Buckin' Babes

Erin Sheridan (she/her)

Erin got her start on a logging team in college, where she learned the fundamentals of chainsaw operation, safety, and maintenance. She quickly took to the sport, becoming a serious rookie competitor in the Timbersports world, honing her technical skills in events like crosscut sawing and axe throwing. She later worked on sawyer crews, building shaded fuel breaks, felling hazard trees, and tackling large-scale fuels reduction projects. She also led a sawyer crew on a ranch, improving road accessibility, creating shaded fuel breaks, and enhancing land management through strategic chainsaw use. In addition, she has hosted the Cal Poly Logging Team for workdays, providing guidance on practical chainsaw applications in ranching and fuels management.

Lou Bean (they/them)

Lou Bean is a saw crew leader and wildland firefighter from Colorado currently working in the Central and Southern counties. In addition to fire mitigation, prescribed burning, suppression, and burn scar recovery work, Bean is passionate about empowering community members and early career professionals with training and education, both in their work leading saw and burn crews with Southwest Conservation Corps, coordinating the Neighborhood Ambassador outreach program with SPAWP, and volunteering as a structural and wildland firefighter with Chaffee County Fire. Bean studied both Construction Coordination and Environmental Science and completed a thesis on Fire Ecology in the Wildland Urban Interface and has since worked for the National Parks Service and the US Forest Service in addition to their current gigs. Bean also runs The Blaze Project, which designs fire ecology curriculum for classrooms and non-traditional learning environments.

Victoria Schmalz (she/her)

Victoria Schmalz lives in Delta County, Colorado with her husband on their 700 acre family farm, where they raise grain corn and pinto beans. When she's not out irrigating, she's usually out playing with chainsaws and driving around the country for her work with STIHL Inc. Her background with chainsaws started as a small engine mechanic working in a hardware store, where eventually she worked her way up through different companies to get where she is now. She enjoys the ability to train others in the industry, and to share her experiences in the agricultural world. 

Megan Jackson (she/her)

Megan lives in Pueblo County with her husband and 3 children on a small hobby farm. When she isn’t chasing her kids or chickens around, she’s chasing cows in her free time for reined cow horse and ranch versatility competitions. Megan has always had a knack for mechanics and started her career as a service coordinator in a small engine shop for a farm and ranch group 10 years ago. A position opened with STIHL Inc. to allow her to continue to grow in her career and she has been traveling the country as a Territory Manager for the past 6 years. Training, providing sales support and building relationships with end users are just a few of the many facets that being a Territory Manager entails, and she enjoys the ability to bring her knowledge and experience to a career she loves. 

Fiona Jackson (she/her)

Fiona Jackson is the Ranch Manager at Redwing Ranch and a co-instructor for Buckin’ Babes. She brings practical, ranch-tested chainsaw experience built through years of on-the-ground work—clearing brush, maintaining fence lines, and handling the everyday demands of working lands. Fiona focuses on simple systems, proper technique, and helping participants build confidence with a saw for the kinds of tasks they’ll encounter in their own work.  

Zara Šaponja (she/her)

Zara is the Farmer and Rancher field organizer for National Young Farmer’s Coalition, where she works for equity and land access in farming in ranching, as well as a personal passion of organizing around mental health in rural spaces. To Zara, the people who show up and keep showing up–community champions–are her superhero celebrities. She has a history in arts and activism before eventually circling back to agriculture, where she feels most at home. Zara has worked on different large scale cattle ranches before settling down on a direct to consumer ranch and farm that produces beef, lamb, hay and CSA vegetables for her community in southern Colorado. She feels most like herself around animals, especially cattle and good (and naughty) dogs that stick by your side (it’s true–she has a dog named Sticks)