Those compliments typically sound something like, “Tell your maintenance man he does a great job.”

Well, that maintenance man is actually a maintenance woman. Her name is Tasha Nielsen. She is a natural resource and trail technician for Webster County Conservation.

She oversees 65 miles of trails at Iowa’s largest OHV Park, located at 2390 Mill Road. Nielsen operates heavy equipment to keep the trails in shape. And when equipment breaks down, she’s usually the one to fix it.

“I’ve grown up being outside and getting to work outside, it doesn’t feel like work to me per se,” said Nielsen, a 2005 Fort Dodge Senior High graduate. “I love working with equipment. I’ve driven equipment most of my life. Being able to do that every day makes the job that much more enjoyable and fun.”

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Tasha Nielsen, natural resource and trail technician for Webster County Conservation, fixes an air conditioner belt on a Bobcat skid loader on Friday in the maintenance shed at Gypsum City Off-Highway Vehicle Park.

Nielsen admits much of her job is behind the scenes. But when riders from all over the country bring their vehicles to the park, her work is hard to miss.

“The work that I do directly impacts other peoples’ experience when they visit the park,” Nielsen said. “When something I create brings fun and enjoyment to the people it was built for, that’s a great feeling.”

Nielsen moved to Fort Dodge at the age of 12 from Albert Lea, Minnesota. She has fond memories of walking at Helmer Myre State Park in Minnesota with her mother.

“Going on walks with my mom and just hanging out by the lake and enjoying the breeze,” Nielsen said. “I remember this exact picture that I always see in my photo album of me sitting on this big rock and the lake is right behind me.”

When she moved to Fort Dodge it didn’t take long for her to discover Brushy Creek State Recreation Area and Dolliver Memorial State Park.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Tasha Nielsen, natural resource and trail technician for Webster County Conservation, poses in a utility vehicle at Gypsum City Off-Highway Vehicle Park on Friday.

“Whether it was swimming at the lake at Brushy or swimming in the creek and camping at Dolliver, I’ve had some great times,” Nielsen said.

Years later, she ended up doing seasonal work at both of the parks while she was off from college at Iowa State University.

“It’s just crazy that it came full circle that I was a seasonal at both of those parks when I was going to college,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen knew she wanted to one day work in a park of some sort, but wasn’t exactly sure how she would specialize.

“Growing up I was always at a park in some fashion, whether I was camping, fishing, just going for hikes or walks,” she said. “Being from Minnesota there’s quite a few state parks. I knew one of the only places I could be outside was to work in parks in some fashion.

“I wasn’t sure what that looked like when I started going to college. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to work in wildlife or fisheries or something like that. The more I worked at Dolliver and Brushy, I knew I just wanted to work with equipment.”

Nielsen holds an Associate of Arts from Iowa Central Community College. She has a Bachelor of Science in animal ecology and a minor in criminal justice from Iowa State.

Before she landed a job with Webster County Conservation, she spent some time dabbling in law enforcement. It didn’t turn out to be the right fit.

“I found out I was way too nice to be in law enforcement,” she said.

She worked as a jailer at the Webster County Jail for a brief period.

“After I got done with college I needed something more full-time but soon found out that a jailer position wasn’t something I wanted to do more than the nine months I worked there,” Nielsen said.

Eventually, she decided to apply for a seasonal position with Webster County Conservation in 2014.

”Going from full-time to part-time was nerve-racking but I knew I needed to get my foot in the door,” Nielsen said.

Matt Cosgrove, Webster County Conservation director, hired Nielsen. He kept her on for three days a week during the winter and in the spring she got more hours of work.

That July, she was offered a full-time position. Nielsen worked a third at Gypsum City, a third for other conservation duties and a third for the city of Fort Dodge working on walking and biking trails.

In 2018, Cosgrove offered Nielsen full-time work at Gypsum City.

“She goes above and beyond,” Cosgrove said of Nielsen’s work. “A lot of the work she has learned is self-taught. She’s certainly not afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s a very valuable member of our team.”

As Nielsen goes back over some of the trails throughout the park, she can see where she’s improved since she started.

“From when I started here in 2014, doing dirtwork out on the trails and maintenance, I go back now and am reworking some things I’ve done previously and I can definitely tell I’ve grown in my experience substantially since then,” Nielsen said. “It makes me very happy that I can see I’m getting better and learning from my experiences and just being trained more.”

In 2019, Nielsen was trained in operating a bulldozer at the Sam Houston National Forest.

“Now I can properly run and maintain my trail dozer,” Nielsen said.

She is also a board member of the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council.

“Just learning about off-highway vehicle recreation at a national level has just broadened my knowledge and it’s so cool to see how different states run and how their OHV programs differ from Iowa’s,” Nielsen said.

Cosgrove has been pleased with the development of the OHV Park and the employees who take care of it.

“We get a lot of comments about how nice the park is,” Cosgrove said. “Being the largest in Iowa — those compliments have gone up over the years. Now she (Nielsen) can operate the trail dozer. She’s proficient in a lot of different types of equipment. That’s been a benefit to the trail system and to the park.

“Tasha is one of the most positive people you can meet. She’s kind of a one person show out there. She takes care of 800 acres. It’s a lot to undertake but she always does it with a smile.”

Nielsen’s major responsibilities include making sure the trails are safe and trimmed.

On Friday, she mowed and trimmed weeds. In the afternoon, she was fixing an air conditioning belt on a Bobcat skid loader.

“I do most of the maintenance on the equipment,” Nielsen said. “If any of the machines break down. Hopefully I’m capable of fixing it. I will take it in if I can’t.”

Nielsen has enjoyed seeing the progress of the park.

“When I first started, phase II was just about to open and that was in 2014,” Nielsen said. “I never realized how much partnerships benefit a park more than coming into this project. Without all of the partnerships this park has had between the gypsum companies, Webster County Conservation, DNR, Webster County Improvement Corporation, the city and many others, the list is so long, the park would not be what it is today without those partnerships. We continue to grow with opening phase II in 2014, phase III in 2015, opened the campground in 2017. The addition of the tiny homes in 2019.”

Nielsen said Webster County Conservation is in the process of updating its master plan to see what else could be added in the future. A survey was recently completed by 543 people about the OHV Park, she said.

It’s important to Nielsen that visitors have a fun and safe experience at the park.

“We have all these visitors come and you want them to enjoy their time when they are here,” Nielsen said. “Park appearance is something that’s very high on my priority list. Just the enjoyment I had of going to a park and seeing how beautiful it was and enjoying it myself. I want to give that to other people as well.”

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