The International Wildlife Film Festival remembers founder Chuck Jonkel

The celebration is about remembering a man who believed that if people could get excited about wildlife, if they could understand it, they’d want to protect it.

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International Wildlife Film Festival

4/15-22

Missoula, Montana

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When Mike Steinberg took over the International Wildlife Film Festival four years ago, Chuck Jonkel paid him a visit at the Roxy Theater. Jonkel, who founded the festival in 1977, was known around town as the bear guy–a wildlife biologist who started the Great Bear Foundation, a pioneer of bear management and a colorful storyteller who could often be found at the farmers market helping children make bear paws out of grizzly molds. People always attributed an ursine quality to his character.

"He just came around the theater one day," Steinberg says. "There was a note waiting for me when I got in that said, ‘Chuck Jonkel is looking for you.’ He sort of stalked me–and I think that was very bear-like of him."

By Erika Fredrickson

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