WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:05.280 align:middle line:90% Thanks very much, Alison. 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:07.590 align:middle line:90% Can you all hear me? 00:00:07.590 --> 00:00:08.380 align:middle line:90% At the back? 00:00:08.380 --> 00:00:10.200 align:middle line:90% Great. 00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:13.770 align:middle line:84% Thank you all for coming in this evening. 00:00:13.770 --> 00:00:15.270 align:middle line:84% I've got a long list of thank you's. 00:00:15.270 --> 00:00:16.353 align:middle line:90% I should have made a list. 00:00:16.353 --> 00:00:20.940 align:middle line:84% I'll probably forget some, but thanks, Alison and the school, 00:00:20.940 --> 00:00:23.790 align:middle line:84% for having me and my family down. 00:00:23.790 --> 00:00:25.500 align:middle line:90% We're having a good vacation. 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:28.100 align:middle line:90% I was thinking how-- 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:30.600 align:middle line:84% I was worried I was going to forget who all to say thank you 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:32.280 align:middle line:90% to this evening. 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:34.590 align:middle line:84% Not worrying so much that I did make up a list, 00:00:34.590 --> 00:00:38.700 align:middle line:84% but I was thinking that's always what writers do when 00:00:38.700 --> 00:00:40.140 align:middle line:90% they start to give a reading. 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:41.370 align:middle line:84% They say, thank you, thank you, thank you. 00:00:41.370 --> 00:00:43.912 align:middle line:84% Yeah, I get through the boring stuff and get to start reading 00:00:43.912 --> 00:00:45.975 align:middle line:90% or whatever you came here for. 00:00:45.975 --> 00:00:49.380 align:middle line:84% The thank you's are always so boring and-- 00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:52.110 align:middle line:84% I mean, from what I read about writers back 30 00:00:52.110 --> 00:00:54.300 align:middle line:84% and 40 years ago, they used to show up all drunk 00:00:54.300 --> 00:00:57.210 align:middle line:84% and belligerent and stuff, and it just never ever 00:00:57.210 --> 00:00:58.270 align:middle line:90% happens anymore. 00:00:58.270 --> 00:00:58.770 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:58.770 --> 00:01:03.390 align:middle line:84% And talking about what a hellhole Tucson is 00:01:03.390 --> 00:01:04.800 align:middle line:90% and how you want to the-- 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:06.800 align:middle line:84% the quicker you can get out of here, the better. 00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:09.360 align:middle line:84% And just start reading and just-- 00:01:09.360 --> 00:01:11.940 align:middle line:84% and I kind of toyed with the idea of saying that, 00:01:11.940 --> 00:01:17.670 align:middle line:84% but it's just not anywhere close to the truth, 00:01:17.670 --> 00:01:19.330 align:middle line:90% but nobody does that anymore. 00:01:19.330 --> 00:01:20.750 align:middle line:90% I don't why. 00:01:20.750 --> 00:01:22.345 align:middle line:90% They all died. 00:01:22.345 --> 00:01:25.200 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.210 align:middle line:90% I didn't almost die. 00:01:27.210 --> 00:01:28.810 align:middle line:84% I mean, that would be exaggeration, 00:01:28.810 --> 00:01:32.995 align:middle line:84% but I got my behind walked off today with Dick Shelton. 00:01:32.995 --> 00:01:34.620 align:middle line:84% Thanks for taking me out there walking, 00:01:34.620 --> 00:01:38.640 align:middle line:84% but it was straight up and straight down and lickety-split 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:42.990 align:middle line:84% and I had to take a lot of aspirin and a few drinks 00:01:42.990 --> 00:01:45.360 align:middle line:90% when I got back. 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:47.610 align:middle line:84% But I wouldn't have missed it for anything. 