Sawtooth Forum & Lecture Series

SAWTOOTH FORUM & LECTURE SERIES

SIHA is excited to announce the first program in our summer series with renowned wildlife biologist, Maurice Hornocker. Stay tuned the the rest of the series line-up!

5pm Friday, June 20 - at the Community Library in Ketchum,

Cougars on the Cliff

presented by Maurice Hornocker, PhD

Maurice Hornocker is recognized worldwide as the first scientist to unravel the secrets of America's most enigmatic predator — the mountain lion. A story of redemption, this memoir shares his never-before-told adventures, challenges and controversies surrounding Hornocker’s groundbreaking study of cougars in the remote reaches of North America.

Maurice Hornocker, PhD, is a wildlife biologist best known for advancing our knowledge of the elusive mountain lion’s behavior and ecology. During his fifty-five years of research in Idaho, New Mexico and Yellowstone National Park, he published numerous scientific papers about cougars and co-authored or edited books that include: “Yellowstone Cougars,” “Cougar: Ecology & Conservation,” and “Desert Puma,” each of which won the Wildlife Society’s Book of the Year award. His writing, research, and mountain lion photographs have appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian, and National Wildlife magazines. He and his colleagues have also conducted pioneering research on other big cat species throughout the world including Siberian tigers, jaguars, leopards, ocelots, lynx and bobcats. He has received recognition for his work and writing by The Wildlife Society’s annual Publication Award and, in 2024, the Aldo Leopold Memorial Award, the highest honor bestowed by The Wilderness Society and is the Wildlife profession’s Hall Of Fame for career achievement. He and his wife, Leslie, lived in the home they built on Broadford Slough near Bellevue, ID for 35 years, only recently moving to Eagle with their horses, bird dogs, and a Manx cat named Redd.

5:30pm Friday, July 11 - at the Stanley Museum

Being Indigenous in the Modern Day

presented by Bobette & Russell Haskett

Bobette and Russell will share their experiences teaching and sharing cultural lifeways and they will share a brief history of the Shoshone and Bannock Tribes in the Sawtooth area. Stay tuned for details about additional Shoshone-Bannock programming on Saturday, July 12.

Bobette and Russell Haskett are both members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and reside on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in SE Idaho. They enjoy traveling and doing presentations about their tribal and cultural ways. They both believe that traditional knowledge is important to remember and are active in practicing their cultural ways.

Bobette has a love for history, especially Indigenous history, culture, and traditional practices. She participates in many local Native youth and tribal events, educational institutions teaching and sharing her knowledge of weaving techniques, traditional clothing, and beadwork instruction. Her hobbies include beading for family and friends, weaving and making baskets, harvesting plant materials for weaving, and gathering traditional wild foods, like berries, roots, and bulbs. She is currently finishing up her master’s degree at Idaho State University.

Russell recently retired from US Fish & Wildlife after working with the agency for 20 years. Before that, he worked for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Fish & Game Department as a game warden for 15 years. Currently he is a consultant for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Russ enjoys traveling with Bobette speaking and presenting, making traditional Indigenous tools, cooking in his smoker and grill and fishing. They are happy to be able to be with all of you in the homelands of the Shoshone and Bannock Tribes.

5:30pm Friday, July 25 - at the Stanley Museum

A Very Rough Country: Reexamining the 1879 "Sheepeater Campaign"

presented by Gayle Dixon

Locating a 700-page transcript from an 1880 US Army court-martial case, along with additional research, revealed details about the US Army's expedition into Idaho's Middle Fork Salmon region. The expedition was ordered after the 1879 murder of Chinese miners on Loon Creek and is often referred to as the "Sheepeater War."

During her career as an archaeologist for the Payette National Forest, Gayle Dixon monitored historic sites in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. A number of these sites were tied to the 1879 US Army Expedition often referred to as the “Sheepeater Campaign.” After retiring from the Forest Service, Gayle began doing research to answer questions she had about the 1879 events. Her work uncovered a number of records that shed light on what took place during the Army’s expedition that led to the removal of Indigenous people living in and around Big Creek.

5:30pm Friday, August 8 - at the Stanley Museum

The Other 10 Wolves

presented by Carter Niemeyer

5:30pm Friday, August 22 - at the Stanley Museum

Salmon

presented by Stephen Pfeiffer, Idaho Rivers United

5:30pm Friday, September 12 - at the Center for the Sawtooths

After Fire in Lodgepole Pine Forests – What’s next?

presented by Jane Kapler Smith

Fires in lodgepole pine forests are often fast-moving and severe, killing most of the trees across large areas. Then what happens? Is the soil destroyed? Will anything thrive in the burn? Is that deep green forest gone forever? Jane will share the wonder and worries that draw her to visit burned lodgepole pine forests year after year as they respond to fire.

Jane Kapler Smith has an M.S. in Forest Ecology from Colorado State University and a B.A. in English and Theatre from Alverno College, Milwaukee. She worked in fire control and management in Glacier National Park during the 1970s. In the 1980s, she completed research on fire effects in quaking aspen stands. From 1992-2015, she worked at the Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, MT, developing literature reviews on fire effects (https://www.feis-crs.org/feis/) and an educational curriculum on wildland fire (https://www.frames.gov/fireworks/home). She has been VERY happily retired for 10 years.