Laura Bell

East Yellowstone Regional Director

Laura made northwest Wyoming her home in the mid-seventies, and in the last forty years has worked as a sheepherder, cowboy, grazing manager for the Bighorn National Forest, massage therapist, backcountry horse packer, bookstore and gallery manager, and conservationist. Opening the Cody office for The Nature Conservancy in 2000, she served as Northwest Wyoming Program Director, leading all local conservation projects and raising funds for the organization.  In later years, she turned her focus to fundraising for conservation, connecting people to projects and people to people to create a community of conservation.

Laura’s memoir, Claiming Ground, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2010 and reflects the landscape that has shaped her—the high desert ranges of northwest Wyoming—and themes of loss and transformation.  A recipient of five fellowships from both the Wyoming Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, she is passionate about both the written word and conservation.  She hopes someday to call herself a poet.

Laura lives outside of Cody on Sage Creek with her husband, two dogs, and a barnful of horses. 

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