Public Lands

"What can we provide to this project to set it apart?" Travis asks this question of himself and his team at every stage to constantly challenge the status quo and improve the results of all processes and projects with which he is involved. 

Travis is the Managing Director for SE Group’s Public Lands and Mountain Resorts market sectors and previously led the Environmental Planning and Permitting team at SE Group. With an accomplished background in federal permitting, Travis has managed or directed dozens of EISs and EAs over his 20+ years at SE Group. Complimenting his policy credentials, and through his leadership as the Board Chair for the Breckenridge Tourism Office, Travis studies and appreciates the complex relationship between the drive for outdoor recreation tourism and the management of quality of life and place. 

Always looking to tackle complex projects and processes, Travis strives for collaboration, engagement, and innovation amongst his team and external partners. Managing Service Areas across the market allows him to create effective multi-disciplinary project teams to best meet the needs of our clients and push our project teams to new standards.

Experience

Travis’s work with public lands and mountain resorts has been recognized multiple times with the Forest Service, having earned a Regional Forester’s Award and a Chief’s Award for innovative strategies. His management experience includes projects with Forest Service and BLM managed lands, mountain resorts and ski areas, multiple-use trail networks, bike parks, and land exchanges. With a background in environmental science and policy, Travis specializes in managing large -and often controversial - land management projects. 

Travis has a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from The University of Kansas. He has served as a board member for several organizations around Summit County.

Expertise

• Strategic NEPA compliance
• Endangered Species Act – Section 7
• Recreation tourism 
• Master planning
• Public engagement

Outside the Office

Travis appreciates abutting the National Forest at his home outside of Breckenridge and enjoying the beauty and recreation of his mountain community. He also really loves his flowers that only grow four months out of the year!

A highly committed and incisive project manager, Ash excels while working on and managing large-scale and complex projects. Specializing in NEPA, her experience, insight, and enthusiasm allow her to efficiently navigate projects and clients through today’s complicated regulatory environment. Ash thrives on finding the right solutions for the challenges of our projects. She takes particular pride in getting the job done accurately and on time—enabling our clients to move forward with their project goals. 

Experience

Joining SE Group in 2016, Ash brings nearly 20 years of experience in the field of environmental permitting and planning in a wide range of planning sectors including Forest Health and Fire Management, Recreation, and Utilities. She has successfully managed and authored environmental analyses throughout the Rocky Mountain, Southwest, Pacific Southwest, Northwest, and Northeast regions.

Ash has a Master of Science in Watershed Science and Management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Bachelor of Science in Geology and Environmental Science from Smith College. She earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute in 2025.

Expertise

• Large-scale Project Management
• Ecosystem Resilience and Restoration
• National Environmental Policy Act Process Management 

Outside the Office

As a military kid, Ash grew up throughout the States as well as internationally. She spent her early years backpacking on the Olympic Peninsula, the Adirondacks, and White Mountains, as well as the Bavarian and Austrian Alps. Today, Ash and her husband can be found exploring the Rocky Mountains, taking day hikes or playing in the snow with their three daughters. 

With a sensitivity to the uniqueness of place, Patrick seeks to create spaces that are both functional and aesthetically inspiring. He has a strong artistic sensibility for materials and forms that are expressed through custom design details. Additionally, as a LEED accredited professional, Patrick finds opportunities to integrate ecological and low-impact design strategies into each project’s aesthetic. With his affable demeanor, he easily develops strong client relationships that are enriched through collaboration—knowing that the best project outcomes come about when multiple perspectives are incorporated into the design and planning process.

Experience

Patrick is a licensed landscape architect with over 20 years of experience with a variety of project types spanning multiple scales. He has demonstrated success leading multi-disciplinary project teams from the conceptual design stage through permitting to construction with a great attention to detail.

Patrick has a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture (Magna cum laude) from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and spent a formative year abroad studying landscape architecture at the Agricultural University of Norway. Patrick’s work has received recognition through multiple awards, and he has been a featured speaker for the Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Tree Stewards Conference.

