Ralph "Terry" Scanga, Jr.
General Manager
Assistant Secretary & Assistant Treasurer
A lifelong resident of Chaffee County, Colorado, Ralph “Terry” L. Scanga, Jr. assumed the post as General Manager of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District on June 1, 2001. Prior to assuming this position Mr. Scanga was a member of the District serving as a Board Director from 1988 until June of 2001. From 1994 until January of 2001, he served as a member of the Upper Arkansas Water Activity Enterprise, the entity formed by the district to administer its blanket augmentation plans in the Upper Arkansas region and helped develop that entity’s augmentation plan processes.
He is a graduate of Adams State University, graduating in 1970 with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and French. Mr. Scanga is currently the Vice President of Scanga Meat Company and SMC Ranch. From 1982 to 2019 he served as the President of Scanga Meat Company. His son Ben now serves in that capacity in this local 68-year-old family business.
Mr. Scanga served four years in the United States Coast Guard spending time on a Coast Guard Cutter on the mouth of the Columbia River and in the Coast Guard Liaison Office at the Public Health Service Hospital in Seattle, Washington before returning home to Salida, Colorado.
In the community, he served as chairman and member of the Chaffee County Fair Board for over 10 years, trustee on the Sangre De Cristo Resource Conservation and Development Council and is the past chairman of the Upper Arkansas Soil Conservation District, having served 15 years on that board. Mr. Scanga has also served on many other community, veteran, and church boards and councils and continues to do so to this day.
As a business owner and rancher associated with livestock as part of Scanga Meat Company, Mr. Scanga as been involved with water and irrigation. As a principal of Scanga Meat Company, he served as President of the New Salida Ditch Company providing irrigation water to over 1000 acres of land in Chaffee County.
Through the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District activities Mr. Scanga continues to be involved with water rights and uses in the Arkansas Valley. Since the inception of the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act in 2005 he as been a member of the Arkansas Basin Roundtable representing the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. In 2016 he was appointed to the Inter-basin Compact Committee representing the Arkansas Basin.
Beginning in 2017, Mr. Scanga tasked his staff to begin undertaking projects to respond to the beetle infestation upon the watershed forests in the Upper Arkansas District. In response to the devastation on Monarch Pass and the impending danger to the South Arkansas watershed, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District partnered with the Roundtable, Trout Unlimited the USFS and Chaffee County to develop a project to remove diseased timber from 600 acres of steep mountain slopes as demonstration designed to encourage and develop the timber industry in the removal of this timber prior to a catastrophic fire. Again in 2018, Mr. Scanga directed his staff to manage the Hayden Pass Fire - Big Cottonwood Drainage Recovery Plan in partnership with the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative to protect water and water rights in the upper basin.
Prevention of damage to the watershed, drainage recovery from burn scars, and integrated water management plans has become a hallmark of the water district under Mr. Scanga’ s management of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District.
Mr. Scanga loves the Upper Arkansas Basin and lives here with his large extended family. He is a 3rd generation business owner with roots in its land and water.
General Manager
Assistant Secretary & Assistant Treasurer
A lifelong resident of Chaffee County, Colorado, Ralph “Terry” L. Scanga, Jr. assumed the post as General Manager of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District on June 1, 2001. Prior to assuming this position Mr. Scanga was a member of the District serving as a Board Director from 1988 until June of 2001. From 1994 until January of 2001, he served as a member of the Upper Arkansas Water Activity Enterprise, the entity formed by the district to administer its blanket augmentation plans in the Upper Arkansas region and helped develop that entity’s augmentation plan processes.
He is a graduate of Adams State University, graduating in 1970 with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and French. Mr. Scanga is currently the Vice President of Scanga Meat Company and SMC Ranch. From 1982 to 2019 he served as the President of Scanga Meat Company. His son Ben now serves in that capacity in this local 68-year-old family business.
Mr. Scanga served four years in the United States Coast Guard spending time on a Coast Guard Cutter on the mouth of the Columbia River and in the Coast Guard Liaison Office at the Public Health Service Hospital in Seattle, Washington before returning home to Salida, Colorado.
In the community, he served as chairman and member of the Chaffee County Fair Board for over 10 years, trustee on the Sangre De Cristo Resource Conservation and Development Council and is the past chairman of the Upper Arkansas Soil Conservation District, having served 15 years on that board. Mr. Scanga has also served on many other community, veteran, and church boards and councils and continues to do so to this day.
As a business owner and rancher associated with livestock as part of Scanga Meat Company, Mr. Scanga as been involved with water and irrigation. As a principal of Scanga Meat Company, he served as President of the New Salida Ditch Company providing irrigation water to over 1000 acres of land in Chaffee County.
Through the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District activities Mr. Scanga continues to be involved with water rights and uses in the Arkansas Valley. Since the inception of the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act in 2005 he as been a member of the Arkansas Basin Roundtable representing the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District. In 2016 he was appointed to the Inter-basin Compact Committee representing the Arkansas Basin.
Beginning in 2017, Mr. Scanga tasked his staff to begin undertaking projects to respond to the beetle infestation upon the watershed forests in the Upper Arkansas District. In response to the devastation on Monarch Pass and the impending danger to the South Arkansas watershed, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District partnered with the Roundtable, Trout Unlimited the USFS and Chaffee County to develop a project to remove diseased timber from 600 acres of steep mountain slopes as demonstration designed to encourage and develop the timber industry in the removal of this timber prior to a catastrophic fire. Again in 2018, Mr. Scanga directed his staff to manage the Hayden Pass Fire - Big Cottonwood Drainage Recovery Plan in partnership with the Arkansas River Watershed Collaborative to protect water and water rights in the upper basin.
Prevention of damage to the watershed, drainage recovery from burn scars, and integrated water management plans has become a hallmark of the water district under Mr. Scanga’ s management of the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District.
Mr. Scanga loves the Upper Arkansas Basin and lives here with his large extended family. He is a 3rd generation business owner with roots in its land and water.