Funding Available for Montana Wilderness Related Projects – The University of Montana Wilderness Institute

The University of Montana Wilderness Institute http://www.cfc.umt.edu/wi/ is now accepting proposals for grants that support historical research, creative writing and wilderness studies projects that explore Montana’s land and people.

The grants range from $400 to $1,000 and are awarded through the University’s Matthew Hansen Endowment, which was established in 1984 as a memorial to Hansen and his ideals.

The deadline to submit proposals is March 1. Awards will be announced in April.

Projects should encourage mindful stewardship of the land and contribute to the preservation of Montana’s cultural heritage. Proposals from individuals will take precedence over those from institutions. The endowment committee recommends projects that can be completed in one year.

Proposals must be no more than two pages and describe how the idea originated, what the project hopes to accomplish, how it is related to Montana’s heritage and whom it will benefit. In addition to the proposal, submit a detailed budget and timeline and a brief personal resume of qualifications. Submit seven copies of the proposal, as well as seven copies of a previous work, if available.

Send proposals to The Matthew Hansen Endowment, Wilderness Institute, College of Forestry and Conservation, The University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812.

For more information, call 406-243-5361, e-mail [email protected]

Hansen’s “An Oral History of Montanans at Work,” a set of audiotapes, is available for checkout from the Wilderness Institute Library, located in Main Hall Room 303. His written works “The South Fork of the Teton River: A History of its People” and “Clearing,” a book of poems, also are at the library.

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LECTURE SERIES EXPLORES JOURNEYS IN CONSERVATION

The 2009 Wilderness Issues Lecture Series will bring mountaineers, explorers, wildlife biologists and writers to The University of Montana to describe their journeys into remote landscapes and how those trips further conservation around the world.

The lecture series — “Wilderness Expeditions: Journeys in Conservation” — is free and open to the public. Lectures will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays from Feb. 10 through March 24 in Gallagher Business Building Room 106.

Adventures shared during the series span the globe — from places such as the Gobi Desert and Solomon Islands to Alaska and Australia — where presenters pioneered conservation and development programs, working with local communities and international networks to further environmental conservation, sustainable livelihoods, education and scientific understanding.

The series opens Tuesday, Feb. 10, with “Superorganisms in Einsteinian Space (Tree Ants in Australia) and the Last Rhinos in India” by wildlife biologist and National Geographic explorer Douglas Chadwick. Chadwick is the author of 10 books and more than 50 National Geographic articles.

Other lectures in the series are:

* Feb. 17: “Walking the Gobi: Environmental Change in the Mongolian Desert” by Helen Thayer, explorer, conservationist and the first woman to reach the North Pole.

* Feb. 24: “The Razor’s Edge: Climate Change, Subsistence Agriculture and Threatened Cultures in Ladakh, India” by Cynthia Hunt, mountaineer and founder of Health Inc.

* March 3: “10 Years Tracking Wolves in the Heart of the Canadian Rockies: Conservation Lessons and Wilderness Science” by Mark Hebblewhite, assistant professor, UM Wildlife Biology Program.

* March 10: “Sea Voyage on the Alaska Coast: Retracing the Harriman Expedition of 1899 and Exploring a Century of Change” by Paul Alaback, UM professor of forest ecology.

* March 17: “Talks with a Siberian Shaman: Viewing Wilderness through Magic or Logic” by Jon Turk, research chemist turned chicken farmer, horse logger, adventurer and writer.

* March 24: “Exploring Islands in Time: Accidental Encounters with Wilderness in the Solomon Islands” by Chris Filardi, biodiversity scientist, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History.

Series information is on the Wilderness Institute Web site at http://www.cfc.umt.edu/wi/lecture.html. For more information, call 406-243-5361 or e-mail [email protected]

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