Animal Wonders, a 501c(3) non-profit organization, was founded by Jessi Knudsen Castañeda and Augusto Castañeda in August 2008 to fulfill their dream of sharing the wonders of wildlife with the public. Having already rescued over 30 animals, Jessi and Augusto want to ensure them a permanent home and provide a safe haven for others in need. The animal center is nestled in the forest outside of Missoula, Montana. The animals who are currently residing at Animal Wonders share the breathtaking scenery and natural surroundings. Most of the animal residents were displaced from their homes and adopted by Animal Wonders. Some were donated by zoos, and others were illegally owned and needed to be placed with Animal Wonders.

Animal Wonders has several objectives. The primary objective is to provide our animal residents with a life-long home. Each and every animal is treated with the respect owed to them. The animal residents are provided with the specific requirements of their species. They also receive behavioral enrichment to stimulate their body and mind.

The second objective of Animal Wonders is to spread knowledge and respect for all types of wildlife. We offer both live public presentations and online videos. By sharing the animals with the public, Animal Wonders allows people to form an emotional connection and truly understand what makes these animals so amazing.

The final objective of Animal Wonders is to support and promote conservation efforts locally, nationally, and internationally.

Jeff Benda lives in Fargo, North Dakota where he works as a wild game chef, outdoor writer, and photographer. He owns a media company that works with businesses in the hunting, fishing, and shooting industries. When he is not working, Jeff loves traveling the desolate back roads of the Little Missouri National Grasslands found in western North Dakota in search of upland birds and mule deer. He's also an avid waterfowl hunter, chasing ducks and geese across the U.S. for six months out of the year. But his greatest love is raising his outdoor-loving daughter with the help of his wife and hiking partner, Melissa, who shares his passion for protecting wild places and wildlife.

President & CEO, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

Throughout his varied professional career, Berry has amassed a distinctive suite of skills and experience as an inspiring and transformative leader, conservation advocate, skilled fundraiser, government relations professional, and effective nonprofit and agency manager. He is regarded as a colleague who values collaboration and partnership, and brings an infectious enthusiasm to his work.

In his most recent position as the President and CEO of Fly Fishers International, Berry led efforts to develop an array of successful fundraising programs, overhaul membership strategies, create engaging and contemporary education programs, and launch a dynamic rebranding initiative. As the former Commissioner of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department Berry managed 130 full-time employees, directed critical conservation initiatives, and has been widely credited for modernizing and financially stabilizing the Department. Among other notable achievements while in this leadership role, Berry spearheaded a successful campaign to declare fish and wildlife as public trust resources.

Berry has also previously served as Vice President at the Vermont Community Foundation, Director of Environmental Advancement and Governmental Affairs at Vermont Law School, and in other professional roles focused on conservation, government relations, and development. Early in his career, Berry spent almost 10 years as a fishing guide in the Northern Rockies while also working as an outdoor writer, commercial fly tyer, and artist.

Berry holds an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College and has completed extensive Master’s Degree work in Environmental Science from the University of Montana. He is a lifelong outdoor enthusiast with a passion for hunting, fishing, and a variety of other outdoor pursuits. Berry currently lives in Vermont with his wife Brooke and has two grown sons Quinn and Willem. He shares his house with 5 spaniels he trains for hunting and field trials, has restored two historic homes, and when time allows, plays guitar and banjo in a local band.

Brian grew up on a small family dairy farm in upstate NY. This 400 acre farm was a child’s dream of swamps, deepwoods, and thickets. His first memory of hunting was as a 7 year old, siting on a milk crate in the hardwoods with his father and was hooked from that moment on. He pursues whitetail deer and turkeys with an occasional foray for small game. Growing up, the Susquehanna River was his playground and spent untold hours chasing smallmouth bass and walleyes. Today most of his fishing is through the ice on Lake George and Lake Champlain with some spring trout fishing. Brian’s first experience with the value of public land and access was while earning his doctorate degree in Geology from Western Michigan University. Although trapped in a small apartment, Michigan has abundant public landand was able to pursue deer and turkeys and expanded his fishing to include Great Lakes salmon and steelhead.

