You learn a lot about Gerry Jennings' style as a volunteer wilderness leader when you hear her say, "we have to educate before we can activate."
Gerry, who is completing her term as president of the Montana Wilderness Association, moved to Great Falls, Montana, with her husband and four young children in the mid-1970s. "We wanted a place where we could go to mountains, rivers, and just get outdoors," she remembers. "Living in front of a computer is a matter of necessity, not choice!"
Founded in 1958, MWA is America's oldest statewide wilderness organization. When the Great Falls regional chapter was organized, the Jennings family was part of it. "We saw that wildlands we counted on for year-round family recreation could be ruined. These lands are not protected, but people don't know that! Many of my friends say, ‘what's the big deal, we have all this land!,' but when I tell them most of it is not protected and could be opened for logging, mining, drilling, and ravaging off-road vehicles at the stroke of a pen, they get involved, too."
Asked about her wilderness activism, Gerry points to a favorite endangered place, the Rocky Mountain Front. "The Front is shockingly beautiful; you're on the plains east of Great Falls, and all of a sudden this massive mountain range just rears up. It knocks the socks off anybody. This is accessible wilderness, no matter what level you are-but it is not yet protected." When oil and gas leasing threatened, she thought to herself: "I have to get involved; I have to help this organization and state do something about this. We have to block the threat of visual trash that would disturb not just the beauty, but wildlife, the whole wilderness fabric." Defending the wild Rocky Mountain Front is top priority for a broad coalition of ranchers, hunters, and MWA and other conservation groups.
Gerry taught nursing before moving to Montana and later earned an MBA. "Nursing involves lots of communication, taking charge, coordination," she notes," and then the MBA got me into personnel, budgets, and finance." She joined MWA's statewide governing council in 1997 and became president six years later, explaining "I've always believed if you are interested in an organization, then get in on the planning-that's where the action is."
MWA is making great strides all across Montana, growing fast (6,000 members) and fielding an ideal partnership between volunteer activism and staff (of whom seven are grassroots organizers based around the state). One example: MWA has negotiated with local snowmobile clubs and their statewide organization, successfully working out innovative on-the-ground, legally-enforceable agreements to protect key national forest areas, while others are open to winter motorized use.
Recently, MWA, along with Montana Trout Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation, reached preliminary understandings with a number of timber companies concerning the future of wildlands on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge national forests. Says Gerry: "I am so proud of our organization for paving the way-no, make that, ‘unpaving the way'-with foresight to realize that if we are going to gain wilderness, we need a broad coalition including the more constructive of our traditional opponents. This is good for everyone, good for wilderness, good for the economy of Montana, and good for our communities. Part of preserving wilderness is conserving the broader landscape, including working forests and the life of small rural communities."
She adds that "if we can help struggling rural communities preserve jobs, they come to see that it is in their best interests to also preserve the nearby wilderness that they, too, love." Then she makes a typically self-deprecating comment: "The real heroes are the 7,000 MWA members who make phone calls, write letters, and turn out for hearings."
For more information please visit the website of Montana Wilderness Association, http://www.wildmontana.org/.
