Who We Are
The Colorado Wildlands Project wields policy, legal, political, organizing and communications expertise to protect and defend BLM wildlands on the Colorado Plateau.
Project Staff
Soren Jespersen
Director
Soren has spent his entire professional career working to improve management of America's public lands. Before joining the Colorado Wildlands Project in 2021, Soren worked at The Wilderness Society, where he focused on administrative and legislative campaigns to safeguard BLM lands. Prior to that, his work concentrated on river and watershed protection with Friends of the River in California.
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Deeply committed to his local community, Soren serves on the Routt County Recreation Roundtable and has held the position of President of the Board for Friends of the Yampa. He dedicates significant time to fieldwork, exploring and documenting the conditions of unprotected BLM wildlands in Colorado.
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Originally from Utah, Soren has made the Yampa Valley his home since 2009.
Keeley Meehan
Policy Director
Keeley is passionate about advocating for the protection of wild spaces and connecting people to make progress toward shared goals. As an attorney and policy expert, she seeks to leverage federal laws and policies to conserve wildlands across the Western Slope. She previously worked as an attorney at The Wilderness Society, focusing on the management of BLM land and national monuments. Keeley has also worked as a liaison for Native American Tribes and the Department of Energy on issues around nuclear waste and transportation. Outside of work, you can find her exploring the North Fork Valley, where she lives with her partner, daughter, and very concerned pup, Arby.
Project Counsel
Peter Hart
Peter Hart is Staff Attorney at Wilderness Workshop, and has led the organization’s legal and defensive work for over a decade. Peter’s docket includes oil and gas leasing and development, agency rule changes, timber projects, and recreation proposals impacting public lands. Peter earned a law degree and master’s degree in environmental law from the University of Denver and lives in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Neal Clark
Neal Clark is the Wildlands Program Director and House Counsel for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), where he oversees SUWA’s engagement in federal agency planning processes, site-specific project proposals, administrative appeals, legislative negotiations, and on-the-ground inventorying and monitoring of wilderness-quality lands. He is a graduate of Lewis & Clark Law School and lives in Moab, Utah.
Special Advisors
Juli Slivka
Juli co-founded the Colorado Wildlands Project with Scott Braden, and she plays a key role in the Wildlands Project’s conservation priorities and strategic development. Juli is the Policy Director at Wilderness Workshop, where she develops and implements programs for healthy forests and rivers, BLM wildlands, habitat conservation, responsible recreation, and wilderness stewardship. Prior to arriving at Wilderness Workshop, Juli spent 12 years working in The Wilderness Society’s BLM Action Center, where she gained extensive experience in public land law, policy and management, including a deep knowledge of plans and projects affecting western Colorado’s BLM lands. Juli lives in Carbondale, Colorado with her desert-loving pup Juniper.
Scott Braden
Scott co-founded the Colorado Wildlands Project with Juli Slivka in 2021, and served as its director until 2025. He is the executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), CWP’s strategic partner. He brings a commitment to protecting the wildlands of the Colorado Plateau forged by over twenty years’ experience in public lands advocacy and education. He found his way west to work at the Colorado Outward Bound School, falling in love with desert rivers and wilderness in Dinosaur National Monument and Desolation Canyon. He transitioned his career into conservation advocacy working at SUWA, the Colorado Mountain Club and Conservation Colorado. He now lives in Salt Lake City with his family.
Mike Freeman
Mike Freeman serves as a staff attorney with Earthjustice, where his work focuses on defending public lands on the Colorado Plateau and throughout the West. Mike is co-chair of Earthjustice’s oil and gas practice group and his cases have involved protecting Colorado’s Roan Plateau and Thompson Divide from oil and gas leasing, as well as enforcing federal protections for the greater sage-grouse. Mike also represents native American tribes and tribal organizations working to protect their lands, water, and sovereignty. In addition, he was instrumental in the State of Colorado’s 2020 adoption of new oil and gas regulations to better protect communities and the environment. Prior to joining Earthjustice in 2008, Mike was a partner with the Denver office of a large national law firm. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his family.