Columbia Falls native now has a career with REI

Ask Taldi Walter about her life, and she’ll laugh and tell you it’s a funny story.

Walter, 35, spent seven and a half years working for the National Audubon Society after she graduated from college, and is now the Government and Community Affairs Manager at REI. But as a kid growing up in Columbia Falls, she thought she’d be a lawyer by now.

Walter was born in Fairbanks, Alaska and moved here when she was 3. She attended school in Columbia Falls through 10th grade – she would have graduated in the class of 2000 if she hadn’t moved to Arkansas. She played basketball and volleyball in high school.

When she was in sixth grade, a teacher told her she’d be a great lawyer because she was always asking questions, arguing, and finding the logic in things.

But when she got to college at the University of Central Arkansas, she discovered the biology department and got hooked. While completing an undergraduate degree in environmental science at the university’s honors college, she traveled abroad to places like Nicaragua, Brazil, and Costa Rica. For her master’s degree, she did her thesis work in Brazil, and achieved the degree in biology with a focus on invasive species ecology.

She defended her thesis on a Wednesday and by Friday, was driving to Washington, D.C. with all her belongings in a U-Haul. She started work at the National Audubon Society.

“I quickly realized that I had a knack for bridging the gap between complex science and the layman. I was able to speak science and policy,” she said in a recent interview.

Although she expected to only work with Audubon for a year and then go to law school, she ended up moving to Anchorage, Alaska, and then back to D.C. during her seven-plus years with the Audubon Society.

“You could say I have a little bit of wanderlust,” she laughed.

While in Alaska, she had the proudest moment of her career so far.

“I was pretty instrumental in helping to safeguard 11 million acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve,” she said. The reserve is the largest area of public land in the country. Under the Obama administration, Walter helped negotiate the deal that split the 23-million-acre reserve in approximately half, putting the most important wildlife habitat into conservation and allowing energy development on the other half.

But when she hit her early 30s, she wanted something more.

“So much of what I was doing in Congress was about saving public lands for everyone else to play, but I was living in the city,” she explained. She missed the outdoor recreation and community feel that she’d had growing up in the Flathead.

“I definitely took for granted the values that are instilled in you when you grow up in a small town,” she noted. “When I moved away, I discovered that not everyone had a Glacier Park in their backyard.”

Walter now lives in West Seattle, where she can be “out playing within an hour,” and loves working for REI. She oversees the company’s national giving program. The REI Co-op gives back nearly 70 percent of profits to the outdoor community. REI also partners with 350 nonprofits across the nation, Walter said.

She also fosters collaborative partnerships with government decision-makers to inspire and facilitate outdoor recreation opportunities – which brought her to the recent Last Best Outdoors Fest with Montana Sen. Jon Tester in Columbia Falls.

“Working for REI is the perfect match of my skill set and my passion,” Walter said. “I truly believe that choosing a life outdoors brings out the best in us, both individually and collectively.”

She explained that communities get stronger when they’re connected to nature, and the outdoors brings us together as well.

“When you think about your outdoor memories, you don’t just think about the places you’ve been. You think about the people who joined you for the adventure,” she said. “Growing up in Columbia Falls imprinted on my soul the value of the outdoors.”

And the advice she gives the people who want to embark on a similarly fortuitous career path?

“Truly follow your passion and look for the opportunities to put different tools in your tool shed,” she said. “My opportunities have been very vast, but I always chose something that fed my passion.”