About Us:

GWA's Introduction Video: 


Welcome to the Gallatin Wildlife Association!

 

September 19, 2020

 

Hope you enjoy GWA's first ever video. Hard to believe, but we're already 25 years into the 21st Century! We are a wildlife advocacy organization that has been around since 1976 - believe it or not. We've been on the forefront of many pushes to protect wildlife habitat, even those efforts promoting the full protection of the Gallatin Range as wilderness - realizing of course that wilderness means the protection of wildlife habitat.

 

We are a nonprofit, 501 (c) (3) that tries to be a voice for wildlife. If wildlife could speak, what would they say? Those may sound like simplistic terms, thoughts and ideas, perhaps to idealistic, but we are a small and active group who uses science and the law in our battle to fight for the right of wildlife to exist. Those are not simplistic ideas. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a purpose. That is the reason we exist, not for us but to be a voice for the voiceless.

 

Please consider our organization if you have those concerns as well. The effort is great, the work is hard, but the cause is just.

 

Clinton Nagel, President

Gallatin Wildlife Association

 

 

Our Mission Statement:

 

"Gallatin Wildlife Association (GWA) is a local, all volunteer wildlife conservation organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of wildlife, fisheries, habitat and migration corridors in Southwest Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, using science-based decision making. We are a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization founded in 1976. GWA recognizes the intense pressures on our wildlife from habitat loss and climate change, and we advocate for science-based management of public lands for diverse public values, including but not limited to hunting and angling."

 

Our efforts benefit the community by focusing on wildlife issues through emails, newsletters and outreach events. GWA regularly meets with other wildlife organizations and NGOs on wildlife issues and with our Congressional Delegation to inform and comment.

 

Please consider working with Gallatin Wildlife Association by joining the organization or providing your email so wildlife issues and volunteer opportunities can be easily communicated.

 

Who We Are:

Officers:

President/Treasurer: Clint Nagel

Clint graduated from Southern Oregon College in Ashland, Oregon in 1974 with B.S. Degree in Biology. He began his federal service with the U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Division in Buffalo, Wyoming in 1978. Early on, his service consisted of work overseeing a variety of surface-water monitoring programs. But as opportunities changed, a majority of that time also included water quality and sediment programs associated with the National Stream Quality Accounting Network as well with several statewide Ambient water-quality monitoring networks. Several years were also spent in the ground water discipline. The last several years of his career included more management aspects as he became supervisor over the Hydrologic Surveillance section in the Kansas City, Missouri Subdistrict Office and the Sacramento, California Field Office.


He officially retired in 2009 while in Sacramento, CA. He volunteered part of his time back to the agency for a 3-month period before he once again worked on a part-time basis for an additional year and a half. After that he drew his career to a close and his wife and he relocated to Bozeman, MT. Now they spend their time volunteering and being on boards for various groups and organizations within the Bozeman community. Currently he sits on the board of the Gallatin Wildlife Association, Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance, plus past President of the local chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. He is active within many environmental groups in the Bozeman area and writes letters on behalf of many causes.

Vice President: Vacant - 

 

Secretary: Nancy Shultz  - Nancy lives in Bozeman, and enjoys many outdoor activities including hiking, cycling, cross country skiing and watching wildlife.

 

Other Board Members:

Nancy Ostlie - A resident of the Gallatin Valley since 2000, Nancy has volunteered her efforts to protect and preserve the wildlife and wilderness in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as a way to give back in appreciation for the elements that make this region a world-class refuge for biodiversity. 


Training in journalism and English allowed Nancy to work as a technical writer for IBM Corporation in 1980, leading to work as a manufacturing manager in Tucson, Arizona until 1990. Upon moving to a new location, she was editor of IBM Midrange Computing magazine, and subsequently an at-home mother, caregiver, and active community and school volunteer.


2011-2023 Volunteer Leader, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Bozeman Broadband. Coordinated volunteer action and advocacy for Gallatin wilderness, attending public meetings and organizing written comments by members on the 2022 Custer Gallatin National Forest Land Management Plan.


Also member of Montanans for Gallatin Wilderness, Gallatin Wildlife Association and Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance, all grassroots groups advocating for wilderness protection.


 

Glenn Monahan.