Expertise

Master planning
Site planning and design
Public process
Aesthetic analysis

Outside the Office

Patrick grew up in California, and some of his best memories are from visits to his family’s cabin near Lake Tahoe where he first developed a passion for outdoor recreation. An avid mountain biker, he seeks out technical single track and enjoys building trails for his two young boys on their property in the Green Mountains of central Vermont. When seeking a break from rural living, Patrick and his wife enjoy retreats to nearby Montreal to explore the city by bike, soak up the local culture, and discover new foods.

“How can we leave our public lands—and the places we love to recreate—a little better than we found them?”
Zach asks this question of himself and his colleagues every day, letting it guide his work and approach to stewardship.

As a public lands strategist with over 20 years of experience in land management, Zach brings a deep understanding of both on-the-ground implementation and high-level planning. His career has been shaped by a strong belief in creative thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and a long-term vision for the future of recreation and public lands.

For Zach, the most rewarding achievements are those that begin as ideas—sometimes sketched on a napkin—and evolve through thoughtful planning, robust analysis, and successful implementation. His goal: projects that ultimately serve and inspire the public who enjoy them.

Experience

Zach joined SE Group in 2025, following a 22-year career with the U.S. Forest Service. During that time, he built a strong foundation in recreation management, serving as a recreation specialist, program manager, and for 10 years, a ski area permit administrator.

From early on, Zach was mentored in the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration—understanding how different land management objectives must work together. This led him to gain hands-on experience in a wide range of fields, including wildland fire, fisheries, timber and rangeland management, and botany.

Over the course of his career, Zach served in multiple leadership roles across State, Private, and Tribal Forestry in Regions 1 and 4. He spent time in Washington, DC, as a program manager within the Recreation, Heritage and Volunteer Resources division, where he specialized in National Forest System Trails. He also served as a District Ranger in three different locations, most recently in Ketchum, Idaho, on the Sawtooth National Forest.

Zach is known for his creative thinking and leadership in pioneering initiatives. He played a central role in the launch of the Wood For Life program and was instrumental in leveraging the 2018 Farm Bill to establish publicly operated workforce housing on National Forest lands—a first-of-its-kind effort. For his innovation, Zach received both a Regional Forester’s Award and a Chief’s Award.

Expertise

• Programmatic strategy development and implementation
• Partnership development and stakeholder engagement
• NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) planning and review
• Federal policy, planning, and decision-making

Outside the Office

Zach is passionate about all forms of outdoor recreation, especially sliding downhill on frozen water in any form. While he finds enjoyment in mountains, oceans, and lakes alike, he’s happiest when those landscapes are in far-flung corners of the world. Whether exploring a new culture or far out in a remote ocean, Zach is most at home when he’s discovering new places and perspectives.

Dayton is a creative and strategic planner. He leads multidisciplinary teams to build plans that illustrate and articulate community and client visions. As a visual thinker, Dayton constantly strives to make the complex clear, and develop plans that foster collaboration and guide implementation. 

Experience

Trained as a landscape architect and practicing as a planner, Dayton brings multidisciplinary thinking to all his projects. This has resulted in physical trail networks and nationally recognized plans alike. His experience overseeing the development of community bike parks, designing trail systems at ski resorts, and building better streets for human scale transportation make him feel lucky to have the career he does.

Dayton is a certified planner by the American Planning Association. He holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning degree from Utah State University. His official undergraduate degree is in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz, but his unofficial degree was in mountain biking. 

Expertise

• Urban Design
• Active Transportation Planning
• Trails Planning
• GIS Analysis & Cartography
• Community Master Planning 

Outside the Office

Dayton grew up between California, Texas, and Utah, and chose to relocate his family to Vermont in 2019. You can find him throughout the Green Mountains stringing together lost roads and flow trails into all day adventures on his bike or teaching his children to ski the east. A passionate believer in outdoor spaces, he’s always looking for an opportunity to be inspired and share that inspiration with others. 

Ayden provides support to a wide variety of recreation and community planning projects. She enjoys navigating complex project processes in coordination with the client and planning team, ensuring that all parties are able to contribute effectively to project outcomes. Core to her work ethic is a commitment to distilling information into concise and helpful formats with an eye towards context and clarity. 

