BOLD VISIONS CONSERVATION
Bold Visions Conservation is an organization dedicated to fighting for wildlife and protecting our public lands so wildlife may thrive.
CONTACT >
• Phone 406-370-3028
• Email stephen@bvconservation.org
• Address
Bold Visions Conservation
91 Campus Drive
PMB #1004
Missoula, Montana 59801
WHAT WE DO
We Fight for Wildlife
& Our Wild Lands
Bold Visions will use tools like National Monuments and Wilderness to protect lands allowing wildlife to thrive!
Wolves and grizzly bears do not exist for barbaric recreational sports; they should exist purely for their importance to the landscape and the health of all wildlife species.
Beavers are critical in a warming climate; the continued trapping of this species for sport defines ignorance.
We have reached a critical time amidst Earth's sixth great species extinction. We cannot just accept business as usual if wildlife is to survive, and we need much more action for it to thrive.
We need more protected landscapes and less public lands grazing, we need to redefine what conservation is in the 21st century, and it is not slaughtering bison at the gates of Yellowstone and killing coyotes for fun. It is about respecting and honoring the wildlife that so enriches our lives.
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Wildlife has feelings, emotions, they feel pain, and they have a family. We can no longer live in a world of
ignorance that defends the killing of predator species, that inconvenience a public lands grazer, or those that seek to trap or murder a vital, beautiful creature.
ABOUT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STEPHEN CAPRA
What makes us different is that we can be a voice for wildlife and wildlands and work with a history of success.
Bold Visions exists to continue the fight Stephen has been involved in for over 30 years. During that time, he led campaigns that created two National Monuments: Rio Grande del Norte, and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico, multiple wilderness areas, and the creation of the Mexican Wolf Coalition.
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In Montana, he led Footloose Montana to prominence while fighting egress bills in the legislature, including lobbying to defeat SB-372 and putting the fight for wildlife front and center in Montana. He works with Montana's influential conservationists and wildlife advocates to ensure success and will always be BOLD!
Executive Director Stephen Capra
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ED LEVINE
has been engaged in conservation and wildlife issues for many years. He is a gastroenterologist living in Missoula. Ed’s passion is spending time in the outdoors, and joined the Board of Bold Visions Conservation because, like so many, he has grown sickened by trappers and those who want to harm our natural world. He sees the reform of wildlife agencies as something long overdue and wants to have the ability to see wolves and grizzlies in the wild. Ed believes in the mission of this organization and looks forward to helping in support of our Bold Visions!
HOWIE WOLKE
is a retired wilderness guide/outfitter who, during a 41-year career, led over 500 multi-day wilderness backpack treks from northern Alaska to Mexico, including a wide variety of areas throughout the American West. He has encountered well over a hundred grizzlies in the wilds and believes that western wilderness without grizzlies is tame wilderness. And for Howie, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is the center of the universe. Howie has worked to protect wilderness and wildlife habitats mostly in the northern U.S. Rockies since 1975, including nearly twenty years as a board director for Wilderness Watch, and he believes that much of the conservation movement has become much too timid. He has published many articles and two books on the vanishing American Wilderness, Wilderness On the Rocks, and The Big Outside, which was co-authored with Dave Foreman. He has co-founded a number of wilderness organizations and still believes that all of the earth’s remaining wildlands should be protected. Howie also frequently notes that human overpopulation is the most fundamental threat to life on Earth. He still goes backpacking (without clients) and also enjoys canoeing, backcountry skiing, whitewater rafting, hunting, wildlife viewing and bird-watching. He and his wife, Marilyn Olsen, and their dog Rio live in the foothills of Gallatin Range in southern Montana, just a few miles from Yellowstone National Park.
Advisory Board
MICHELLE BLAKE, TREASURER
A former award-winning journalist with a passion for positive change, Michelle Blake has worked exclusively in the nonprofit sector for more than 20 years. In addition to being on the founding boards of two successful nonprofits, she's worked in policy advocacy, communications, and fundraising and development for multiple organizations, including Fences For Fido, Phoenix Zones Initiative, and Mountain Lion Foundation. She's written $2 million in successful grants and helped pass bills at the state and federal level to protect wildlife and domestic animals. She and her husband, who are lovingly owned by their rescue dogs and cats, live in Oregon where they both work in animal-related nonprofits.
CAITLIN WARDELL
Growing up in northeastern Appalachia and living nearly a decade in the beautiful state of Montana has instilled in me a lifelong love for the beauty our natural world has to offer. With love comes duty - a duty to nurture, shepherd, and foster wellbeing. As a mother of two young children, it is my duty to fight for the preservation of the life-giving land that we share with all animals - human and non-human. The protection of our precious public lands is essential for the future of all life. In my undergraduate studies, I interned for three semesters with MontPIRG, working on campaigns that resulted in the passing of a number of essential bills that ensured the preservation of some of Montana's waters, wildlife, and public lands. I also worked alongside a professor for an independent study, aiding in research on her work with the National Bison Range and in pursuing the nature of value-laden science. The health of our planet is essential to me, and to all of us - and I devote myself wherever possible to maintaining it.
NORMAN A. BISHOP
earned a BS in Botany at the University of Denver (1954), served 4 years as a naval aviator, then took Forest Recreation and Wildlife Management courses (1958-61) at Colorado State University.
He was a national park ranger for 36 years, at Rocky Mountain NP 1960-62, Death Valley 1962-64, Yosemite 1964-66, Mount Rainier 1966-72, Southeast Regional Office 1972-1980, and Yellowstone from 1980 to 1997. He was a reviewer and compiler of 1990 and 1992 "Wolves for Yellowstone?" and the 1994 EIS, The Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho, and was the principal interpreter of wolves and their restoration at Yellowstone National Park from 1985 until 1997, giving more than 400 talks, and responding by mail to thousands of requests for wolf information. He led about fifty field courses on wolves for the Yellowstone Association Institute from 1999 to 2005.
He retired to Bozeman, Montana, in 1997. and still lives there.
For his educational work on wolves, he received an NPS special Achievement Award in 1991, and a USDI honor award for meritorious service in 1997. He also received the National Parks and Conservation Association's 1988 Stephen T. Mather Award, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition's 1991 Stewardship Award, the Wolf Education and Research Center's 1997 Alpha Award, and the International Wolf Center’s 2015 “Who Speaks for Wolf?” Award.
For several years, he volunteered as the greater Yellowstone region field representative for the International Wolf Center (Ely, MN). He has written a number of articles and book reviews for International Wolf magazine. He served on the board of the Wolf Recovery Foundation (Pocatello, ID). He is on the advisory board of Living with Wolves (Ketchum, ID). He served several terms on the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks' Region 3 Citizens' Advisory Committee.
Since 2015, Norm has been a member of the Colorado Wolf Science Team, providing background on wolf recovery in Yellowstone for the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, a group that placed Proposition 114 on the 2020 ballot to restore wolves to Colorado, and for the Colorado Wolf Coalition. He is also on the board of the Southwest Colorado Wolf Cooperative.