Jake Lodato 

Jake Lodato discovered Ellen and her books through his wife, Kathy, and her volunteer BLM ranger work with Mark Meloy at Sand Island (Bluff), UT. He finds Ellen’s contact with her subjects and her ability to share it with readers extraordinary, and learns more with each reading. What Jake enjoys most is Ellen’s sense of humor--wry, self-deprecating and delightfully inappropriate. In a longer life he knows they would have become really good friends. Jake and Kathy live in Malaga, near Wenatchee, WA, and travel each spring and fall into “Ellen country”– the desert southwest.