Ashley goes from city life to dry cabin to Trustees
By Ashley Donovan
Growing up in sunny Ventura County, California, I thought of myself as an “outdoorsy” person. I lived in a suburban community in the wildland-urban interface, butting up against the Santa Monica Mountains.
Celebrating Independence Day and her birthday by hiking the K’esugi Ridge Trail in Denali State Park with friends on July 4, 2020. Photo by Kaia Boonzaier
I routinely hiked on the trails with family and friends and spent summer days playing at the beach. I experienced the hostility of nature, too, when nearby wildfires caused my neighborhood to evacuate. And I spent considerable time in the Sierra Nevada, skiing at Mammoth Mountain every weekend in the winter.
But I had not really camped before or visited a national park. I did not really know much about environmental issues, although I had heard the terms “global warming” and “climate change.” In other words, I was naïve to claim to be a nature enthusiast.
The law life is for me
When I was a teenager, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. I liked the idea of doing something intellectually stimulating, where I could help others but also have stability. Having made that choice, I pursued a liberal arts degree, thinking it would help me develop the necessary writing skills for lawyering.
During college, I took courses that educated me on environmental and social issues, and the way these intersect and compound each other. I was eager to learn more and motivated to do something about these problems. By this point, I had shed some layers of naivete and started thinking of myself as an environmentalist.
Backpacking the Granite Tors trail in Chena state Recreation Area, Alaska, 2020. Photo by Jake Gerrish
Having already decided to be a lawyer and newly awoken to social justice and environmental issues, I chose to attend Berkeley Law. There, I was eager to get my feet wet. I took as many experiential credits as I could, including twice working at the Environmental Law Clinic and interning full time at the U.S. Department of Justice. The public interest work invigorated me, and I found environmental cases particularly rewarding, knowing I was helping not just my clients, but communities at large and the planet, too.
And then there’s that pull north
Ashley fishing for pike while Jazz looks for fish. Manly Hot Springs, Alaska, 2021. Photo by Jake Gerrish
While the academics and hands-on work solidified my intent to become an environmental lawyer, personal developments set me on a path towards Alaska. I started dating someone from Fairbanks. When the pandemic caused classes to go fully remote, my boyfriend and I lived in a dry cabin in Goldstream Valley, north of Fairbanks. We did not have internet, so we took our classes and zoomed into our summer internships by sitting in the car in the University of Alaska, Fairbanks parking lot, mooching its public Wi-Fi.
Outside of class, there was not much to do besides explore interior Alaska. I went camping for the first time on a backpacking trip on the Pinnell Trail in the White Mountains. I visited Denali National Park and drove the Denali Highway, enjoying the spectacular wildlife viewing opportunities along the way. I spent a weekend fishing in Manley Hot Springs, and another on a sandbar on the Tanana River. I learned how to ride a four-wheeler, and about permafrost thaw, and to always carry bear spray. In other words, it was an eye-opening adventure. I jumped right into the deep end and discovered a whole new meaning to “outdoorsy.”
Thanksgiving skiing in Fairbanks after baking pies, 2023. Photo by Jake Gerrish
After that summer, I kept coming back to Alaska. I worked remotely from Fairbanks again the following summer and, after law school, clerked for two years, first in Fairbanks and then in Anchorage. And now, here I am.
It was not the most straightforward path that you might expect from an environmental lawyer based in Alaska. I could never have guessed this is where I would find myself. I have learned a lot along the way and found immense value in keeping an open mind.