Jake Schaben part of Wright County Conservation team for past five years

Coming to Clarion, Wright County and its smaller rural populations was nothing new to Jake Schaben.

“I was raised north of Harlan (where he graduated from high school) near Defiance,” Schaben said.

He was hired by the county at the end of May 2013, several weeks after his graduation from college. Conservation work was not foreign to Schaben either.

“My dad was a park ranger until I was eleven years old,” he said. “I experienced a lot of what he did at that time. He was a positive role model in my life and I am doing much of what I saw him do.”

After graduation, Schaben continued his education at Peru State College in Peru, Nebraska to pursue a degree in Wildlife Ecology as his major. He played basketball all four years while attending college, as he had done in his high school days.

“I was pretty much flying blind when I was offered a job in Wright County,” Schaben said. “I had never been to Wright County. I had always hoped to land in a good location. It has been a good experience for me and my family, and we have found people to be very supportive.”

For more about Schaben's work in Conservation, see the May 17 edition of the Monitor.