Click here to contact the Colorado Chapter Board
David A. Lien - Colorado BHA Co-Chair
David grew up in the small northern Minnesota town of Grand Rapids and started fishing at the age of four. He shot his first squirrel when he was eight, was hunting ruffed grouse at age eleven and started deer hunting the next fall. At thirteen, David killed his first deer with a Ruger .44 Magnum rifle handed down to him by his grandfather, World War II/U.S. Navy veteran, John Boyce.
After completing high school, David was offered an Air Force ROTC scholarship at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and went on to graduate with a BA in political science and second lieutenant bars. He completed four years of military service as a missile launch officer at Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, while also completing a master’s degree in administration (MSA). After finishing his service commitment and a second undergraduate degree (in accounting), David accepted another federal job and moved to Colorado.
David served on the BHA national Board of Directors for eight years. He is the founder and former chair of the Minnesota BHA chapter and has been either the chair or co-chair of the Colorado chapter since July 2006. He’s also a Life Member of both Trout Unlimited (TU) and the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA). In addition, David has climbed all 54 of Colorado’s fourteeners (i.e., peaks over 14,000 feet), six of the Seven Summits (the highest peaks on each continent), and has set foot on each of the fifty state highpoints. He has also traveled to forty-one countries and been to all seven continents.
David has contributed stories, articles, essays, letters and photos to numerous periodicals, books and newspapers, including American Hunter, the Backcountry Journal, Boundary Waters Journal, Bugle and Fur-Fish-Game. He has also published six books, including Age-Old Quests II: Hunting, Climbing & Trekking and, most recently, Hunting for Experience II: Tales of Hunting & Habitat Conservation.
In 2014 David was recognized by Field & Stream as a “Hero of Conservation.” He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Melinda, and works as a federal financial institution examiner for the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).
Don Holmstrom - Colorado BHA Co-Chair
Don was born and raised in Southern California near Pasadena. He was fishing at the age of 5 in the salt water of California and in the trout streams of New Mexico. His grandfather, who lived in New Mexico, started taking him hunting for doves and waterfowl at the age of 10. His big game hunting started when he moved to Colorado in the mid-70s. “I transitioned to bow in the early 1980s,” Don said. “Today I primarily hunt and fish in Colorado and the greater Rockies.”
He hunts both small and big game, including elk, deer, antelope, buffalo, grouse, turkeys, waterfowl and pheasants; and fishes primarily for trout, but also bass, salmon and catfish. Don was an early BHA member, joining in 2005, the same year the Colorado chapter (the first official BHA state chapter) formed. He was also one of the chapter’s first Habitat Watch Volunteers (HWVs), joining their ranks in September 2009, the same month the program started. In addition, Don has been the chapter HWV Program Coordinator since early 2017.
Don went to college at Stanford University and Law School at the University of Colorado. He worked for a French oil company for 19 years and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board for 16 years as Director of the Western Regional Office. He has a legal background in occupational safety and health, environmental law, toxic tort and administrative law. Don lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Nathan Kettner - Colorado BHA Treasurer
The Colorado chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers recently appointed Nathan Kettner to serve on their Executive Leadership Team (ELT) as treasurer.
Nathan grew up in a small town in southern Minnesota where his dad was the town butcher and had a very traditional introduction to hunting and fishing. “My dad and grandfather took me out deer and pheasant hunting in the fall, ice fishing and fox hunting in the winter, and lake fishing in the spring and summer,” Nathan said.
He attended public grade school, but went to a private school in Wisconsin for high school. “It was a life-changing decision,” Nathan explained. “Living in a dormitory in high school was the best time of my life and I also met my wife there.” Nathan went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and graduated with a BS in Physics. He moved to Colorado for a space industry job, obtained a Masters of Engineering in Space Systems and then switched from the operations side (launch and on-orbit maintenance) to the ground software side.
