Gabriel Sanchez
Maintenance Technician, Highbanks
Gabriel Sanchez is talking with Communications Coordinator, Virginia Gordon
About me
I was born and raised in Willard, a small town in Huron Country. It’s about 90 miles north of Columbus with a population of only just over 6,000. It was founded on a site that railroad engineers determined to be the best point to connect lines from the southern Ohio coal fields to the established railroad line between Pittsburgh and Chicago. At first, the town was named Chicago Junction. When it incorporated a few years later, in 1882, it had a population of 800. The name of the town was changed in 1917 to honor the President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, Daniel Willard.
The area had been a dense swamp and wetland through the long past. Migrating Dutch farmers drained the entire area with drainage tiles. The result of all the ancient swamp plants created a very rich organic soil, wonderful for growing produce. In summer break after my junior year of High School I started working at one of the area’s most prominent farms, Wiers Farm. My two best friends, Graham and Will, also worked there. We all became friendly with an older worker, named Scotty, who was an amazing dude who advised us on life topics and was a joy to be around. We all still keep in touch with each other. Wiers Farm was spread over 3,000 acres and grew 20 varieties of vegetables which it packs and ships throughout the eastern and middle states of the country. It supplies vegetables to Kroger and Walmart stores throughout Ohio.
PAYING MY WAY THROUGH UNIVERSITY
I was determined to pay as much as my way through college as I could, and continuing to work at the farm helped. I worked there for four years overall, my junior and senior years of high school, and my freshman and sophomore years at OSU. I was able to combine the two as I studied at OSU’s satellite campus in Mansfield, which is only 25 miles from Willard. I sometimes worked as much as 55 hours a week, while still studying. I knew the owners and their family very well and they were really flexible with me about my hours.
Another advantage of studying at the satellite campus in Mansfield, as well being so much closer to home, is that the costs of study and accommodation are so much cheaper. In my first year I studied Accounting and I wasn’t sold, but was taught one important lesson – I didn’t want to work in an office. I switched to Environmental Sciences for my sophomore year. I enjoyed that much more, but I was really discouraged when I was told I would have to study calculus and organic chemistry the following year. I decided I had to change my major again. After talking to college advisors about my future plans, they advised me to switch my major to Natural Resources Management. The one negative about it was that it wasn’t offered at the satellite campus in Mansfield, so for my last two years I was on campus in Columbus. I graduated in December 2024.
My best friends, Graham and Will, were with me on the satellite campus. Graham was at OSU and transferred to the main campus at the same time as me. He studied agricultural business. We were roommates for two years while we studied at the main OSU campus in Columbus. My other best friend, Will, went to North Central State, which is on the same campus in Mansfield as the OSU satellite campus. He also did a year at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio, which is the town where all the footballs used in every NFL game are made. Will was very much an outdoorsy person who loved fishing and camping. He had such a different way of thinking about life and helped me to see so many things in a better light.
SOME GREAT INTERNSHIPS HELPED SHAPE MY INTEREST IN A FUTURE CAREER
I was lucky enough to get an internship with Metro Parks in 2023, working with the Resource Management team. I learned so much from my mentors on that team, Andrew Boose, Tony Minamyer, Olivia Piper and Carrie Morrow. On my very first day we were surveying wildflowers at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park. There were a number of Metro Parks volunteers there that day, and I remember that they were full of questions about the flowers and the habitat, for every one of which Andrew and Tony had a comprehensive and interesting answer. It put a flame under me and taught me how much more there was to learn, and how fascinating it was going to be to acquire that degree of knowledge of natural resources. I was inspired to study everything I could about plants, butterflies, birds, fish and mussels.
