The Swan Valley exemplifies a wild and working landscape. Being over 90% public land, the Swan Valley boasts a harmonious relationship between humans, rare plants, and animal species. Located in the wettest watershed in Montana, the region is 16% surface water. The area is home to Tribal Nations and two Wilderness complexes. Swan Valley Connections works to ensure this multiplex space is managed in a way that services the regions many stakeholders and environmental needs. In the face of climate change, increased recreation, and human population growth, the Swan Valley remains a resilient demonstration of proper management. Swan Valley Connections (SVC) strives to connect the community to nature through research and monitoring, restoration, and education. SVC believes ecological knowledge and indigenous perspectives are crucial to protecting the waterways, ecosystems, and wildlife of the Swan Valley.

The proposed Bears Ears National Monument in SE Utah is a place rich in history and culture. It is a place to connect, a place to heal, and a place where Native American traditional knowledge can be explored and nurtured so that it continues to inform and illuminate modern life. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, a consortium of five sovereign Indian nations — the Hopi, Navajo, Uintah & Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni — has formally petitioned President Barack Obama to proclaim the Bears Ears National Monument in order to protect this extraordinary area for our Tribes, all Native people, and the nation.

The proposed 1.9 million acre monument is a landscape of deep, carved canyons, long mesas, inspiring arches, and arresting red rock formations. The monument’s namesake, the Bears Ears, are twin buttes in the heart of the landscape that rise high above the piñon-juniper forests and canyons that adorn the renowned and majestic Cedar Mesa. It lies in Southern Utah, north of the Navajo Nation and the San Juan River, east of the Colorado River, and west of the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation. Bears Ears is adjacent to Canyonlands National Park and is every bit the equal of Canyonlands and the other great parks and monuments of the Colorado Plateau.

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Cinematograpy by Jonathan Kloberdanz
Radio broadcast provided by Aspen Public Radio's Luke Runyon
Additional photography by Bruce Gordon, Jane Pargiter and Chris Council