The headwaters of the Flathead River are home to all four endemic fish species of the watershed. In this picture a conservation savvy local flytier releases his catch, a fifteen-inch adult west slope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi); ILCP RAVE; Flathead River Valley, British Columbia, Canada. © Michael Ready
The Missoulian has a long history of incredible, world-class photography artfully and prominently displayed. We know and appreciate the power of photography to tell a story, make a point, bring home an important message.
So, too, do wildland advocates.
A century ago, the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service used photos to convince Congress and the American public that there were wonders worth protecting in the West. Few of those folks would ever see the region’s mountains and rivers up close, but the photographs were proof enough. Vast swaths of national forest were set aside in the Rocky Mountain West, as were the most spectacular national parks on the planet.
Last summer, groups advocating protection of the Canadian Flathead did the same, calling on the services of a group of photographers whose mission it is to document threatened places. The International League of Conservation Photographers spent two weeks crawling over over mountaintops, slogging through swampy bottoms and diving into shining streams.
They called it a RAVE – a rapid assessment visual expedition – and it revealed wonders. Deer, moose, cougar and grizzly. Trout, stonefly, rainbows of river rock. Peaks and ponds and meadows, waterfalls, snowfields, wildflowers. They shot from the ground, and from the air, and from watery depths.
“Images,” ILCP executive director Cristina Mittermeier explained on the project blog, “are irrefutable evidence of the beauty of our planet and the critical resources we can’t afford to lose.”
Today, in the Territory section of the Sunday Missoulian, we are honored to present a sampling of these photographers’ work alongside reporter Michael Jamison’s story on the project and the influence it had on British Columbia lawmakers – who recently surprised activists on both sides of the international border by declaring the Canadian Flathead off limits to mining and oil and gas development.
No doubt these photographs played a role in that decision, which now awaits a similar ruling from the United States to protect Montana’s North Fork Flathead. It may be time to send a few Missoulian photographs to Washington, D.C.
Sherry Devlin
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