The people of Fort Belknap are a true inspiration

 Guest post by student Tucker Cribb - 

My first few days in Montana were four days that I will never forget. I have dreamed about coming here for the majority of my life and it has been a surreal experience. During the first few days here, I have been able to cross several things off my bucket list and gain more knowledge and nuance on issues that I thought I already knew a lot about. I was able to meet some incredible people over the course of the past few days that inspired me and challenged my perspective on a lot of things. 

Beyond all the excitement about being here on the landscape and seeing all the animals I’ve dreamed of seeing, I have honestly been a little intimidated by being here. The first day at the symposium was more challenging for me than I ever considered it could be. I was thrilled to hear about all the current research projects going on and I was interested to hear the perspective on wildlife conservation from ranchers. However, after hearing from several people who were actively living my dream of being a wildlife biologist on the great plains, I began to internally panic. At that moment my career and life goals seemed incredibly unreachable. I felt like a fraud at that symposium. I thought that I didn’t belong around these people and that I was a pretender among them. I would like to preface that nobody did anything to make me feel this way, this was all internal anxiety. I was able to get myself to calm down eventually and I greatly enjoyed the rest of the evening.

 I was careful to listen very carefully to the opinions of the ranchers on wildlife issues. I had several questions about hot-button issues such as bison, the American Prairie Reserve, and predator reintroductions. However, at the end of the day, I felt like it would be a poor decision the ask these questions. It seemed like challenging the ranchers on the values and opinions they held wouldn’t amount to anything and I would come off as being rude. I tried my best to see where the ranchers were coming from on these wildlife issues. After all, I have no issues with agriculture in the US and agriculture is frankly putting me through college. I was able to sympathize with them just trying to get by and survive in a job that seems to be on a decline. However, I was honestly taken aback by their disinterest in listening to scientific evidence. They seemed to only want to comprise the species that already receive a healthy amount of conservation effort such as pronghorn and elk. Bison and Prairie dogs are two of the most important keystone species in the prairie ecosystem. The ranchers had zero interest in having these keystone species on the landscape or only tolerated them on a small sliver of their property. The rancher’s attitudes were in sharp contrast to that of the native community that live on the Fort Belknap reservation. The people of Fort Belknap are an excellent example of how conservation can be done on the great plains. After entering their lands, you could just see the sudden explosion of wildlife and ecological diversity. There were prairie dog towns that expanded as far as you could see and a multitude of prairie dog town dependent bird species. After seeing how a group of people who have had nearly everything taken away from them could still have the spirit and willpower to conserve the wildlife on their lands, I found it harder and harder to see the rancher’s side on this issue. The people of Fort Belknap are a true inspiration and are setting the standard for wildlife conservation. 

Meeting with all the scientists and the supervisor of American Prairie was exactly what needed to inspire me after my issues at the symposium. Andrew, Dana, Nancy, and Claire were all amazing biologists who taught me so much about the landscape and being a biologist. I honestly had no idea how interesting prairie songbirds would become to me. Conducting the nest surveys with Andrew and capturing pipits with Nancy were major highlights for me and it was awesome to get in the field with them. I do have to say that seeing a drone fly over a group of male bison is something that I will never forget. Claire was an awesome person to meet, and she shared some valuable information about careers in wildlife biology. 

The past four days were an incredible experience and I experienced things that I will never forget. I am glad to have met with the members of RSA and listened to how challenging the life of a rancher can be and how they feel attacked on so many fronts. I do have some major disagreements with how they see the world, but I can’t hold that against someone that lives a life so far removed from my own. I feel truly blessed to have visited the Fort Belknap reservation and met with the biologist doing such amazing work on the landscape. This was an excellent way to start this program out and I can not wait for what is to come.