SEELEY LAKE - Pure Montana Tales presents the film, “Walking Bear Comes Home: The Life and Work of Chuck Jonkel” Thursday, Aug. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. This film premiered at the 40th International Wildlife Film Festival in 2017, a festival which Jonkel founded in 1977.
Jonkel was widely known as Montana’s “bear expert”, a role now filled by his son Jamie Jonkel, the current bear manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 2. Barring any bear emergencies, Jamie will attend this screening along with Frank Tyro, the film’s director.
Jonkel’s fascination with bears combined the scientific and the social. As a researcher, he led the Border Grizzly Project shortly after the bears were placed on the Endangered Species Act protection in 1975. He also founded the Great Bear Foundation in 1981, a Missoula-based organization dedicated to protecting grizzly, black and polar bears across North America. At the University of Montana, he was an early member the Environmental Studies program started by professor Clancy Gordon. He led efforts to clean up the Clark Fork River through Missoula and to organize its Farmers Market.
Jonkel had such a broad range of interests and knowledge; biology, ethnobotany, geography, geology, metabolics. He was an incredible cook and an advocate for wildlife and “Mom Nature” as he put it.
Clearwater Resource Council sponsors this free event. Everyone is welcome.
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