Experience

Ayden joined SE Group in 2019 with an academic background in Environmental Studies, Politics, and Earth Science. As a student, Ayden was particularly interested in the complex communication needs surrounding environmental risks and hazards, which translated well to her work researching and implementing municipal environmental and fiscal policies. Ayden brings strong engagement, communication, and analysis capabilities to all aspects of SE Group projects.

Ayden has a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Bates College and is a Certified Park and Recreation Professional.

Expertise

• Project Management
• Community Engagement and Facilitation
• Recreation Planning
• Design & Communication

Outside the Office

Ayden enjoys exploring the endless trails and unique landscapes of Colorado on skis, foot, and bike. She is also a spirited trivia-goer who tries never to miss an opportunity to learn new fun facts! 

Idalina Williams, an Outdoor Recreation Planner, brings expertise in community development, tourism, natural resource management, and environmental education. Celebrated for her ability to foster effective partnerships and drive economic growth, Idalina integrates outdoor recreation with community prosperity. With a commitment to pragmatism she consistently delivers tangible improvements for both people and places.

Experience

Experience supporting projects from concept through implementation, serving as a project manager and building capacity at various scales, including town, county, city, and regional levels in Southwest Virginia. Serving as a Naturalist at the Walker Nature Center in Reston VA, as an Interpretive Ranger at Natural Tunnel State Park and even chief shovel operator as a kid for her family’s site planning firm. All these experiences have at their core service to people and place. 

Expertise

• Facilitates effective partnerships to drive economic development
• Develop forward-thinking inclusive outdoor recreational spaces
• Brings a multi-dimensional perspective to project management
• Boots on the ground partnership development experience making connections across divers sectors

Outside of work 

Depending on the season you can find Idalina exploring the Clinch River, playing volleyball or working on her Virginia homestead and tending to goats, chickens, and flower and vegetable gardens with her husband. 

Molly is deeply committed to helping communities feel connected to and inspired by the public lands around them. With expertise in visitor use management, social science, and land conservation, she brings proactive, innovative solutions to wicked outdoor recreation problems. Her strengths lie in strategic planning, systems thinking, compelling storytelling, and collaborative consensus-building. Through her work, Molly strives to thoughtfully balance the protection of natural and cultural resources with meaningful, sustainable visitors’ experiences. 

Experience

Molly joined SE Group in 2025, bringing eight years of experience on complex, large-scale recreation planning projects for national forests and national parks across the country. As a recreation planner and Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Forest Service, she supported strategic and sustainable recreation plan development for national forests and wilderness areas in Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona. Molly also served on the federal Interagency Visitor Use Management Council, advancing science-based visitor use management on public lands. Her work has often involved engagement and collaboration across diverse groups of stakeholders, including federal agencies, municipalities, local businesses, Tribes, and community members. 

Molly has a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Geography from Dartmouth College. 

Expertise

• Visitor Use Management
• Community Engagement
• Recreation Planning and Management
• Park and Open Space Planning

Outside the Office

Whether on a river, a mountain trail, or deep in a canyon, Molly feels most at home outdoors with friends and family. Indoors, she’s equally happy knitting a pair of socks, browsing indie bookstores, or gathering people around the dinner table. She’s often caught gazing up at the stars or kneeling to admire Colorado’s wildflowers.

With foundations in environmental sciences and ecology, Catherine possesses a passion for understanding the interactions communities have with their environment. An insightful go-getter, she is committed to helping create an environment where a community is able to recreate responsibly. As an analyst and planner, she loves complex projects and finds fulfillment working collaboratively with individuals. 

Experience

Catherine’s extensive fieldwork experience and academic background provide a strong base, preparing her for the broad scope of the SE Group’s work. From monitoring water quality for the state of Wyoming to studying alpine ecosystems and climate change in Chamonix, France, Catherine has gained a strong foundation in collaborative decision making, wilderness designation processes, natural resource monitoring, climate change processes, alpine ecosystems, conservation measures, and NEPA processes.

Catherine has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Systems Science and Environment and Natural Resources with a minor in Honors from the University of Wyoming.

Expertise

• Environmental Analysis
• The Wilderness Act
• Collaborative Decision Making
• Climate Change 

Outside of the Office

No matter where she is in the Western U.S. Catherine can be found taking advantage of the vast recreational opportunities. During the summer months she is either grinding down single track on her mountain bike or jumping into a nearby swimming hole. Catherine’s winter sport of choice is figure skating, spending most of her weekends and afternoons coaching and practicing her moves at her local ice rink.  

