Board of Directors
Mark grew up in Utah, California, and Florida before returning to Salt Lake City to study engineering and finance at the University of Utah. After a career in investment management, he co-founded Torrey House Press in 2010 to promote conservation through literature. He stepped down from the board of Wild Utah Project in 2020. He has two grown children and lives with his wife, Kirsten Johanna Allen, in Salt Lake City and Torrey, Utah.
Director ~ Dr. Bruce Hayse
Bruce maintains a family practice in Jackson, Wyoming and has worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho. Dr. Hayse earned Master’s degree in plant ecology from the University of Wisconsin before graduating from the University of Oregon medical school. He co-founded Earth First! a group that advocated extreme measures in fighting for conservation
Karen has worked as an illustrator at the University of Michigan, and since 1987, as Principal Illustrator and later Archivist at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) at University of California at Berkeley. She helped design and produce a website for the Museum called “Doing Natural History.”
Jackie Johnson Maughan cut her teeth on preserving the Hells Canyon and River of No Return Wilderness areas. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Idaho and worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in Seattle. Upon completing her master’s, she taught writing for many years at Idaho State University. She has been a fire lookout, documentary filmmaker, and local leader in the Sierra Club and Audubon Society. She has published books about the outdoors, women, and conservation, written two novels, numerous essays, and continues to help keep the West as free and wild as possible.
Director ~ Louise Wagenknecht
A native of Idaho, Louise was raised in the Klamath Mountains of California. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service (which now pays her to stay away) for 31 years. She lives and writes from eastern Idaho, where she has recently finished her third work of narrative nonfiction.
Secretary/Treasurer ~ Kelley Weston
Kelley is the co-owner of Native Landscapes a company founded to design and build beautiful, sustainable outdoor environments. Native Landscapes is an award-winning leader in understanding, creating and establishing environmentally appropriate landscapes.
President ~ George Wuerthner
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and author. He has published 36 books including Welfare Ranching: The Environmental Consequences of Public Lands Ranching and, most recently, Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth (Island Press). George studied both wildlife biology and botany as an undergraduate at the University of Montana.
Advisory Board
Dr. John Carter
Debra L. Donahue
Lloyd Dorsey
Louise Lasley
Jon Marvel
Dr. Elizabeth Painter
Dr. Tom Pringle
Todd Shuman
Louise Wagenknecht