Land Trustees

Kevin Price

Kevin joined Friends of the Columbia Land Trust as a trustee in spring 2021 and a board member in fall 2021. Born in the San Francisco Bay Area he moved to Oregon in 1976 to attend Eastern Oregon University. Kevin worked on a Hotshot fire crew, for four years, with the U.S. Forest Service, and started a 34-year career with Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), retiring in 2018.  During his tenure with OPRD, Kevin was directly associated with, and managed Columbia Gorge state parks for 28 years, living in Corbett for 22 of those years. He’s led efforts to increase community engagement across the state, and worked to increase education opportunities for students of color and underserved communities to experience the outdoors. A Salem resident, Kevin teaches Verbal Judo, nationwide, and currently serves as the board chair of SOLVE Oregon. Kevin also has continued to help expose students to the wonder of the Columbia Gorge and actively works with Martin Luther King Elementary School, the Oregon State Park Trust (Ticket2Ride program), and Friends’ Great Gorge Wahoo education program with St. Andrews Nativity School. Kevin enjoys golf, exercise, and the outdoors, but family is first and foremost.

John Baugher

John’s love of nature started in his childhood while roaming the rolling pastureland, ponds and woodlands of his family’s farms in northwest Missouri. He gained an appreciation for travel, mountain landscapes and hiking while stationed in Bavaria, Germany, and this inspired him to move to the Northwest after his military service.

John’s career in federal service with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and Bonneville Power Administration included positions that have provided a diverse background in large real estate acquisitions and management. As a Project Manager with BPA’s Fish and Wildlife Program, he oversaw many land acquisitions and salmon habitat restoration projects, some of which were in tributaries to the Columbia Gorge.

John is an active volunteer for the Columbia Land Trust and board member of the Clark Conservation District. He also serves on Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust’s Board of Trustees.

He hikes regularly in the Gorge with a hiking group.  He is especially excited about the Gorge Towns to Trails initiative to expand hiking opportunities in the Gorge.

Pat Campbell

Pat grew up in the Hood River Valley in Parkdale at the base of Mt. Hood. Her parents were orchardists and her mother was a botanist whose life’s work was photographing the flowers of the Columbia Gorge.  Pat spent many enjoyable hours discovering the botanic wonders of Catherine Creek and the Rowena loops when the lands were still privately owned.

Pat’s love of the outdoors and agriculture led her and her husband Joe to join a handful of Willamette Valley wine pioneers in the early 1970s. Pat and Joe created Elk Cove Vineyard in 1974 and they have since entered wine lore for their outstanding contribution to the Oregon wine industry. As Pat and Joe handed some of their Elk Cove responsibilities on to their son, they lived briefly near Lyle, WA and Pat saw firsthand the amazing work Friends was doing to protect and enhance the Columbia Gorge. Eager to join that effort, Pat became a board member in 2013.

D'na Chase

D’na is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and grew up on a small farm in Hood River shared with her grandparents. She was raised to care for the land we live on and treat it as sacred.

D’na has over 15 years advertising sales and marketing experience working for the Hood River News, Willamette Week, KEX and KINK Radio. Branching out on her own, she became a marketing consultant to local nonprofits, including Camp Fire USA. Through that experience she was able to share the importance nature plays in young lives and remains passionate about bridging the gap of nature disconnect in our community.

For the past 15 years D’na has owned and operated two seasonal businesses, Tin Cantina, (a traveling vintage bar service for private events) and Rock On Native Design, (a jewelry and Native craft studio). Through her entrepreneurship she’s built relationships with numerous regional BIPOC culture and business support organizations including the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), Oregon Native American Business and Entrepreneurs Network, (ONABEN), Oregon Native American Chamber ONAC, Portland Prosper and Mercatus.

Stan Hinatsu

Stan Hinatsu, a native Oregonian, grew up in NE Portland and graduated from Oregon State University in Forest Management in 1981 (Go Beavs!). Stan began his career with the USDA Forest Service as a seasonal employee in 1979 on the Wenatchee National Forest. After receiving his permanent appointment in 1980 he “jumped ship” from timber management to recreation management in 1986. He moved back “home” to the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic in 1991 and served as the Recreation Program Manager and Recreation Staff Officer, retiring in 2023.

As a resident of The Dalles, Oregon, Stan is a board member of Riverside Gymnastics, where his youngest daughter is head coach and wife is the administrator. He is also involved with his local church, serves on the Oregon Geographic Names Board, and is lead PIO for Pacific NW Team 3 Type 1 Incident Management Team. Stan enjoys the outdoors, traveling and hanging out with his family.

Dustin Klinger

Dustin grew up in the Gorge, graduated from Stevenson High School, and still tends his great-grandfather’s family property in Skamania County. He is an original trustee of the Land Trust since its formation in 2005. Dustin is a real estate, farmer cooperative, and family business transaction attorney active in Oregon and Washington. He and his wife Mary and three children enjoy hiking and visiting family in the Gorge, as well as battling the scotch broom and Himalayan blackberries on their property. Dustin is a graduate of University of Notre Dame (including a year at Sophia University in Tokyo) and University of Washington School of Law.

David Michalek

David’s dream of living in the Gorge began on a windsurfing trip in the 1980s. Growing up in Texas, where most land is privately owned with minimal land use controls, David has a strong appreciation for the value public land and zoning bring to communities. David’s first exposure to Friends was on a hike; his activism with the organization began when he collected coal dust and attempted to capture live action video of the coal trains polluting Gorge waterways.

Like many, David is concerned over the destruction and extinction caused by the dominant culture and recently joined the Board to help protect our local treasures. He graduated from the University of Texas with a BA and is a qualified CPA. He currently lives in Hood River with his wife Beth. Since retiring several years ago (his last commerical venture was leading one of the nation’s largest solar companies), David has been kiteboarding, mountain biking, snowboarding and hiking in and around the Gorge.

Barbara Nelson

An outdoor adventure athlete with a passion for land conservation, Barbara Nelson joined the Friends of the Columbia Gorge board in 2023, adding to her ongoing decade-long service as a Friends’ land trust trustee. With a professional background in commercial real estate across the western United States, Barbara brings a wide breadth of real estate transaction expertise to Friends—a skillset that will be invaluable as Friends accelerates its efforts to secure key properties in the Gorge for long-term protection and habitat restoration. Barbara was instrumental in helping Friends secure the Heartleaf Bluffs and Catherine Creek properties.

A resident of Hood River, Barbara and her husband Chris have been exploring the natural wonders of the Gorge since moving to Oregon in 1999. Her interests include trail running, mountain biking, gravel racing, skiing, paddleboarding, and kayaking.

Rick Ray

Since 1987, Rick has lived in the Scenic Area on a small farm near Corbett, OR. He and his wife Anne can often be found exploring the Gorge and introducing friends to very special places there. He was fortunate to grow up with 500 head of cattle on a large farm which is now publicly-owned open space. Rick spent his career at the junction of technology and storytelling, working in local television, software, website design, and marketing. A Friends member since 1982, he served on the Friends’ board from 1993-2016, and became a land trustee in 2010. For Rick, the biggest challenge we face in the Gorge is conserving and enhancing a magnificent landscape that sits so close to a growing metropolitan area.