In Dan Olson’s line of work, there’s never a good time to leave.

“With issues that involve the environment, it’s not something you fix,” Olson said recently from the San Juan Citizens Alliance’s office in the Smiley Building. “It’s an ongoing community dialogue about what is the right balance between economic development and environmental protection, and that work will never be done.”

In early May, though, Olson will step down from his role as executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, a Durango-based environmental advocacy group, and relocate with his family to Portland, Oregon.

“It’s super mixed emotions,” Olson said. “There’s plenty of work left unfinished, but in the last three years we have really rebuilt a very strong platform for the alliance.”

Olson, 38, is leaving so that his wife, Emily, can attend graduate school for nursing and midwifery in Portland. Emily Olson works in the Durango office for Chama Peak Land Alliance. The two have a pre-school aged son, Henry.

“We’re both supportive of our career aspirations, and this is an important opportunity for her to pursue,” Olson said. “But at the same time, Durango has always been a chosen home, for both of us.”

Olson became executive director in 2014, at a time when the more than 30-year-old organization was reeling from the financial impacts of the 2008 recession. The alliance had lost 65 percent of its grant funding, and was forced to lay off staff and contract its programs.

“I came in on the tail end of that,” Olson said. “We were either going to continue to spiral downward, and not be an organization anymore. Or, we were at rock bottom, and we were going to start to rebuild and strengthen our core.”

Olson said he refocused the alliance to get “back to the basics,” by improving communication efforts to the public, upping the alliance’s presence on social media, rebuilding its website and reaching out more effectively to current members.

“What I saw was an organizing problem, not a mission problem,” he said. “That’s why I was confident in taking the challenge on.”

By Olson’s account, his tenure as executive director has left the alliance in a stronger position. The alliance went from an all-time low number of paying memberships to an all-time high, mostly stemming from enhanced outreach efforts.

According to the San Juan Citizens Alliance website, the group has more than 800 dues-paying members and “thousands of supporters who care passionately about preserving the unique qualities” of the Four Corners.

“Regardless of leadership, I’m confident we’ll continue to thrive after I’m gone,” Olson said.

The San Juan Citizens Alliance was formed in 1986 by a group of residents who were concerned about the impacts of oil and gas development. According to the group’s website, the alliance now addresses a broad range of issues, including the protection of air, land and water resources.

Current issues the alliance is involved in include protecting the Greater Chaco Canyon area from further oil and gas development; securing more environmentally sound water management for the Dolores River, and fighting the energy extraction sources that have caused the “methane hot spot” over the Four Corners.

Also not to be forgotten, Olson said, is the 30-plus year – and counting – fight to stop an Aspen-sized development from being built atop the Continental Divide near the Wolf Creek ski area, known as the Village at Wolf Creek.

That’s one he would have liked to see resolved before his exit.

“For the psychological well-being of the community, it would be wonderful to put the Wolf Creek fight to bed,” he said. “It’s a 30-year saga that just seems to have no end.”

Of course, Olson and the work of the San Juan Citizens Alliance is not without its detractors.

Christi Zeller, executive director of the La Plata County Energy Council, has sparred with the alliance on numerous occasions, most frequently on issues surrounding oil and gas development in the region.

Zeller said that while her advocacy group for the oil and gas industry promotes, much like environmental groups, responsible energy development, how the two entities go about that differs tremendously. She said the anti-oil and gas rhetoric increased when Olson became the alliance’s executive director.

“My frustration is that sometimes it’s (SJCA’s arguments) just emotional, they’re not educational or even factual,” Zeller said. “They don’t delve into what our industry does every day to protect the environment. They just try to ignite the community.”

Olson, for his part, takes criticism in stride.

He grew up in a town outside New York City, and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. But his career started at Harvard University, where he worked to improve the campus’ energy sustainability.

He then went on to work as an energy sustainability consultant for Fortune 500 companies while his family was based in Jackson, Wyoming. But soon after he and his family moved to Durango, Olson underwent a sea change.

“I came to a point where I realized the progress being made within the system was simply not sufficient to address timely problems that we’re facing,” Olson said. “I really felt I needed to engage more on policy and the grass-roots advocacy side of things.”

Olson said he plans to continue his work in the energy and environmental sustainability world when he gets to Portland, though he has no job lined up. He said given the Trump administration’s stance on many environmental issues, there’s likely to be no shortage of work to be done.

“The blessing of a Trump administration has been the incredible participation and advocacy from people who have never considered themselves politically active,” he said. “I have a lot of hope actually, that there will be this real turning inward to say what can we do as a community to continue making progress on these issues that are timely.”

Andy Corra, the owner of 4Corners Riversports and who serves on the SJCA board of directors, said Olson’s successor has not been found. He said Olson will surely be missed.

“He’s going to be a hard guy to replace,” Corra said.

jromeo@durangoherald.com