A native of Owensboro, Ky., and resident of Frankfort for 45 years, Steve Coleman has been in awe of Kentucky’s diverse and beautiful landscapes from a young age. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Forestry from the University of Kentucky, he’s had a robust career serving in the Kentucky Division of Conservation. He began his work in 1976 as a Soil Scientist, mapping soils in the cooperative soil survey party in Boyle and Mercer Counties. He assumed leadership of the Division’s Soil Survey Program in 1979, became Assistant Director in 1982, and took over as the Director of the Division of Conservation in 1994, a position he held until his retirement in Dec. 2012 .

Steve currently serves as a Conservation District Supervisor on the Franklin County Conservation District and as chair of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Water Management Working Group. He has served on numerous conservation-focused boards, and is currently a board member for the Kentucky Association of Conservation Districts, a nonprofit representing Kentucky’s 121 Soil Conservation Districts. Additionally, he’s been the Kentucky Coordinator for the Leopold Conservation Award since 2013 and serves on the board for Kentucky Agriculture and Environment in the Classroom, a nonprofit providing agricultural, environmental and practical living literacy programs across the Bluegrass.

Steve is married with two sons, two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. He’s actively involved with St. Paul United Methodist Church, serving as church treasurer since 1989, and his hobbies include model railroad trains, traveling, coin collecting and the outdoors.

Born and raised in Franklin County, Lee Troutwine and his wife of 56 years, Betty, live on a 120-acre farm on Elkhorn Creek in the Peaks Mill valley.

Lee graduated from Elkhorn High School and then attended the University of Kentucky, where he played in the famous Marching 100 Band. He left college for the United States Navy, spent two years in Morocco, went aboard the USS Forrest B. Royal, and was involved in the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Blockade. After his time in the service, Lee joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, DC, and met Betty. The couple returned to Kentucky, and Lee completed his degree in Political Science from Kentucky State University.

Much of Lee’s career was spent in state government, including as the appointed Commissioner of the Department for Local Government under Governor Wilkinson and Kentucky’s representative to the Federally Funded Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission.

Outside of work, Lee has been involved in many boards and commissions, including three terms as the Chair of Franklin County School System; past president of the Frankfort Rotary Club, Downtown Frankfort Inc. and the Dry Stone Conservancy; Kentucky’s representative to the Appalachian Regional Commission; Kentucky State University’s legislative liaison for two years; and a member of VFW Post 4075.

Ask Lee your dry stone construction questions: He’s a Journeyman Mason (level 2) with the Dry Stone Conservancy and, in 2009, won the National Drystone Laying Competition Amateur Class.

Lee is on the Executive Committee and the Performance Excellence Committee.

Nancy Osborne’s respect for the land took root on her grandparents’ farms in Hardin County and deepened on a northern Norway farm as a 17-year-old exchange student. Her Kentucky heritage, nurtured by Nordic cultural and environmental ethics, informed her public service career spanning three decades. Starting with the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources Secretary’s Office in the mid-1970s, she worked with state environmental policy and land management. Upon earning her law degree, she clerked for the Kentucky Court of Appeals and the Kentucky Supreme Court. At the Legislative Research Commission for 25 years, Nancy was a fiscal analyst with the budget committee and the capital projects and bond oversight committee.

Nancy has been a Woods & Waters Land Trust supporter since the organization’s inception, and she has been on the Land Extravaganza planning committee for several years. (You may know her as the salad lady, as she has become pretty good at making salads using local ingredients for our dozens of event guests.)

Nancy has been restoring her 1800s home on the Kentucky River near Lock 4 since 1980. She resides in Northern Franklin County in a home and studio she helped design on 12 acres near the Kentucky River.

Nancy is the Board Treasurer and Chair of the WWLT Performance Excellence Committee.

Michelle Tackett Singer has more than 20 years of experience in federal and state grants management. From 2005 to 2019, she served as the Director of Finance and Grants Management for the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, a statewide coalition of partners and advocates working to end homelessness, where she managed federal and state grants in the millions of dollars and oversaw the nonprofit’s financial and budgetary matters. She temporarily served, concurrent with her primary duties, as interim Executive Director during the nonprofit’s transition times. Michelle currently works for the Kentucky Housing Corporation as the Grants Management Supervisor.

Michelle hails from Scott County, where her family has lived for six generations. Her love of the land was birthed during her childhood while spending weekends on her maternal grandfather’s farm in Grant County, fishing, roaming the outdoors, picking wildflowers and hunting for arrowheads. Now, with three kids of her own, she tries to spend as much time outdoors as she can, hiking, gardening and exploring.

Michelle is passionate about the Commonwealth and its history, land and people. She’s dedicated her life to preservation, whether it be historic preservation or preservation of natural areas, and wants future generations to have the same opportunities to have a relationship with the land that she’s been able to.

Getting people off the couch and into the outdoors is one of Nathan Depenbrock’s main missions. This is evident in the two businesses, Canoe Kentucky and Kentucky River Tours, that he owns with his wife, Allison.

Nathan grew up in Northern Kentucky, graduated from Covington Catholic High School, attended Western Kentucky University, and then became the head animal keeper at Kentucky Down Under in Horse Cave. He moved to Frankfort in 2002. He believes Kentucky has some of the most wonderful, beautiful and scenic countryside in the world, which is often taken for granted.

When Kentucky River Tours—known as the Bourbon Boat—began offering tours in 2018, he and Allison wanted some of the proceeds to go to a local nonprofit associated with conservation, as land cannot be recreated or made again. They knew Woods & Waters Land Trust to be the right organization, and Nathan joined the board in 2019.

