Sharon LeMay, who has been a Supervisor with ACD since January 2017, moved around a lot growing up, from England to Florida, France, Illinois, Texas, Minnesota, and back to England before finally settling permanently in Minnesota. She did not grow up in a family that spent a lot of time outdoors, preferring instead to visit museums, historic landmarks, and read. In fact, one of her first memories of nature was quite traumatic for her as a young girl. While exploring a vacant, wooded city lot, Sharon looked down at her tan corduroy pants and found they were crawling with little spiders, which she only learned later were actually wood ticks! Up to that point, her only experiences with nature involved manicured city parks or sightseeing in short trips. Still, even though recreating in nature was not a core part of Sharon's childhood, she grew up to revere nature and spend much of her free time working and volunteering to be a good steward of the environment.

When she isn't working, Sharon volunteers with several local organizations, including the Master Naturalist program, the MN DNR, and Herbalists Without Borders. She enjoys her studies in homeopathy and making herbal medicines. She also loves hiking, yoga, biking, visiting historic sites and museums, and camping with her husband and dogs.

Sharon's favorite place in Minnesota is the North Shore of Lake Superior. She loves the remote and rugged coastlines of oceans, and the North Shore is as close as it gets to that in Minnesota. She enjoys walking the beaches looking for stones, hearing the waves, smelling the air, or simply sitting on a rock watching the water. In this peaceful place, she is able to reflect on nature as something valuable in its own right, rather than valuable only for what we can do in it or with it. Her love for the environment evolved over time as she came to witness the sacredness of nature, and it culminated in her choice to run for elected office on the ACD Board of Supervisors. 

Cedar tree revetments are a cost-effective bioengineering practice that can be used to stabilize actively eroding riverbanks. This spring, staff from the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) visited several cedar revetment projects that ACD had installed between 2002 and 2016. The two staff from the USACE had been traveling to several states to review what is working and what is not working when it comes to cedar revetment projects. They are hoping to use the information to publish technical notes and/or peer reviewed literature.

They were very impressed by the effectiveness of ACD's revetments, even the very old ones. They attribute this effectiveness to the removal of the back branches. They had not seen this technique in any other state they had visited. Most cedar revetment failures studied, seemed to come from the trees moving/floating during high water and scour behind the trees causing more erosion. They also saw many trees that snapped in half, which was potentially from the stress of so much movement. They are planning to highlight the technique of removing the back branches in any published literature.

Almost all of ACD's revetments visited were still in place. Most had stopped, or greatly decreased erosion at the toe but did not fill in with sediment. The most common failure was broken wire that held the tree to the duckbill anchor. In most of these cases, the trees did not move a lot from where they were originally placed. The breakage seemed to be caused by rust.

Jamie Schurbon, ACD's Watershed Projects Manager, has lived a rich and varied life. He grew up in rural Iowa, earning his bachelor's degree from Iowa State University before moving to South Carolina to complete his Master's in Environmental Biology. He spent that time studying reptiles and amphibians in and around the Hell Hole Swamp. After school, he held a variety of short term natural resources jobs that took him from the mangroves of the Florida Keys, to the South Dakota Badlands, to coastal barrier islands. Ultimately, he decided to return to the Midwest and started his first full time position as a technician at the Anoka Conservation District.

Because of his diverse experiences with different environments, it makes sense that instead of a single favorite place in Minnesota, Jamie enjoys the variety, including the Boundary Waters lakes, southeast Minnesota trout streams, northern forests, and prairies. Locally, he especially enjoys spending time on and around the Rum River for its good fishing, quality habitat, and because it is a scenic and quiet getaway.

In his time away from work, Jamie enjoys coaching youth baseball, teaching confirmation classes at his church, playing softball, and working on home improvement projects. Some recent projects have included a kitchen renovation and a canoe rack. Jamie never finds himself short of new projects as one project always seems to turn into another. The old copper plumbing from a kitchen remodel, for example, was then crafted into jewelry.

Jamie indulges his love of the outdoors through hunting and fishing and is also a member of a few sporting organizations including the Isanti County Sportsman's Club, where outdoor enthusiasts both promote conservation and enjoy outdoor activities. Jamie, along with his wife and two sons (ages 11 and 14), have even raised ducks every summer for the last four years.

When asked to share a memorable story of local conservation efforts, Jamie had this to say:

"During my 20 years at ACD I've especially learned a lot from the "old timers" who grew up in the area. I find that today's conservation efforts are not all that different from the past, and these efforts do make a difference. For example, Andover resident, WWII veteran, and former teacher Lyle Bradley once described to me how he flew up and down the Rum River corridor to identify feedlots and dumps on the shoreline. The cleanup that followed made a difference and is a testament to what a committed person can do!"

To contact Jamie, reach out to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or (763) 434-2030 x210