About Us
Who We ARe
Bold Visions Conservation is a Montana-based nonprofit working to end wildlife cruelty and restore wild ecosystems across the Northern Rockies. We were founded by everyday citizens outraged by the unchecked suffering of wildlife, degradation of our wild places, and the silence of those in power.
We believe that wild animals deserve to live free from fear, cruelty, and greed. That public lands should be safe for families, hikers, and pets, not riddled with hidden traps or sold off to the highest bidder. And we believe that facts, truth, and fearless organizing can still win.
Our Team
Meet the people behind the fight.
Our leadership combines expertise in legislation, field work, communications, and conservation.
Stephen Capra
Executive Director
What sets Bold Visions apart is that we are a voice for wildlife and wildlands, and move forward with a history of success. Bold Visions exists to continue the fight Stephen has been involved in for over 30 years, leading campaigns that created two National Monuments: Rio Grande del Norte, and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico, multiple wilderness areas, and the creation of the Mexican Wolf Coalition. In Montana, he led Footloose Montana to prominence while fighting egress bills in the legislature, including lobbying to defeat SB-372; placing the fight for wildlife front and center in Montana. He works with Montana’s influential conservationists and wildlife advocates to ensure success and will always be BOLD! stephen@bvconservation.org
Tom Rogers
Washington DC Director
Tom Rodgers is a member of the Blackfoot Tribe and an advocate for Indian country and conservation. Tom has received academic ethics awards for his efforts. The Tom C. Rodgers O-tee-paym-soo-wuk Ethics in Government Scholarship by the University of Denver Strum College of Law was named in his honor. He was the main whistle-blower in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Tom is critical to our efforts to create a new national Monument for wildlife in the Custer-Gallatin and Caribou-Targhee national forests. He has worked with our Executive Director since the inception of our efforts. Tom is well-respected in Washington, D.C., and Montana. He has an MBA in International Business from the University McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, a Master of International Public Policy/Asian Studies/Civilization at the University of Denver, a Law and a Doctor of law from Strum College of Law, Denver, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Denver in Political Science and Economics.
Joe Adair
Grant Coordinator
Joe grew up in New Mexico and was an early computer user, writing his first BASIC program in 1973 on an IBM 360 Mainframe; computers would play a significant role in his life. He worked in high-rise construction management, then as a project manager, and finally in construction budget analysis. Budget analysis was not very exciting, so he took up an offer from a small family-run computer store in Westwood, California, at the dawn of the personal computer age, and became First Computer. Given the high cost of computers, our clientele consisted of the wealthy and famous in adjacent Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Malibu, and Bel Air, earning Joe the nickname “Computer Guy to the Stars.” First Computer eventually became the primary supplier to the entertainment industry and grew to be a $100m company. Joe, who struck out with a partner, became the first internet software distributor in the world. Sadly, after just two years, his company was involved in a dispute with Microsoft. Heartbroken, Joe sought solace with relatives in Phoenix and took a job at a newspaper chain as a graphic designer. He rose to manage his department, overseeing design for 13 publications. He moved back to Albuquerque in 2001 and met Bold Visions Conservation’s founder, Stephen Capra, who was ED at NM Wilderness Alliance. He hired Joe to remake NMWild!, the newsletter of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. Joe has helped many other environmental organizations and continues to work with Bold Visions today.
Matthew Wardell
Community Organizer
Matt was born in Manhattan NY, but he was blessed to be raised in the mountains of Pike County, Pennsylvania. He grew up hunting and fishing and camping in the Delaware Valley. He never questioned why people came from around the world to see the natural beauty of his hometown, Milford. But even immersed as he was in it, he never came to take it for granted. The time he spent there instilled in him a respect and appreciation for the natural world that could not be gained in any classroom. He has joined his family and colleagues at Bold Visions Conservation to fight in defense of the land he loves.
Board Of Directors
Our board members are conservationists, doctors, artists, and community leaders who are passionate about protecting our wildlife and wild places and who provide strategic guidance and fiduciary oversight.
Virginia Maria Romeo
Virginia Maria Romero is an acclaimed artist whose works are held in public, museum, and private collections across the United States and internationally. In 2013, Romero was honored as a distinguished Artist and Poet by the American Council for Polish Culture.
“It is not often that you meet an artist and see her work and understand so completely its spirit and beauty. Many artists use nature as the underpinning of their work. Few can channel nature into the masses with such vibrancy and creative firepower. What many cannot understand is the courage that it takes to allow your expression, the exposure of oneself to be on such an open and honest display as Virginia does with her work. The earth is crying out for our help, we have lost close to half the species world-wide in the past forty years and it will take champions, not just from the conservation world, but from artists whose work can open eyes and make statements by their power to make people think and be awed by the genius of their creative force. In Virginia Maria Romero we have found such an artist.” “Romero’s art speaks a language unlike any other…it is a language of the heart, of the soul, of life… Romero has taken an ancient art form and redefined it, reinvented it, and made it her own.”
Professional work and papers of artist Virginia Maria Romero, ca. 1980-2025 New Mexico State University Library Archives and Special Collections, as part of the Rio Grande Historical Collections Repository. Repository Link.
Romero’s art was selected as the focus of a presentation for the Las Cruces Museum of Art “Listen to Your Art” Lecture Series on March 18, 2022. To view this presentation, click on this link: Las Cruces Museum of Art Presentation.
