A Final Word from Mason Voehl, Executive Director
Friends,
It is with great sadness that I must announce that after five years with Amargosa Conservancy, my time has come to ride off into that wild and glorious desert sunset.
I won’t be leaving the work of conservation behind, but I will be embracing it in a new role: the role of parent. Watching my young daughter discover the world around her has made me realize that, at least for the time being, my highest and best use is teaching her what it means to be human in this wild and beautiful more-than-human world she has inherited.
As excited as I am to lean fully into being a father, the decision is both as bitter and as sweet as an Amargosa spring. These last five years spent leading this organization through the proverbial woods (or, perhaps, proverbial creosote?) have been the most meaningful and formative not only of my career, but of my life. The friendships I have made, and the encounters I have had within one of the most extraordinary and singular landscapes I’ve ever known, will remain a part of me always.
When I first stepped foot in the Amargosa River Basin, the challenge offered to me was to become part of an organization with nearly two decades of conservation achievements to its name, and to try to build on those successes in a new era of American conservation. I still remember those early mornings during my first summer on the Carson Slough, picking my way across the alkali salt crust from monitoring well to monitoring well, all the while wondering how to wrap my arms around the sheer scale of threats and opportunities pouring into the landscape around me.
Looking around now, I simply cannot believe how far we’ve come, or my dumb luck in essentially stumbling into a community of some of the most devoted and skilled conservationists in the West. It is because of these people that I have never felt daunted by the threats facing Ash Meadows, the complexities of restoring riparian habitat along the Amargosa Wild & Scenic River, or any other challenge that has come our way. And it is because of these people — our staff, our board of directors, our partners, our funders, and YOU, our members — that I know the best is truly yet to come for Amargosa Conservancy.
As our organization undergoes a leadership transition, hiring both our next Executive Director and our first Advocacy Manager, we are poised to move into this next chapter with more capacity than ever before to meet this important moment in the Amargosa River Basin. With the support of this incredible community, I know more big wins for the river are on the horizon.
To every person who has made a donation, signed a petition, shared one of our stories on social media, written and mailed a note of encouragement, or simply spoken the name of the Amargosa River with respect and reverence, I say thank you. You truly cannot know what these acts of courage and kindness have meant to me, and to every person within Amargosa Conservancy, over these five intense and wonderful years.
A friend of the river will always be a friend of mine.
Onward,
