Grizzly Riders International

Grizzly Riders International Grants and Projects

Recent grants and scholarships include:

• Dr. Lisa Eby and Magnus McCaffery                      Department of Wildlife Biology                              "Impacts of Beaver on Invasive Ecology of Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)"

• Montana Museum of Art and Culture and the National Museum Tour of Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings

• Montana Museum of Art and Culture                  Art Restoration Grant

• Dr. Harry Fritz                                                      Lewis & Clark Mapping Project   

• Dr. Vicki Watson                                                 Environmental Studies Program                            Clark Fork River Basin Symposium Watershed Clinic                                                                                      
  
• Setephanie Gripne and Brendan Moynahan           University of Montana Wildlife Biology                  Graduate Student Scholarships 

Rembrandt Exhibition

Grizzly Rider's International provided a grant to Montana Museum of Art and Culture at The University of Montana in 2006 to bring the National Museum Tour of Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings from the John Villarino Collection, to the UM campus in March and April of 2008.

The exhibition features 35 rare etchings by Harmensz van Rijn Rembrandt (1606-1669) executed between 1629 and 1654. Widely recognized as the greatest practitioner of the etching technique in the history of art, Rembrandt created 300 prints that constitute a body of work unparalleled in richness and beauty. 2006, is the anniversary of Rembrandt's 400th birthday. 

The Museum is providing a private showing of this exhibition and cocktail reception to Grizzly Riders and their guests.  

Montana Museum of Art and Culture Art Restoration Grant

Grizzly Riders International awarded a $20,000 grant to the Montana Museum of Art and Culture at The University of Montana to preserve, to restore and repair many of the more than 9,000 works in its Permanent Collection.  This grant is one of two grants received by the Montana Museum to be used to clean and restore more than 140
of the museum’s most important and highly valued artworks and to preserve works in the Permanent Collection such as a Spanish altar panel by the Master of St. Gregory, circa 1490. The grants also will support costs associated with archival materials, display systems
and shipping, as well as ongoing efforts to fully catalogue the sizeable collection.

"We are thrilled at this highly significant support by the Chutney Foundation and Grizzly Riders International. Their generous gifts enable us to reach a new level of preserving historical and contemporary treasures within the Permanent Collection, making available many works never before seen by the public." Barbara Koostra, Director MMAC

Example of Art Work Conservation Funded by the Grizzly Riders International

          Before                        After

Clark Fork River Basin Symposium

Through a grant from the Grizzly Riders Endowment Fund, The Grizzly Riders helped sponsor the 2005 Clark Fork Symposium held March 31-April 2 in Missoula at the University of Montana University Center.

Started in 1985, the symposium is an ongoing conference on the science and policy aimed at the conservation, preservation and restoration of the Clark Fork River Basin.

A symposium is held every 5 years to allow scientists and citizens to come together to discuss how science can inform the conservation of the basin.

The Clark Fork basin is home to 1/3 of Montana’s population Montana’s wilderness areas and  national parks.

In 2007, the Grizzly Riders International awarded a grant
to Dr. Lisa Eby, an Assistant Professor of Aquatic Vertebrate Ecology at The University of Montana and Magnus McCaffery, a Ph.D. Student in UMs Wildlife Biology Program for a research project on the linkages associated with beaver and invasive species impacts and cross-system nutrient subsidies.

The project investigates (i) how beaver ponds influence both brook trout distributions within watersheds, (ii) species interactions between westslope cutthroat and brook trout, and (iii) how beaver disturbance changes nutrient subsidies across the aquatic-terrestrial boundary

Dr. Lisa Eby received her B.S. in Zoology and M.S. in Limnology and Oceanography from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Ph.D. in Aquatic Ecology from Duke University. After working briefly as a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University, she was hired by the College of Forestry and Conservation here in Montana. 

Magnus McCaffery graduated with a BSc (honours) in Marine Biology from the University of Stirling in Scotland, followed by an MSc in Wildlife Biology and Conservation from Napier University, Edinburgh.
 

University of Montana Wildlife Biology  Graduate Student Scholarships

In keeping with the Grizzly Riders’ interest in the West, wilderness and wildlife, members designated their support to wildlife biology by  granting scholarships to University of Montana graduate students Stephanie Gripne and Brendan Moynahan.  

Gripne helped write a proposal for the Bitterroot Watershed Partnership, a community-based collaboration, for the Large-Scale Watershed Restoration Project, which she will use as a case study for her dissertation on community-based natural resource management efforts.

Moynahan’s research deals with effects of habitat quality on the sage grouse population in eastern Montana.

Both are students of Jack Ward Thomas, UM’s Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Biology and former chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

 http://www.umt.edu/comm/f01/foundation.html

Lewis & Clark Mapping Project

                           Professor Harry Fritz                               Department of History, The University of Montana

10,000 Montana students have a greater understanding of the Lewis & Clark “Corps of Discovery” journey thanks to a $7,000 Grizzly Riders, International grant to University of Montana professor Dr. Harry Fritz.

Before this project, no single map illustrated the entire journey of the Corps of Discovery across North America from the true starting point in Philadelphia, down to St. Louis and across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. 
Dr. Fritz said that even though Lewis and Clark left detailed journals of their expedition, there are no decent maps to show this journey.  With the 2000 Grizzly Rider grant, Fritz and his colleagues created a poster-sized, detailed map of the expedition. 

Dr. Fritz, with the help of Brian Thornton of the UC Bookstore and David Sloty, a UM Graduate student, mailed the completed 32” X 48” map to 912 Montana schools in the Fall of 2004.

The public may purchase maps at the UC Bookstore for $12.95.   All proceeds from the map will go to the Grizzly Riders, International.

You may see Dr. Fritz’ writings on the Expedition at the Web site www.lewis-clark.org

                              Dr. Vicki Watson                                                    The University of Montana                                               Watershed Health Clinic