It's free, it's interesting and it's on the big screen Saturday night.
"Back From the Brink" is a two-hour documentary outlining the remarkable success stories of Montana's abundant wildlife.
It will run Saturday, Jan. 28, at the Willson Auditorium, at 7 p.m.
These days, state wildlife managers grapple with problems of abundance: how to increase elk and deer harvests, how to manage all the people lining trout streams; what do do with all those Yellowstone National Park bison.
The list goes on.
But well into the last century, problems were very different. Elk and pronghorn antelope had been eliminated from much of their range.
Through the 1930s, a deer hunter counted it as something notable if he was able to find tracks in the snow.
Unregulated market and subsistence hunting, coupled with changes in habitat, had decimated many species. But today, thanks to the efforts of game managers, hunters and their dollars, conservation groups, ranchers, universities and many others, Montana teems with wildlife.
Terry Lonner put together the movie that tells the story of how that turnaround took place.
The Bozeman filmmaker and former chief of wildlife research for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said the project got started a decade ago, but work began in earnest two years ago.
The movie relies heavily on archival photographs and old home movies, some of which portray the remarkable labors of conservation pioneers, people who captured and transplanted everything from antelope to mountain goats, relying mostly on muscle and innovation.
"This isn't just a wildlife and restoration story," Lonner said. "It's a human-interest story. The film illustrates just how much the people of Montana care about wildlife resources."
A number of Bozeman people had key roles in the movie's production, Lonner said.
Harold Picton, a retired wildlife professer from Montana State University, did the original research as part of a book he was writing, Lonner said, and became "a major player and researcher" in the final product.
Jack Stonnell, also of Bozeman, produced the musical score and Bozeman resident Tom Manning wrote the script.
"Back from the Brink" will be aired on Montana PBS and also is being used in Bozeman High School's wildlife biology class.
Copies of the movie are for sale, and proceeds will go to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation, which finances projects the state agency is unable to do. The foundation, along with FWP and Montana PBS, provided major funding for the project.
