By Jessianne Castle EBS ENVIRONMENTAL AND OUTDOORS EDITOR
BOZEMAN – After an all-night drive
from his home on the Nez Perce Reservation in North Central Idaho following his
son’s middle school graduation, Josiah Blackeagle Pinkham stood before a
gathering of more than 200 people at Bozeman’s Emerson Center for the Arts and
Culture on the morning of June 5 as a part of the nonprofit Future West’s
conference, “Sustaining the New West Bold Visions – Inspiring Action.”
Standing at the podium as an
ethnographer and storyteller, Blackeagle Pinkham spoke after a presentation
about growth trends in the Greater Yellowstone. “This is an opportunity to
affect the way that people think about the landscape,” he said.
Blackeagle Pinkham projected an
image of a rock formation on his reservation, sacred to his people, and shared
an important oral tradition. Speaking on behalf of his people, he also described
a core-value statement that includes the commitment to promoting relationships
with the land—an aspect of which includes ensuring the survival of resources as
well as people and their lifeways.
“I want you to think about this
term ‘wilderness’. It’s based upon the concept of wild, something untamed,
something that doesn’t do what you want it to do,” he said. “I don’t have that
concept. That’s my homeland; it’s sacred. I revere it in a way that I can’t
compare anything else to. What am I without my homeland? … It’s really
important to think about how people relate to their landscape.”
During the conference, Blackeagle
Pinkham’s oral tradition was placed in conversation with other experts around
the Northern Rockies, all of whom explored data, definitions, relational
thinking and visions for the future of the West, from planning towns and
working landscapes, to management for wild lands.
“I would guess that one of the
reasons why you’re here is that you all share a concern—and maybe a deep
concern—for the future of this incredible place that we are so fortunate to
call our home,” said Future West Director Dennis Glick.
“I also believe that each and every
one of you knows in your heart of hearts that we really do live in an
extraordinary landscape,” he added. “The million-dollar question is, can we conserve
these natural, cultural, social and economic values even as we grow and
change.”
In the fall of 2017, Future West
hosted a similar conference in Bozeman in order to explore conservation challenges
in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and this year’s conference explored
visions for the future and how to achieve them, relying on examples within the
area.
To use the words of the first
speaker, conservation biologist David Theobald, “Here we are today. Where do we
want to go in the future and how do we get there?”
The morning lineup included
Blackeagle Pinkham and Theobald, as well as Idaho’s Teton County Commissioner
Cindy Riegel; Blackfoot Challenge founding member and rancher Denny Iverson;
and Aerin Jacobs from the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative.
The afternoon session heard from
the Mayor of Canmore, Alberta, John Borrowman; Lain Leoniak, former Bozeman water
conservation specialist and current assistant attorney general for Colorado;
Loren Bird Rattler of the Blackfeet National Agricultural Resource Management
Plan Team; Devin Middlebrook from the Lake Tahoe Regional Planning Agency; and
Robert Liberty, architect of Oregon’s land-use planning system.
Among small-scale conservation
success stories, a single thread becomes clear: in order to promote open spaces
and viable communities and economies, conversations and decisions must be
informed with data and actual experience.
Denny Iverson, who lives in the
Blackfoot Valley east of Missoula, described a forward-looking initiative in
his home area, that originated in the 1970s when grizzlies still hadn’t shown
up on the landscape, there was plentiful water and development was still slow.
“If you live out on the landscape
like I do, you know that something’s changing,” Iverson said. “Whether it’s
growth, climate change, water, predators.”
Known as the Blackfoot Challenge,
the initiative began when a group of ranchers and local landowners decided to
work together as stewards. They started a cattle carcass pickup program for
ranches as one way to reduce conflict with grizzly bears that are attracted to
dead cows. It’s grown to include programs like “range riders,” water
conservation through organized water-use and agricultural irrigation, forestry initiatives,
and efforts to stop invasive weeds.
“The main thing is we’re trying to
keep our landowners, our ranchers, our farmers on the landscape because we know
if we do that, then we’ll still have wildlife habitat,” Iverson said. “And
we’ll still have that ranching tradition. We don’t forget the people [who are] part
of that.”
Aerin Jacobs, as an ecologist,
spoke about ecological integrity and biodiversity, beginning by saying, “I
think it’s really important when we travel, when we work, where we live, to
know who lives there, to know who’s lived there for a long time.” In addition
to tribal homelands, she said this includes historic wildlife ranges.
Amid high extinction rates for many
plant and animal species worldwide, Jacobs said her vision—Y2Y’s vision as
well—“is an interconnected system of wild lands and waters that stretches from
Yellowstone to Yukon, that harmonizes the needs of people with those of nature
… These things are inextricably combined.”
As a specific example of how to
accomplish this vision, Jacobs referred to the numerous wildlife-crossing
structures that have been built across highways in the last three decades. She
also provided tips for success in developing these tangible solutions.
“When you’re thinking about something
this large scale, you have to collaborate,” Jacobs said, adding that we must
connect with each other, develop partnerships, communicate broadly, measure
different metrics for success, embrace mistakes, and start small but think big.