00:01:47.610 --> 00:01:50.520 align:middle line:90% Thanks for that hospitality. 00:01:50.520 --> 00:01:54.270 align:middle line:84% At the same supper where I'm eating aspirin and drinking 00:01:54.270 --> 00:01:58.740 align:middle line:84% whiskey, my first writing teacher, Bob Houston, 00:01:58.740 --> 00:02:00.750 align:middle line:90% was telling me-- 00:02:00.750 --> 00:02:04.170 align:middle line:84% 400 pages into this novel that I'm working on, 00:02:04.170 --> 00:02:06.472 align:middle line:84% and he was saying, oh, no, you gotta shitcan-- 00:02:06.472 --> 00:02:07.680 align:middle line:90% You've got to start all over. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:09.340 align:middle line:90% It's all bad and stuff. 00:02:09.340 --> 00:02:14.500 align:middle line:84% So I want to thank you for that advice, Bob, and really, 00:02:14.500 --> 00:02:16.230 align:middle line:84% really great to see you again after so-- 00:02:16.230 --> 00:02:19.110 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:19.110 --> 00:02:21.450 align:middle line:84% And I'm just so motivated for this reading tonight. 00:02:21.450 --> 00:02:24.390 align:middle line:84% Thank you for really focusing on it. 00:02:24.390 --> 00:02:30.390 align:middle line:90% 00:02:30.390 --> 00:02:33.150 align:middle line:84% I want to apologize for suckering anybody 00:02:33.150 --> 00:02:37.080 align:middle line:90% in on the premise of art. 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:39.490 align:middle line:90% As I think you may be-- 00:02:39.490 --> 00:02:42.300 align:middle line:84% Alison alluded to and you're probably picking up on, 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:45.810 align:middle line:84% there's going to be political activism. 00:02:45.810 --> 00:02:46.530 align:middle line:90% I say also. 00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:47.940 align:middle line:90% Mostly. 00:02:47.940 --> 00:02:50.850 align:middle line:84% I have some propaganda, some flyers, newsletters 00:02:50.850 --> 00:02:53.700 align:middle line:84% out there by the Poetry Center's propaganda, 00:02:53.700 --> 00:02:58.650 align:middle line:84% and if you all pick that up on your way out, I'd appreciate it. 00:02:58.650 --> 00:03:00.450 align:middle line:90% It's about Yaak. 00:03:00.450 --> 00:03:02.663 align:middle line:84% This thing is burning a laser in my kidney. 00:03:02.663 --> 00:03:03.330 align:middle line:90% It's really hot. 00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:06.474 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:06.474 --> 00:03:13.650 align:middle line:90% 00:03:13.650 --> 00:03:17.980 align:middle line:84% I want to show some slides from where I live, 00:03:17.980 --> 00:03:21.300 align:middle line:84% which is the Yaak Valley in Northwest Montana. 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:24.960 align:middle line:84% It's, I guess, the thing that keeps me from wallowing in art 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:28.740 align:middle line:84% or writing short stories all the time. 00:03:28.740 --> 00:03:32.370 align:middle line:84% It's a wild place that's fast losing its wildness. 00:03:32.370 --> 00:03:37.600 align:middle line:84% It's the wildest place I've ever seen in the lower 48. 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:39.000 align:middle line:90% It's got all of-- 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:42.600 align:middle line:84% it's got-- to get to the bottom line about Yaak, 00:03:42.600 --> 00:03:45.435 align:middle line:84% if something eats meat, it lives in Yaak. 00:03:45.435 --> 00:03:46.830 align:middle line:90% It's a very wild place. 00:03:46.830 --> 00:03:48.810 align:middle line:84% Everything except the subtropical cats, 00:03:48.810 --> 00:03:51.600 align:middle line:84% every carnivore except the subtropical cats 00:03:51.600 --> 00:03:53.550 align:middle line:90% is found in Yaak. 00:03:53.550 --> 00:03:58.450 align:middle line:84% It's a dense, wet, rich, mysterious, magical, beautiful 00:03:58.450 --> 00:03:58.950 align:middle line:90% place. 