Meegan Flenniken
For 28 years, Meegan Flenniken has watched bubbles on maps become landscapes. Hired fresh out of graduate school when the office was a Quonset hut, she built landowner relationships rooted in authenticity and time, turning conservation vision into protected places that will endure.
Written by Meegan Flenniken
One of the unexpected gifts of spending 28 years with Larimer County Natural Resources has been watching so many projects evolve from vision to reality—seeing bubbles on Open Lands Master Plan maps gradually fill in as conserved landscapes.
K-Lynn & Meegan, 2004
I was hired fresh out of graduate school when the Department's main office was in a Quonset hut, doing everything from management planning to conservation easement monitoring, managing construction projects, and supervising the trails and resource management programs. In those early years, I was fortunate to have K-Lynn Cameron as a mentor. She trusted me with real responsibility and helped shape not just my career, but a team grounded in shared purpose—a culture that still defines our work today.
Working with landowners and listening to their stories has taught me that trust isn't built through plans or policies, but through authenticity and time. Many of these relationships have grown into lasting conservation legacies. Beyond conserving Larimer County's special places, we've turned possibility into something people can see, stand on, walk through, and trust will endure long after we're gone.
Land conservation and stewardship are, by definition, a long-term promise. Ensuring both the land and the important resources it contains are truly protected in perpetuity has been central to our work. We advance this through conservation easements, securing instream flows, restoring habitat at scale, building sustainable trails and infrastructure, and shaping county policies that guide thoughtful development around these places.
Time spent in the field with colleagues and partners has created many of my most meaningful memories and closest friendships. Exploring new landscapes, encountering waterfalls, discovering beads in anthills, backpacking in greenback cutthroat trout habitat, scouting trail alignments, finding rattlesnake hibernacula, lighting prescribed fires, locating gypsum caves, miscalculating long hikes with too little water, guessing gate combos, watching bison run free for the first time, and seeing our last section of the Poudre River Trail come together are just a few of those memorable experiences.
As I reflect on the last 30 years, what stands out is that the success of our work rests on a solid foundation that was strengthened and adapted over three decades through the consistent dedication of staff committed to conserving and stewarding lands while fostering connections to the community. I'm honored to have played a role in that continuity.
