Our People

Leslie has lived in the Kootenays almost her whole life, growing up in Castlegar and now residing in Golden where she has been for almost 30 years. She loves the wilderness and spends as much time as she can outdoors; camping, hiking, swimming and cross-country skiing. Leslie has 7 grandchildren and it is important to her that they are able to enjoy the wilderness as much as she does forever.

Morgan Blakley works at Ecojustice as a public interest environmental lawyer. Morgan grew up in Wilmer and now lives in Vancouver. He is deeply interested in environmental issues generally and particularly in environmental issues in the Kootenays such as keeping Jumbo wild and maintaining the Columbia Valley Wetlands.

Casey and his family live work and play in Fernie in the heart of Canada's beautiful Southern Rockies. Casey managed Wildsight's Southern Rockies Campaign for a decade and is grateful for the opportunity to continue to support progress on conservation and community sustainability through volunteering with Wildsight.

Brian Conrad moved to the Kootenays in the mid 1970’s after living in England, the United States, Mexico and Colombia. The grandeur of the region inspired an intensified consciousness of environmental excitement and concerns. As a teacher at Mt. Baker Secondary School in Cranbrook, Brian joined a team of colleagues and ran an Environmental Awareness Program for Grade 11 students for many years.

Tracy Flynn came to the Columbia Valley from northern Alberta 12 years ago. She appreciates intact, healthy ecosystems but it was Columbia Lake that drew her here. Having spent most of her life in the unspoiled lake environments that northern life offered, she was pleased to find Columbia Lake. Tracy has always preferred to be outside, doing everything and anything outdoors related, including hiking, skiing and biking. She feels she has landed in...

Lesley is a retired lawyer who worked for the East Kootenay Environmental Society (Wildsight’s precursor) as a campaigner between 1992-1998. Lesley established the Elk Valley Conservation Society which evolved into Wildsight’s Elk Valley Branch, negotiated the East Kootenay CORE Land Use Plan with the environmental sector, and was on the originating steering committee of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. In her legal practice, she provided advice to First Nations on a variety...

I feel fortunate to have lived in the Rocky Mountain Trench for over 30 years and have been able to play and work in my front-yard, the Rocky Mountains and my backyard, the Purcell Mountains. My history with Wildsight is as old as the organization. As a founding member, I have been a proud supporter for many years. I have worked on many campaigns but am most proud of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy...

Tanna has volunteered for Wildsight since the beginning of the Creston Valley branch in 1989. As branch president, she has been involved in air quality issues, the initiation of the Community Forest, trail building and environmental education. For the last 5 years, Tanna has chaired the Creston Valley Bird Fest, a celebration of the birds, the art, and the agriculture of the Creston Valley.

Born and raised in rural west central Minnesota, Jim graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Forestry in 1969, married Sandy and headed west. Over the following 30 years he worked various industry and government positions from Prince George and Burns Lake, to Creston and Vernon and back to Creston again. Throughout most of this experience Jim was fortunate to work with people who “saw the forest through the trees.”