Crown of the Continent – Page 2

April 6, 2016 montanajournalism Awards, Graduate, J-School, Student

Two grad students win fellowships to report from Crown of the Continent

The Crown Reporting Project sponsors students at the University of Montana to produce stories about the environment in the Crown of the Continent region.

For the second year in a row, two journalism master’s students from the University of Montana will head into the Crown of the Continent, to report in-depth, unique stories about the landscape and the people who live there. The 2016 Crown Reporting Project Fellows are Nicky Ouellet and Katy Spence. Spence will report on the role of beavers in helping to deal with climate change, while Ouellet will look at how decisions made by forest supervisors affect individuals and communities that depend on the Crown’s forest products for their livelihoods.

Both fellows are graduate students in the University of Montana’s Master’s program in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism. A native of the Kansas, Spence hopes her outsider’s perspective will allow her to approach her story with few preconceptions or biases. “So many people are excited about the possibility of using beavers as a natural water mitigation strategy, but just as many think of them as pests,” she said.

Ouellet’s journey took her from New Hampshire, where she grew up, to Ohio, Russia and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation before she enrolled at UM. She’s currently completing her master’s work on Native American natural resource management. “The Crown Fellowship means I get to spend time with a mycologist chasing down people in the forest and speak with them about what this really unique place means,” she said. “It’s almost an excuse to go camping, learn about the ecology and economy of mushrooms and meet really interesting people – all to produce some great radio that will hopefully connect listeners with a place I love so much.”

Through the Crown Reporting Project, both students will be matched with seasoned journalism professionals who will guide them as they report, produce and pitch their work. In telling her story, Spence plans to combine photography and writing skills she’s cultivated since her time at Truman State University, where she earned a B.A. in English with minors in Biology and Photography. “This story is important for the landscape and for the people within it, and working with a professional journalist to develop it may be the most important journalistic opportunity I’ve ever had,” she said. “I can’t wait to start reporting!”

Ouellet is gearing up to telling her story as a radio piece. She recently won Best in Festival in the student news competition for the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts, for “An ‘80s Cover Band With Global Dreams.” “The Crown Fellowship is the biggest opportunity this school has to chase down an in-depth story about how people are connected to landscapes,” she said. “And I’m really excited to do that in radio because that takes a lot of time – you have to be there to capture the voices of the people – and this fellowship really makes that possible.”

The Crown Reporting Project was inspired by Ted Smith, a pioneer of large-landscape conservation and lover of the Crown. In 2015, graduate students Ken Rand and Celia Talbot Tobin worked with Chris Joyce, of National Public Radio, and Ted Alvarez, of Grist and Backpacker Magazine, to report stories on aquatic invasive species and mining waste.

By Henriette Lowisch

March 7, 2016March 10, 2016 montanajournalism Events, guests, J-School

Calgary Herald Reporter Covers Environmental Controversies

Derworiz standing in front of the audience answering questions. — Derworiz took questions from the audience about climate change and how the Canadian government is addressing the issue. Photo by Alyssa Rabil.

Over the course of Colette Derworiz’s 17 years at the Calgary Herald, she’s reported on everything from breaking news to enduring social issues, yet her latest beat has taken her out of the city and into the national parks. Now as a senior reporter on environmental issues, Derworiz spoke to the UM School of Journalism about Canada’s changing climate. Her talk reflected more than just the environment, but also the recent changes in Canada’s political and economic climate.

After Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s election in October 2015, he removed the so-called muzzle on Canadian scientists that previously banned them from speaking about climate change issues and research. Within these last few months, Derworiz said that climate change went from not being considered a dirty word to becoming a major focus for Canada’s government.

“My job is about to get really boring,” Derworiz had joked to a fellow reporter, but as she reflected in her lecture, “The issue is not yet over.”

Associate Professor Nadia White asked Derworiz if scientists had opened their communication with the public since gaining the freedom to talk about climate change. Legally, Derworiz said the government has clearly communicated this new right, but that researchers’ attitudes have yet to change.

Derworiz spoke at the J-school as part of the Marjorie Nichols Lecture series. Nichols graduated from the J-school in 1966 and worked as a journalist in Canada. In 1998, UM awarded Nichols the Distinguished alumni award, and she continued working in the field until her death from cancer in 1991. Nichols was known for her national political commentary, but as an environmental reporter Derworiz has also seen how the political arena can impact natural resources and the policies governing their use.

At the Herald, Derworiz’s editor trusts her to tell a balanced story, and to avoid the common approach of pitting the environment against the economy. Derworiz said, “I think the new government recognizes that if you do things right for the environment, the economy can benefit from that.”

Alberta’s economy, like Montana, relies predominantly on extraction-based industries and is known for the Athabasca oil sands in the northeast part of the province. Starting in 2017, Derworiz said the government’s goal for the nation-wide carbon tax is to help fund cleaner ways to use oil and coal.

“There seems to be a real conversation going on, rather than just rhetoric,” Derworiz said. “But time will tell if the decisions are truly based off science.”

However, Derworiz knows that environmental issues extend beyond the border. Recently she reported on the trans-boundary sage grouse population between Montana and Alberta and a new plan to relocate 40 sage grouse to Alberta, with hopes keeping a more even distribution on both sides of the Canadian border.

Of current interest to Derworiz, are the upcoming talks between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Obama on March 10^th. The uncertain future of both countries economies and elections means that Derworiz won’t be running out of stories to cover anytime soon.

By Jana Wiegand

September 19, 2015September 21, 2015 montanajournalism J-School

J-School Professor speaks about science journalism

A University of Montana Journalism professor said the Environmental Science Journalism graduate program is a unique part of the Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent.

The Crown Reporting Project sponsors students at the University of Montana to produce stories about the environment in the Crown of the Continent region. Learn more about it on the website.

The round table is an annual conference which serves to encourage a dialogue about environmental science in the mountainous north west region of North America. The area known as the Crown of the Continent includes all of Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. It is one of the wildest places on the continent.

September 17th, Professor Nadia White gave a talk about the specifics of the UM J-School’s environmental science graduate program. “We do emphasize the science end of things,” White said, before going on to explain one of the program’s most unique features, a semester long seminar called Story Lab.

In Story Lab, graduate students in the journalism program are paired with their counterparts in the sciences. The science journalists-to-be embed in research labs, where they spend the semester producing stories in all different mediums about the science and the scientists they get to know.

The motivation behind the class is to address a problematic culture gap between science and journalism. Scientists often “worry about letting someone else control the narrative of their science,” White said. Meanwhile, deadline driven journalists are often frustrated at scientists’ reluctance to give definitive responses before the completion of the excruciating peer review process so necessary to science’s function. This program allows both sides to get to know each other, and two distinct cultures.

In addition to Story Lab, White discussed the new Crown Reporting Fund, which supports journalism students as they pursue stories in the Glacier National Park area of Montana and Canada.

This year, two graduate students have been paired with accomplished professional journalists as mentors. Celia Tobin teamed up with Ted Alvarez, editor of the environmental news website Grist to pursue a story on border crossing contamination from mine waste. Ken Rand is paired with Christopher Joyce, a science correspondent at National Public Radio, to write about invasive fish species in the Flathead Valley.

“Our whole program is based on the idea that we’re in a terrific place to learn to tell stories about the landscape,” said White.

By Andrew Graham