Since moving to Colorado Nathan has focused mostly on big game hunting with a smattering of small game, turkey and spin-casting for trout. “About ten years ago I got into archery hunting and that has been my passion ever since,” he said. “I have been lucky enough to take several nice bulls and even a bighorn with my bow. I have hunted with just about every legal method, but spend most of my time in the mountains with a compound bow or rifle.”
Nathan moved to Monument, Colorado, from Colorado Springs during 2019. “The semi-rural life is great!” he exclaimed. “I joined BHA in 2019 after hearing high praise from Steven Rinella and Randy Newberg on their podcasts,” he added. Nathan is a long-time RMEF member and CPW volunteer and has been looking for a way to contribute year-round. “The treasurer position seems like it will be a great fit,” he said. Nathan is stepping up to replace David Kinn, who has been the Colorado BHA treasurer since May 2018.
Ivan James - Vice Chair/Legislative Liaison
Ivan was raised on a farm in northeast Kansas and started fishing at the age of four. He was handling a shotgun by age ten, followed by a bow at thirteen. “I grew up hunting small game and waterfowl, and fishing ponds and streams, then got into trout fishing and ocean fishing when I moved to New England,” he says. “Now fishing is secondary to bowhunting.”
His hunting-angling mentors, and best friends, were his father, uncles and two cousins. “They are all gone now, but hardly a day goes by that I do not think of them and the great times that we had together,” Ivan said. He went on to spend a decade honing his skills as a dedicated muzzleloader hunter and has been a traditional bowhunter for over 20 years.
And during his hunting career Ivan has had the opportunity to bowhunt 9 of the 10 big game species extant in Colorado, and has been fortunate to bowhunt in 10 states and two foreign countries, including three Canadian provinces. His most memorable backcountry hunts were in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness, Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness, and northwest of the Alaska Range near Denali/Mount McKinley.
Ivan has a BS in civil engineering and MS in water resources engineering from the University of Kansas and completed advanced graduate work in environmental engineering at Harvard. He spent over 40 years with the U.S. Geological Survey in their Water Resources Division and has done consulting in hydraulics, hydrology and statistical analysis since then.
After retiring, Ivan also spent 13 years on the Colorado Bowhunters Association Board of Directors, the last 11 as their Vice-Chair for Legislation. Ivan lives north of Colorado Springs (between Black Forest and Monument), but also has a farm in Kansas and has been “married to the same understanding woman” for over 50 years. They have two sons, both trained as aerospace engineers.
Janet George, Board Member At-Large
Janet George volunteered as a Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Habitat Watch Volunteer for the Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest. She was born and raised in southwestern Michigan. More specifically, the area between Grand Rapids and Holland, only 15 miles from Lake Michigan’s shoreline.
“My Dad started taking me fishing when I was 4 years old on pan fish and I started small game hunting at 12 years old near my parent’s home in Michigan,” Janet said. “We continued to enjoy time together fishing for many years on Lake Michigan for salmon and lake trout. I learned hunting primarily on my own starting in my teens taking small game with archery and pellet gun, and then I started bowhunting big game in the late 1970s.”
Janet started big game hunting elk with a bow in Colorado when she was a student at Colorado State University. “A husband-and-wife team who owned the local archery shop in Fort Collins helped me out when I began bowhunting big game and so they were my mentors for a few years,” Janet explained. “I harvested my first big game animal, an elk with a bow, in 1980 at a time when there were few, if any, formal mentor programs for hunting. It’s great that there are mentor programs today for new hunters and that there are more women hunters who can serve as mentors.”
Janet has a B.S. degree in Zoology and a M.S. in Wildlife Biology, both from Colorado State University, and worked as a ranger for the City of Boulder Open Space for four years followed by a 25+ year career as a wildlife biologist with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. She retired from CPW as the Northeast Region Senior Wildlife Biologist in 2019.
Since then, Janet has been freelance writing, including a 2020 article about mountain goats in the Backcountry Journal. She also volunteers for the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society on specific issues in northeastern Colorado, including as their representative to Outside 285, one of Colorado’s regional outdoor partnerships. More recently, Tim Brass asked her to represent BHA on NoCo Places 2050, another regional outdoor partnership.