A Biographical Sketch written by former New Mexico State Historian, Rick Hendricks, recognizing Virginia Maria Romero as an important New Mexico artist was included on the New Mexico Office of the State Historian former website from 2010-2025. This is a link to the profile: https://web.archive.org/web/20240718112551/https://newmexicohistory.org/2012/06/29/virginia-maria-romero/
”Without specific intent my work begins… a subconscious evolution to render form. The effort at once seamless and fluid, a commingling of pigment, touch, and spirit, moves towards shape and purpose. The now recognizable images translate as symbols of new life steeped in mystery from which they were born. In their eyes is a voice that speaks of secrets. If you look and listen closely you will hear them too”. ~VMR
Steve West
STEVE WEST was born in Carlsbad, NM, and grew up in neighboring Loving, where he explored rivers, canyons, prairie, farm fields, and open spaces. He attended New Mexico State University and volunteered for the Army, serving over three years. He has always loved and explored open spaces and the possibilities they offered. He taught school in Loving and spent a year in Bolivia. He returned to teach in Carlsbad and got his Master’s in Science from New Mexico Tech.
He became involved in environmental issues, served on the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance board, and later worked for the group. He has performed surveys for the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, The Nature Conservancy, and the Bureau of Land Management dealing with endangered species and ecosystems. He also volunteered at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, where he did a 40-year study by studying and banding Cave Swallows. Steve has also performed surveys of birds in many countries and had a stint in Egypt, where he taught their national park biologists how to monitor and survey wildlife.
He founded the Chihuahuan Desert Conservation Alliance, which lasted for 20 years until he left New Mexico and moved to Arizona. Steve published a book, Chihuahuan Desert Wildflowers, and over 60 papers in science journals. He is committed to fighting for wilderness and wild things and envisions a sustainable future for plants, wildlife, and humans.
Ed Levine
ED LEVINE has been engaged in conservation and wildlife issues for many years. He is a gastroenterologist living in Missoula. Ed’s passion is spending time in the outdoors, and joined the Board of Bold Visions Conservation because, like so many, he has grown sickened by trappers and those who want to harm our natural world. He sees the reform of wildlife agencies as something long overdue and wants to have the ability to see wolves and grizzlies in the wild. Ed believes in the mission of this organization and looks forward to helping in support of our Bold Visions!
Caitlin Wardell
CAITLIN WARDELL Growing up in northeastern Appalachia and living nearly a decade in the beautiful state of Montana has instilled in me a lifelong love for the beauty our natural world has to offer. With love comes duty – a duty to nurture, shepherd, and foster wellbeing. As a mother of two young children, it is my duty to fight for the preservation of the life-giving land that we share with all animals – human and non-human. The protection of our precious public lands is essential for the future of all life. In my undergraduate studies, I interned for three semesters with MontPIRG, working on campaigns that resulted in the passing of a number of essential bills that ensured the preservation of some of Montana’s waters, wildlife, and public lands. I also worked alongside a professor for an independent study, aiding in research on her work with the National Bison Range and in pursuing the nature of value-laden science. The health of our planet is essential to me, and to all of us – and I devote myself wherever possible to maintaining it.
Michelle Blake
MICHELLE BLAKE, TREASURER is a former award-winning journalist with a passion for positive change, Michelle Blake has worked exclusively in the nonprofit sector for more than 20 years. In addition to being on the founding boards of two successful nonprofits, she’s worked in policy advocacy, communications, and fundraising and development for multiple organizations, including Fences For Fido, Phoenix Zones Initiative, and Mountain Lion Foundation. She’s written $2 million in successful grants and helped pass bills at the state and federal level to protect wildlife and domestic animals. She and her husband, who are lovingly owned by their rescue dogs and cats, live in Oregon where they both work in animal-related nonprofits.
Norman A. Bishop
Advisory Board Member
NORMAN A. BISHOP earned a BS in Botany at the University of Denver (1954), served 4 years as a naval aviator, then took Forest Recreation and Wildlife Management courses (1958-61) at Colorado State University.
He was a national park ranger for 36 years, at Rocky Mountain NP 1960-62, Death Valley 1962-64, Yosemite 1964-66, Mount Rainier 1966-72, Southeast Regional Office 1972-1980, and Yellowstone from 1980 to 1997. He was a reviewer and compiler of 1990 and 1992 “Wolves for Yellowstone?” and the 1994 EIS, The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho, and was the principal interpreter of wolves and their restoration at Yellowstone National Park from 1985 until 1997, giving more than 400 talks, and responding by mail to thousands of requests for wolf information. He led about fifty field courses on wolves for the Yellowstone Association Institute from 1999 to 2005.
He retired to Bozeman, Montana, in 1997. and still lives there.
For his educational work on wolves, he received an NPS special Achievement Award in 1991, and a USDI honor award for meritorious service in 1997. He also received the National Parks and Conservation Association’s 1988 Stephen T. Mather Award, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition’s 1991 Stewardship Award, the Wolf Education and Research Center’s 1997 Alpha Award, and the International Wolf Center’s 2015 “Who Speaks for Wolf?” Award.
For several years, he volunteered as the greater Yellowstone region field representative for the International Wolf Center (Ely, MN). He has written a number of articles and book reviews for International Wolf magazine. He served on the board of the Wolf Recovery Foundation (Pocatello, ID). He is on the advisory board of Living with Wolves (Ketchum, ID). He served several terms on the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Region 3 Citizens’ Advisory Committee.
Since 2015, Norm has been a member of the Colorado Wolf Science Team, providing background on wolf recovery in Yellowstone for the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, a group that placed Proposition 114 on the 2020 ballot to restore wolves to Colorado, and for the Colorado Wolf Coalition. He is also on the board of the Southwest Colorado Wolf Cooperative.
