On the evening of November 5, 2020, Bill West presented an on-line lecture titled, “Public Land, Business and Local Community: A National Wildlife Refuge Example”, hosted by the Belgrade Community Library in partnership with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Montana State University (formerly Wonderlust)..

Bill West, who recently retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after 30 years of managing National Wildlife Refuges in Montana, discussed land conservation across a patchwork of land ownership in the Centennial Valley. Located in Southwest Montana, north of the Continental Divide, the remote Centennial Valley consists of a high-elevation and nearly intact landscape of forest, sagebrush steppe, wet meadow and the largest wetland complex in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The valley is the upper most point of the Missouri/Mississippi watershed– more than 3,750 miles from the Gulf of Mexico–and includes the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Can partnerships that respect the business climate of the local community while protecting public land result in a thriving local economy as well as successful conservation efforts?

In his 30 years of managing wildlife refuges in Montana, including assignments at the National Bison Range and Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Bill West’s work involved partnership building for the conservation of fish and wildlife, neighbor/landowner relationships, sustainable agriculture, negotiations with Native American Tribal governments, and the management of wild bison, trumpeter swan, grizzly bear and Arctic grayling.