My parents believed that an important part of my education growing up in Montana was getting to know the mountains. Casting a fly rod, shooting a bow, cleaning an elk, running rapids, starting a fire in the rain: these and more were lessons that began at an earlier age than I can remember. Long backpack and arctic canoe trips, working as a ranch hand and rafting guide, exploring Iceland for a year, and innumerable hours spent running and nordic skiing mountain trails have since instilled in me the sense that high altitudes and high latitudes are where I belong. Along the way, I’ve developed a profound appreciation and awe for the hardy animals that somehow make a living in these rugged places. Grizzlies and bison, wolves and wolverines, pikas and polar bears: they are so much more than pelts or park exhibits or public property. They are our neighbors. They are our colleagues in the wild, our companions on this planet, and our responsibility to protect.
I am honored to join NRDC as its arctic and Northern Rockies wildlife conservation fellow, and to use my background in law (J.D., University of Montana, 2009) and environmental studies (B.A., Dartmouth College, 2005) to advocate on behalf of the iconic creatures that call our last remaining wildernesses home.
Posted June 18, 2013 by Zack Strong
Last month, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) issued proposed rules for a 2013-14 wolf hunting and trapping season. Although wolves in Montana are still fresh off the endangered species list, and the state's wolf population declined by 4%...continued→
Posted April 24, 2013 by Zack Strong in Saving Wildlife and WIld Places
For a century and a half, ranchers in the northern Rocky Mountains have been grazing cattle and sheep in the backyards of bears, lions, coyotes and wolves. Despite these temptations, predators are responsible for only a tiny fraction of...continued→
Posted February 26, 2013 by Zack Strong in Saving Wildlife and WIld Places
According to an article recently published by The Wildlife News, wolf and other trappers in Idaho reported 246 “nontarget captures” during the 2011-12 trapping season. (“Nontarget capture” is a euphemism for animals caught, injured, and often killed by traps not...continued→
Posted February 13, 2013 by Zack Strong in Saving Wildlife and WIld Places
In December 2012, my colleague Matt Skoglund described the serious impact wolf hunting seasons in the Northern Rockies were having on Yellowstone National Park wolves. At that time, hunters had just killed wolf 832F, the alpha female of the Lamar...continued→
Posted February 9, 2013 by Zack Strong in Saving Wildlife and WIld Places, Solving Global Warming
Polar bears use arctic sea ice as a platform to hunt their favorite food, seals. Unfortunately, climatic warming is rapidly melting the ice. Without it, scientists warn, polar bears will not survive. But why worry? Polar bears evolved from...continued→
Posted January 22, 2013 by Zack Strong in Saving Wildlife and WIld Places
In December 2012, NRDC and Sierra Club submitted comments in response to an Environmental Assessment (EA) issued by the federal agency Wildlife Services regarding its Gray Wolf Damage Management operations in Montana. We were encouraged by some aspects of the EA, such as Wildlife...continued→
Posted December 17, 2012 by Zack Strong in Saving Wildlife and WIld Places
On Thanksgiving Day three hunters shot and killed a male grizzly in Grand Teton National Park. According to the Jackson Hole News and Guide, the three men were hunting in heavy timber along the east side of the...continued→
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