Ashton Berdine

Ashton is currently the West Virginia State Director for The Conservation Fund. For the past 24 years he has done similar land conservation work for the West Virginia Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy in West Virginia. Prior to this, Ashton was an inventory botanist and the state plant community ecologist for the Maryland Natural Heritage Program within Maryland DNR.

He began his career in 1988 after graduating with a degree in Botany from North Carolina State University. Current vocational interests are focused on protecting larger Appalachian landscapes and iconic cultural and historical sites or projects that have significant biological, economic, educational and community benefits.

Personal interests include birding, botanizing, hiking and family. Ashton grew up on family farmland settled by his ancestors in 1804 in Calhoun County, West Virginia. He currently rotates his office work from this Calhoun farm home or his residence in Elkins, West Virginia.