0:17 → 1:27(1m 10s)
Adam Nissan, rewilding manager with Wild Earth Guardians (Missoula office), welcomed the audience, thanked co-sponsors (University of Montana Environmental Law Group, Missoula Community Access Television) and introduced speakers Chris Bachman (Yak Valley Forest Council) and Dr. Dominic DellaSala (Conservation Biology Institute). He noted the evening was recorded and livestreamed.
A public presentation in Missoula hosted by Wild Earth Guardians and the University of Montana Environmental Law Group featured Dr. Dominic DellaSala and local advocates describing a proposed "climate refuge" in the Yak (Yak Valley) and warning of federal policy rollbacks and timber-scaling proposals that they say threaten mature and old-growth forests. Speakers summarized scientific methods behind an ecoregion conservation assessment, presented data on low levels of formal protection in the Northern Rockies and the Yak, and outlined litigation and local advocacy efforts to stop large Forest Service timber projects. The event closed with a question-and-answer period focused on fire drivers, thinning versus prescribed burning, and how scientists should communicate urgency.
