The vision of training a new generation of storytellers dedicated to reporting on the environment belongs to Ted Smith. A leader of philanthropy, he was a pioneer of conceiving natural resource management and conservation efforts at the level of entire ecosystems. He recognized that the incredible complexity of both environmental problems and conservation solutions was a barrier to public action. He saw the need for journalists trained to engage communities by explaining the science behind the policies that affect our backyards.
Ted Smith discussed the idea of collaborating with the University of Montana School of Journalism in training such storytellers with a friend, but before the plan could come to fruition, he died in a hiking accident in the Mission Mountains. Following his death, a group of his family and friends approached the Master’s program in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism to discuss ways to realize his vision. In the spring of 2014, the program convened journalists, scientists and conservationists for a weekend retreat near the Rocky Mountain Front on how to overcome barriers to storytelling on large-landscape conservation. Now, with the first two teams venturing into the Crown to report, the vision will become a reality.