Dan Prenzlow - Generous Service, Humble Leadership

May 11, 2020

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Dan Prenzlow is the Director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), the agency charged with managing wildlife, lands, natural resources, and outdoor recreation throughout the great state of Colorado. Dan started with the agency back in 1986 as a District Wildlife Manager and steadily worked his way through the ranks, assuming the role of Director in the spring of 2019. Born and raised in Colorado, Dan has had a lifelong love of recreating in the state's open spaces and wild places, and he has devoted his entire career toward protecting and managing them for the benefit of present and future generations.

Dan and I were scheduled to meet at CPW's annual Partners in the Outdoors Conference, an extremely popular gathering that brings together stakeholders from all corners of the conservation and outdoor recreation sectors. The conference has become the foremost opportunity for organizations, businesses, agencies, universities, and more to come together to find common ground and mutually beneficial solutions for balancing conservation and recreation here in Colorado. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic made the in-person conference impossible, but thankfully the amazing team at CPW was able to move the conference online, and this podcast is a part of the new virtual conference.

If you love spending time outdoors, whether here in Colorado or anywhere else, I know you'll glean lots of valuable information from this conversation. Dan and I spend the first half of the conversation discussing some of the specifics around CPW—the organization's history, the success of the Partners in the Outdoors Conference, CPW's important role in private land conservation, and CPW's role as a national leader in balancing conservation and recreation. During the second half of the conversation, we discuss Dan's personal backstory—why he decided to pursue public service as a career, his family's long history of service-minded work, and how he worked his way up to the role of Director. Dan also shares many valuable leadership lessons, including the importance of humility, empathy, and surrounding yourself with a strong team.

As usual, there is a ton of valuable information in this episode, so I encourage you to check out the episode notes for a full list of the topics we discussed and links to all of the information we reference. And if you’d like more information about how you can participate in Virtual Partners in the Outdoors Conference, that link is in the episode notes as well.

Thanks to Dan and his team at CPW for all of their important work. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

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Virtual Partners in the Outdoors Conference: https://cpw.state.co.us/partnersconference

Full Episode Notes: https://mountainandprairie.com/dan-prenzlow/

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

3:30 - Colorado Parks and Wildlife (“CPW”) described
6:50 - CPW’s "Partners in the Outdoors” program
11:45 - Colorado’s population boom and its impact on CPW’s work
16:00 - CPW as a trusted conservation partner
21:30 - CPW’s “Ranching for Wildlife” program
26:30 - Partnership successes that can result from adversity
28:00 - CPW as a national leader in conservation and recreation
22:30 - Dan’s personal journey to CPW
37:30 - The importance of service for Dan and his family
40:30 - Leadership lessons gleaned from rising through the ranks at CPW
45:30 - What characteristics Dan looks for in employees
50:45 - Techniques for finding common ground between competing stakeholders
57:00 - Favorite books
58:50 - Favorite location in Colorado

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