From a young age, Anthony Stevens turned to the wilderness in his backyard for adventure, exercise and escape.

“I spent as much time as I could outside fishing and backpacking,” Anthony recalls. “That was where I was happiest, so I have a hard time watching these places be destroyed.”

This concern has motivated Anthony to get involved in conservation, and in March he joined the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s board of directors. He is excited about having an opportunity to give something back to the wild places that have nourished him and helped him find his way in the world. He follows in his mother’s footsteps. Emily Stevens, who passed away in 2002, was a board member and benefactor of the Wyoming Outdoor Council for a number of years.

“My mother definitely started off my interest in the outdoors,” Anthony says. “I owe a lot of that to her, but I have developed my own personal relationship with Wyoming as well. It is this relationship that drives my desire to help ensure we protect our open spaces for the future.”

As a boy, Anthony spent summers on a ranch near Dubois and wintered in Jackson. He went away to boarding school in his teens. He was, he says, a somewhat troubled young man.

“As a kid I spent a lot of time getting in and out of trouble,” Anthony says. “I mastered blaming other people for everything that went wrong. As I grew older I realized that there was no one else to blame but myself. If I wanted to change, it was up to me. If I wanted to make a difference in the world, it was up to me.”

Anthony enjoys just about anything that gets him outside, and he spends as much time as he can hiking, backpacking, kayaking or backcountry skiing with his fiancé Erika Wagner. Erika and Anthony plan to be married in July.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council welcomes Anthony to our board of directors. As our youngest board member, we look forward to adding his perspective to our vision and work.