By Rich Bangs
It’s been a long and winding road for Todd Warnke, new President of the Douglas Land Conservancy (DLC), but he’s right where he wants to be and he is passionate about DLC’s mission.
Warnke was elected as President of the DLC board in December of 2024 and took office January of 2025.
Warnke was born in Rigby, Idaho, and lived in every state in the Rocky Mountain region as well as Texas and Canada. He moved to Colorado in 1991 and to Castle Rock in 2002.
He attended Portland State University where met his wife, Robin, and earned a degree in philosophy. He worked in bakeries through college with his dad and then found work in banking, working in branches and community banks. That motivated him to go back to school in accounting. But Warnke said he found that “boring” and began a second career in the IT field. He had 15-year period where he had his own IT company and then went to work for one of his clients as director of IT.
That company worked in environmental consulting, doing evaluation, remediation and compliance work in Colorado and other places. Warnke’s job was keeping the IT system running but that experience gave him exposure some of the issues around wildlife protection and conservation.
About three years ago, the company he worked for was bought by WSP which has acquired companies with about 78,000 employees around the world. Warnke’s job is to make sure those acquisitions go smoothly on the IT side.
“I’ve always been in the outdoors,” Warnke said. “I was in Scouting and explored all over the Western United States.”
“I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places, and I appreciate family ranching and how they care for large parcels of open space.”
Warnke said he was on the Castle Water Commission for a number of years and “loved it.” He is now on the Castle Rock Planning Commission, starting his third year. He also served on the Douglas County School District’s Long Range Planning Committee and on a charter school governing board.
Warnke’s relationship with DLC started by chance. He met Amy Graziano, now DLC’s Advancement Director, on a hike and was asked to take photos. Then he was asked to take more. Then he was on a DLC video subcommittee that made films to promote DLC’s conservation efforts, showcase award winners and promote preservation achievements.
“That gave me a chance to see what DLC does,” he said. When he was asked to join the Board, he accepted. He has worked on several DLC committees and a few years ago was elected as an Officer on the Board. He was Vice President of the Board just prior to being elected head of the organization.
“I strongly believe it is a joy and an obligation to help build community,” said Warnke. “That doesn’t happen by accident. It takes people.
“The mission of DLC, a perpetual mission, aligns with my core values.
“DLC is now 38 years old and has gone through a growth pattern and has found ways to make it work. It’s been a slow process but we’re now at a point where we’re building for success. We’ve gone from 2.5 staff to 6 staff.” Through our stewardship “we care for all 81 easements we hold and the more than 28,000 acres we preserve. And we’re poised to do so much more.
“We recognized the high value of community participation, working with towns, the county and things we do like the book club, hikes and other events. We will be focusing on growing staff and leveraging all of that for the benefit of the Front Range.
“Voters in Douglas County have shown their desire to have access to open space, nature and support a sales tax help make that happen. But that’s not (DLC’s) sole mission. Half of the land we have easements on are privately held. We will continue to look for landowners wanting to place land under a conservation easement.
“In five years, I foresee DLC having a larger portfolio of land under easement and see new ways for DLC to connect to the community. We welcome all people who want to connect to the outdoors.
“DLC takes their work seriously. I passionately believe we’re honored to protect open space, protect watersheds and connect with nature.”