Heather Kapust works with multiple conservation partners as the Grants Manager at Washington State Department of Ecology. She is actively involved in the State's submittals to the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grants Program, collaborating with partners whose projects conserve coastal wetlands. While Heather attributes Washington's success with these grants to the dedication of partners, we also believe Heather's commitment has been responsible for many conserved acres in Washington!
Heather is a Washington State native who studied Wildlife Management at Washington State University and Environmental Studies at The Evergreen State College. Her early career focused on endangered non-game species, such as Marbled Murrelet, Pygmy Rabbit, and Oregon Spotted Frog. Early on, she realized the importance of habitat conservation, not only for the protection of those rare species but also how for how essential it was for public health and enjoyment. It was during this pivotal time that she made the choice to shift her focus to land conservation.
Heather worked for the next 15 years as a Land Acquisition Specialist for the Washington Department of Natural Resources, acquiring properties for the State's Natural Areas, which protect the best remaining examples of many different ecological communities. Within the state's Natural Area system, she worked to conserve diverse habitat across the state, such as oak woodlands, shrub-steppe, mounded prairie, and subalpine meadow. However, Heather says some of her favorite sites to work on were the coastal wetland preserves that included the protection of estuaries and freshwater wetlands, saltmarsh, and high-quality undeveloped shoreline.
Eight years ago, Heather took the opportunity to focus her attention on coastal wetland conservation at the Washington Department of Ecology. Ecology has a 30 year history of working with partner organizations, such as Tribes, land trusts, and local governments, to submit National Coastal Wetlands Conservation grants to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). As Heather tells us, Ecologyʻs great success in securing these awards over the years is due to "the dedication and vision of our amazing partners and the scope of their projects, which are so well-suited to the NCWC funding source. It's a real pleasure to work on these projects with our local partners and also have the strong support of the folks at the USFWS."
Heather lives with her husband and two kids in Olympia, Washington. They enjoy spending as much time as possible visiting conserved public lands – camping, paddleboarding, hiking, and clamming are favorite pastimes. She says that her family is on a mission to visit all of the U.S. National Parks and have been to 32 so far. She says "It feels good to play a role in protecting some of the special places that are so important to people, birds, fish, and other wildlife species, and it really comes full circle when sharing a love of these lands with my family."
