Year of Award
2009
Document Type
Thesis - Campus Access Only
Degree Type
Master of Science (MS)
Degree Name
Environmental Studies
Department or School/College
Environmental Studies Program
Committee Chair
Phil Condon
Keywords
cattle, Madison, ranching, west, wolves, work
Publisher
University of Montana
Abstract
The thesis grew out of a year spent working as a ranch hand at the south end of the Madison Valley, on the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park. The landscape—which is beautiful and brutal in equal measure—provides context for a collection of stories and photographs describing the realities of living and working on the ragged edge of man’s range. This project documents an attempt to reconcile ranching with conservation against a backdrop of sheer mountains and bone-scattered wilderness. It deals with hard choices, like whether it is right to take the life of a cow-killing wolf, or how much development a landscape can bear before losing its essential quality of wildness. Taken as a whole, these stories and photographs describe the process by which I came to feel at home on the Sun Ranch, and how physically working the land shaped my understanding of it.
Recommended Citation
Andrews, Bryce Patrick Chartier, "Badluck Way" (2009). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 85.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/85
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© Copyright 2009 Bryce Patrick Chartier Andrews