00:03:58.950 --> 00:04:02.520 align:middle line:84% It's 97% public land national forest, 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:04.890 align:middle line:84% and it's been clear cut to hell and back, roaded 00:04:04.890 --> 00:04:06.060 align:middle line:90% to hell and back. 00:04:06.060 --> 00:04:09.390 align:middle line:84% There's not one acre of land protected 00:04:09.390 --> 00:04:11.790 align:middle line:84% with permanent protection in the Yaak. 00:04:11.790 --> 00:04:14.970 align:middle line:84% And several years ago, I thought: not one acre? 00:04:14.970 --> 00:04:17.410 align:middle line:84% You would think that we could change that pretty easily, 00:04:17.410 --> 00:04:20.910 align:middle line:84% but it hasn't changed and it's not really 00:04:20.910 --> 00:04:22.089 align:middle line:90% moving in that direction. 00:04:22.089 --> 00:04:28.583 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to ask folks to write some letters to Congress 00:04:28.583 --> 00:04:30.750 align:middle line:84% and the administration and the forest service asking 00:04:30.750 --> 00:04:34.530 align:middle line:84% for wilderness protection for the last roadless areas in Yaak. 00:04:34.530 --> 00:04:38.340 align:middle line:84% It's a 500,000-acre valley right up on the Montana border 00:04:38.340 --> 00:04:40.830 align:middle line:84% and Canadian border and Idaho border. 00:04:40.830 --> 00:04:45.270 align:middle line:84% It's way up in the northwest corner of Montana. 00:04:45.270 --> 00:04:48.690 align:middle line:84% Of those 500,000 acres, there's only about 150,000 00:04:48.690 --> 00:04:51.240 align:middle line:84% left that doesn't have roads in it that's 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:53.940 align:middle line:90% just raw, rugged, wild jungle. 00:04:53.940 --> 00:04:58.200 align:middle line:84% It's not the traditional kind of wilderness 00:04:58.200 --> 00:05:00.720 align:middle line:84% that we think about where you go sit by a lake 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:04.350 align:middle line:84% and cook a marshmallow and camp out and stuff. 00:05:04.350 --> 00:05:07.740 align:middle line:84% It's this rich, wet, diverse jungle. 00:05:07.740 --> 00:05:09.030 align:middle line:90% Almost a rainforest. 00:05:09.030 --> 00:05:11.010 align:middle line:84% They call it Montana's only rainforest. 00:05:11.010 --> 00:05:15.090 align:middle line:90% It's very low elevation. 00:05:15.090 --> 00:05:18.150 align:middle line:84% About 1,800 feet is the lowest spot 00:05:18.150 --> 00:05:21.210 align:middle line:84% in the valley, which is one of the reasons 00:05:21.210 --> 00:05:24.540 align:middle line:90% that it is so diverse. 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:28.980 align:middle line:84% It grows big timber because of that elevation. 00:05:28.980 --> 00:05:30.750 align:middle line:84% These slides, there's not many of them, 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:33.630 align:middle line:84% but I just wanted you all to get a picture of the country 00:05:33.630 --> 00:05:38.640 align:middle line:84% that I'll be reading about by a wildlife photographer who 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:39.600 align:middle line:90% lives up there. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:42.060 align:middle line:84% His name is Don Jones, and he's very kindly 00:05:42.060 --> 00:05:46.260 align:middle line:84% let me use these slides to show pictures 00:05:46.260 --> 00:05:47.670 align:middle line:90% of what the country's like. 00:05:47.670 --> 00:05:51.130 align:middle line:90% 00:05:51.130 --> 00:05:52.930 align:middle line:84% It's right between the Paci-- it's 00:05:52.930 --> 00:05:55.930 align:middle line:84% in this little same, this magic fissure 00:05:55.930 --> 00:05:58.060 align:middle line:84% or crack between the Pacific Northwest 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:00.070 align:middle line:90% and the northern Rockies. 