During that summer at Metro Parks I got to work on some terrific projects. On Tuesdays, we would head out with park volunteers to do invasive removals at a variety of parks. Wednesdays were mostly reserved for aquatic projects and river surveys. On Fridays we usually went to Clear Creek to progress on the HWA (Hemlock Woolly Adelgid) project, making efforts to protect the park’s hemlocks against the invasive woolly adelgid. We also did park surveys of butterflies, birds and bats. I would love to work in resource management in the future. Off the clock, I spend lots of time learning even more about the flora and fauna at Metro Parks.
I also did an internship at the Ohio EPA in summer 2024, with their Division of Surface Water. We went to many rivers in central Ohio, and sometimes other parts of the state too, using electrofishing as a means of identifying fish and determining water quality of our waterways.
MY FIRST JOB
After graduating in December 2024, I spent a lot of time in January applying for jobs. I was hoping to get my foot in the door at Metro Parks and I applied for an opening for a maintenance technician at Highbanks. Luckily, I was granted an interview in February and it went really well. I got the job and started here in March 2025.
Soon after, I also started a part time job with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in their Division of Wildlife as a Natural Resource Technician 1 – Creel Clerk. The only reason I was able to work that job was because it took place on the weekends. So, I was working seven days a week from mid-April to mid-September that year. I wanted to get my foot in the door with ODNR, and conducting surveys with anglers from a Jon Boat sounded like fun work to me!
At Metro Parks, many things we do in park maintenance require the use of heavy machinery and I have enjoyed learning how to use our dump trucks and tractors, and especially the loaders, with the big bucket on the front and the huge digger arm on the back. This past summer we installed a new swing set in the Big Meadows area which required the use of all our heavy machinery. We dug out an area, levelled it, set a border with 20-foot-long wooden posts on all four sides, made holes to install the swings, concreted them in, then filled the swing area with mulch.
THE CHAIN SAW
Another piece of equipment I enjoyed learning how to use safely is a chainsaw. We do hazard tree inspections at the entire park, looking for dead trees around trails and noting any that may be in danger of falling and posing a risk to our park visitors. We take down any such trees. We always work in pairs when taking down trees, one operating the saw, and the other on safety lookout. The biggest tree I got to cut down was an old ash tree in a reservable shelter area. It had begun to lean over a play area. It had a DBH or diameter at breast height, of about 25 inches and was more than 30 feet high. We determine which way we want the tree to fall and then make our face cut in the appropriate place on the tree. The face cut is a combination of a straight cut about 30 percent of the way through the tree, and then an angle cut at about a 45 degree angle. The next phase is another straight cut from 180 behind the face cut and level with the initial straight cut. There is a satisfying cracking and popping sound when you know the tree is about to come down. I love the smell of a tree when you bring it down with the chainsaw. For pine trees, you definitely get that wonderful piney, fresh smell, but for some dead trees the smell reminds me of ketchup that went bad, which is weird. For bigger trees we sometimes also use a rope attached to a tractor to pull it while cutting it down, to guide its fall.
After a tree is felled we cut it up into smaller pieces. If we can use the pieces for firewood we cut them in lengths of between 18 and 24 inches. Sometimes we can use the wood elsewhere in the park, especially in our natural play area. We can use logs and stumps for kids to play on, making sure there are no sharp edges, and branches can also be used for kids to build forts.
THE STORM
Recently, Storm Fern hit central Ohio and deposited almost 2 feet of snow on us. That led to the most intense shift I’ve experienced in my short time at Metro Parks. I worked the midnight to 10am shift as Metro Parks prepared in advance to handle the storm. Our first priority was to keep the park roads open. By 1am, we had our first inch of snow on the ground and it just kept coming and coming. I worked on keeping the park road clear in the Oak Coves area, Nature Center lot, and front entrance, using a truck with a huge plow attachment. A colleague worked from the Big Meadows area coming back so we met in the middle. Another colleague worked on keeping paved trail areas clear. For almost the entire 10 hour shift, I was driving back and forth trying to keep up with my designated areas. Snow had fallen to about 13 or 14 inches deep by the time my shift ended, and the banks of snow we swept clear of the park road had built up to more than 4 feet high. We also have about 20 wheelchair ramps in parking lots, which grant wheelchair users access to park trails. The ramps are between 10 and 15 feet long and are usually cleared by using shovels. The entire 10-hour shift through the night was really tiring, but time flew by. Other colleagues worked the following 10-hour shift from 10am onward. We achieved our objective, to keep the park roads open and the trails accessible. I certainly hope we don’t get another storm like that one any time soon!
