Bruce Gordon
Bruce Gordon has dedicated himself to raising awareness about environmental and climate issues.
As a volunteer and teacher at Aspen’s Community and Country Day Schools in his early years in Aspen, Gordon inspired local school children to challenge themselves in school and on outdoor trips. He introduced his students to climbing, camping, and mountaineering, and instilled in them a zest for the outdoors. With his background in collegiate soccer, he was also influential in helping to start the Aspen Junior Soccer program.
Gordon is the founder and president of EcoFlight, a conservation aviation organization that educates and advocates for the protection of remaining wild lands and wildlife habitat. Gordon has flown thousands of passengers in his small plane, from local school children to dignitaries from around the world, primarily over the American West and also further abroad, using the aerial perspective to encourage an environmental stewardship ethic among citizens of all ages. His airborne missions have helped elevate awareness about water shortages in the Colorado River Basin watershed and impacts to our landscapes from mining, roads, and oil and gas development, among other environmental issues.
Bruce is considered one of the most experienced pilots in Aspen and as a longstanding MRA member, he also uses his experience and skills to fly missions for Search and Rescue. Most recently, during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Gordon volunteered to deliver 250,000 PPE, mostly masks and hand sanitizer to 5 tribal nations in the southwest, flying them to 10 different landing strips, at a time when the tribes were not receiving federal or other COVID relief.
From the air, Gordon has documented the environmental phenomena of dust on snow on our local peaks and its negative impacts on the quality and quantity of our spring runoff. His EcoFlight missions have also given a bird’s eye perspective to the entire Colorado River Basin watershed, including our own Thompson Divide, and to the impacts that mining, road building, and oil and gas development have on our fragile ecosystem. Bruce Gordon truly is our “eyes from the sky”.