This month, Wildlands Trust said goodbye to Community Stewardship Program Manager Ryan Krapp as he embarked on a cross-country move to Washington State. Luckily for us, Massachusetts native Conor Michaud moved back to the Bay State just in time to take over the Community Stewardship Program!

Conor was born and raised on the South Shore. He spent his formative years working on water quality research and instructing microbiology out of a teaching laboratory in Cohasset, MA. After graduating with a BS in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Conor found work with the Student Conservation Association in Alaska where he worked as crew leader, honing his trail design and restoration skills in Anchorage and the Denali backcountry.

After working for the SCA, Conor was contracted to work on the Google Trekker project as a GIS field technician in Philadelphia. Over the course of nine months, Conor worked to geolocate and photograph every trail system in Philadelphia for Google’s largest ever city Trekker project. Upon completion of this project, Conor moved back to his home state and started work for the Wildlands Trust as the Community Stewardship Program Coordinator. After working alongside Ryan for three weeks, Conor now takes over the CSP, using his trail design and construction experience as well as his GIS background to help communities develop healthy and sustainable trail systems in the ongoing effort of land conservation in southeastern MA.

Ryan will be sorely missed at Wildlands Trust and in the community at large, but we know that Conor will do a great job leading the Community Stewardship Program and we are glad to have him aboard! Make sure to say hi when you see Conor around the headquarters and out on the trails!