Jack Hanna introduces bear project
Jack Hanna
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
FLATHEAD VALLEY — Jack Hanna, raised on a farm in Tennessee, started working for a veterinarian at age 11. He has a love for Glacier National Park, wildlife, and the people in the area.
Hanna and his wife, Suzi, have lived in Montana for 20 years. In 1996, the property they bought was full of elk.
“I tried my best to get the acreage here, about 40 acres, to have everybody enjoy wildlife, and that’s what we’ve been blessed with,” Hanna said.
As Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, a TV host, a Montana Legacy Council Advisory board member, an author, a speaker and a wildlife correspondent, Hanna is also known for his appearances on Good Morning America, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Talk, and the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Hanna and his wife have also contributed at various local events, including two fundraisers for the Mission Valley Animal Shelter.
Hanna hosts causes for conservation at his ranch in northwestern Montana, and recently for Montana’s Outdoor Legacy Foundation, whose mission is to enhance and preserve Montana’s natural recreational and cultural resources. The foundation has a preservation program designed to protect grizzly bears in the state of Montana.
“Our foundation is unique, because we have a board designated project,” George Bettas, executive director, said. “One hundred percent of everything we get goes to support our bear project.”
Educating people is a primary goal of Hanna’s. He said it takes years to teach people conservation, but that is the way things change.
“One thing I’ve always lived by is ‘touch the heart to teach the mind.’ Our Columbus Zoo was voted among the top zoos in the country, and our first goal is education, not conservation,” Hanna said. “If they’re not educated, folks, they can’t save anything. You can’t have conservation.”
Hanna has seen researchers and biologists work, and over the years has come to realize that it’s the people operating the cause that makes it happen.
“People give to people, not causes,” Hanna said.
Hanna spoke highly of Montana, and compared it to other places he has traveled around the world.
“There’s not one state or place I know in this country and even throughout the world that operates as good with wildlife and parks (as) here in the state of Montana,” Hanna said. “I think that the state of Montana probably does better than any state in the United States in controlling the wildlife laws they have.”
Jeff Hagener, director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, agreed.
“If you consider how big Montana is ... this state has virtually all of the wildlife (species) as when European man first came here,” Hagener said. “Through the efforts of conservation agencies, we have rebuilt population levels. One of those is the grizzly bear.”
According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, the grizzly bear was considered a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1975 in the western U.S. Recently, the grizzly population was de-listed due to conservation measures.
The Outdoor Legacy Foundation is a conservation program, designed to keep the grizzly bear protected.
“Thank you to Montana and this country for getting them off that list,” Hanna said.
