On the first day of her retirement – after 30 years working as the go-to spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service’s San Juan National Forest in Southwest Colorado – Ann Bond wasn’t able to sleep in.
Not because she wasn’t enjoying her first relaxing day of retirement, with no planned government meetings or calls from pesky reporters. No, she didn’t sleep in because her Maine coon cat, Pippin, wakes her up around 6:30 a.m. every morning.
Still, she is enjoying retirement.
“After getting up at a quarter to six most my life, it’s luxurious!” Bond said. “After working my entire life, I thought retirement would be a difficult transition, and so far, it hasn’t. I’m busy doing something every day.”
Bond retired at the end of February after 30 years of sending out countless messages about fire danger, forest health, planned forest projects and trail closures – to name a few. She worked in the Durango office.
“When people asked what I do, I’d say, ‘I try to explain the government to the people and the people to the government,’” Bond said. “I just feel so lucky to have been able to serve.”
Bond, a Texas native, worked in the news industry in Grand Junction and Albuquerque before coming to the proverbial fork in the road in her career when she was presented with the opportunity to be the Forest Service’s spokeswoman.
A life-long nature-lover who was drawn in her professional life to writing about public land issues, Bond took the dive from the public sector into the canals of the federal government, finding a unique spot for herself there.
She wouldn’t take the decision back. “It was a perfect fork in the road for me,” said Bond.
She cited all the biologists, archaeologists, foresters, engineers, firefighters – the list goes on – she learned from as a favorite part of her job. She was tasked with taking technical information they gave her and translating it in a way that was understandable to the general public.
Over the three decades, Bond worked through many controversial and high-profile issues, serving as the conduit between the Forest Service and the public on the development of oil and gas in the San Juan Basin, as well as the devastating Missionary Ridge Fire in 2002.
“Ann was out there helping us navigate the political minefield for some of these really controversial decisions, and she helped us work much closer with the community,” said Matt Janowiak, Columbine District ranger. “Ann was just a genius at that.”
She has also worked through the years when there was a significant uptick in recreationists using public lands, especially the San Juan National Forest.
“I’m hoping everyone has learned we all have impacts, whether recreating, drilling for minerals, extracting timber or using water – I just wish more people would think of that when they are out there,” Bond said.
Joe Lewandowski, the Durango-based spokesman for Colorado Parks & Wildlife, knows what it’s like to deal with controversies involving public lands.
“As a spokesperson, that’s what you are, a spokesperson,” Lewandowski said. “We have our own opinions, but really, our role is to speak for the agencies we work for ... and Ann was a real pro.”
In retirement, Bond said she will feed her passion for travel, whether that is through road trips around the West, internationally or her favorite pastime of backpacking with her adopted wild burro, Sancho Panza.
But, she said, residents likely haven’t seen the last of her name or work around town. Ever the journalist, she plans to spend some of her time in retirement writing about the topics she knows best – the American Southwest, from public lands to water.
She will also continue her volunteer work around Durango with organizations like Durango Nature Studies, Bear Smart Durango, La Plata County Humane Society and the San Juan Mountains Association, a nonprofit partner of the San Juan National Forest and BLM Tres Rios Field Office.
But like many who step down from a lifetime dedicated to one passion and career, Bond is reflecting on her time at the Forest Service.
“The mission of the Forest Service is to care for the land and serve the people, and it sounds simple but it is not simple,” Bond said. “It’s a big job, and I have so much respect for the public lands professionals I worked with over three decades on the San Juans.”
jromeo@ durangoherald.com
