Name
Kelley Weston

WWP Affiliation
Board member, past president, acting interim president

Family
Wife Kathleen Diepenbrock, sons Joel and Ethan, mother Susan, brothers Doug and Timothy, numerous beloved in-laws.

Occupation
Landscape contractor specializing in design, installation and maintenance of native landscapes.

Other Conservation Affiliations
None. WWP is the most effective organization in the region working on the most important and least appreciated issue in the West.

Memorable Conservation Experience
Visiting various exclosures with Jon Marvel. Seeing just how bad the land is where it is not protected and just how resilient nature is, given the chance.

Reading
The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry.

Other Interests
Travel, aikido, high-altitude trekking, backpacking, philosophical discussions of all types.

Favorite Place(s) in the West
The River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho. Twice hiked the wilderness for two months, north to south. Saw no one for weeks. Heard elk bugling at dawn. Climbed out of the Salmon Gorge and arrived on the edge of the gorge just in time to see the sunset through the lime-green moss draped on old-growth Ponderosa pine.

Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Skied there in March, wandering through huge herds of deer and elk. Sat in a rock shelter and imagined myself there 5,000 years ago, watching the stars while lying in a hot springs.

Specimen Ridge, Yellowstone National Park (1979). Watched bears eat mint and was nearly trampled to death by bison. Swam in a warm river.

The sage-steppe shrub lands near my home in Hailey. Every year in June I tiptoe through fields of bitterroot, smell lupine, nibble on sage to cleanse the palate, watch badgers dig for ground squirrels and am intoxicated by the fragrance of sage after a summer rain. I am in love with the West. It is my home.