on the ranch, covering more than 2,000 acres. The Knott Ranch includes a long, vibrant riparian corridor and is nestled among public lands, creating a premier example of landscape scale conservation.
Sustainability and stewardship are foundational tenants of the operation of the Knott Ranch. The Knotts sell fresh beef and lamb through their direct-to-consumer company Trout Creek Meats, promoting local food sources. The Knotts worked with Trout Unlimited, and several other partners including Western Resilience Center, to restore a 2.5 mile stretch of Trout Creek. The project employed process based restoration techniques and allows beavers to co-exist with the agricultural operation. The Knotts work with community organizations to support education and research on the many ways that private ranches can conserve and enhance the natural and resilient ecosystems of the Yampa Valley.
Name: Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority
Title: Environmental Cairn
Description: For opening the framework to expand public transit and multi-modal transportation options across the Yampa Valley for residents, workers and visitors alike.
Narrative: The 2025 Environmental Cairn Award is being presented to the newly formed Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). In the municipal election on November 4, 2025, voters across six Yampa Valley jurisdictions overwhelmingly approved the creation of the collaborative, community-based regional transportation agency. Of the 11,578 ballots cast, more than 81% supported forming the Yampa Valley RTA. The RTA now has the authority to plan, finance, implement, and operate a regional transportation system within its district, potentially including expanded bus service and new bicycle, pedestrian, roadway, and other multimodal infrastructure improvements.
In Routt County specifically, reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT) remains a core climate objective aligned with the Routt County Climate Action Plan and complementary municipal operational initiatives. According to the 2023 Routt County Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, VMT increased 26% between 2018 and 2023, underscoring the importance of coordinated regional transportation solutions.
Name: Northwest Colorado Council of Governments
Title: Partner of the Year
Description: For providing vital energy efficiency services to deserving households across Northwest Colorado.
Narrative: The Northwest Colorado Council of Governments (NWCCOG) is being recognized as the 2025 Partner of the Year for their essential work in helping to achieve regional energy efficiency goals. Through its Energy Program, NWCCOG delivers high-quality energy efficiency services to households across a 13-county region of Northwest Colorado, helping communities reduce energy costs while improving comfort and resilience.
When Western Resilience Center did not have the capacity to conduct home energy assessments, NWCCOG stepped in to ensure this critical work continued in the Yampa Valley. Locally, Their team completed ten in-home energy assessments in 2025, three of which resulted in deserving households qualifying for the ReEnergize program. As a result, these residents received significant home electrification and energy efficiency upgrades from NWCCOG’s team at no cost, delivering tangible benefits to families who needed them most.
In 2025 NWCCOG was among the first ever recipients of a grant from the Climate Action Plan (CAP) Collaborative Fund, which the organization used to jumpstart the ReEnergize program in Routt County.
NWCCOG’s willingness to collaborate, share expertise, and respond quickly to community needs exemplifies true partnership.