00:06:00.070 --> 00:06:03.580 align:middle line:84% And so as such, it has twice the diversity 00:06:03.580 --> 00:06:05.800 align:middle line:84% of either of those systems' relationships 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:08.110 align:middle line:84% between species that aren't found 00:06:08.110 --> 00:06:09.760 align:middle line:90% anywhere else in the world. 00:06:09.760 --> 00:06:13.030 align:middle line:90% What is rare in Yaak is-- 00:06:13.030 --> 00:06:15.520 align:middle line:84% what is rare in the world is very common in Yaak. 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:19.210 align:middle line:84% This is a stand of old larch trees 00:06:19.210 --> 00:06:22.900 align:middle line:84% and that's the rarest form of old-growth in the West, 00:06:22.900 --> 00:06:25.540 align:middle line:84% but it's the most common form of old-growth in the Yaak. 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:29.560 align:middle line:84% It's this weird tree, also called a Tamarack. 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:31.600 align:middle line:84% It's a deciduous conifer is what it is. 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:34.276 align:middle line:84% It's like it can't make up its mind. 00:06:34.276 --> 00:06:36.580 align:middle line:90% It's an incredible tree. 00:06:36.580 --> 00:06:40.810 align:middle line:84% I won't get all new age and talk about the force and aura it has, 00:06:40.810 --> 00:06:42.490 align:middle line:90% but it's got it. 00:06:42.490 --> 00:06:46.480 align:middle line:84% I mean, it has a real joy at being alive. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:51.640 align:middle line:84% And I think the decision to be deciduous and coniferous 00:06:51.640 --> 00:06:53.800 align:middle line:84% is because it just loves both so much. 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:55.600 align:middle line:90% So it just says yes to both. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:06:59.500 align:middle line:90% 00:06:59.500 --> 00:07:02.470 align:middle line:90% A lot of meat eaters up in Yaak. 00:07:02.470 --> 00:07:03.700 align:middle line:90% That's a great gray owl. 00:07:03.700 --> 00:07:04.675 align:middle line:90% I like that one, too. 00:07:04.675 --> 00:07:07.690 align:middle line:90% 00:07:07.690 --> 00:07:11.740 align:middle line:84% The great gray owl is this goofy, goofy creature. 00:07:11.740 --> 00:07:13.180 align:middle line:90% No offense. 00:07:13.180 --> 00:07:14.770 align:middle line:90% No disrespect. 00:07:14.770 --> 00:07:17.360 align:middle line:90% Goofy in the best sense. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:19.120 align:middle line:84% It lives back in this old forest. 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:23.170 align:middle line:84% And it's so shy that somewhere along the line, 00:07:23.170 --> 00:07:26.410 align:middle line:84% the owl decided that if something walks up to it 00:07:26.410 --> 00:07:28.990 align:middle line:84% and if it just sits real still and turns its head around 00:07:28.990 --> 00:07:31.530 align:middle line:84% and doesn't look at that thing like a kid 00:07:31.530 --> 00:07:32.530 align:middle line:90% saying you can't see me? 00:07:32.530 --> 00:07:33.488 align:middle line:90% That's what the owl is. 00:07:33.488 --> 00:07:35.350 align:middle line:84% If the owl is real still and looks away, 00:07:35.350 --> 00:07:37.150 align:middle line:90% then trouble will go away. 00:07:37.150 --> 00:07:40.255 align:middle line:84% And it used to work until bulldozers came. 00:07:40.255 --> 00:07:46.395 align:middle line:90% 00:07:46.395 --> 00:07:48.270 align:middle line:84% It's a frustrating political battle 00:07:48.270 --> 00:07:50.970 align:middle line:84% because I'm pretty much a moderate-- 00:07:50.970 --> 00:07:54.360 align:middle line:84% I'm kind of, I guess, like the large neurotic 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:56.020 align:middle line:90% in both directions. 00:07:56.020 --> 00:08:00.510 align:middle line:84% I grew up in Texas and have a real conservative, almost 00:08:00.510 --> 00:08:05.113 align:middle line:84% populist, upbringing, but seeing this 00:08:05.113 --> 00:08:06.780 align:middle line:84% will turn you into a liberal real quick. 