Brian, along with his wife and daughter and pup, lives on a small homestead in Whitehall, New York, situated between the southeastern edge of the Adirondack Mountains and the Green Mountains of Vermont right at southern tip of Lake Champlain with access to thousands of acres of public land and water.

Christopher Borgatti was born and raised in the suburbs west of Boston, Massachusetts. As a boy, first with a bicycle and then with a jon boat, he spent most days after school fishing and exploring the Charles River. 

A hunter, angler, surfer, and competitive endurance athlete, Chris has long recognized the role public lands and waters have played in his outdoor passions. After learning about BHA, he became involved in the New England chapter and joined the chapter board in 2018. Chris now serves as the Eastern Policy & Conservation Manager for BHA. 

Ryan Callaghan is the conservation director for MeatEater and vice chair of the executive committee on the BHA North American board. Ryan has been a passionate member of the outdoor community, growing up guiding, hunting, fishing and playing in the West.

Born and raised in Missoula, Montana, Trey was introduced to hunting and angling at a very young age. It wasn’t long after his first day hunting that he knew he wanted to pursue a career working toward the best interest of wildlife, wildlands and his shared hunting and angling tradition. Trying his best to follow in his father's boot tracks, hunting evolved from a pastime of finding adventure, outdoor relief and self-sustenance to a mechanism that encourages new hunter participation and appreciation of our natural resources from hunters and non-hunters alike.

While working towards his undergraduate degree, Trey interned for BHA for over a year and a half. Trey helped develop and presided over BHA’s first collegiate club at the University of Montana. Graduating from UM in the spring of 2017 with B.S. in resource conservation, he began working full time for BHA a few weeks later as the collegiate curriculum and outreach assistant - BHA/USFWS fellow. Growing through roles within BHA, Trey now works as the strategic partnerships and conservation programs manager. When not in the office, he’s likely scheming over ways to find next season's elk.

Bard’s passion for the outdoors was instilled in him at a young age hunting the woods of Alabama. His aunt and grandfather were his hunting mentors, teaching him the ways of the woodsman and conservationist. He took this passion to the University of TN where he studied wildlife management and went on to work in multiple biological technician jobs. He has monitored satin bowerdirds in the rainforest of Australia, taught fish farming in Zambia and searched for duck nests in the praire potholes of ND.

Bard is also an award winning and international touring singer songwriter living in Santa Fe, NM. Bard is as comfortable tracking elk in the backcountry dark timber as he is telling stories and singing his well crafted songs. He spends countless hours on public lands scouting and hunting solo or with his teenage son. Bard also makes time to mentor new hunters and teach them the skills it takes to fill the freezer.

He is excited to fill the new role as NM Habitat Steward Coordinator and help improve wildlife habitat and connectivity in New Mexico.

Based in Missoula, MT, Grizzly Orienteering organizes and hosts orienteering events all over Western Montana.  Orienteering is the sport of navigating with a compass to find a series of points marked on a map - basically an outdoor treasure hunt!  Participants use their skills and stamina to choose routes, both on and off trail, that allow them to find all the points in the shortest amount of time.  Grizzly Orienteering events feature custom maps and courses and provide a range of difficulty so attendees of all ages and experience levels can participate and succeed.  Besides their main events, the club also runs youth programs, summer camps, and courses to help people improve their orienteering skills.  The club is proud to have never lost a participant in the woods (at least not permanently...). 

As a youngster, Andrew ran wild around military installations from the desert landscapes of Camp Pendleton, CA to the intercoastal waterways of Lejeune, NC, and everywhere in between. Over the years, he continued to fish, became an avid shooter, and hunted whitetail along the East Coast. Andrew's intrigue with the West and true backcountry wasn't ignited until the summer before college, during a month spent backpacking the Wind River Range of Wyoming. He went on to study political science and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina.

Andrew moved to Montana in 2021, interned with BHA, and now works full time as the Habitat Stewardship Coordinator (MT/ID/WY). He spends his fall trying to fill the freezer so that he can get back to the duck blind with his chocolate lab, Lynyrd. He strives to be a good steward of the public lands and water he feels blessed to make use of.

