Austin Schmahl, 32, Community Steward Americorp member, was born and raised in Southern Idaho where he grew up recreating on public lands. His favorite types of recreation are Hiking, Kayaking, and motorized sports like dirt biking and snowmobiling. Austin’s family would go every weekend, and became active in recreation clubs that piqued his interest in stewardship and communication about natural resources and the daily human interactions within a natural recreation area. Now Austin spends as much time as he possibly can outside, and connects with nature and learned how important it is for human health to get some fresh air everyday. Straight out of high school Austin spent three seasons as a Rangeland Tech, doing fire suppression for the Bureau of Land Management, which deepened his appreciation for the environment even further, and eventually led him to study Natural Resource Enterprise Management at the University of Idaho where he graduated in 2025. His experiences in recreation, and interactions with the natural world have pointed him toward conservation efforts, and education outreach on how we can all maintain our wild spaces for future generations.