You might see Nathan out canoeing, kayaking, SUPing, backpacking, hunting or trapping. Additionally, he is a Merchant Mariner (Boat Captain), holds a US Coast Guard 100-Ton Master’s License, and is a Wilderness First Responder and EMT. Nathan is also involved in the American Canoe Association as an Instructor Trainer in Whitewater Canoe and as a Swift Water Rescue Technician for both the ACA and Rescue 3.

Nathan believes his first purpose is as a follower of Jesus Christ; second is as a faithful husband to Allison and father to Boone, Dane and Isla; and third is to encourage others to share the outdoors.

Emma Strong, gets her dedication to natural spaces from her mother, Diane, who motivates their whole family to spend time outside.

Emma sees the whole picture in protecting our natural areas and believes waterways are extremely important because clean water is an essential part of life. She also views land conservation as essential for protecting wildlife as well as trees, which absorb carbon dioxide.

In addition to being on the board for Woods & Waters Land Trust, Emma has interned with Kentucky State University Aquaculture & Aquaponics and Joanna Hay Productions. In fact, Emma shot and produced many of the video segments in Woods & Waters Land Trust’s first-ever virtual Land Extravaganza fundraiser, in 2020. She’s a volunteer at LIFE House for Animals, too, because she “cannot get enough of dogs.”

Emma is pictured here with Izzy, a rescue pug from LIFE House for Animals, who is technically her brother’s dog but an all-around “love potato.”

Emma serves on the Outreach and Fundraising Committees.

More information to come.

From historic buildings to essential open space, preserving the character of the community is Moira Wingate’s passion. Becoming involved with Woods and Waters Land Trust was a natural fit for her.

A lifelong Franklin County resident, Moira currently lives in downtown Frankfort, but her love of the outdoors is rooted in her grandparents’ 300 acre Barren County farm. Her interest in nature and conservation led her to a concentration in environmental studies in college. This love of the outdoors recently led Moira and her husband, Matt, to purchase a farm in Western Franklin County. 

Here in the Lower Kentucky River Watershed, Moira is particularly taken by the seasons. “I say summer is my favorite, but then in the middle of summer, I feel like I’m about ready for the fall, and before fall goes on for too long, we get winter. They all arrive with the perfect timing.” she says.

In addition to protecting our outdoor spaces, Moira is interested in protecting the historical character of our built environment. She and Matt have renovated a number of buildings in Frankfort, careful to maintain the historical aspect of the place.

Moira is currently the assistant county attorney in Franklin County. You can often find her kayaking the Elkhorn Creek or visiting Salato Wildlife Education Center with her son, Salen.

Mary Margaret was the Library Director at Georgetown College for twenty years, until her retirement in 2011. She has extensive experience in accreditation, budgeting, and personnel. Previously she worked for twelve years as a research analyst at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, including three years as a seed purity analyst.

Mary Margaret grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. Her interest in nature began when she was 8 years old and spent two weeks at Girl Scout camp. She also spent many happy summers on an aunt’s diversified farm in Grant County, Kentucky, where she gained an appreciation for locally-grown food, sustainable agriculture, and the hard work needed on a family farm to make a living but also to improve the land for future generations.

She and her husband Eugene Lacefield own 330 acres in Henry County, much of which is now a Kentucky State Nature Preserve. About 200 of those acres are in woods, including a mile-long stretch on Drennon Creek. They built their own solar house in the 1980’s and more recently installed solar panels that supply 90% of their electrical power needs.

Mary Margaret served as the Chair of the WWLT Performance Excellence Committee for many years, Secretary of the Board and as Treasurer of the Kentucky Land Trusts Coalition (KLTC).

Morgan Jones grew up hiking, camping, cross-country skiing and biking in the woods of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The area was in the process of being developed from rural farmland and forest to subdivisions, shopping centers and office parks, and through this he learned the importance of land conservation and good stewardship. He earned a degree in forest resources management from West Virginia University and worked as a tree planter and consulting forester before moving to Kentucky in 1983 to work as a forester for the Division of Forestry in Graves and Bell Counties. He moved to Frankfort in 1988 and later served as the coordinator of the Wild Rivers Program at the Division of Water for 19 years. There, he initiated a successful land acquisition program for river corridor lands, using the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund. He is now retired and fighting exotic invasive plants and messing with trees in northeastern Shelby County.

Morgan served on the Board of Directors 2011-2020.

Andrew has lived in Owen and Franklin Counties all his life. He has worked for the state Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, the Legislative Research Commission (LRC), and the City of Frankfort as city arborist and manager of Cove Spring Park/Nature Preserve.

Andrew’s love and appreciation for nature began in childhood on the family farm which he and his brothers cherish. He has a Master’s Degree in Botany/Ecology from the University of Kentucky.

Andrew was a founding board member and served on the Board of Directors from 2007 to 2020.

Kay, like many on the Board, learned about conservation from someone early in life, her grandfather. On their family farm in Tennessee, he was keenly aware that when bottomlands along the river were used for row crops, erosion gullies formed. Having a farmer’s respect and awareness of the land, he repaired the gullies and no longer tilled the bottomland. He continually reminded Kay and her family that they’re not making more land so you should take care of it.

Kay received a degree in Biology, learning more about and developing her healthy respect for the natural relationships among animals, plants, and their habitat. She has come to believe that the best chance of keeping our planet healthy is to preserve these complex natural systems. She started her career teaching and then worked in Kentucky state government in environmental protection. Her work focused on water quality issues. When she left, she decided to continue to help preserve Kentucky’s ecosystems by working with nonprofit organizations that further the goal of land and water protection. She has served for many years on the Executive Council of the Kentucky Land Trusts Coalition.

Kay was a founding board member and served on the Board of Directors from 2007 to 2020.