MWA Honors Nine Who Helped Keep Montana Wild

Each year at Wild Fest, MWA honors several people for the work they’ve done championing wilderness, promoting quiet trails, and advocating for responsible management of public lands. We presented the 2015 Brass Lantern Awards to seven people this year. We also presented the Keep It Wild award and the Founders Award to two others who went above and beyond on behalf of our wildlands.

The Founder’s Award

Arlo Skari, Chester

This award is presented to the individual who best exemplifies outstanding and enduring dedication to the cause of wilderness and the mission of the Montana Wilderness Association. This year's award went to Arlo Skari.

Arlo and his wife Darlene have spent their lives in love with the land. As farmers north of Chester, near the Sweetgrass Hills, they know it intimately. Arlo has led an MWA Wilderness Walk to the summit of East Butte for the last 20 years.

As the founder of the Sweetgrass Hills Protective Association and its current president, Arlo has worked tirelessly with his neighbors to protect the Hills from degradation by short-sighted commercial interests.

Together with the Blackfeet Nation, former Congressman Pat Williams, and former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Arlo fought to protect the Sweetgrass Hills from powerful interests that wanted to mine the hills, and they won. Arlo also worked with farmers, environmentalists, physicians, and native tribes to oppose a proposed coal-shipping terminal in Oregon that would have led to greatly increased rail transport of coal through Montana to the west coast. They succeeded in stopping that terminal from being built.

Arlo served on the BLM Resource Advisory Council during the designation of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument.

Arlo has been a member of MWA for almost 50 years. He’s also a member of the Friends of the Missouri River Breaks, Montana Audubon, the Farmers’ Union, Northern Plains Resource Council, just to name a few. He’s also active with the Soil Conservation District.

Arlo is an activist who battles and succeeds, not by shouting or waving his arms, but by working with neighbors who know and respect him.

The Keep It Wild Award 

Forrest Theisen

This is a new award recognizing a young person who has shown outstanding dedication to the mission of MWA throughout the past year. This year the award went to Forrest Theisen, who spent the past year with MWA as an Americorp Vista volunteer. Forrest worked on the Southeastern Montana Geotourism Project, creating Buttes, Breaks and Badlands, a map and guide to everything wonderful about this corner of the state. This project aims to increase awareness of eastern Montana’s wild places and to foster opportunities for experiencing these palces. Forrest was instrumental in bringing MWA’s vision to fruition by organizing meetings, conducting first-hand research, seeking and coordinating input from a wide variety of people, and producing the excellent map and guide.

The Brass Lantern Awards

Steve Caldwell, Livingston

Steve served on the MWA State Council for years as its treasurer. He also persevered on the Governance Committee of the Gallatin Community Collaborative for three years. He now serves as board president of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Foundation and was recently elected to the Park County Commission. His commonsense approach, consistently positive attitude, and thoughtful leadership on difficult issues have been an inspiration to folks throughout southwest Montana.

Dan Harper, Missoula

Dan has served as the Shining Mountains Chapter representative to the state council and has been a great MWA member for many years. His input on the Chapter Relationship Committee has been invaluable. Dan has been the liaison between the Backcountry Horsemen and Shining Mountains Chapter – a valuable partnership not just in the chapter region, but throughout the state. Dan’s careful deliberations always add to all chapter activities.

Len Kopec accepting his award at Wild Fest

Len Kopec, Augusta

Over the past year Len has proven to be a dedicated, creative, hard-working, and informed leader on both the council and chapter levels. As an at-large-member of the State Council, Len is active in meetings and in committees, and serves as the Chapter Relations Committee chair. As former president of the Island Range Chapter, he reorganized and invigorated many committees. Len is the true embodiment of passing our wilderness legacy along to the next generation, exemplified by the annual Wilderness Walks he co-leads with his granddaughters. He is also one heck of a craftsman and has given freely of his time and skill for many great MWA causes.

Greg Schatz with his award at Wild Fest

Greg Schatz, Columbia Falls

Not only has Greg given countless hours of his time horse packing for MWA’s CDT Montana program and clearing trails on behalf on the Backcountry Horseman, he has been an advocate for protecting the Badger-Two Medicine from oil and gas drilling and has been an invaluable participant in the Whitefish Range Partnership. He always looks for new ideas and resources to bring to the table. Greg was elected to the state council at the beginning of the year and is great at making connections across organizations and people working to protect Montana’s wildlands.

Wade & Lonnie Murphy, Deer Lodge

Members of the Upper Clark Fork Back Country Horsemen chapter, Wade and Lonnie have packed tools, food, gear, and volunteer camping gear for CDT Montana projects every season since 2010. Very giving, thoughtful, and skilled people, they continually share their amazing wilderness packing skills with CDT Montana staff and volunteers.

Clayton McCracken, Billings

Clayton has contributed decades of hard work advocating for and restoring wild places in eastern Montana. For the last several summers, he has camped out in the Pryor Mountains, meticulously removing invasive, noxious weeds.

– Lee Boman, MWA president