Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators

Short Synopsis

The documentary film Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators presents the engaging story of scientists now discovering the great carnivores as revitalizing forces of nature, and a society now learning tolerance for the beasts they had once banished. Green Fire is partnering with conservation organizations to distribute the film to build public and policy-maker support for ecologically effective populations of wildlife.  

Description/Treatment

Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators consists of a 60-minute documentary, a short format version, and an outreach campaign aimed at building public and policy support for protecting top predators.

The project will bring to light and promote new scientific research that will help restore endangered species such as the gray wolf, Mexican wolf, red wolf, lynx and grizzly bear.  Because of the cascading effects these top predators have on the entire ecosystem—from the plants to fish to wildlife to streams—their recovery helps a multitude of threatened and endangered species rebound.

Project Description: 

Birds and butterflies, beaver and antelope, wildflowers and frogs — could their survival be linked to top predators like the wolf and the cougar? Narrated by Peter Coyote, Green Fire Productions goes behind the scenes with leading scientists to explore the role top predators play in restoring and maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity.

Wolves and cougars, once driven to the edge of existence, are finding their way back -- from the Yellowstone plateau to the canyons of Zion, from the farm country of northern Minnesota to the rugged open range of central Idaho. Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators presents the engaging story of a science now discovering the great carnivores as revitalizing forces of nature, and a society now learning tolerance for the beasts they had once banished.

The film follows the work of scientists Bill Ripple and Bob Beschta of Oregon State University, two leading pioneers in the quest to decipher the great predators’ role in the web of life.  Ripple and Beschta are repeatedly finding ecosystems maintained by their apex predators—and more ominously, degraded by their absence. Their bottom line reveals top predators as keystones in the stability and balance of nature. As Beschta says, “Whether it’s cougars in Zion, or wolves in Yellowstone National Park, the presence of that predator is crucial in maintaining that system through time.“

Their discoveries are both vital by nature and far-reaching in scope, echoing a mounting body of research from all corners of the globe that increasingly reveals the top predators as key drivers of the planet’s stability and diversity of life. But these discoveries have also raised the obvious question of whether and how to incorporate the big predators into societies facing conflicts and fears with their return.

In addition to tracking Ripple and Beschta, Green Fire ventures to the rural communities of Minnesota, interviewing ranchers, farmers, hunters, and wildlife managers who are living and prospering among more than three thousand wolves, one of the highest densities in the United States. We also profile two of the largest sheep ranches in Idaho, whose managers are raising eyebrows with their stunning success at running sheep in a land also running with wolves—all without killing the wolves. These success stories are serving notice that with proper technique, and a dose of tolerance, people and predators can indeed coexist.

Our other interviewees include former Secretary of Interior, Bruce Babbitt; Doug Smith, wolf project leader in Yellowstone National Park; Nina Leopold, daughter of conservation icon Aldo Leopold, and Curt Meine, Aldo Leopold’s biographer.

Results:

A paradigm shift in how scientists,natural resource professionals, policy makers, educators, and the public view the role of wolves and other large predators in maintaining and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity needs to happen. The science profiled in this film provides new support for protecting wolves, lynx, grizzly bears and other threatened predators. Climate change brings an even greater urgency to manage for ecologically effective populations of wildlife—to ensure greater resiliency in wildlife species and habitats.

2009 is the year to push ahead with this effort. Many different channels need to be invoked in order to create this shift and film has been proven to be a powerful channel to get people to think and act differently about difficult topics. The project will promote the most scientifically advanced approach to endangered species management in North America and directly impact wolves, lynx, grizzly bears to name a few. The film will provide resource managers and policy makers the information to make better decisions and will build support among audiences for predators—for strong populations where they currently live and for returning predators where theyare missing from the landscape.

Green Fire will build public and policy support for ecologically effective populations of threatenedand endangered wildlife, and we anticipate the following results:

·      Natural resource managers and agencies incorporate ecologically effective populations of predators in their planning and as analternative in NEPA processes

·      The Endangered Species Act improved to aim for ecologically effective populations of wildlife as opposed to the current minimally viable populations

·      Provide a softer landing for wolves where they don’t yet have an established presence

·      Educators utilize this science in their teaching

·      Conservation groups begin using this “new way of thinking” in their outreach and advocacy and thus build public and policy support for predator conservation