For Sean and his son Evan Kelly, protecting wild places is a natural extension of a deep love of being in Nova Scotia’s backcountry.

Sean grew up in rural Nova Scotia, outside of Bridgewater and later in Timberlea. “When I was a kid, our family were big wilderness campers,” he explains. “We didn’t do a lot of big, expensive trips, so we would often go to Kejimkujik or canoeing and camping. I was raised in that generation where parents said at the start of summer, There’s the outdoors. Come back in September. I remember the freedom as a young kid, having my own little pup tent, staying up late, reading sci-fi around the campfire, going for hikes and hearing the animals rustle.”

Though he spent over a decade in Halifax, in 1999 he moved to Prospect, where his son Evan, now 24, was raised. The High Head trail is close by, and his house backs onto a section of forest conserved by another land trust. Evan describes the feeling of growing up with those woods in his backyard, playing behind the well with nature close by – “I couldn’t have done that if it was just another backyard there.”

Beyond simply living close to nature, Evan was raised with the same love of the backcountry that shaped Sean’s childhood. From the time Evan was eight months old, his parents took him canoeing, camping, and exploring, often in Keji as well as on their family’s small plot of land on the Medway River. “I’m really grateful that we have places in this province to go, like Keji and all kinds of other places, you know, provincial or privately run campgrounds or Nature Trust lands,” Evan says. “It’s nice to have little carve-outs where you feel away from it all, even if in a Canadian context, you’re actually not that far from anything at any point in Nova Scotia.”

“I’ve long been kind of a ‘macro’ advocate,” says Sean. His work as a consultant and strategist for climate change and equity projects not only reflects his personal passion for the environment but also brings to fruition a long career in international development and climate advocacy. “We need to think global, act local. But that gets tougher and tougher when you look at the failings of national and international advocacy. So my desire to work at the macro level is still there intellectually, but in the meantime, if we can buy that property of old growth, that’s good. I wanted to join the Nature Trust, because it’s immediate, it’s real, it’s tangible.”

Sean joined the Nature Trust Board in 2023 to give both his time and professional expertise. “This is not a ‘name only’ Board,” he explains. “You work, and you put in the time, and the staff and the Board interactions are really quite lovely. It’s a well-run organization, it has good governance.” He also joined the Nature Trust’s monthly giving community of NatureMakers.

This year, he further strengthened his support of long-term conservation sustainability by adding the Nature Trust to his Will. “So there’s the idea that I’m passing on my house, my savings, and for me that goes a little bit further and includes wilderness. It’s just kind of an extension, and I think it’s really important.

“I worked in the non-profit sector, so it’s not tons, but I like the idea that after I’m gone, ecologically significant wilderness has been, in part, saved because of my gift. I’m not a particularly sentimental person, but the thought of Evan, when he’s 50, going for a hike in woods that the Nature Trust was able to buy is quite nice. Just that idea of leaving something for the next generation, that’s really why I did it.”

Although he hopes that it isn’t relevant for a long time, Evan is glad for part of his future inheritance to go toward preserving wilderness. He observes that this bequest is a gift that benefits him, too, by protecting something he cares about deeply. “One of the good things about living here is that you are never far from a tree or a forest or a park, or an island. Without proper preservation, that’s something we very much could be at risk of losing. So I think that what the Nature Trust does is very important.”

Both Sean and Evan were also happy to learn that Sean’s gift in his Will would create a tax benefit, meaning there will be more funds for nature and for Sean’s family and friends because of the reduced tax burden on the estate.

“I’m a forest person,” Evan says. “I mean, hills and mountains are nice too, but I don’t feel the connection to nature if I’m anywhere but a forest. If you drop me in a grassland or a field, I won’t feel that I’m in the wilderness. If you drop me in a forest, I’m like, this is where the animals are, this is what nature is supposed to be, probably because [in Prospect] I grew up with a forest everywhere around me.” “I need to know that there’s wilderness, even if I don’t see it,” Sean agrees. “I hear it, I know it’s there. It just adds an edge. I like to know that there’s coyotes there.” Evan adds, “I think for other people, that’s probably really scary, but that’s kind of what makes it nice.”

Supporting the Nature Trust helps give Sean that confidence that the wilderness is there – and will continue to be there. “The fact that we still have to fight to save old growth forest, and that there’s so much ecologically significant shoreline that’s up for sale, is quite remarkable,” he says. “So the fact that the Nature Trust can buy that and protect it – it means a lot.

Sean’s recent work with Inuit communities in Nunavut has also shifted his perspective on what he is working to protect. As part of an engagement process around a community energy plan in the Hamlet of Kugaaruk, he spoke with families: “I would be talking in their homes and saying, ‘What do you think we can do to make your home more energy efficient?’ And they would start talking about their hunting cabin, or their fishing lands, or where they traditionally would hunt. I kept saying, Oh, yeah, but what about your home? And they would go, well, our fishing cabin, wouldn’t it be interesting to have solar? And then halfway through, I finally realized that their concept of home is just bigger. I’m talking about their “home.” And they’re talking about their home, which includes the fishing grounds, the places where we catch elk, the hunting cabin, the place where we catch seals.

“The idea of home is so much more expansive. So I’m trying to bring that into my life. My definition of home is bigger.”

Thank you to Sean and Evan for sharing their story and their love of nature! Learn more about creating a natural legacy and request our free Legacy Giving Guide & Toolkit to get started.