From River Guide to Water Official to County Collaborator
Greg Felt, elected Chaffee County Commissioner for District 2 in 2016, is running for reelection.
“My first term as Chaffee County Commissioner has been an incredible experience and I want to thank the voters for entrusting me with this position,” Felt commented. “I am running unopposed for a second term but I do not take that fact for granted. On the contrary, it is extremely humbling and adds to the burden of responsibility I feel for making the next four years really count.” But he adds, “The last 12 months have been decidedly different from the first 30.”
Felt moved to Chaffee County from Northern California in 1985 to work as a river guide. He continued through college, becoming a whitewater company manager before starting Canyon Marine Whitewater Expeditions in 1992 and ArkAnglers in 1998, where he continues as part-owner.
During his years outfitting, Felt became very involved in natural resource-related issues, resulting in his appointment to a number of positions including as Chairman of the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Association Citizen’s Task Force, a member of the Department of Regulatory Agencies’ Outfitter Registration Committee, a member of the Colorado Board of the Trust for Public Land, and Director of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District.
He has added positions with the Arkansas Basin Roundtable and the Chaffee County Economic Development Corporation. In 2017, a panel of judges appointed him Chaffee County Director for the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, and in February of 2020, he was appointed Arkansas River Basin Director for the Colorado Water Conservation Board by Governor Polis.
“The first two-and-a-half years in office were a combination of a deep dive into the many facets of county government while simultaneously embarking on a number of initiatives,” said Felt. “The most noteworthy of these was the Envision Chaffee County community engagement process which involved about 1,500 county residents.
It resulted in a number of important projects: passage of the 1A ballot measure and creation of Chaffee Common Ground; the formation of the Chaffee County Community Foundation; the production of a Next Generation Community Wildfire Protection Plan and creation of the Forest Health Council; the Recreation in Balance Program and current movement forward on a Community Recreation and Resource Protection Plan; and the establishment of some critical conservation easements that will protect wildlife habitat, the viewscape, and continue the many ecological functions provided by our working lands.”
Felt said that recently, the realignment of the Fire Protection District Boundary Realignment for the Methodist Front has been important, and finally completing the revegetation agreement with Pueblo West for the Hill Ranch properties has been satisfying.
He was named a Gates Family Foundation Fellow in May of 2019 and spent most of that June at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in their Senior Executives in State and Local Government program. In the Fall of 2019, the Decker Fire broke out and immediately following containment he engaged in the post-fire recovery effort.
This year has brought new challenges. “In the midst of this, the COVID-19 situation exploded and again I took the lead for the county on I immediately directed my focus to the full-time work of coordinating both the public health and economic recovery efforts,” He said. Critical to this was the establishment of the Community Leadership Roundtable, a group of 30-plus leaders that includes commissioners, mayors, administrators, superintendents, department heads, and representatives from our congressional delegation.”
“[It] took cooperation and collaboration among a wide range of citizens, elected officials, and government professionals. However, I have also been told repeatedly that my leadership was essential to the positive outcomes that have resulted. Looking at it objectively, I think that is the truth. The voters put their faith in me and I did everything I could to earn that. Again, it has been an incredible experience,” Felt added.
“During the next four years, the voters can expect more of the same from me,” he said. “2020 has made me wary of prognostication but I do want to continue to do the work that is the business of the county, continue to innovate new community-based responses to the challenges we face, and work to strengthen the foundations under the many programs I have initiated so that they will persist long after I am out of office. There is much to learn from the adversity we have faced – leading us through it and trying to glean those lessons are my priorities going forward,”
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