About Greg E. Walcher

Greg E. Walcher brings to the practice a lifetime of experience, institutional knowledge, contacts and advocacy on natural resources and environmental policy and issues. He specializes in issues related to energy, water, endangered species and wildlife, forest management, public lands and private property rights.

He is the author of Smoking Them Out: the Theft of the Environment and How to Take it Back, now in its second printing. He also writes a weekly newspaper column on natural resources and environment issues, and publishes a blog called “Resources and Reality,” which has several thousand subscribers.

Walcher also serves on the Board of the Energy and Environment Institute, the Policy Advisory Board of the Heartland Institute, and is a fellow at the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University. He previously served in the Governor’s Cabinet, leading the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, a department of 2500 employees, 8 divisions, 14 boards and commissions, and a $180 million budget. Its jurisdiction includes wildlife, parks, water, forestry, public lands, oil and gas, minerals and geology. His colleagues elected him president of a national organization of natural resources and environment cabinet secretaries, and he has been a nationwide leader in conservation policy.

Leveraging a decade of Capitol Hill experience in natural resources issues, Walcher also spent ten years as President and CEO of a large association of counties, cities, and businesses in Western Colorado – a region larger than most states. The group’s budget and membership tripled during Walcher’s tenure through activism on important regional issues: energy, water, forest health, tourism, transportation, telecommunications, public lands, and endangered species. He also served on the national policy committee for the American Society of Association Executives, and on the board of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.

In 2004, Walcher was the Republican nominee for Congress in Colorado’s 3rd District, a race that attracted national media attention as the top targeted House race in America (over $8 million). He won a hotly-contested five-way primary and shattered previous Colorado records for fund raising and organization. He is an entertaining and popular speaker, with frequent appearances in the State and around the country.

Natural resource issues are also personal to Walcher. A fifth-generation Western Colorado native, he and his family operate an orchard, farm, and fresh food processing business with customers nationwide.