Kim Waites currently serves as the Wilderness Stewardship Coordinator for Wild Alabama facilitating stewardship efforts across all three federally designated Wilderness areas in the National Forests of Alabama, Sipsey, Cheaha and Dugger Mountain. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in History and English with a concentration in Asian and Religious history. She cultivated a passion for all things outdoors in her adult life which led her into the nonprofit conservation world. She has found her niche in conserving and preserving natural history and its precious resources. Whether she is pulling a crosscut saw in a wilderness area or pouring over inventories of non native plants, recreation sites or social trails, her actions always point in the direction of conserving our wild places. She is a Leave No Trace Master Educator, Leopold Land Ethic Educator and a Wilderness First Responder. She also holds a certificate in Wilderness Stewardship through a course offered in partnership through Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands and the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center. Ask her one question and your life will be forever changed, “Why can’t you use a chainsaw in a wilderness area?”

Kim is currently working on Wilderness Character Monitoring and Baseline projects for all three federally designated Wilderness areas in National Forests in Alabama. She just recently acquired a "C" level Traditional Tools certification which will allow her to conduct trainings for traditional tools. In addition, she is now the Alabama State Advocate for Leave No Trace. Needless to say, she will be a busy bee for quite sometime and is passively stepping away from volunteer management and trail work to work on WCM, traditional tools trainings and advancing Leave No Trace initiatives in the state of Alabama. 

Contact: Kim@wildal.org