High Country
Audubon
A hacked WordPress site replaced with one a volunteer runs himself, from his phone.
the challenge
The High Country Audubon Society runs free guided bird walks, a Blue Ridge hawk watch, and conservation work across five mountain counties in western North Carolina. Like most small nonprofits, it has no technology staff. Its website is managed by a volunteer, Richard Laurent, who is the first to say he is not a web design expert.
Richard inherited a website in disarray: a WordPress install carrying 49 plugins. Simply keeping it running was a source of real stress. Then it was hacked.
He decided to start over with something simpler, and he was skeptical that an agency would give him that. The risk was ending up with another complex site he could not maintain, and a permanent dependency on whoever built it.
the solution
Declan had been on one of the Audubon bird walks, heard about the hack, and reached out. Before any contract, he used the old site's content to put together a sample of what the new one could be. Richard shared it with the board, and the board approved it.
What we built, and what we handed over:
- A clean rebuild: the plugin sprawl replaced with a simple, fast site that carries more functionality than the one it retired
- A professional design: the bird walks, hawk watch, and membership pages the society actually needs, laid out clearly
- AI-assisted editing: Richard changes the site by describing what he wants, including new pages and menu structure
- Phone-first maintenance: the same edits work from a phone, so the site can be updated from the passenger seat on a road trip
- A 35-minute handover: one Zoom call was enough to teach Richard to maintain and extend the site himself
the results
The High Country Audubon Society now has a site its own volunteer maintains:
A hacked, 49-plugin WordPress site retired and replacedMore functionality than the old site, and far easier to maintainNew pages and menu changes made by the client, from a PC or a phoneOne 35-minute Zoom call was the entire handoverThe board approved the new site before a contract was ever signedWebsite maintenance went from a source of stress to something Richard calls fun
"I discovered Mountain Dev when Declan reached out to me after learning of the hacking of the non-profit website that I manage. He had been on one of our Bird Walks. While I manage the website, I am not a web design expert. I inherited a website that was in disarray. It was done using WordPress with 49 plugins. It caused major stress in my life, just trying to keep it running.
After it was hacked, I determined that I needed to start over with a simpler site. I was skeptical about Mountain Dev, because I didn't want another complex site that was hard to maintain. Imagine my surprise when Declan sent me a sample website that he had put together in his spare time using our old website for information. I shared it with our Board members, and everyone LOVED it. Declan then spent 35 minutes on a Zoom call to teach me how to maintain and enhance the website.
I can now do website maintenance, including adding new pages and modifying menu structure from my PC or from my phone. This meant that I could work on it when I was traveling. My wife likes to drive, so I do website work in the passenger seat! The website has become FUN again!
Our members all thought I was a genius. I had to confess that Declan and Mountain Dev had done everything that made it look so professional and clean. All I did was add additional functionality. It now has more functionality than the old site and is tremendously easier to maintain.
Mountain Dev took us from a hacked, stressful mess to a site I run myself using AI, even from my phone! If you need a developer in your corner you can actually trust, whether you're a small business, startup or nonprofit, I highly recommend them!"