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Meet the District Employees
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A tireless group of dedicated, caring, serving, honest, thrifty, knowledgeable, and especially, humble employees devote their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to see that the wishes of the Board of Supervisors is carried out.
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| Bryce, outstanding in his field |
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| Bryce Wrigley
Bryce Wrigley has farmed all his life, moving to Delta Junction, Alaska in 1983 where he raises barley, wheat, and straw. He is the Alaska Farm Bureau President and District Manager for the Soil and Water Conservation District. He is active in efforts to increase food security in Alaska and develop new markets for local agriculture, including food and fuel. His family is active in the LDS church and the community and
enjoys camping and 4-wheeling.
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Jeff Durham
Jeff graduated from the University of California at San Diego and work for the District as the Programs Administrator. His job includes program and project planning, development, and implementation. Jeff works closely with other agencies and organizations to build effective “grass roots” conservation partnerships. He is an active member of the local Baptist Church, curator of the Sullivan Roadhouse Museum and a professional facilitator. He coaches youth hockey, little league baseball and enjoys riding dirt bikes, cross-country skiing, mountain biking and snow machining with his family.
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| Jeff, working on a District road upgrade |
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| Colin is the GIS Guru for the District |
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| Colin Barnard
Colin Barnard received a B.S. degree in Natural Resources Management: Plant, Animal and Soil Sciences with an emphasis in Rural Development from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He has over 10 years experience working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
He works for the District as the GIS Conservation Specialist. Before that, he worked as a professional gardener, a forester, and as a soil conservationist with NRCS in American Samoa and Delta Junction. Colin enjoys fishing, hunting, hiking and generally just being outside.
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Tammie Kovalenko
Tammie graduated from Western State College of Colorado with a degree in Environmental Studies and Recreation. She works with students teaching conservation, farming in the boreal forest, and directs the speech and poster contests. She spends a lot of her time in the summer scouting fields for weeds.
She says the best part about working for the conservation district is that her office is the great outdoors. She enjoys gardening, picking berries, and leading youth camps with her husband, Charley, throughout Alaska.
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| Tammie scouts for noxious weeds |
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| Chuck goes to great lengths to complete his research. I don't know how he held on through this earthquake though. |
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Chuck Mancuso
Charles (Chuck) Mancuso worked for 29 years agricultural research. He retired from the University of Idaho in 2000. His interests include soil moisture measurement, plant-soil-water relationships, irrigation scheduling, ground water monitoring, and monitoring changes in soil properties brought on by use. You can see some methods and ideas for these interests, along with results of this work, on his web page at http//www.aecdatalog.com/. Also on the web page are daily pan evaporation, and growing degree day data, taken in the Sawmill Creek area.Chuck also builds systems for the data logging of environmental conditions, used in research and daily farm operation.
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Gary Cooper
Gary is the Water Quality Coordinator for the District. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. He taught science in the Delta-Greely School District from 1978-2001. After retirement, he set up the water quality monitoring program for the District. Gary thinks the lakes and rivers in the Delta area are some of the nicest in Alaska and he enjoys working outdoors collecting data about them. In his spare time, he likes to fish, bike, kayak, and cross-country ski.
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| Gary monitors water quality at Clearwater Lake |
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Meghan Lene
Meghan recently joined our staff as the Agricultural Specialist. She holds a degree in Natural Resources Management from the University of Minnesota, Crookston. She was employed with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as a Soil Conservationist in Minnesota and transferred to Delta Junction with NRCS in 2006. Meghan grew up working on a dairy, beef, and grain farm and has assisted producers on various agricultural and conservation related issues while working with NRCS. Her hobbies include hunting, fishing, kayaking, motor biking, ATVing, and skiing.
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Trudy Pink
Trudy grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Trudy started playing in the dirt (soil) at a young age and has been grubby ever since. She has a degree in conservation and soil science from the University of Wisconsin—River Falls. Prior to being employed by the district, she worked for NRCS for 11 years doing soil surveys in Minnesota and Alaska. Trudy is an expert on the soils in the Delta Junction/Ft. Greely Area. Currently she is working on locating gravels and making wetland determinations. She enjoys traveling (especially to warm sunny places), camping, gardening, playing in the dirt, fishing and reading.
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