Photo courtesy Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Mountain goats are transported by horseback from a trap near Choteau in this 1940 photo.Back from the BrinkNew DVD examines Montana's wildlife resource - and how it was almost wiped outBy DAVE REESESpecial to the Inter LakeIt is a picture painted of sheer dedication, a picture of men in lean times doing whatever had to be done to accomplish one single mission - saving Montana's wildlife.The picture of a rugged Montana work ethic is painted in "Back from the Brink: Montana's Wildlife Legacy," a two-hour DVD recently released by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation.It was produced by Media Works in Bozeman and it depicts the decline and near-extinction in the 1800s of most of Montana's wildlife species, from deer and elk to beaver, pheasant and antelope. But the DVD, in two parts, also celebrates the return of that wildlife through the hardscrabble work of Montana's landowners, ranchers, biologists and sportsmen.They got the job done by wrangling elk on horseback, floating mountain goats in rubber rafts, hauling bighorn sheep by helicopter and most any other means they could imagine to transplant, transport and transform Montana's wildlife - back from the brink.The production has been a labor of love for Jim Williams, wildlife manager for Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Northwest Montana. As the associate producer, Williams was instrumental in developing the documentary over the past several years. Williams was once a student of Dr. Harold Picton, a wildlife biology professor at Montana State University. Picton was one of Montana's early biologists in the Sun River and he trained many of the staff who are working in Fish, Wildlife and Parks today, Williams said.Over the years, as they labored in their respective fields in wildlife management, Williams said he and his colleagues around Montana reflected on the people who pioneered the work they now do every day. "We were interested in the stories these old-timers had, but they were beginning to pass away," Williams said. "So we started gathering their photos and footage from old shoe boxes in their attics."Through his work on the DVD, Williams had a chance to examine Montana's wildlife legacy."It really gives biologists of my generation a whole new appreciation of the work that was required of sportsmen, landowners and biologists," Williams said. "It pioneered the work we do today and gives us a whole new appreciation of the gift we were given."That gift was almost lost in the 1800s, when human encroachment, lack of wildlife management and weather took their toll on Montana's wildlife. The first part of the production outlines the way in which Montana's wildlife populations were severely reduced by trappers in the early 1800s. The trappers harvested beaver and other fur-bearing animals at a rate that the populations could not withstand. In fact, the documentary says that trappers with the Hudson Bay company were encouraged to create a "fur desert" in the western United States.By the 1850s the fur trade was over, but then came Montana's gold and silver rush and the prospectors' demand for meat. This resulted in unregulated market hunting and the slaughter of Montana's deer and elk herds. As the gold rush tapered in the late 1800s, the homesteaders filled the population void. In 1862 the federal homestead act allowed Montanans to claim their own piece of land, and the homesteaders came in droves. Montana counted more homesteaders than any other state, and to serve this demand, steam boats, wagons and railroads followed. Wildlife meat and pelts were commodities to be traded or sold, and game populations took another hit.Cattle grazing offered another assault on Montana's free-roaming wildlife herds. All told, by the end of the 1800s, Montana's wildlife populations were clearly exhausted - victims of subsistence hunting, wanton slaughter and greed.But by the early 1900s, Montana's early conservationists began to take notice of the plight. In 1901, Montana's first game warden was hired. The turning point for Montana's wildlife restoration efforts came in 1937, when Congress created the Pittman/Robertson Act. This law, which still exists, provides state wildlife agencies with an excise tax on the sale of sporting goods used in hunting and fishing. The money generated by this tax helps fund reconstruction, and management of wildlife. The tax is still a vital tool in helping pay for management of Montana's wildlife resources, Williams said.Montana's wildlife restoration efforts even caught the attention of national media. "We were amazed at their speed and agility," says the voice of Marlin Perkins as crews herded bighorn sheep on Wild Horse Island in a 1970s episode of the television show "Wild Kingdom." "Back from the Brink" examines the practices that were used to bring wildlife back, from transplanting elk from the Northern Yellowstone herd to Mount Fleecer near Butte, to installing a mountain goat herd in the Bob Marshall Wilderness - via rubber raft.Many of the practices shown in the production would likely not be politically - or even biologically - correct today, but they are what had to be done at the time. The film features interviews with early Montana biologists, including Robert Cooney, 98, the first Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologist hired in Montana. "He was the first one to start the shift from only enforcement to habitat and wildlife management," Williams said.Since sportsmen were a crucial part of the wildlife-rehabilitation process, they are featured also. Nick Carvey and Arlie Burk are two of the northwest Montana hunters interviewed in the film. The DVD's producer, Terry Lonner, spent 28 years with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks as chief of research. After he retired from the agency, he began his own production company, Media Works, in Bozeman. "In the 1960s I took the classes on wildlife legacy, but they didn't mean much at the time," Lonner said. "Then I got into the profession and heard about the old-timers who were kind of myths, the men who did phenomenal stays in mountains and would spend 10 days in the wilderness, transplanting goats or doing surveys."They were really dedicated to bringing the wildlife back from what happened in the 1800s. The more I got into it, the more I realized 'Wow there's a real story in this.'"To Lonner, the production isn't as much a wildlife-rescue story as it is a story about the men and women who dedicated their lives and their professions to saving and restoring Montana's wildlife populations."I don't think most people realize how dire things were, 60 or 70 years ago," Lonner said. "Hopefully younger people will realize wildlife conservation is not done just by the experts in the field, it's the people." One of the reasons Montana's wildlife-restoration efforts succeeded is because, Lonner said, "back then, just about everybody hunted. They were all very interested in bringing these animals back." Rod and gun clubs sprang up around the state not just as a means for socialization, but to promote conservation, the script asserts.The DVD is being shown around the state, and Lonner is working on an educational version that can be shown in wildlife classes at colleges and high schools. "I hope we can mobilize the enthusiasm again to get people back in the mix of wildlife management," Lonner said.For Williams, the DVD is a reflection of the work that he and other biologists, conservationists, landowners and sportsmen do every day. The work is not over, but at least Montanans have a solid base to start from."We've inherited a gift and it's our responsibility to share that with future generations," Williams said. "Hunters are the ones who paid for it and we hope people won't forget that. But whether you're a hunter or just like wildlife, this is going to be a fascinating film to watch and enjoy." On the Net: www.backfromthebrinkmt.org