A GREAT PLACE TO WORK
One of the great things about working at Metro Parks is the people you work with, who are so dedicated to their various professions, whether that’s maintenance, park rangers and naturalists, or management. The managers are great at encouraging and training you with the hope and intention that you progress in your career. I definitely appreciate their help and advice.
I also like it that so many park visitors take the time to thank us for what we do at Metro Parks. We all feel really good, knowing that what we do is appreciated. It also works in reverse. Anytime I see a park visitor with binoculars, I like to chat to them to ask what birds they might have seen at the park.
MY FAVORITE PARK ACTIVITY
Birding is an activity I really enjoy. I go out to a park at least once a month for a birding trek and make logs of everything I see. Sometimes my girlfriend Jordan comes with me. Highbanks is a great park for birders. I love to see the summer tanagers here, and other migratory birds. I also love going to Clear Creek for the warblers. I especially like to see black and white warblers and yellow warblers. That park is just such a great place to visit. As well as the birding, the geology is awesome and the creek itself is terrific. I’ve done some fly-fishing there and always have a great time.
Traveling – places I’ve been, places I’d love to go
WASHINGTON STATE
I’m not a big traveler, but I was lucky enough to spend a week in Washington State this past October. My friend Will moved out there for a job, about two and a half years ago. He lives in a town named Vancouver, which is nothing like the big Canadian city of the same name. It’s about a 20-minute drive from Oregon’s capital city, Portland. We flew into Portland. The airport there is so beautiful, with patterned wooden ceilings. I have to say, I was very scared, or maybe nervous, about the flight. Probably because it had been about 10 years since I’d last flown anywhere. We had to fly from Columbus to Chicago first. And then the flight to Portland took about another five hours. I was definitely glad when we landed.
There are a lot of conifers in Washington State, many more than we have here, but lots of beautiful deciduous trees too, which were nearing peak color on our trip. Vancouver is an inland town, but we spent some time on the coast at Tillamook. It’s a beautiful coastal town with sandy beaches and lots of dramatic cliffs.
With Will having moved so far away from his home and family, I sometimes wonder what that would be like for me. I would really miss my family. My mom and dad and three sisters all still live in Willard and I visit them regularly. If I did ever seriously think about moving away from my home state, I think Michigan would be up there as a potential location. I had a great trip to Traverse City a couple of years ago. It’s a little smaller than Columbus, but still has a big city feel. Yet it’s really close to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which is a fabulous place for nature lovers and outdoors pursuits, such as great fishing and skiing.
PENNSYLVANIA
Fly-fishing is a big interest of mine. Graham’s family owns a time share for a cabin in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. It’s just outside the Allegheny Forest and fishing in nearby Kettle Creek and lots of its smaller tributaries is really spectacular. I’ve been there three times now, always with Will and Graham. Wading in the river gives you a different way, a less invasive way, of introducing your lure to the fish. It gives you a chance to finesse a fish, as they can be easily spooked. We only do catch and release. We catch a lot of brown and rainbow trout out there, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, we catch brook trout, which is a very colorful and pretty-looking fish. Our trips to the cabin are usually just for a long weekend. We typically get there on a Friday and spend most of the night just chatting around a camp fire, enjoying drinks and each other’s company, after a good meal. And then the next day is reserved entirely for fishing. We are long overdue for another cabin trip!
