It gives me great pleasure to share with you a new film, created with Darrin Gunkel, called Wild Ways: Why Keeping Washington’s Habitat Connected Matters. Produced by Scott Downes and Elizabeth Torrey of Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife and Andrea Wolf-Buck of Conservation Northwest, our mission was to create an introduction to the concept of wildlife connectivity to a general audience. What does that mean? What is wildlife connectivity? See for yourself…
What an amazing night it was in Asheville! The Crossing was a hit, and a sold out event showing my films along with other local films, music and culture. I was proud to represent the home team in testifying about the success of wildlife crossings and the positive impact they have on the ecology on the highways where they are implemented.
And here’s some good news: thanks to the efforts of the Safe Passages Fund Coalition, the North Carolina legislature has allocated $2 million toward construction of wildlife crossings in the Great Smoky Mountains! Read more here.
Very grateful for the hospitality from Frances Figart, Jeff Hunter, Ben Prater, and Elly Wells.
Photos courtesy Debbie Russell and Elly Wells, Inc
Frances Figart, the Creative Servies Director for the Great Smoky Mountains Association, interviewed me in advance of The Crossing event for the Asheville Citizen Times. You can read the interview here.
When asked where he thinks the U.S. is headed in the future in terms of road ecology, he smiles. “People love animals, people love wildlife, and people love good news about people doing good things. It’s a counterpoint to all the bad news we are bombarded with about how people are doing things detrimental to our natural world,” he says. “The success of it all is quantifiable and undeniable. I hope it leads to a greater awareness of the natural world around us and our effect on it, and I hope it leads to accommodating wildlife becoming part of the vocabulary of all infrastructure in the United States.”
It will be such a treat to go back to the Great Smoky Mountains, where I haven’t been since I was a kid!
Thank you Frances!
As with everyone else watching the horrors unfold in Ukraine, I have been appalled by the sheer brutality, destruction and evil of an unjustified war. Working with Cilista Eberle and Michael Murphy of Michael Murphy Productions, I was humbled to have the opportunity to contribute to an effort to help the Ukrainian people, Call 4 Freedom. We worked together to create a music video that has versions sung in English, Ukrainian, Georgian, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese. I invite you to browse the website and contribute to this effort.
So very proud to present a new film created with Kris Browne for Washington State Department of Transportation: I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East: Critter Crossings in the Cascades. This film is a follow-up to Cascade Crossroads, the film Kris and I made with Sandy Asher in 2018. It reveals the finished wildlife crossing structures that WSDOT engineers and contractors worked so hard to built, and shows not only the habitat restoration work done on adjacent lands but on and under the wildlife crossings themselves to integrate them into the landscape. Additionally it highlights the amazing work that Central Washington University faculty and students are currently doing to document how wildlife are already using the crossings and breaking free from the genetic isolation caused by a massive interstate. Filled with footage and images of wildlife moving through and interacting with other wildlife, it’s a film full of good news and hope.
Thank you to Mark Norman, Brian White, and Meagan Lott at WSDOT, Patty Garvey-Darda and Kelly Evans at US Forest Service, and Dr. Jason Irwin of Central Washington University.
Enjoy!
Cascade Crossroads will be the feature film in Wild Virginia’s “Walk on the Wild Side” film festival, virtually screening November 12th - 14th, 2021. Click here for free tickets!
This Land Is Part Of Us won a Telly Award! The Gold in the People's Telly category, voted for by viewers including many of you--THANK YOU! So proud that this is getting the recognition that it has, and grateful to Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife and Conservation Northwest for the opportunity to make the film. Thanks and cheers to everyone on our production team and our interviewees, including Darrin Gunkel, Chase Gunnell, Scott Downes, Elizabeth Torrey, Mark Teske, Emily Washines, Molly Linville, Jay Kehne, Michael Schroeder, Jon Gallie, Rachel Blomker, Ferdi Businger, Matt Johnson, and as always Dave Gross!
