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Contact: Chris Cauble, 1-406-449-0200

Noted Montana writers and photographers create a spectacular tribute to the Crown of the Continent

A naturalist reveals his lifelong love for the “Crown”

“Crown of the Continent” is the Montana gift book of the year

A beautiful new book by several Montana authors and photographers should rally public support for protecting a vast ecosystem known as the Crown of the Continent.

“Crown of the Continent” (Riverbend) describes the great swath of Rocky Mountains stretching from Montana’s Blackfoot River in the south to Canada’s Banff National Park in the north. The 10-million-acre area includes the endangered Rocky Mountain Front, Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall–Great Bear–Scapegoat Wilderness Complex, the Flathead and Swan rivers, large blocks of unprotected public lands, and critically important private lands.

With its large size, physically linked wild areas, and abundant wildlife, the Crown is, as stated in the book’s subtitle, “the last great wilderness of the Rocky Mountains.” Nonetheless, the area remains vulnerable to human pressures, and the book’s writers and photographers do a grand job of illustrating what is at stake.

“Crown” is written by professional naturalist Ralph Waldt of The Nature Conservancy, who has explored the Crown for thirty years. It features supporting essays by acclaimed Montana novelist Ivan Doig, environmental writer Douglas Chadwick of Whitefish, and grizzly bear expert Dr. Charles Jonkel of Missoula.

Waldt also provides about half of the 150 spectacular color photographs. A dozen prominent Montana photographers, including wildlife expert Don Jones of Troy and landscape specialists Chuck Haney of Whitefish and John Lambing of Helena, furnish the other gorgeous images. The photos range from close-ups of wildflowers and wildlife to breathtaking shots of rugged mountains.

Even talk-show host David Letterman, a part-time resident on the Rocky Mountain front, praises the book as a “wonderful study of two great national resources, Montana and Ralph Waldt.”

Waldt is a naturalist for The Nature Conservancy. For many years he was the resident naturalist at the Conservancy’s Pine Butte Guest Ranch on the Front. He has hiked, skied, and snowshoed thousands of miles in the Crown in every season. Much of the book is Waldt’s first-hand experiences with grizzly bears, rare wildlife and plants, and the Crown’s dramatic landscapes and extreme weather. His writing takes you along as if you were beside him on one of his wilderness walks, and his astute observations reveal a deep understanding of the area’s complex ecology.

Doig, author of classic Montana books including “Dancing at the Rascal Fair” and “This House of Sky,” calls “Crown” a “lovely and bracing book” and says Waldt’s ability to describe natural wonders would make “a Thoreau…perk up his ears.” Dr. Jonkel of the Great Bear Foundation extols Waldt’s extraordinary “gift” for seeing what others miss. Both men have hiked with Waldt in the Crown.

Chadwick, author of “True Grizz” and a regular contributor to “National Geographic” magazine, writes a comprehensive afterword on perils facing the ecosystem. In particular he cites road building, subdivisions, and, most ominously, renewed efforts to drill for oil and gas on the Rocky Mountain Front. Yet Chadwick, like the other writers, believes the Crown will be protected if people realize its unique value as a large, fully functioning wild ecosystem. This beautiful book makes that idea crystal clear to anyone.

“Crown” (Riverbend Publishing) is a hardcover gift book with 168 pages, 150 color photos, and art-quality printing. Modestly priced at only $29.95, “Crown” is available at bookstores or by calling Riverbend Publishing toll-free 1-866-787-2363.

Press releases and related documents may be copied electronically at www.riverbendpublishing.com. Click to the book description and click on “Press releases.” Or email ccauble@riverbendpublishing.com to have the documents sent via email.

Book Description

Crown of the Continent

The Last Great Wilderness of the Rocky Mountains

By Ralph Waldt

Foreword by Ivan Doig

Preface by Dr. Charles Jonkel

Afterword by Douglas Chadwick

$29.95, 168 pages, 150 color photos, 9 x 11 inches, hardcover with dust jacket, gift book

Riverbend Publishing, Helena, Montana

The Crown of the Continent is an international ecosystem covering more than 10 million acres in northern Montana, southeastern British Columbia, and southwestern Alberta. Within the Crown are the endangered Rocky Mountain Front, America’s Bob Marshall–Great Bear–Scapegoat Wilderness Complex, Canada’s Castle Wilderness, the Waterton–Glacier International Peace Park, large blocks of unprotected public lands, and critically important private lands.

For thirty years professional naturalist Ralph Waldt dedicated himself to exploring, learning about, and interpreting this unique landscape. Now he has transformed his numerous journals, notes, and experiences into this remarkable book. On one level this book is a gifted naturalist’s lyrical telling of his encounters with huge grizzly bears, unusual tailed frogs, violent wilderness storms, epic battles between mountain lions and elk, and delicate wild orchids that bloom and disappear almost overnight. On another level it is a powerful plea to save this wild place as it exists now, before it is irrevocably harmed by subdivisions, roads, and controversial oil and gas development.

Bisected by the Continental Divide, the Crown is an immensely valuable interface of plants and animals of the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Plains. It supports rare native predators such as grizzly bears, wolves, lynx, fishers, and wolverines. It is home to the largest native population of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep anywhere in the United States, one of the nation’s largest elk herds, and the nation’s largest mountain goat population. It is the only place in the United States where grizzly bears still roam onto the prairie. In other words, the Crown is the largest wild space in the American and Canadian West that still looks and functions much like it did hundreds of years ago.

Perhaps only a love for the Crown and a respect for Ralph Waldt could have brought together the other writers who appear in this book. Nationally acclaimed novelist Ivan Doig remembers growing up along the Crown’s Rocky Mountain Front. Award-winning wildlife author and National Geographic contributor Douglas Chadwick, who studied mountain goats and grizzly bears in the Crown, explains the various threats to the ecosystem. International grizzly bear expert Dr. Charles Jonkel, who has shared numerous Crown trails with Ralph, describes Ralph’s extraordinary ability to see what others miss. In addition, thirteen wildlife and landscape photographers add their stunning work to Ralph’s gorgeous photographs.

Praise for Crown of the Continent:

The Last Great Wilderness of the Rocky Mountains

“This book is a wonderful study of two great national resources, Montana and Ralph Waldt.”

Dave Letterman

Host of “The Late Show with David Letterman”

“A lovely and bracing book…Waldt’s evocative gift of phrase will become immediately evident to the reader, as will his terrific camera eye. Where he has been, he has always seen and learned. Once on a trail I listened to him give an impromptu impassioned talk on the marvels of an anthill that would have made a Thoreau or an Eiseley perk up his ears.”

From the foreword by Ivan Doig

Author of Dancing at the Rascal Fair and This House of Sky

“Ralph Waldt takes us on a jaw-dropping journey: one look at his breathtaking photographs and it is apparent this is a man with a keen eye and a strong passion for preserving wild places. His stories lead us down a trail riddled with species-to-species dependencies and, as he points out, ‘the closer you look, the more there is to see.’”

Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs

Author of The Lewis and Clark Companion

“Ralph Waldt is a fine storyteller as well as a dedicated naturalist. His book shows us a corner of the globe that doesn’t embody the 21^st century’s problems nearly so much as it holds a cure.”

From the afterword by Douglas Chadwick

Author of True Grizz and A Beast the Color of Winter

Photographers in Crown of the Continent:

The Last Great Wilderness of the Rocky Mountains

By Ralph Waldt

Riverbend Publishing, Helena, Montana

Montana Photographers

Other photographers