00:08:06.780 --> 00:08:11.280 align:middle line:90% 00:08:11.280 --> 00:08:12.210 align:middle line:90% That's a grizzly. 00:08:12.210 --> 00:08:17.070 align:middle line:84% The grizzlies of Yaak are of immense value to the world. 00:08:17.070 --> 00:08:20.160 align:middle line:90% 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:22.410 align:middle line:84% There are only two known breeding-age females 00:08:22.410 --> 00:08:23.730 align:middle line:90% left in the valley. 00:08:23.730 --> 00:08:26.280 align:middle line:84% Grizzlies don't breed until they're about six years old, 00:08:26.280 --> 00:08:28.950 align:middle line:84% and they breed only about every third year, 00:08:28.950 --> 00:08:31.560 align:middle line:84% and they have two or three cubs, one 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:35.460 align:middle line:84% of the lowest reproductive rates in North America. 00:08:35.460 --> 00:08:38.039 align:middle line:90% 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:40.390 align:middle line:84% These grizzlies, there's 10 or 15, 00:08:40.390 --> 00:08:43.305 align:middle line:84% maybe 20 left in the valley total. 00:08:43.305 --> 00:08:45.180 align:middle line:84% These are the kind of grizzlies that if we're 00:08:45.180 --> 00:08:47.820 align:middle line:84% going to have grizzlies in the next century in the lower 48, 00:08:47.820 --> 00:08:50.220 align:middle line:84% this is the kind that we will have. 00:08:50.220 --> 00:08:51.120 align:middle line:90% They're secretive. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.250 align:middle line:84% They live in the forest interior. 00:08:53.250 --> 00:08:57.660 align:middle line:84% This is the lowest elevation residents 00:08:57.660 --> 00:09:00.270 align:middle line:90% of grizzlies in the lower 48. 00:09:00.270 --> 00:09:01.860 align:middle line:84% They hide back in the dark forest 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:04.620 align:middle line:84% and they run when they hear a person or smell a person 00:09:04.620 --> 00:09:06.570 align:middle line:84% or even think a person is coming. 00:09:06.570 --> 00:09:08.550 align:middle line:90% That's the kind of genes that-- 00:09:08.550 --> 00:09:12.080 align:middle line:84% it's been whittled down to these last 10 or 15 survivors. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:18.080 align:middle line:90% 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:20.330 align:middle line:90% Yaak is such a wet place. 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:24.425 align:middle line:84% That's one of the keys to its diversity of life there. 00:09:24.425 --> 00:09:30.170 align:middle line:84% It's a lush, almost tropical place. 00:09:30.170 --> 00:09:33.230 align:middle line:84% It's not what you think of when you think of Montana. 00:09:33.230 --> 00:09:36.530 align:middle line:84% Because it's wet and low elevation, it grows big trees. 00:09:36.530 --> 00:09:40.430 align:middle line:84% And big trees, because they're on the public land, 00:09:40.430 --> 00:09:45.110 align:middle line:84% timber companies can have them at cut-rate bargains. 00:09:45.110 --> 00:09:46.010 align:middle line:90% It's big dollars. 00:09:46.010 --> 00:09:58.870 align:middle line:90% 00:09:58.870 --> 00:10:00.100 align:middle line:90% Everything in Yaak-- 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:02.140 align:middle line:84% I guess that's one of its-- besides being wet, 00:10:02.140 --> 00:10:03.550 align:middle line:90% it's such a secretive place. 00:10:03.550 --> 00:10:04.785 align:middle line:90% Everything there is really-- 00:10:04.785 --> 00:10:06.160 align:middle line:84% even the people who are up there. 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:10.090 align:middle line:84% There's 100 people that live in the valley, that 500,000 acres, 00:10:10.090 --> 00:10:11.410 align:middle line:90% and they're real hermits. 