One of her favorite hobbies, however, is doing woodworking projects. She also loves a long days’ worth of yard work, a good ice cream cone, or a park picnic! 

Tucker is an experienced environmental planner and project manager who enjoys working on complex and impactful projects. He enjoys working at the intersection of outdoor recreation and environmental planning and permitting, two worlds that he is passionate about. Tucker prides himself on his problem solving skills, dedication to his work, and ability to deliver results for clients.

Experience

Tucker joined SE Group in 2024 with 5+ years of experience in the environmental consulting arena at an engineering firm based in northern New Hampshire. Tucker’s experience includes managing projects, NEPA process and documentation, state and federal environmental permitting, technical report generation, and environmental field work. Tucker has a Bachelor of Arts in Earth & Planetary Science from Johns Hopkins University and is a New Hampshire Certified Wetland Scientist (CWS).

Expertise 

• Project management
• NEPA process and documentation
• Environmental permitting and compliance
• Regulatory agency coordination and public involvement facilitation
• Natural resource inventory and evaluation

Outside the office

Living in North Conway, New Hampshire with his wife, son, and black lab Sawyer; Tucker enjoys everything that the Mount Washington Valley has to offer. Tucker grew up ski racing at Pleasant Mountain in western Maine and you can find him on skis (either touring, alpine, or cross-country) most days of the winter. When the snow melts; Tucker enjoys mountain biking, hiking with his family, floating down the Saco River, and live music at local breweries. Tucker also enjoys spending time in the kitchen or at the grill cooking.

Amanda is a detail-oriented, attentive, and driven project manager with a deep passion for the outdoors and public lands. Amanda finds satisfaction in helping clients navigate the complexities of the NEPA process while balancing the competing interests of stakeholders and invested parties. Amanda strongly believes that clear communication and respect are the cornerstones of success and key to building trust with communities.

Experience 

Amanda joined SE Group in March 2024 and contributes a strong educational background in natural resources and environmental law and policy, as well as a broad range of experience working at the federal and state level in natural resources management and planning. Prior to SE Group, Amanda worked at a consulting firm in Colorado focused on recreation area management, national monument management, and wildlife management across Colorado and the western United States. Amanda is also well-versed in public engagement and has planned and facilitated numerous public meetings for a range of complex and controversial projects. 

Amanda has a Juris Doctorate with a Certificate in Natural Resources and Environmental Policy from the University of Colorado Law School and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from Baylor University.

Areas of Expertise

• Project Management
• Environmental Policy + Analysis
• Technical Writing & Research
• Public Engagement and Facilitation

Outside the Office

Amanda loves participating in various Colorado outdoor activities year-round. During the summer, you can find her hiking and camping with her rescue mutt Bridget and working on her wildflower identification skills, while in the winter you can find her snowshoeing in the Indian Peaks Wilderness and winter birding in the foothills around Boulder. She also enjoys volunteering for Community Fruit Rescue, a non-profit organization focused on harvesting excess fruit from fruit trees in Boulder to reduce food waste and minimize wildlife conflicts. She is passionate about travel, whether locally or abroad, and finds great excitement in seeing new sights and trying out new foods while on her travels. Her favorite travel destinations so far are Peru and Croatia.

Claire is an analytical problem solver, eager to understand and improve our built environment. She is quick to find patterns in data and look for the meaning—the “why”—behind numbers and spatial information. She pays close attention to detail, while still considering a systems approach (“seeing the forest among the trees”) as she faces a new challenge. She cares deeply about enhancing the ecological health of the landscapes we call home and promoting equitable access to the outdoors.

Experience 

Claire joined SE Group in 2022 and contributes a mixed educational and professional background. She has field-based experience in parks planning, trail design and stewardship, and ecotourism marketing, as well as two years of project experience in multimodal transportation planning.

Claire has a joint Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Geography from Middlebury College. She is a credentialed Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP).

