Hungry Horse News
There are still parts of Montana's past lost in a fog of mystery.
Tucked away in scrapbooks and filed away beside decades of memories are stories of dedication, effort and heroism that haven't seen the light of day in years.
A new DVD released by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks aims to change that, in part, by documenting the rejuvenation of Montana's wildlife and the efforts of the private citizens that made it possible.
“Back From the Brink: Montana's Wildlife Legacy” is a two-hour documentary, produced by Media Works in Bozeman, that follows the story of Montana's declining wildlife populations in the 1800s and subsequent restoration.
It will be shown for free Jan. 21 at the I.A. O'Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish and will also air on Montana PBS on Jan. 15.
The film, broken into two one-hour parts, shows the concentrated and grassroots efforts of Montana residents to save elk, pheasant, antelope and bear from statewide extirpation.
Producer Terry Lonner, a former wildlife biologist and owner of Media Works, said that it was Harold Picton, emeritus professor of ecology at Montana State University, who spearheaded the project by going out with a video camera and interviewing some of the old ranchers, sportsmen and landowners who were actually part of the wildlife revival firsthand.
“(Picton) came to me, because he knew me as a wildlife biologist,” Lonner said. “He said, ‘I'd like to archive all these old 8mm tapes.'”
So Lonner worked with Picton to archive these interviews, and as Lonner explained it, that led to a script being written and a documentary was born.
“It kept getting more and more solid as far as the commitment went,” he said. “We wound up with a heck of a pile of archival material that we have all in one place.”
Picton, working in conjunction with FWP, enlisted Lonner as the independent producer to put it all together, and three years and thousands of hours later, the DVD was completed.
The concept originally was to be a book, but as interviews were collected on camera, Picton said he realized that a film might be the best way to get this story to the public.
“Originally the idea was just to get some of these stories archived,” he said. “It occurred to me that if we're really going to communicate with people in this day and age, we really ought to have it in visual form.”
Picton, who knew several of these original wildlife conservationists on a personal level, said that as some of these men started passing away, he realized it might be a good idea to capture their stories.
As a pioneering biologist in the Sun River and professor at MSU, Picton trained a large number of the current FWP staff and conferred with colleagues about how these stories could best be saved.
“People had been talking, not just those involved in the project, but people in general, had been talking about how some of the old guys probably had some good stories and how somebody ought to get some of them down,” he said. “Basically we said, ‘let's do it.' One of the reasons I did it, that I was involved, was because I had known many of the first generation biologists to some extent personally.”
As these stories were gathered, even Picton said he learned a lot about what it took to save Montana's wildlife.
“I didn't really realize the extent to which the private citizen early in the century was involved in wildlife restoration,” he said. “The whole thing was initiated by the general public.”
Through all this collected information, an untold story is finally surfacing, and Montana's wildlife restoration is taking another step toward becoming a statewide legacy.
Jim Williams, FWP Wildlife Manager and associate producer of the film, said that collecting these valuable stories of rescuing depleted wildlife populations fills in a lot of missing details.
“There were what we considered very valuable pieces of our hunting heritage that were being stored in shoeboxes, attics, what have you, that were going to disappear without really a more detailed story being told,” he said. “The interest for our conservation history here in Montana is very strong. Guys were beginning to pass away with a lifetime of knowledge. They had literally seen the days when wildlife wasn't nearly as abundant. Many of these old-timers directly participated in these, they had a story to tell.”
Picton said the film is about a lot more than just wildlife restoration, because it's a history of a statewide resource. He hopes that the public will enjoy the work and learn more about Montana's culture.
“I hope that they're very interested in it and find out something about Montana's history,” he said. “It really is a history of Montana's people and their wildlife resource. It includes a lot more than just wildlife.”