00:10:11.410 --> 00:10:17.260 align:middle line:90% They're real recluses and such. 00:10:17.260 --> 00:10:21.705 align:middle line:84% It's a fantastic place in every sense of the word fantasy. 00:10:21.705 --> 00:10:41.950 align:middle line:90% 00:10:41.950 --> 00:10:45.010 align:middle line:90% It's kind of like Noah's ark. 00:10:45.010 --> 00:10:49.570 align:middle line:84% So many of the threatened and endangered species in Yaak, 00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:54.010 align:middle line:84% they retreated to these last little islands of roadless area 00:10:54.010 --> 00:10:56.650 align:middle line:84% that I'm hoping to get protected as wilderness. 00:10:56.650 --> 00:11:01.390 align:middle line:84% And so many of the populations of those rare and threatened 00:11:01.390 --> 00:11:04.690 align:middle line:84% and endangered species are down to single and double-digit 00:11:04.690 --> 00:11:05.530 align:middle line:90% populations. 00:11:05.530 --> 00:11:07.850 align:middle line:84% It's like the opposite of Noah's ark. 00:11:07.850 --> 00:11:09.850 align:middle line:84% There's two of everything, but it's like instead 00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:12.460 align:middle line:84% of you get on the boat, it's you get off the boat and you off 00:11:12.460 --> 00:11:13.930 align:middle line:90% and you off. 00:11:13.930 --> 00:11:17.680 align:middle line:84% There's one woodland caribou that comes into the valley 00:11:17.680 --> 00:11:18.850 align:middle line:90% occasionally. 00:11:18.850 --> 00:11:22.720 align:middle line:84% Those two breeding age female grizzlies, maybe five 00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:28.030 align:middle line:84% or six wolves, a handful of lynx, a handful of wolverine. 00:11:28.030 --> 00:11:30.760 align:middle line:84% There's just one population of inland red band trout. 00:11:30.760 --> 00:11:34.990 align:middle line:84% It's this landlocked salmon that been up there for 10,000 years, 00:11:34.990 --> 00:11:37.030 align:middle line:84% and now one last little creek is where 00:11:37.030 --> 00:11:38.965 align:middle line:90% they're found in a pure strain. 00:11:38.965 --> 00:11:42.070 align:middle line:90% 00:11:42.070 --> 00:11:43.840 align:middle line:90% 12 pair of mated bull trout. 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:46.060 align:middle line:84% This big old, again, a salmonoid that 00:11:46.060 --> 00:11:49.330 align:middle line:84% gets to be 20, 30-pound trout in these little creeks. 00:11:49.330 --> 00:11:56.940 align:middle line:90% 00:11:56.940 --> 00:11:58.860 align:middle line:90% It's a dramatic landscape. 00:11:58.860 --> 00:12:00.930 align:middle line:84% Because it's so far north, animals 00:12:00.930 --> 00:12:05.640 align:middle line:84% have evolved to cope with the cold winters. 00:12:05.640 --> 00:12:09.270 align:middle line:84% They have larger body masses which 00:12:09.270 --> 00:12:13.680 align:middle line:84% helps keep them warmer in terms of the rate of calories expended 00:12:13.680 --> 00:12:16.200 align:middle line:90% per surface area. 00:12:16.200 --> 00:12:18.518 align:middle line:84% Again, it's like this fantastical place where 00:12:18.518 --> 00:12:19.810 align:middle line:90% everything is larger than life. 00:12:19.810 --> 00:12:24.690 align:middle line:84% These big moose, big herons, big owls, big eagles, big elk, 00:12:24.690 --> 00:12:25.320 align:middle line:90% big bears. 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:28.350 align:middle line:90% Everything's oversized up there. 00:12:28.350 --> 00:12:29.955 align:middle line:90% The trees are big. 00:12:29.955 --> 00:12:31.770 align:middle line:90% It makes you feel like a kid. 00:12:31.770 --> 00:12:34.320 align:middle line:84% You're just tiny in this landscape. 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:36.840 align:middle line:90% 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:40.185 align:middle line:84% Again, a measure of Yaak's diversity. 00:12:40.185 --> 00:12:44.028 align:middle line:90% It's one thing and it's another. 00:12:44.028 --> 00:12:46.980 align:middle line:84% It's wet and it's like the Pacific Northwest. 