Noreen Breeding  - 2016 – 2025 Board member of Save Our Gallatin Front which purchased a timber conservation license for the Limestone Creek area on the west side of Mt. Ellis from Montana DNRC to prevent logging and the building of logging roads in this wildlife rich area.


2018 – 2022 Attended public meetings and submitted written comments on the 2022 Custer Gallatin National Forest Land Management Plan which finalized a key linkage area for wildlife migration at the north end of the Gallatin Range adjacent to Mt. Ellis.


2013 – 2016. Participated in Gallatin Community Collaborative, mostly to make sure that decisions damaging to the WSA were not made. After participating in GNF sponsored collaboration on shared trail usage under the new Travel Plan, I knew the individuals representing mechanized trail users and was sure that they would never compromise as they failed to do on the shared use decision.


2003 – 2008. Participated in development of Gallatin National Forest Travel Management Plan by writing comments on the draft proposals for Montana Wilderness Association. Also helped make the decision to sue GNF for allowing snowmobile travel over Windy Pass in the heart of the HPBH WSA. The decision against GNF in the suit in 2011 resulted in GNF forming the Gallatin Community Collaborative to decide where mechanized travel in the WSA would be allowed.


1992 – 2022 Participated in 15 Yellowstone Institute field courses in topics such as large and small carnivores, big horn sheep, wolves, mammal tracking, geology and geomorphology of Yellowstone National Park.


1995 – 2002 GIS Analyst, Earth Data Analysis Center, University of New Mexico


1993 – 1995 Master’s Degree in Geography from University of New Mexico. Thesis on watershed management of the Rio Cebolla.



Science Advisory Board:

 

Dr. Bob Crabtree: Bob is an animal ecologist who has dedicated the last 32 years to understanding the living systems of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. He is currently the Chief Scientist and Cofounder of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC). A field ecologist at heart, he was fascinated with bird communities and the process of predation since a teenager. He first worked on a great-horned owl study as a high school student and published his first paper as an undergraduate at the University of Idaho on competition between two species of flycatchers. After two positions working for state and game agencies, he studied skunk, weasel, and fox preadation on waterfowl nests at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Utah for his MS degree. He then worked for Battelle PNL and lead the first study of an unexploited coyote population at the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve in Washington for his PhD. 

 

After a post-doc at UC-Berkeley on animal movement modeling, he was awarded two grants (1) building a structured population model for Yellowstone wolves as part of the EIS process, and (2)initiated the 20-year Canid Ecology Project (CEP). In 1993, he founded the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center (YERC) based on: (1) long-term research and monitoring, (2) large-scale landscape ecology, and (3) collaborative partnerships. Learning from large-scale natural and policy experiments, he is developing an adaptive Ecological Forecasting program to drive adaptive decision-making to sustain healthy systems and viable fish and wildlife populations. He also started a career track as landscape ecologist to use remote sensing fusion and data assimilation modeling to understand the cause and consequence of populations responding to habitat and climate change over large landscapes. He continues to strive to translate the results of ecological research into informed decision-making and on-the-ground conservation action. Bob continues to mentor field interns, employees, graduate students and posts-docs at YERC's geospatial dynamics lab in Bozeman, Montana.

 

Dr. Lance Craighead:

 

George Wuerthner: George Wuerthner is an ecologist. As an undergrad, he studied wildlife/zoology at the U of Montana, then attended grad school in range science at Montana State University, followed by grad school in science writing at the U of California, Santa Cruz, and, lastly, grad school in geography at the U of Oregon. He has published 38 books on wildlands, national parks, and environmental issues. He has previously worked as a hunting guide in Montana, a ranger for the NPS in Alaska, a botanist for the BLM in Idaho, and a river ranger in Alaska. He also operated a guiding operation in Yellowstone National Park for decades. As an adjunct faculty member, he taught courses in field ecology and environmental studies for a number of universities and colleges, including the University of California, Santa Barbara, San Francisco State University, Prescott College, and the U of Vermont..Most recently, he was the ecological projects director at Tompkins Conservation, working on national parks and other conservation initiatives. In the early 2000s, he and his colleagues produced a study on the biological hotspots of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.


