Kate Bentz (she/her) grew up in Linn County outside of Scio, Oregon on a multi-generational family farm. As a young person, she was inseparable from water: spending countless summers in nearby ponds, lakes, and Thomas/Bilyeu Creek. She graduated the University of Oregon with a B.A. in Planning, Public Policy and Management and started her career in the RARE AmeriCorps program working at the City of Roseburg. In Roseburg, she re-ignited her long-time love of hiking and the outdoors, and picked up new hobbies like foraging and plant taxonomy. Kate currently works at the Linn County Planning and Building Department, which provides services to the South Santiam Watershed, as an Associate Planner focused in rural land use planning and natural hazard mitigation. Her work includes maintaining a committee devoted to community wildfire planning & mitigation and it was through this she encountered the SSWC. In her free time she likes to garden, send postcards, and attend book club meetings.