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:47.550 align:middle line:90% It rots. 00:12:47.550 --> 00:12:48.240 align:middle line:90% It's real lush. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:51.450 align:middle line:84% And yet, it also very much has the fire cycle of the Northern 00:12:51.450 --> 00:12:57.117 align:middle line:84% Rockies integrated into its evolutionary history, 00:12:57.117 --> 00:12:58.575 align:middle line:84% and that just adds to the richness. 00:12:58.575 --> 00:13:17.400 align:middle line:90% 00:13:17.400 --> 00:13:19.625 align:middle line:90% It's a real wet, fragile place. 00:13:19.625 --> 00:13:25.360 align:middle line:90% 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:26.680 align:middle line:90% Oh, sure. 00:13:26.680 --> 00:13:28.450 align:middle line:90% Excuse me. 00:13:28.450 --> 00:13:28.950 align:middle line:90% Nervous. 00:13:28.950 --> 00:13:29.450 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:13:29.450 --> 00:13:32.061 align:middle line:84% If they stay up there too long, they'll get lost or something. 00:13:32.061 --> 00:13:56.630 align:middle line:90% 00:13:56.630 --> 00:13:59.720 align:middle line:90% It's been a real-- 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:04.340 align:middle line:84% education as a person, much less an activist, 00:14:04.340 --> 00:14:08.540 align:middle line:84% to be arguing for the protection of these last little roadless 00:14:08.540 --> 00:14:09.755 align:middle line:90% areas in the Yaak because-- 00:14:09.755 --> 00:14:12.440 align:middle line:90% 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:15.530 align:middle line:84% again, I think most people's tendency 00:14:15.530 --> 00:14:18.620 align:middle line:84% is for the middle road and moderation. 00:14:18.620 --> 00:14:21.710 align:middle line:84% And if you keep taking that road, 00:14:21.710 --> 00:14:25.880 align:middle line:90% you end up with nothing left. 00:14:25.880 --> 00:14:29.690 align:middle line:84% But time and time again, at the-- 00:14:29.690 --> 00:14:31.280 align:middle line:84% I can't call them negotiating tables 00:14:31.280 --> 00:14:32.738 align:middle line:84% because we haven't gotten anything, 00:14:32.738 --> 00:14:35.960 align:middle line:90% but at the arguing tables. 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:39.480 align:middle line:84% Time and time again, the industry comes back and says, 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:41.690 align:middle line:84% well, we used to be bad, but we're changing now, 00:14:41.690 --> 00:14:45.650 align:middle line:84% and I don't know if there's time even for them to be good. 00:14:45.650 --> 00:14:50.450 align:middle line:84% I mean, I want to believe that, that you can log sustainably 00:14:50.450 --> 00:14:55.550 align:middle line:84% from the national forest, but it's a big gamble. 00:14:55.550 --> 00:15:13.710 align:middle line:90% 00:15:13.710 --> 00:15:18.330 align:middle line:84% I mean, on my worst days, I worry that the timber industry 00:15:18.330 --> 00:15:21.930 align:middle line:84% wants all of it and wants to eat all of Yaak, 00:15:21.930 --> 00:15:23.430 align:middle line:84% even when they're saying they don't. 00:15:23.430 --> 00:15:25.920 align:middle line:84% And I know on their worst days that they think that I want 00:15:25.920 --> 00:15:30.960 align:middle line:84% to lock all of it up and protect all of it, which I don't. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:34.270 align:middle line:84% I just want those roadless areas protected. 00:15:34.270 --> 00:15:37.800 align:middle line:84% But even if I did want to lock all of it up, 00:15:37.800 --> 00:15:39.100 align:middle line:90% I couldn't get there from here. 00:15:39.100 --> 00:15:43.890 align:middle line:84% I mean, it's already gone, the majority of it. 00:15:43.890 --> 00:15:46.620 align:middle line:84% Some of those hillsides will revegetate someday. 00:15:46.620 --> 00:15:48.770 align:middle line:90% Others of them won't. 00:15:48.770 --> 00:15:50.000 align:middle line:90%