Please join us as we celebrate both Aldo Leopold, the visionary conservationist and writer who got his start in New Mexico, and the Mexican Wolf (Lobo) with a screening of the new film, Lords of Nature, at the Rio Grande Theatre in Las Cruces on August 28, Friday, at 7 PM.
Lords of Nature, created by Green Fire Productions and narrated by Peter Coyote, journeys to the heart of predator country: the Yellowstone plateau, the canyons of Zion, the farm country of northern Minnesota and the rugged open range of central Idaho- all places now resettled by the great predators society once banished. Here scientists discover these top carnivores are revitalizing forces of nature, a “keystone” species whose presence in sufficient numbers can dramatically reverse the slow decay of America’s wild places, especially in the West.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Aldo Leopold’s arrival in the Southwest. It was in the national forests of New Mexico and Arizona where the young Leopold experienced an epiphany in his anti-predator views and came to realize the ecological importance of wolves and other predators, as famously described in his Thinking Like A Mountain essay (“fierce green fire”) published in Sand County Almanac.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion looking at the Mexican wolf issue from a broad range of perspectives. The discussion will be moderated by Kevin Bixby, Executive Director of SWEC. Panel participants will include Silver City-based author, Sharman Apt Russell (whose books include Kill the Cowboy and Standing in the Light); Dr. Gary Roemer, wildlife biologist in the Department of Wildlife and Conservation Ecology at New Mexico State University; Dave Parsons, Carnivore Conservation Biologist with the Albuquerque-based Rewilding Institute and former head of the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with nearly two decades of involvement in the restoration of Mexican wolves in the Southwest; and Oscar Simpson, former New Mexico Game Commissioner and sportsman.
Doors open at 6:30 PM. Admission is free. This very special event is cosponsored by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation (which Aldo Leopold founded), New Mexico State University’s Department of Wildlife and Conservation Ecology, and the Southwest Consolidated Sportsmen.
For more information, call (575) 522-5552.
