At last! The SIHA Summer Forum and Lecture Series returns for its sixteenth summer on June 30th at 5PM. Join us every other Friday from June 30th through August 25th at the Stanley Museum, right off of Highway 75 near the confluence of Valley Creek and the Salmon River. Bring a lawn chair and come enjoy the Stanley summer evenings! Check out the lineup below.
June 30: Grizzly Bears and the Bitterroot and Central Idaho Wilderness
Presented by Steve Nadeau
Wildlife biologist, author, and grizzly bear specialist Steve Nadeau will share his work on grizzly bear recovery and the recently verified grizzly bear activity in central Idaho. Additionally, he will discuss and read from his latest book, Journey of the Bitterroot Grizzly Bear.
Steve grew up in northern Maine and graduated high school in 1975, the same year the grizzly was listed under the Endangered Species Act. He earned a B.S. in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine and a M.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana. He has studied grizzly bears in Glacier National Park, wolves in Central Idaho, and served as the large carnivore manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, where he was awarded “Employee of the Year” for his work with grizzly bears and wolves. Journey of the Bitterroot Grizzly Bear was nominated for book of the year at the national Wildlife Society book awards. He lives in Boise.
July 14: What Lies Beneath: How the Idaho Batholith Influenced the Yellowstone-Snake River Plain Supervolcanos
Presented by Katherine Potter, PhD
Between 12 and 10 million years ago, the central Snake River Plain was the site of anomalously hot and extremely voluminous supervolcanic eruptions. Tiny minerals recovered in drill cores tie the unique characteristics of these eruptions to the Idaho Batholith that helps make up the Sawtooth Mountains. This program will share how the Idaho Batholith influenced the eruptive characteristics of the Yellowstone-Snake River Plain supervolcanoes.
Katherine Potter was raised in southwest Colorado and studied volcanoes and volcanic geology at Fort Lewis College, Idaho State University, and Utah State University. She studies the links between crustal architecture, hotspot magmatism, and the eruptive characteristics of volcanoes in the Snake River Plain and Walvis Ridge and is an associate professor of professional practice at Utah State University.
July 28: Multiple Voices, Varied Spaces: Literature and History in the American West
Presented by Amanda J. Zink, PhD
Join us as Amanda provides an overview of the diverse people who live and have lived in Idaho, with a focus on Shoshone-Bannock women and their writing in a reservation-produced newspaper, The Sho-Ban Tevope, in the 1930s.
This program is supported in part by a grant from Inquiring Idaho through the Idaho Humanities Council, a state-based partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Amanda J. Zink received an MA in English at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a PhD in English at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her work focuses on American literature from the margins, written by Americans who, because of their race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity or Indigeneity, are not included in the American body politic and its narratives. She is the author of Fictions of Western American Domesticity: Indian, Mexican, and Anglo Women in Print Culture, 1850-1950 and is currently writing an anthology on various topics written by Native students at the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon. She is a professor of English at Idaho State University.
August 11: Seeking Beauty: Wandering of a Vagabond
Presented by Ed Cannady
Last summer Ed Cannady went on a four and a half month long journey north through western Canada and Alaska–sometimes he does leave the Sawtooths! He will present a photographic retelling of his trip, complete with forty-three grizzlies.
A longtime SNRA local, Ed is a photographer and wilderness-lover who has been exploring and working in Sawtooth country for fifty years. Now retired from the NRA, Ed is trying to be good at retirement.
August 25: Advocates for our Future: A Youth Perspective on Salmon and Steelhead Recovery
Presented by Lilly Wilson
In conjunction with the 2023 Sawtooth Salmon Festival (August 26th), we are excited to host Lilly Wilson, who will share her experience joining and working with the Youth Salmon Protectors, advocating for Idaho’s salmon and steelhead. Lilly will highlight the work she is doing to amplify youth voices in the movement to remove the four lower Snake River dams.
Lilly is a second-year environmental science student at Boise State University, where her passion for nature and dedication to conservation have room to flourish. Lilly has been involved in the Youth Salmon Protectors (YSP) and also works for the Idaho Conservation League as their Youth Engagement Intern for University Outreach, working to connect colleges and universities with the work of YSP and ICL. She spends her free time painting wildflowers, embarking on hikes in the Sawtooths, and climbing trees near the Boise River.
September 22: The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind
Presented by Amy Gulick
Join SIHA for a special FLS program at the Ketchum Community Library on September 22.
What is it like to have a relationship with salmon? Intrigued that there is still a place in the world where the lives of people and salmon are linked, photographer and author Amy Gulick traveled throughout Alaska to explore the web of human relationships with these extraordinary fish. Commercial fishermen took her on as crew; Alaska Native families taught her the art of preserving both fish and culture; and sport fishing guides showed her how to cast her line as well as her mind. Amy will share stories and images from her book, The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind, and speak to salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest based on the relationships and conservation efforts she witnessed in Alaska.
Amy Gulick is a photographer and writer, whose work has appeared in Smithsonian, Audubon, National Wildlife, and Outdoor Photographer. She is the recipient of the Voice of the Wild Award from the Alaska Wilderness League, the Conservation Voices Award from Washington Wild, and the Daniel Housberg Wilderness Image Award from the Alaska Conservation Foundation. Her award-winning books include The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind and Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska’s Tongass Rain Forest.