FWP Director To Welcome Wildlife Ecologist At Film Festival

Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Comprehensive Fish & Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CFWCS)

This article was Archived on Thursday, May 27, 2004

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Park’s Director Jeff Hagener will be on hand Friday, May 7 at the Wilma Theatre in Missoula to welcome world-renowned wildlife ecologist Dr. George Schaller as the keynote speaker for the International Wildlife Film Festival.

The weeklong event, set for May 1-8, is now in its 27 th year of celebrating wildlife through films and other media.     Schaller’s keynote speech is set for 6 p.m. on Friday, May 7 at the Wilma Theatre.

Schaller’s 40-year wildlife conservation career includes research at Johns Hopkins University, the New York Zoological Society, and Rockefeller University. His Montana visit will highlight new State Wildlife Grants funding the U.S. Congress has made available to help states prevent species from becoming threatened or endangered.

"In awarding these funds, Congress suggests that state fish and wildlife agencies should begin to take a comprehensive approach to managing all species and habitats," Hagener said.   "The intent of the SWG program is to prevent additional species from becoming threatened or endangered, so it will be interesting to hear Dr. Schaller’s perspective."

Montana has received $3.2 million in SWG funding since 2001 to support prairie fish surveys, native Arctic grayling and westslope cutthroat trout restoration, wolf and grizzly bear recovery and management planning, and more.  Congress recently approved an additional $75 million for the states in 2004, with Montana’s share estimated to be about $1.1 million.

Apart from landmark studies of mountain gorillas, tigers, lions, jaguars, cheetahs and leopards, Schaller also researched wild sheep and goats, snow leopards, giant pandas, rhinos and flamingos.   His wildlife conservation efforts led to the establishment of five of the world’s wildlife reserves, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, and the Chang Tang Wildlife Reserve in Tibet.

  For information contact T.O. Smith, FWP’s SWG Plan coordinator, at 406-444-3889, or via e-mail at   tosmith@state.mt.us .  

Special keynote tickets are available through the International Wildlife Film Festival at (406) 728-9380.