Recent months and an aging generation have produced sorrowful times for proponents of public-trust wild bison on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. Last year’s passing of Jim Posewitz foreshadowed an end to Montana’s prolonged efforts to restore a wild bison herd to the state. The 2021 legislature ignored Jim’s final advice, foreclosing all Montana efforts toward wild bison for the foreseeable future.
More recently, two more of our comrades, Joe Gutkowski of Montana and Valerius Geist of Canada, left us for the last time.
Joe Gutkowski passed at the age of 94. Beginning as a smoke-jumper and fire fighter, Joe had a long career with the U. S. Forest Service, always a spokesperson for forest management to benefit all the American people. Then, in a long retirement, Joe continued his conservation activities, particularly for wild rivers, wildlife, and especially bison restoration. Joe was an early advocate for the ambitious Big Open project, and was a strong supporter of the Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition. We, and the bison, miss Joe.
Valerius Geist was less well-known in Montana. Val was an artist, philosopher (lover of learning) and, above all, a biologist based in evolutionary biology. His interests, centered on large wild mammals of the Northern Hemisphere, generated about 20 books. These included Buffalo Nation: History and Legend of the North American Bison. He wrote: “Keeping bison in fenced spaces is a stop-gap conservation measure at best. Protected in enclosures, buffalo are inadvertently managed for tractability and they are on their way to domestication. This includes weakening or destroying their anti-predator abilities through genetic decay.” Val’s efforts to educate the public, and much of the profession of wildlife management, on the requisites for preserving wildness, have yet to be realized.
Also sadly, the Montana Sierra Club has decided to withdraw as a supporter of the Montana Wild Bison Restoration Coalition. The Club disagrees with our insistence, supported by federal law, that any bison restored to the Charles M. Russell Refuge must be public-trust bison for purposes of benefitting all the general American public.
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