The Cinnabar Foundation periodically offers special events and publications to stimulate discussion about and reflection on the conservation challenges faced by Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The Foundation also may issue a Request for Proposal to address a topic of particular interest and provide funding to a qualified respondent.

2010 Initiative: Montana Conservation History

The Cinnabar Foundation launched its 2010 initiative to promote the teaching of Montana conservation history in our elementary and secondary schools. We believe that once there is an understanding of how our natural amenities survive to this day, the deeper our appreciation will become and the more vigorous our investment in their care will be.

    Traditionally, our history is taught in the context of how our country or state was settled and the various ways in which our resources were exploited. In the American West, that history lesson usually begins with explorers like Lewis and Clark, followed by the fur trade, buffalo slaughter, mineral discovery, the logging necessary to hold the mine ceilings up, the coming of the railroads, and then the homesteaders. Still, if you ask a resident to describe Montana, you are quite likely to get a response that includes bull elk, national parks, free-flowing streams, big bucks, lunker trout, grizzly bears, and other wild assets. Cinnabar believes it is time to teach that these occur not by accident nor by benign neglect; rather they are here because of far-sighted advocacy and conservation actions by those who have come before us.

    In response to our Conservation History Initiative, Cinnabar awarded special grants to four applicants: Bozeman High School was right on target with a proposal to develop Montana conservation history material to complement and expand both biology and U.S. history curriculums. Dearborn Information Service responded with a proposal to update a conservation history of the Rocky Mountain Front developed in response to an earlier Cinnabar initiative and is currently in use in schools within that region. The Northwest Historical Society will be developing two interactive exhibits titled “Natural Resources: Why We Came, Why We Stay.” And finally, the Montana State University Department of History and Philosophy advanced a proposal with components to develop curriculum, collect oral histories, and promote awareness through public outreach.

Initiative Archives

To access the archives of Cinnabar Foundation initiatives, click CINNABAR INITIATIVES.pdf.