Schedule
September 27 - 29, 2024
Friday, September 27
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Author reception at the Dana Gallery featuring the artwork of painter John Potter with music by Black Ram Guitar. $25 at the door – one drink & appetizers included.
Saturday, September 28
Finding OUR Place In Nature : The Power of Story
The Wilma Theater
FREE – but registration required. Donations encouraged.
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Welcome by Jerry O'Connell, MC, Big Blackfoot Riverkeeper
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Marcelo Gleisler, Dartmouth astrophysicist and author of the book Dawn of a Mindful Universe: A Manifesto for Humanities Future. Video presentation.
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Bill McKibben, environmentalist and climate activist, author & founder of 350.org. The growth paradigm as a challenge to nature.
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Panel Discussion on the work of Barry Lopez with Rick Bass, Debra Gwartney, Gretel Ehrlich, and Kurt Caswell.
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Painter John Potter. How wildlife restoration has impacted his artwork.
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Rosalyn LaPier, Blackfeet member, environmental historian and ethnobotanist. LaPier describes Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and the historic land management practices of Indigenous women.
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Liz Carlisle, author of Healing Grounds: Climate Justice and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Agriculture, will talk about creative farming methods that are steadily restoring the ecosystem. Latrice Tatsey, a leader in the Blackfeet effort to bring back the buffalo in Montana. Nikiko Masumoto, a California Central Valley farmer who is using farming techniques developed thousands of years ago in Asia.
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The Montana youths & attorney who won the historical climate change lawsuit this past year, Held v. State of Montana, share the potential national impact. Featuring plaintiff Lander Busse and attorney Roger Sullivan.
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Mari Margil, ED, Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights shares how the Legal Rights of Nature is being used as a strategy.
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Sunday, September 29
Finding YOUR Place in Nature
Maclean Festival Tours
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For 100 years, Milltown Dam blocked the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers near Missoula, trapping toxic sediments that washed down from mines in Butte and contaminating local drinking water wells. Now, the dam is out, the mining waste is gone, fish can swim back upstream, and two mighty rivers flow free once more.
Learn about this miraculous cleanup effort at Milltown State Park, located at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers, approximately 7 miles east of Missoula. A State Park Ranger will give a 45-minute presentation about the clean up. Group limited to 15, so registration is necessary.
Free. Register with Jody at jhchritton@gmail.com or call 406.210.9751.
Meet at the Milltown State Park Confluence Area Parking Lot at 7363 Juniper Dr., Missoula, MT at 1:00 pm on Sunday, September 29. Detailed directions will be provided upon registration.
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Certified forest therapy guide Deborah Goslin will lead a Forest Bathing Experience. Forest bathing lasts 2.5 to 3 hours and is not a naturalist walk or a hike (usually less than a half mile on easy terrain). Participants are guided to move quietly, slowly, and invited to use different senses while mindfully exploring the natural world. There are times for solo experiences and sharing with the group. The experience closes with tea made with local, respectfully foraged plants.
$40/person. Book directly with Deborah Goslin through her email: naturespeake@gmail.com, or her phone: 406.214.7879.
Meet at Council Grove State Park, located 10 miles west of Missoula at 11249 Mullen Road at 1:00 pm, Sunday, September 29.
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The Big Blackfoot River gained its fame from Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It." Norman wrote it in the 1970's but it was Robert Redford’s movie version in 1992 that put it on the map of fishermen around the world.
By the time the movie came out, the river of Norman Maclean's childhood was hurting. The impacts from a hundred years of logging, mining, and agriculture in the watershed had seriously degraded its fishery. However, the success of the movie also triggered a remarkable environmental restoration effort that restored it to be one of America's great trout fishing rivers. In the process, over 700 miles of historic trout-spawning tributaries, cut off from fish access for decades, have been re-opened and restored to allow our native Westslope cutthroat and bull trout to once again reach their original spawning grounds.
We'll tour several of these restoration sites in the middle and upper portions of the Blackfoot River valley. Big Blackfoot Riverkeeper Jerry O'Connell and Ryen Neudecker, Trout Unlimited's project manager for this work, will be your guides. Some hiking will be involved, so please wear appropriate footwear.
There is no charge or registration necessary for this tour.
Meet at the Kettlehouse Amphitheater parking area in Bonner at 1:00 pm, Sunday, September 29. This will be a private car caravan, so plan on driving or carpooling with a friend. Jerry O'Connell will lead the tour up the valley. We should be back to the Kettlehouse parking lot by 4:00 pm.
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The CSKT Bison Range is currently managed as a Wildlife Refuge by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is a remarkable example of restorative agriculture. Located in the center of the 1,250,000-acre Flathead Indian Reservation, the 370 bison living on the Bison Range are descendants of the free-ranging Reservation herd started by Tribal members in the 1800’s when plains bison were near extinction. Tribal staff will drive you through the Bison Range sharing their current efforts to restore the Bison Range to how it was 100 years ago and offer you additional insights as you enjoy the museum at the end of the tour.
The cost is $20/person. Register at beersplacid@gmail.com. Space is limited, so please register early. Payment will be collected at the book sales counter at The Wilma on Saturday during the Festival. The tour begins at the Bison Range Tourist Center near Moise, MT about 50 minutes north of Missoula at 12:00 pm on Sunday, September 29. The two-hour tour of the Bison Range will be followed by a talk at the Bison Range Museum. We will be done between 3:00 and 3:30 pm.