Chris grew up in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with a passion for hunting, fishing, camping, and nature. Now a resident of the outdoor mecca of State College, Pa., he is surrounded by the ridges and valleys of the Allegheny Mountains.

A veteran of newspapers and public relations, his conservation ethic was honed while directing communications at a land trust in State College. He joined BHA in 2017 and now serves as the Eastern Field Director, working with chapter leaders and members to conserve and protect access to our public lands and waters.

While he gets outdoors near home often, Chris also travels to hunt, fish, and recreate on public lands as often as possible, both with his family and his BHA compatriots.

Jenkins lives in the Nantahala Mountains where he has built a life around conserving wildlife and wild places. He is the founding chief executive officer of The Orianne Society. He also serves on the board of the Indian Ocean Tortoise Alliance and has served leadership roles in the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Partners for Reptiles and Amphibian Conservation, and Gopher Tortoise Council. 

During his career, Chris has protected and restored tens of thousands of acres of land. Chris is a sportsman who enjoys both “hunting from home” and going on hunting and fishing adventures around the world. He spends over 150 days a year hunting and fishing on public lands, primarily hunting Appalachian bigwoods whitetails and traveling the continent chasing gobbling turkeys. His interests in conservation brought him to serve on the board of the Southeast chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and subsequently to create the Georgia chapter. Jenkins is now the Development Committee Chair on the BHA North American Board. 

Chris has also worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Massachusetts, University of British Columbia, and National Geographic. Chris received a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Massachusetts in wildlife conservation. He received his Ph.D. in biological sciences from Idaho State University.

Nick Long is a long-time BHA member and serves as treasurer of the Pennsylvania Chapter. Nick grew up in an outdoorsy family and is now passing down those passions to his own children as they hunt, fish, and hike near their home in central PA. Nick also travels to the western U.S. and Canada in pursuit of antelope, elk, caribou, mule deer, and moose.

Kaden originally hails from northern Utah, where he cut his teeth hunting, fishing, and recreating on public lands. His passion for conservation collided with his interest in policy during his time at Utah State University, where he received a B.S. in law and constitutional studies with a minor in environmental studies and was actively involved in his BHA collegiate chapter.  

He spent a brief time as a campaign coordinator for Utah Rivers Council, working on water conservation policy before moving to Washington, D.C. Following that, he spent two years working at Alaska Wilderness League on their government relations team, focused on protecting public lands and waters in America’s Arctic and the Tongass National Forest. Joining the BHA staff allowed him to continue conservation policy work while returning closer to his roots as a sportsman. 

In recent years, Kaden has become an eager fly fisherman, and when he is not on Capitol Hill, he can be found searching for new streams and trails. As often as he can, Kaden heads back West to chase mule deer, elk, and pronghorn.

Devin grew up abalone diving along Northern California’s rugged coast and fishing the backcountry of the Trinity Alps and Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges. While attending college at UC Santa Barbara, he honed his skills of diving and spearfishing as a way to enjoy the ocean when the surf was flat and to feed himself and other poor college friends. After graduating, Devin moved to San Diego where he started his own business, learned to hunt and even designed arrows for an industry leader. Whether it’s from the backcountry or his backyard garden, Devin enjoys harvesting and cooking wild fish and game with his wife and young daughter.

Don Rank is a lifelong Pennsylvania resident, born and raised in the Philadelphia area. As a youth, he learned to hunt and fish on the large tracts of state game lands surrounding the family cabin built by his grandfather in the mountains of PA. To this day, that cabin continues to be the epicenter of many of his outdoor pursuits.

Professionally, Don has been in practice as a nurse anesthetist since 2003, concentrating primarily on pediatric anesthesia. He served in the same role in the Army Reserves and has lectured for various nurse anesthesia graduate programs in the Philadelphia area.

Prior to joining the North American Board, Don served on the board of the Pennsylvania Chapter, first as secretary, beginning in 2018, and since 2021 as chairman. During that time, he has focused primarily on legislative and policy issues, making dozens of trips to the state capital to advocate for BHA with lawmakers and agency decision makers. As the chapter policy lead, Don has empowered many BHA members to become advocates for conservation in the state.