“My husband, Scott, introduced me to fly fishing shortly after we were married which is now my preferred method of angling,” Janet said. “I primarily fly fish for trout because that’s what we have the most of in Colorado, but I’m impressed by the tug of a smallmouth bass on a fly rod. So, when I visit my brother in Michigan, we go after smallies.”
“I fly fish close to home year-round and travel to Wyoming and Montana. My favorite fly-fishing excursions involve hiking or backpacking to wilderness lakes,” she added. “I set a goal to fly fish all the lakes that support trout in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Areas which I completed in 2019. Since then, I’ve fished all the lakes in the Never Summers and James Peak Wilderness Areas and I’m foraying into the Rawahs with my fly rod this summer.”
Janet hunts big game with a recurve bow or rifle. She also hunts pheasants, grouse, and snowshoe hares “with a .22 rifle or revolver so I don’t lose arrows in deep snow.” “I hunt big game in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska,” she added. “I also hunt pheasants and grouse in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska with my husband and our Labrador retriever, Allie.” Janet joined BHA in 2013.
“I’m not sure if I heard about BHA from a single source or, more likely, multiple sources and people,” she explained. “I was acquainted with Larry Fischer through traditional archery circles, and he talked about BHA. Also, when I was a biologist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, I saw firsthand the effectiveness of BHA on public land access and conservation issues. Access to public lands with healthy populations of fish and wildlife are important to me and my family.”
Janet also volunteers for Boulder County Parks and Open Space on a variety of projects related to wildlife and agriculture and serves on the Boulder County Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee. She lives in Longmont with her husband, and they have one adult son who hunts, fly fishes and enjoys many activities on our public lands.
“Janet George is a big hitter in the conservation world and a tremendous advocate for wildlife in Colorado,” Colorado BHA Board member Dan Parkinson said. “She recently wrote an outstanding comment letter on Jackson Mountain.” “I’ve known and worked with Janet and her husband for well over 20 years and yes she will be an outstanding addition to our cadre,” chapter Vice Chair Ivan James added. “I’ve corresponded with Janet about regional Partnerships and her efforts to map pirate trails in her area,” Board member Craig Grother said. “With her CPW experience and enthusiasm for wildlife habitat, she will be a great addition to our chapter.”
Craig Grother - Vice Chair/Central West Slope Regional Director
Craig was born and raised in southern California and has lived in the western U.S. his entire life. “My parents took my brother and me camping in the mountains and beaches of California and Mexico,” he says. “My dad took us fishing in the lakes and streams of the Sierras, and fishing in the ocean off the coast of southern California and northern Mexico.”
Grandpa Otto, from Iowa, was Craig’s first hunting mentor. “My grandfather introduced me to pheasant hunting on his farm in Iowa at an early age as well, first as the assistant bird dog, and then as one of the hunters,” he said. “My biggest ocean-fishing mentor has been my nephew, Nick, and I continue to learn more about trout fishing from my buddy John here in Colorado.”
Craig has a BS in Wildlife Biology from Utah State University. He started working with the U.S. Forest Service soon after graduation, which led to a 33-year career as a wildlife biologist on ranger districts in Idaho, Nevada and Colorado. Craig worked the last 20 years of his career for the Norwood and Ouray Ranger Districts of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forests in Colorado. He retired in 2009.
Craig joined BHA in 2007 while attending a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation convention in Reno, Nevada, and has served as a Habitat Watch Volunteer (HWV) for the Uncompahgre National Forest since 2009.[1] “I mostly hunt elk and deer on public lands, as well as turkey and grouse,” Craig adds. “I also fish for trout in Colorado and Idaho, and make the trip to Southeast Alaska to fish for salmon and halibut with my nephew off the Prince of Whales Island. I am fortunate to have a son-in-law from western Kansas and my chocolate lab, Ozzie, and I get to hunt pheasant on their farm around the Thanksgiving holiday.”
