Zachary Bashoor: From college classes to business ownership | Business
When Zachary Bashoor was a child, his father told him that if he could have a chance to change career paths, he would’ve gone to college, moved to Montana and become a forester. Ever since then, that’s exactly what Bashoor has worked to do.
Bashoor attended the University of Montana where he studied forest resource management before starting his business, Bashoor Land Management.
“I actually did not graduate (from college),” Bashoor confessed. “I started my company in May of 2016 and I never looked back. It was an opportunity I had to take.”
Since becoming a business owner at the age of 21, Bashoor, now 27, has dipped his hand into many community organizations in the Missoula area, most of which are land and nature focused.
He currently sits as the vice chair of the Missoula Chamber Board of Directors, chair of forest for the Missoula Chamber Resource Committee and is a board member on the Montana Conservation Corps as well as the Montana Tree Farm System.
People are also reading…
During his time in these integral roles, Bashoor has partnered with multiple organizations to raise money to help reforest and restore areas that have been damaged by wildfires. When money was left over after restoration had been completed, Bashoor and his team put it toward fire prevention.
Bashoor and a team based out of Durango, Colorado, worked to create a Missoula-focused program that provides revolving grant money to reduce wildfire risk for landowners in Missoula County. Bashoor puts an immense amount of work into water quality, too.
Project Clean Water, a campaign initiated by Bashoor, is a community-driven campaign that creates funding opportunities to improve and influence the watershed in the Missoula community. Local businesses donate to provide money that funds conservation projects.
“The idea is that businesses and organizations are donating right back into something that helps them to profit in the first place,” Bashoor explained. By creating clean water, businesses can use natural resources with little worry.
Bashoor is just at the beginning of a long conservation journey.
“There is so much work that needs to be done in Montana,” he said. “My vision is to continue working in directions that are helping people create healthy relationships with the land surrounding them.”
