Meet Dave Weldon, Wildlife Ambassador, Blackrock District
“I love wilderness and wildlife,” says Dave Weldon, who grew up backpacking, fishing, dirt biking, and skiing in Mammoth Lakes, California, in the Sierra Mountains, and is joining Friends of the Bridger-Teton as an Ambassador for the first time in summer 2025. “I look forward to helping people better understand both.”
Friends with, and a former co-worker of, longtime Blackrock Wildlife Ambassador Gene Palos (Dave and Gene were both helicopter pilots with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department before retiring), Dave says he’s been interested in volunteering on the Bridger-Teton National Forest for years. “The first time Gene told me about what he was doing, I thought it sounded interesting,” Dave says. Now that his son, a talented baseball player, has graduated from high school, “I have the time for it now,” he says. Previously, Dave, who was a canine handler for the SDSO for 10 years, volunteered by doing canine demonstrations for San Diego-area civic groups.
While Dave has encountered a variety of wildlife, including black bears, bighorn sheep, porcupines, and even mountain lions, while out on the trails, he says he’s looking forward to seeing grizzly bears in the wild. “Just not wandering into camps,” he says.
As a Wildlife Ambassador, Dave will help keep humans and wildlife on the BTNF safe, particularly in the Togwotee Scenic Corridor, where grizzly bears frequent meadows and can attract large crowds. Dave will provide education to prevent potentially dangerous human/bear encounters due to people getting too close to grizzly bears and bear cubs; promote food storage; share responsible wildlife-viewing best practices; and inventory and maintain/repair existing bear boxes among other duties.
Fun Facts: 1. Dave worked two different dogs, Rocky and Nero, both German Shepherds, during his 10 years on canine patrol. He was a court expert for dog training and helped establish canine testing standards for the state of California. 2. Dave was a fire fighting helicopter pilot. “It’s one thing to fly a helicopter and another thing to fly at a low level and drop water in poor visibility,” he says. In 2003, he was the deputy who spotted and arrested the hunter who had lit a signal fire that, fueled by Santa Ana winds, started the Cedar Fire, which killed 15 people and burned 2,200 homes in San Diego County.