He is currently the ED of Public Lands Media. He has been or is on the board or as a science advisor of numerous organizations, including the Wildlands Project, RESTORE the North Woods, Rewilding Institute, The Conservation Planning Institute, Project Coyote, Predator Defense, The New National Parks Campaign, Montana Wild Bison Restoration Council, Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance, Western Watersheds Project, The Wildlife Protection Institute, The Patagonia Land Trust, Sage Steppe Wild, Park County Environmental Council, and Montana Wilderness Association (now Wild Montana). 


Rick Wallen:


Dr. John Carter:

John grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina learning about forests, streams and wildlife from his grandfather who took him camping, hiking and hunting at an early age.   The love of those mountains has stayed with him throughout his life.  He obtained a mechanical engineering degree at Ga Tech in Atlanta and then worked designing and building industrial and commercial facilities across the eastern US.  During those years, he would head into the mountains, the Smokies, the Appalachian Trail and Forests whenever he could.  In the early 70s, he gave up his engineering and construction job to move to Utah.  Whenever he could he went into the western wilderness and deserts to explore, backpack, climb and fish.


He obtained his PhD in Ecology at Utah State University, specializing in population dynamics.  Upon graduation, he began a consulting business with one of his professors.  The business relied on ecosystem concepts and interrelationships between the environment and wildlife to carry out baseline studies and management programs for oil shale development, mining, and hydroelectric industries.   A spinoff business addressed Superfund and Natural Resource Damages which systematically characterized the effects of contamination and habitat alteration.


In the 80s, John left these businesses and worked on his own to have more time for hiking, climbing, exploring the mountains and deserts of the West.  As he did this, his knowledge of ecology drove him to find places that had escaped livestock grazing, as he had recognized the damage they have done to our rivers and streams, watersheds and habitats.  These observations served him well as he learned what we have lost since settlement and grieves over those losses.


In the 90s, disgusted with the conditions of the streams and habitat in the National Forest and agency denial, he started a non-profit to confront the Forest Service.   From there, he went on to join the Board of Western Watersheds Project addressing habitat issues across Utah and SE Idaho.  In 2012, he established the Yellowstone to Uintas Connection, to promote and protect a regional wildlife corridor that was formerly used by Canada lynx and Grizzly bears.    In parallel, John began acquiring land in SE Idaho in ’93 which grew to 1,000 acres and is named after his first akita, Kiesha.  Today, he is President and Ecologist for both Y2U and KP.


The picture above showcases John surveying habitat in the Uinta Wilderness with Kiesha and partners.

Communication Director:

Ben Churchwell: 

Ben Churchwell is a science communicator working out of Bozeman Montana. He graduated from Montana State University (MSU) in spring of 2025 with B.S. in environmental biology and a minor in english writing. Currently, Ben is pursuing a M.F.A from MSU in science and natural history filmmaking. He has previously produced public-facing materials for the National Park Service, concerning research initiatives and partnerships.He finds joy in connecting the public with scientific subjects through storytelling and outreach.

Earth Day 2025 Gallatin Valley Fairgrounds, Bozeman, Montana

Visit Gallatin Wildlife Association's first ever YouTube Channel -


https://www.youtube.com/@TheGallatinWildlifeAssociation

While there visit Mike Phillips December 19th, 2023 Lecture at the Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman Montana.

You can also see that here. This is a 42 minute video, but well worth it - Enjoy!



Visit Gallatin Wildlife Association's first ever Instagram Account -


GWA's New Instagram Account


We would like to invite all of our membership and wildlife supporters to tune in and listen to Jay Shell -


GWA's Podcast on KGVM - 95.9

From KGVM's website -


Wilderness and Wildlife, presented by the Gallatin Wildlife Association, features discussions of issues involving the wildlife of southwestern Montana, and the wilderness habitat that makes this area appealing to adventurous people from around the country. You’ll hear Interviews with wildlife experts and naturalists reporting on species they have studied, which are threatened by the pressures of a rapidly growing populace in the Greater Yellowstone region.


Wildlife and Wilderness Series- 

take a listen!


http://kgvm.org/program/wilderness-and-wildlife/



The Gallatin Wildlife Association also produces the short Wildlife Capsules. 



Thanks to John Shellenberger for taking the initiative

to establish this mechanism of outreach for GWA.