When I was younger we used to take family trips to Miami, Florida, where we have family. We used to drive there rather than flying, which seemed to take forever. It was usually my parents, uncle, aunt, siblings, and my grandparents. We’d always stop at Waffle Houses on the way. When we got there, we’d always go to a Nicaraguan cuisine spot called Yambo or Pinolandia. We’d enjoy the beaches some days. Other days we’d spend catching up with family and enjoying the weather. Some years we’d take trips to Disney World. It has been quite some time since I’ve headed over that way. Fortunately, with my sister getting married recently, they were forced to come and visit us in Ohio for a change!
Another great interest of mine is skiing. While Graham and I were at OSU Mansfield, he introduced me to downhill skiing at Snow Trails, a resort just out of Mansfield. Mansfield is much more hilly than Columbus, and just hilly enough to provide a great experience for skiers just starting out. Later on, we joined the OSU Ski Club and went out to Colorado on an organized ski club trip. We went in two tour buses, with about 30 people on each. You didn’t have to be at OSU to join the club, so Will joined Graham and me on that trip. Taking the bus was certainly better than flying there. I met some great friends on the trip!
We also went twice to Holiday Valley in New York State, about a 5-hour drive away. It’s great skiing there, but the second time, in 2022, I had a really bad skiing accident. I broke six ribs and punctured a lung. I was taken to hospital and was there for four days. They had to introduce a tube into my lung to prevent air from my punctured long getting into other parts of my body and affecting other internal organs. It took almost eight months for me to recover, but I was back skiing at Mansfield that following winter, ahead of the Colorado trip. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as they say…
More about me
ONE OF LIFE’S HIGHLIGHTS
I was the first member of my family to graduate from college. All my family came to my graduation and it was one of the highlights of my life. I shared a really big hug with my mom, as she was there as a supporter the entire way with me, with constant encouragement and always lending an ear when I needed to talk to someone. I was glad I was able to pay my own way and not be a financial burden to my mom and the rest of my family. I’ve now paid off all my student debts too.
A MUSICIAN
Music has been a cornerstone of who I am. Ultimately, it’s something that is near and dear to my heart. Being raised in a hispanic church, I had a natural feel for rhythm and an ear for tasty chords. I never desired to play music, but my mom forced me to take lessons with our piano player at the time. My sister and I would go over to his house and he’d teach us exactly how he was taught. First, proper chord fingerings, then creating a songbook of hymns we sang often in church, then learning all of those songs in different keys, in the case a singer had a different vocal range. We also learned piano by ear. No sheet music. Once we were confident enough to play with the worship team, it wasn’t long before we played by ourselves. Not every song sounded great. There were tons of wrong chords, trainwrecks, moments where I was off time, but eventually, I found patterns and got better. When we first started taking lessons, I HATED practicing. My mom would force me to practice as a form of punishment sometimes. I wasn’t the happiest piano student, but looking back, I’m thankful that she made that decision for us! Today, I still play for the same church whenever there is an opportunity and my piano teacher even has his own little spot to give lessons to kids who are interested in learning for free. That’s passion and dedication. I hope to do the same or give back someway, somehow.
I also took a strong liking to acoustic guitar within the last year and a half. I happened to find a Seagull Cutaway on Facebook Marketplace (my favorite place to shop) and started learning songs I liked. I had stumbled upon Elliott Smith’s work and fell down a rabbit hole. I found his music to be intriguing, his lyrics were very cutting, and his playing was so raw, fun to play, but challenging, more than anything, which is what attracted me. Not to mention, he often played in uncommon tunings. After working at Highbanks for a couple of months, I made great friends with a coworker of mine, Austin. Coincidentally, he and I had a mutual friend which is how I broke the ice with him. He happened to know how to beat on some strings as well, and he’s mighty fine at doing it too. One day, he invited me over to his buddy Linus’s house, which was not far from mine. Linus requested to play Old Home Place, a song I heard, but never listened to the lyrics close enough. The boys strolled through the song and took their breaks.
