Lin Wellford moved to the Ozarks with her young family in 1978, and lived just up the road  from Osage Creek, a major tributary to the Kings River. She and her husband Klaus were active in the Carroll County community as business owners, parents, and through membership in a number of organizations. Lin discovered kayaking over twenty years ago and took part in numerous river cleanups before joining the Kings River Watershed Partnership Board.  She also served on the board of the Carroll-Madison Public Library Foundation and was long-time co-chair or Books in Bloom, a popular literary festival. But her true passion is to protect the waterways that were a major draw when she moved to the area. Having grown up in Florida, she witnessed how quickly natural systems can be knocked out of balance by human activities. The threat of degradation of the Buffalo River spurred her to learn more about the damage that can be done by overuse of nutrients in areas with karst geology.  She helped found Ozark River Stewards because she knew that if a national river could not be protected from pollution, no Ozark waterway was safe. Along with Carol Bitting and Nancy Haller, she was one of the Three Buffalo Grandmothers who took legal action against expansion of pastures where hog manure could be spread.

Much was learned in the process of fighting to save the Buffalo, and it was clear that shared resources would continue to face challenges, so the opportunity to take over and rebuild a Waterkeeper Organization was one she could not pass up. Now retired from a successful career as an author and artist, she moved to a cabin along Osage Creek after her husband passed away, and is reminded every day of what a treasure clean, clear healthy water is.