During 2013, Craig received one of BHA’s highest national awards, the Aldo Leopold Award, which recognizes significant contributions made towards preserving wildlife habitat.[2] During 2015, Craig was recognized as BHA’s Volunteer of the Month (for January), and was appointed by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to serve on the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area Advisory Council. He has been Colorado BHA’s Central West Slope Regional Director since January 2016.[3]
“I spend time giving back to the conservation of our fish and wildlife resources by teaching hunter education and as an active member of BHA,” Craig says. “Through BHA, I currently serve as the sportsman’s representative on the Colorado Forest Health Advisory Council and Adaptive Management Group for the Spruce Beetle Epidemic and Aspen Decline Management Response program on the GMUG National Forest.” Craig and his wife, Sheila, live in Norwood, Colorado.
Brittany Parker, Board Member At-Large
Brittany was born and raised in Rifle, Colorado. She started fishing with her dad when she could hold a rod but came into hunting later in life. Now, she hunts everything from elk, turkeys, pronghorn, and waterfowl. She currently lives in Eagle, CO and works for the Eagle County Open Space and Natural Resources Department as the Conservation Project Manager. Before her role with the county she worked for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers as the Colorado Stewardship Coordinator and then the Habitat Stewardship Manager where she helped to enhance and grow the organization’s stewardship program.
When it’s not hunting season she’s out looking for critters, fishing, advocating for public lands, water, and wildlife,reading books, or surfing and paddling rivers.
“I have a passion for land and wildlife conservation,” Brittany explained. “Doug Duren’s saying, It’s not ours, it’s just our turn has become a mantra and informs how I engage with and advocate for the land. I hope, in my role on BHA’s Colorado Executive Leadership team, I can continue to advocate on behalf of the hunting community and our public lands, waters, and wildlife to ensure it exists for enjoyment and enhancement of future generations."
Her favorite books include,
'Arctic Dreams' Barry Lopez
'A Sand County Almanac' Aldo Leopold
'Animal Dialogues' Craig Childs
'Desert Solitaire' Edward Abbey
'Wild New World' Dan Flores
'Encounters with the Archdruid' John Mcphee
Noel Worden - Events Coordinator
Noel grew up hunting and fishing in central Wisconsin. “I was ice fishing with my dad as soon as I could walk,” he said. “There’s not much else to do in the dead of winter in central Wisconsin. Then it was summer lake fishing, then on the river for walleyes when I got a bit older.” At about 10 Noel was allowed the privilege of sitting in a stand “scouting” for deer during bow season. “I was bow and rifle hunting as soon as I was old enough,” he added. “Everything I did was with my father and his hunting/fishing buddies.”
Noel has a fine art photography degree but has shifted careers a few times since college. He’s currently a software engineer. Noel primarily hunts/fishes in Colorado. “I hunt for most of the big game species: antelope, deer, elk,” he said. “The rest of the year I’m either fly fishing or ice fishing.” Noel hunts with a rifle and muzzleloader but is looking to add archery to the mix. He joined BHA after hearing about us from a few different podcasts and seeing stickers in the parking lots of his local fly shops. Noel lives in Loveland.
[1] For additional information on Colorado BHA’s Habitat Watch Volunteer program see: http://www.backcountryhunters.org/index.php/state-chapters/colorado-bha/habitat-watchmen
[2] For additional information see: “Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Recognize Two Conservationists.” Fly Rod and Reel.com: 3/25/13. http://www.flyrodreel.com/blogs/tedwilliams/2013/march/backcountry-cnoservationists; “BHA’s Craig Grother & David Petersen Recognized For Protecting Backcountry Habitat.” AmmoLand.com: 3/25/13. http://www.ammoland.com/2013/03/bhas-craig-grother-david-petersen-recognized-for-protecting-backcountry-habitat/#axzz2OZN0hH00
[3] “Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Appoint Central West Slope Regional Director.” AmmoLand.com: 1/26/16. http://www.ammoland.com/2016/01/colorado-backcountry-hunters-anglers-appoint-regional-director/