Nancy Ailes, Executive Director High View, WV
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Nancy Ailes
Nancy’s family has resided in Hampshire County for eight generations. She received a B.S. in biology from Bridgewater College in VA and pursued graduate work in ecology at the University of Virginia. Nancy spent 15 years as an equine anesthetist both at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and at the Virginia/Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. Returning to Hampshire County with her husband George Constantz in 1982, Nancy realized that the County was changing dramatically and was compelled to help those who wanted to protect their land from development. She became the Executive Director of the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust in 2000. |
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Jeremy Rudolph, Land Steward
Yellow Spring, WV
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Jeremy Rudolph Graduating from West Virginia University with honors in business in 2008, Jeremy is heading up the Trust’s stewardship program. In this capacity he is organizing, performing, and following up with landowners on annual property visits for lands protected by conservation easements with the Trust. Jeremy’s family has farmed for four generations in the Valley. The Trust holds conservation easements on two of the family’s parcels, so Jeremy knows first hand about land protection. When he isn’t performing duties for the Trust, he works full-time on the family farm. |
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Kelly Watkinson, Assistant Director
with husband Mike and son Penn
Quicksburg, VA
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Kelly Watkinson, Assistant Director Kelly Watkinson recently joined the Trust as its first Assistant Director. Her responsibilities include managing the Trust’s application for Accreditation, assisting with easement acquisitions and fund raising, and project development and implementation. Prior to joining the Trust, Kelly spent over 5 years working for the Potomac Conservancy where she served as the Senior Director of Land Protection. Before gaining experience with land conservation, Kelly worked for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation as a regional watershed coordinator. She served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Guatemala. Kelly has a B.S. in Environmental Science and Management from Indiana Universities School of Public and Environmental Affairs. In her free time, Kelly enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, gardening and fixing up their historic Shenandoah Valley home. |
 Ray Culter, President
High View, WV
Falls Church, VA
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Ray Cutler Ray Culter holds a B.S.C.P. from the University of Cincinnati and a business degree from Xavier University. In 2009, Ray retired as Vice President of The Nature Conservancy based in Arlington, VA. Ray was the Director of Business Operations, Administration, Trade Land Dispositions, Corporate Purchasing, and Trade Lands, and has held other positions at TNC over his 32 years there. Culter also has experience as the Regional Planner in the Cincinnati area and was instrumental in conservation work in the Little Miami River basin in Ohio. For 9 years he served on the board of the Potomac Conservancy and on the board of several other organizations including the Center for Watershed Protection. He and his wife Paulette built a home on their Hampshire County property, which is protected from further development with a conservation easement. Ray joined our Board in 2007.
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 Guy Davis |
Guy Davis Guy Davis is a Hampshire County native and the fifth Davis generation to live and work on the Davis Farm along the Cacapon River near Yellow Spring, WV. Guy joined the Board of the Trust in 1999, helping form a new ‘second generation’ of board members and bringing tremendous local insight to the process. Guy works for the WV Dept. of Agriculture and still maintains a small working cow/calf operation with other family members at the farm. |
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Dottie Eddis, Secretary, and husband Lowell Hott |
Dottie Eddis After graduating from West Virginia University with a B.S. in Wildlife Resources, Dottie found her first job in Hampshire County and soon after made it her permanent home. She and her husband Lowell Hott live on Lowell’s family farm and work together at Augusta Animal Hospital. Their children Hilary and Tristan love having grown up on a farm and value the work the Trust does to help protect open space. Dottie and her family enjoy the outdoors, music, and travel. |
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Karen Gallardo |
Karen Gallardo Karen has 20 years of fundraising experience and currently serves as Senior Director of Gift Planning and Major Gifts for the AARP Foundation. In this role she is helping AARP build a bequest and major gifts program to serve America’s most vulnerable, low-income seniors. Prior to joining AARP Foundation, Karen spent more than 14 years at The Nature Conservancy working in various fundraising positions. It was there she fully developed her conservation ethic and love of the land. To keep a connection to local conservation, Karen provides her expertise to help develop a sustainable revenue base for the Trust. Karen joined the Board in January 2009. Karen received a BA in English and Communication at the University of New Mexico and an MBA from George Washington University. |
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Becky Ganskopp, Treasurer |
Becky Ganskopp Becky Ganskopp grew up on a family farm at Capon Lake, WV and is the sixth generation of the Rudolph family to have lived in Hampshire County. She graduated from West Virginia University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a major in accounting. She is a CPA with over 20 years of accounting experience and is currently self-employed. She lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband, Michael, and children, Ashley and Matthew. They make frequent weekend trips “home” to West Virginia to spend time on the family farm. |
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Will Keaton, wife Becky, and children David & Ellen |
