About Kelly

“And by no canon could it be considered ladylike to go about on your own feet, with a blanket and a black bag and almost no money in your purse, in and about the haunts of rude and solitary men.”

Mary Hunter Austin

(The Walking Woman)

Conservation work gives me the opportunity to write and take photographs, some of which you see on this website.

The thing I’ve done that people seem to like the most was a 2006 walk across 78 miles of California desert and chaparral. I went into the field on foot to raise awareness of a destructive transmission line project that would have harmed a 600,000 acre state park, its wildlife, and its Native American cultural sites. Over the next couple of years, thousands of people objected, and the transmission line was routed out of the park.

Rerouting the line spared the park, but inflicted damage on other areas. After the line was built, I lived near it for two years. I saw firsthand what it’s like having such a major project in your neighborhood. If anything, the environmental impacts were worse than I expected.