Don’s wife, Wendi, is also an active BHA member. In addition to outdoor pursuits, Don, Wendi and their two children enjoy traveling in the U.S. and abroad. Their most recent adventure was to Scotland.

John Ruple is Research Professor of Law at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, and Director of the Law and Policy Program at the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources & the Environment. He has more than twenty years of experience with management of Western public lands and the resources they contain, and the environmental review process for actions impacting our public lands. His work appears in journals published by Harvard, Columbia, Georgetown, the University of California, and other leading universities. John has testified before Congress, and he served as Senior Counsel in the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 2022-2024.

Patrick Sievert is a BHA life member and the owner of Rock Creek Trail Llamas. He started using llamas in 2019 in order to hunt deeper in the backcountry, and his llamas have packed out over a dozen elk since then, for himself, friends, and clients. He now breeds top quality pack llamas and offers llama rentals to help his clients get elk out of places they otherwise couldn't.

Durrell Smith is a 35-year-old visual artist, Orvis-Endorsed Wingshooting Guide, and conservationist based in Atlanta, Georgia. His work bridges the sporting life and the creative world, blending field experiences with fine art through abstract assemblage, india ink, and watercolor illustrations inspired by bird dogs, landscapes, and the outdoor traditions of America. Durrell is the founder of The Sporting Life Notebook podcast, co-founder of Minority Outdoor Alliance and co-founder of American Soil American Soul, a brand celebrating the deep connections between land, culture, and community, both founded with his wife Ashley Eady Smith.

A first-generation hunter and recipient of the 2021 Orvis Breaking Barriers Award, and recently nominated 2025 Orvis Guide of the Year. Durrell uses both his art and his guiding to build a richer, more inclusive narrative around conservation—inviting new voices and traditions into the outdoor space. Through brushstrokes and bird dogs, he tells the living story of America’s sporting heritage.

Rick Spicer is a Wilderness First responder and has been an outdoor educator for over 20 years. He is Co-Owner of the Pack Rat Outdoor Center in Fayetteville, AR. He worked as an AMGA SPI climbing instructor for 15 years and as a survival skills instructor at his own business in Arkansas as well as on the staff at Boulder Outdoor Survival School in Southern Utah. He has been an adventure race director for over 10 years and has nearly 30 years of backcountry trip experience in traditional archery hunting, mountaineering, canyoneering, and backpack fishing. He is the public waters chair for the Arkansas BHA chapter board and also serves on the board for the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust.

Carmen leads Home Range Wildlife Research mission to conduct wildlife science that directly informs the conservation and management of species.  She is dedicated to examining the impacts of climate change and human development on wildlife as well as finding ways to  mitigate their impacts.  Carmen's background is in mammal ecology, habitat, and management where she has worked in a diversity of landscapes including the southeast US and the Alberta Rocky Mountains.  Carmen holds a B.Sc. degree in Wildlife Management and Conservation from Humboldt State University and a M.Sc. in biology from the University of British Columbia, Kelowna.  She resides in Winthrop, WA.

Zack grew up in West Michigan, where he developed a love for bass and steelhead, and November river-bottom treestand sits for whitetail deer. Steelhead took him all over the Pacific Northwest before he met his wife, Kelly, and finally settled in Missoula, Montana. 

He now enjoys backpacking with his wife, baby girl, and dogs or chasing elk in wild places, usually ending up somewhere with a lack of trails and too many blowdowns. 

Working Dogs for Conservation is the world’s leading conservation dog organization.

Whether it's law enforcement, biosecurity, ecological monitoring, or environmental justice, WD4C consults, collaborates, and leads capacity building for detection, tracking, and discrimination dogs and handlers, all to make conservation happen around the world.

Our dogs can detect weeds before they break the surface, animals that live below ground, and or organisms invisible to the human eye, whether diseases or microscopic larvae.

We constantly strive to maximize the impacts dogs have for conservation. Pioneering new and innovative canine techniques, and combining dogs with other cutting edge technologies like artificial intelligence and laboratory methods, we make conservation more efficient, effective, and extend its reach.