Will Keaton Will is a lifelong resident of Hampshire County, West Virginia. He attained a Bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in 1993, and a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Akron in 1996. Since that time, he has been practicing law in Romney at the firm of Carl, Keaton & Frazer. A lifelong hunter and outdoor enthusiast, Will lives in Springfield, West Virginia with his wife Becky and their two children David and Ellen. |
 Brian McDonald |
Brian McDonald Brian McDonald retired from the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and joined the board in April 2007. Brian earned his BS in Biology from the University of Maryland and did two years of graduate study in Plant Ecology at WVU. During his 28 years with the DNR he worked on the Natural Heritage Program, gathering information about rare species of plants and animals and their distribution throughout West Virginia. He spent two years describing wetlands around the state and was editor of a WVU symposium on “Wetlands of the Unglaciated Appalachian Region.” Brian came from the Washington DC area but has lived in West Virginia since 1977. He enjoys nature study, construction and carpentry, biking and fishing. “The waters of the Cacapon Valley are critical to the health of a much larger ecosystem that includes the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean” Brian stated. He lives in Elkins with his wife Mary Ann and also serves on the board of the Randolph County Humane Society. |
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Dan Nees, Vice President, with wife Emily, and daughter Lia |
Dan Nees Dan is the director of the Chesapeake Fund program at Forest Trends. The Chesapeake Fund is a new and innovative program to establish a voluntary water quality market within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Dan came to Forest Trends from the World Resources Institute (WRI), where he directed its water quality programs. Prior to WRI, Dan was the director of University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center for six years. During that time, Dan assisted communities throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the Mid-Atlantic region in their efforts to implement and finance environmental and sustainable development initiatives. Additional experience includes serving as Project Manager of Corporate Programs at The Nature Conservancy and Manager of Alternative Marketing at U.S. News and World Report. Dan holds a B.A. in Economics, a Master of Environmental Policy, and a Master of Business Administration, all from the University of Maryland, College Park. |
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Kieran O’Malley |
Kieran O’Malley Kieran is a resident of Maysville in Grant County, WV with his wife Julie and children Mary and Tristan. He has worked as a biologist with the West Virginia DNR Wildlife Diversity Program since 2000. Prior to coming to the DNR, he worked with the U.S Forest Service in West Virginia and Upper Michigan and with the National Park Service in the Everglades, Grand Canyon, and Olympic National Parks. Kieran is a dedicated conservationist and aspiring naturalist and spends much of his free time exploring wild places. |
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Bob Poole |
Bob Poole Bob is a retired corporate pilot. Eighteen years of his flying career was for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia. In the United States, he flew for Exxon/Mobile, AOL, Time Warner, and Verizon. He also spent two years in Viet Nam. Bob has a B.A. degree from the University of Maryland. For more than fifty years he has been going to Morgan County to enjoy nature. He donated a conservation easement on his 134-acres in Morgan County in 2007; he joined the Board in 2008. |
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Dave Warner |
David A. Warner David Warner left his Southern Illinois farm community for West Virginia’s mountains in 1978. Before moving to Hampshire County he obtained a BS and MS in Forest Ecology from Southern Illinois University and worked in forestry and conservation before becoming the Hampshire County Service Forester. In 1989 he started TimberLand Consulting (TLC) to do consulting forestry. He is a licensed forester in West Virginia and Maryland, served on the WV Board of Registration for Foresters, is the Vice-Chair of the WV Chapter of the Association of Consulting Foresters and is serving his fourth term as President of the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust. He enjoys paddling and camping along the Cacapon, and as a private pilot enjoys soaring over it as well. His wife Ann teaches at Hampshire High School, they have two children and live within the Lost/Cacapon River watershed in Hampshire County. |
Advisory Board
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Alan Brill |
Former board member and President of Capon Valley Bank |
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John Gavitt, with wife Arlene (and Molly) |
John was on the Trust’s board from 1999 through February 2008 and served as Secretary and Treasurer. He worked in wildlife law enforcement for over 27 years in a wide variety of positions and duty stations and provided wildlife law enforcement training and assessments in developing countries, including Thailand, Cambodia, Ecuador and Micronesia for a non-governmental agency.In 2000, he donated a conservation easement to the Trust on 437 acres where he offers unique outdoor experiences on his North River Retreat in Hampshire County, WV. |
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Jim Matheson |
Jim is a founding board member of The Trust, former owner of Camp Rim Rock, and long-time supporter. |
Mike Rudolph |
Mike’s family has lived and farmed in the Cacapon River valley for six generations. Mike is a full-time beef cattle farmer, easement holder, and long-time Trust volunteer. Mike also sits on the Trust’s Cacapon Voices Committee, a group that has directed the production of an oral history book soon to be released. |
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In Memory |
Jane and Willard Wirtz came to the Cacapon River valley in 1968 and bought the old Davis Place along the Cacapon River, just north of Yellow Spring, and protected it with a conservation easement. A founding board member of the Trust, Willard was a retired law school teacher, lawyer, and government servant. He practiced law with Adlai Stevenson II in the firm of Stevenson, Rifkind and Wirtz in Chicago, and was Secretary of Labor in the Cabinets of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1995, he wrote Capon Valley Sampler a book about this lovely Valley. We miss him deeply. |