My only experience playing guitar up until this point was fingerpicking, but it doesn’t take much to be drowned out by players who use a pick. After the song was through, I was bitten (very hard) by the bluegrass bug and ditched the fingerpicking. That night, I found the only pick I had and got right to work. I didn’t want to be drowned out anymore and I wanted to be able to hang (acoustically speaking). Austin and I frequent each other’s houses to pick some tunes we’d be itching to sing. It’s something we bond strongly over. I’m still chasing after playing better breaks, tone, and rhythm.
My girlfriend, Jordan, is a phenomenal singer! She is a master of her instrument and even has her own band, Buckeye Funk, among other musical responsibilities. They play at local bars and do lots of classic rock, yacht rock and soul. They play gigs at least twice a month and I like to go along as often as I can. It’s a pleasure to support her however I can. She is also working on her own solo projects and recently created another band for all her original music. I am very excited to see how far she takes herself! I am a very proud boyfriend to say the least.
My favorite food and desert
I like simple Hispanic dishes and my favorite is Gallo Pinto. It’s considered the national dish of Nicaragua, which is where my family is from in the distant past. The name translates to “painted chicken” or “spotted rooster” in English, but there is actually no meat in the dish at all. It’s a combination of rice and beans, with onions and finely diced green bell peppers in the rice. The small red beans in the white rice are what give the dish its name (spotted rooster), because of the speckled look, rather like a rooster. A version of the dish from Costa Rica adds black beans as well as the red beans and we sometimes add black beans too. It’s delicious on its own, but it can also be served with meats, or with fried or scrambled eggs and some sour cream. I’ve never been to Nicaragua but I would love to go there some time. I have great grandparents and great aunts and uncles there, who I have never met.
I enjoy cooking, but I like to eat out even more. I have a taste for ethnic foods. Middle-eastern dishes are one favorite of mine, such as lamb over rice, with various spices. The Yemeni Restaurant in Westerville does a particularly good lamb dish. I also enjoy Pho, a Vietnamese dish of rice noodles in a beef broth, spiced up with star anise, cinnamon, and other spices. You can add meat to the broth, such as beef balls or other cuts of meat, plus jalapenos and other spices. Pho Asian Noodle House on Lane Avenue is great for Vietnamese cuisine.
For dessert, I love getting ice cream. Jeni’s has various flavours that are exciting, but Graeter’s takes the cake with their blackberry chocolate chunk ice cream. There was also a time that I went to a restaurant in Port Clinton called Mon Ami and I had what was called Bananas Foster and it blew my mind. I haven’t had it since, but I do yearn to have another try or make it on my own sometime.
My favorite entertainment
I love playing chess. I play a lot of online chess these days, often against my friend Graham, but against other people too. I was on the executive board for the chess club at OSU, which is where I started playing. I also love playing bluegrass music on my guitar. There is actually a jam that happens right across the street from where I live. Sometimes there are as many as 20 people jamming along. They are mostly guitarists, but occasionally you get a good number of banjos, mandolins or even an upright bass. I attend every week. Austin joins me as well whenever he’s free.
I don’t watch a lot of TV, but a show I’ve been enjoying recently on HBO Max is called Chair Company. It’s about a guy who has an accident in a chair and is wanting revenge on the people who made the chair. The show is actually set here in Ohio and it’s very funny, as well as having its dramatic moments. I’m not a big movie goer either, but I just saw Marty Supreme, which is a terrific film starring Timothée Chalamet.
What Highbanks Park Manager Matt Kaderly says about Gabriel
“Gabe’s enthusiasm for the outdoors extends well beyond his responsibilities as a park maintenance technician. He continually collaborates with his peers to create significant positive impacts and he continually looks for ways to improve park operations. Gabe consistently demonstrates an expertise in resource management initiatives. He always emits enthusiasm and his positive attitude helps create a supportive and motivating work environment.”