MSU Wonderlust presented a Friday Forum featuring Rick Reese and Todd Wilkinson, the creators of the new online Mountain Journal.

We live next to one of the largest essentially intact ecosystems in the temperate zone of the earth with an unparalleled variety and number of wildlife. But we also live in a region experiencing rapid population growth. What will be the effect of these added pressures on our wild lands? The online Mountain Journal will center on efforts to raise visibility on the vulnerability of these wild lands by providing fact-based information on this amazing resource and the challenges ahead.

Rick Reese’s immersion into issues in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem dates back to 1980 when he and his wife were hired to run the Yellowstone Institute. During those years he began work on his book, Greater Yellowstone: The National Park and Adjacent Wildlands and produced a slide show entitled Greater Yellowstone: Wild Healthy and Whole. As interest grew a small group of volunteers began planning for the creation of a new organization which officially became the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in December 1983.Rick served the next two years as founding president.

Todd Wilkinson is a well known environmental journalist whose work has appeared in a wide variety of national publications including The National Geographic, the Christian Science Monitor, and Washington Post. Recent books include Last Stand: Ted Turner’s Quest to Save a Troubled Planet and with photographer Tom Mangelsen, An Intimate Portrait of 399, the Most Famous Bear of Greater Yellowstone. He is the founder of the online Mountain Journal, http://mountainjournal.org.

Friday Forum is a monthly speaker series sponsored by MSU Wonderlust, a lifelong learning program of Extended University. The Forum is hosted by the Bozeman Public Library.