What it takes to keep wild places healthy and accessible for generations to come

Kaitlin de Varona is the executive director of Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS), the nonprofit that has spent more than a decade building a community of skilled, committed wilderness stewards across the Southeast. In this special episode, she joins Bill and Anders — both former SAWS leaders who helped shape the organization — for a wide-ranging conversation about what it takes to keep wild places healthy and accessible for generations to come.

From the passage of the Tennessee Wilderness Act in 2018 to the harrowing weeks following Hurricane Helene in 2024, SAWS has repeatedly proven that consistent stewardship changes minds, builds coalitions, and, when disaster strikes, can respond to the wilderness faster than anyone expected. In the months after Helene, Kaitlin’s pro crews deployed into remote Tennessee backcountry in winter conditions with one week’s notice, clearing 700 downed trees using only traditional tools. Meanwhile, she worked to ensure that not a single staff member lost their job in the storm’s aftermath.

This episode is part of The Wild Idea’s Month of Stewards series and captures a moment of genuine transformation for SAWS: the organization has grown to approximately 70 employees, launched year-round professional crews with benefits, and continues to expand the Wilderness Skills Institute — all while staying true to the founding conviction that places worth protecting are worth showing up for, again and again.

In this episode:

• SAWS’s founding in 2010 How a trail stewardship summit at Montreat College, convened to address opposition to a Tennessee wilderness bill, became the origin story of one of the Southeast’s most effective stewardship organizations.
• The Tennessee Wilderness Act The decade-long campaign to protect 20,000 acres of the Cherokee National Forest, culminating in the 2018 Farm Bill — and how local trail clubs went from opponents to annual donors.
• Stewardship as a form of advocacy Bill Hodge’s argument, reinforced by the arc of the Tennessee Wilderness Act, that showing up in communities over time is advocacy in its own right, even without an explicit political mission.
• Hurricane Helene: the personal and the organizational Kaitlin’s account of the storm’s immediate aftermath — tracking down 35 staff members, securing emergency funding, and redirecting crews to food distribution and community work before returning to the backcountry.
• 700 trees, no chainsaws How SAWS pro crews cleared massive storm damage on the Appalachian Trail in remote Tennessee wilderness in February, in snow and freezing temperatures, using crosscut saws — and why the initial reaction was that it couldn’t be done.
• The professional crew model Kaitlin’s vision for SAWS: year-round crews with real salaries and benefits, designed to be a genuine career step rather than another short-term conservation stint,
• The Wilderness Skills Institute The annual partnership training event at the Cradle of Forestry in North Carolina, where agency staff, volunteers, and partners from across the country gather to build and share wilderness stewardship skills.
• The future of SAWS Kaitlin’s vision for the next decade: making conservation careers more visible and accessible to young people, especially those who, like her, didn’t grow up knowing public lands were an option.

Links & Resources

Organizations & Initiatives:

• Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS) — Nonprofit based in Asheville, NC dedicated to wilderness stewardship and crew development across the Southern Appalachian region.
  • Connect with SAWS on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 
• Wilderness Skills Institute (WSI) — Annual partnership training event co-organized by SAWS, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and the U.S. Forest Service, hosted at the Cradle of Forestry in North Carolina.
• Appalachian Trail Conservancy — Nonprofit that manages and protects the Appalachian Trail; co-partner in the Wilderness Skills Institute.
• The Wilderness Society — National conservation organization that provided early funding to help launch SAWS in 2011.
• Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club — Northeast Tennessee trail club and Appalachian Trail maintaining organization whose shift from opposition to support was pivotal in the passage of the Tennessee Wilderness Act.

Places & Landscapes:

• Spring Mountains, Nevada — Public lands and wilderness area near Las Vegas where Kaitlin de Varona first encountered trail crew work and discovered conservation as a career path.
• Linville Gorge Wilderness, North Carolina — Wilderness area in the Pisgah National Forest; site of an early SAWS volunteer trip that helped deepen Anders Reynolds’s connection to the organization.
• Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee — The national forest in East Tennessee where approximately 20,000 acres were designated wilderness under the 2018 Tennessee Wilderness Act.
• Big Laurel Branch Wilderness, Tennessee — One of five wilderness areas expanded under the Tennessee Wilderness Act; among the remote Tennessee AT sections where SAWS deployed crews for Helene storm recovery.
• Pond Mountain Wilderness, Tennessee — Remote AT corridor in East Tennessee where SAWS pro crews conducted post-Helene trail restoration.
• Appalachian Trail — The 2,200-mile National Scenic Trail; SAWS crews cleared significant Helene storm damage on Tennessee sections in early 2026.
• Cradle of Forestry, North Carolina — Historic site in Pisgah National Forest, Transylvania County; annual home of the Wilderness Skills Institute.
• Montreat College, North Carolina — Small college near Black Mountain, NC; site of the 2010 Wilderness Trail Summit where SAWS was first conceptualized.

Government & Policy:

• Tennessee Wilderness Act (2018) — Legislation passed as part of the 2018 Farm Bill designating the Upper Bald River Wilderness and expanding five existing wilderness areas in the Cherokee National Forest, protecting approximately 20,000 acres.

People Mentioned:

• Meryl Harrell — SAWS board member who served as interim and then executive director of SAWS between Bill Hodge’s departure in 2019 and Kaitlin de Varona’s appointment in 2021. She is the subject of an upcoming episode.
• Senator Lamar Alexander — Tennessee Republican senator who championed the Tennessee Wilderness Act in the U.S. Senate.
• Senator Bob Corker — Tennessee Republican senator who co-sponsored the Tennessee Wilderness Act.
• Congressman Phil Roe — Representative for Tennessee’s 1st Congressional District whose support, secured after the Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club endorsed the bill, was key to its passage.
• Joe DeLoach — Member of the Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club cited by Bill Hodge as instrumental in the club’s decision to support the Tennessee Wilderness Act.
• Andrew Downs — Executive director of the New River Conservancy and former senior regional director at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy; co-founded the Wilderness Skills Institute with Bill Hodge and Jimmy Guidry.
• Jimmy Gaudry — U.S. Forest Service employee cited as a co-founder of the Wilderness Skills Institute. 

Kaitlin de Varona is passionate about public lands and finding creative ways to steward these precious natural resources within collaborative partnerships. She values hard-work, teamwork, communication, and striving for a better world through conservation. Kaitlin fell in the love with wilderness in 2010 after joining a summer trail crew in the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada. This transformational experience led her to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Master’s degree in Natural Resources with a Certificate in Geospatial Information Science at North Carolina State University and finally a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. Kaitlin has worked a variety of conservation jobs across the country in trails, endangered species, fire, non-native invasive species, youth development, and wilderness stewardship. She accepted the Executive Director position at Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards in 2021 and serves as a Board of Director with McDowell Chamber of Commerce.

Kaitlin lives with her family in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband and three kids finding time to introduce them all to adventure and the magic of the outdoor world around us.

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