Expertise 

• Environmental Policy + Analysis
• Technical Writing
• GIS Spatial Analysis + Modeling
• Transportation + Community Planning

Outside the Office

Claire lives her life aiming for maximal aliveness—or, making the most of every moment. Some of her (current) favorite ways to go about this include: running up, down, and around Colorado’s trails; scrambling scree, searching for alpine lakes; mountain adventures on snowshoes or skis; delighting in dappled sunlight and turning leaves; and frenzied (yet focused) kitchen experimentation.

Riley is passionate about designing outdoor recreation spaces that bring people together – he believes there is something unique about how outdoor spaces create a space for developing special connections. Riley brings this enthusiasm to the Design team, where he takes pride in producing high quality graphics and developing site planning strategies that encourage people to find their place in the balance between nature and the built environment. 

Experience

Riley joined SE Group in 2024 with previous experience in public park design in Colorado. He strives to incorporate what he learned in urban planning, as well as his upbringing in Chicago, and to his team’s diverse skill set.
Riley received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Degree with a Minor in Sustainability from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. 

Expertise

• Site Planning and Design
• Conceptual Thinking and Collaboration
• Construction Documentation
• 3D Visualization and Graphic Representation

Outside the Office

Riley grew up learning to mountain bike and ski with his dad in the Midwest, having hopes that one day he would make it out to the Rocky Mountains to put these skills to the test. Now that he is living that dream and settled in Colorado, Riley spends most of his free time outdoors skiing, biking, camping, hiking, climbing - and of course fishing when he needs to ‘slow’ things down. When he isn’t outside, Riley loves to create memories with his friends and continue to develop his skills in the kitchen. 

Jake draws from a broad environmental background in forestry, recreation resource management, ecology, climatology, and economics. He relies on field observation and personal engagement to address a variety of project specific values and understand place specific natural resource concerns. He acknowledges that communities play an integral role in the management of ecological systems and finds inspiration in the critical balance between expanding recreation opportunities and protecting wild landscapes.

Experience

Before joining SE Group, Jake worked in forestry research and consulting in Burlington, VT and recreation resource management in Logan, UT. He received a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Economics from St. Lawrence University, and a M.S. in Ecology from Utah State University. His graduate research explored the management and planning implications connected to spatial distribution and dispersal patterns of recreation behavior and associated impacts on soil substrate, vegetation, and water resources. Jake has published recreation-climate change research in the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies and has two recreation-ecology articles pending publication in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, and the Journal of Applied Geography.

Expertise

• Technical writing and research
• Field forestry and public engagement
• Spatial data analysis and GIS

Outside the Office

Raised in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, Jake grew up ski racing at Attitash Mountain and spring skiing on Mt. Washington. Although he moved out west for graduate school, he has been enjoying deep snow in the Wasatch backcountry and skiing on and off-piste all over Snowbird Mountain. If the season doesn’t provide any opportunities on-snow, Jake can be found mountain biking, hiking, fly fishing and duck hunting.

Belle is a dedicated environmental analyst and planner who is passionate about enhancing the interconnection of recreation and nature. Belle brings a fresh perspective to the field, and her eagerness to embrace new ideas enables her to navigate complex issues and be attuned to the dynamic nature of modern challenges. With an interdisciplinary background and deep-seated curiosity, she continually seeks innovative ways to promote outdoor enjoyment while upholding environmental value.

Experience

Belle specializes in environmental planning and analysis. A young professional with a vibrant outlook, Belle’s passion lies in making outdoor recreation not just enjoyable but unforgettable. Her background in environmental consulting and communications equips her with a strong foundation in understanding the intricacies of environmental projects and conveying complex concepts. Her effective science research skills allow her to delve into complex projects with a fresh perspective. Belle is a recent graduate from CU Boulder with a B.A. in Environmental Studies and a minor in Business.

Expertise

• Environmental Analysis
• Technical writing
• Public Outreach

Outside the Office

Belle’s love for the environment is not confined to her professional life. Raised in New England and currently residing in Colorado, she is often found hiking, skiing, or adventuring from the picturesque shorelines of Connecticut to the majestic flatirons of Boulder. Belle’s interests extend beyond the great outdoors–as a dedicated food enthusiast, she constantly seeks new recipes to experiment with and explore. With a genuine sense of wanderlust, she enjoys exploring new destinations and indulging in travel and adventure.