Kristie Nackord of Coaldale was sworn in as the newest board member of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District at the board’s monthly meeting Thursday in Salida.
Nackord is the second woman to serve on the District board since its inception. The first was Pat Alderton, who resided in Poncha Springs at the time.
Nackord currently works as a consultant for the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District, based in Rocky Ford, and previously worked as a consultant for the Upper Ark District.
Prior to her work with the Lower Ark District, Nackord worked for 13 years across the West in private land conservation and most recently, served as vice president of Agricultural Impact with the Palmer Land Conservancy. During that time, Nackord produced the 2024 award-winning documentary “Mirasol, Looking at the Sun,” directed by filmmaker Ben Knight.
As a founding board member of the nonprofit Coaldale Alliance, formed in 2014, Nackord worked to preserve local agriculture on the 200-acre CB Ranch, which was purchased by the Security Water District for its water rights. Thanks in part to efforts by Nackord and the Coaldale Alliance, the iconic ranch along Highway 50 is protected by a stewardship covenant to ensure its proper revegetation after it was dried up.
Nackord also lived in Custer County and worked for four years as development director of the Westcliffe-based San Isabel Land Protection Trust.
Appointments to the Upper Ark District board are made by district judges, and like Alderton, Nackord was appointed to fill the at-large seat on the board. Tom Goodwin, a farm-and-ranch operator in Fremont County, had held the at-large seat since 2009 when Alderton opted not to seek re-appointment.
Goodwin continues to serve on the board of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District and is the son of Denzel Goodwin, a longtime Fremont County rancher who was instrumental in forming the Upper Ark District in 1979.
The District board seat for Division 3, which corresponds to Chaffee County School District R-31, remains vacant after Warren Diesslin chose not to apply for re-appointment.
