"Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted
until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question
whether a still higher "standard of living" is worth its cost in things
natural, wild, and free." - Aldo Leopold 1925

Once too numerous to count, bison today are
just a shadow of their former glory and the empty lands echo with their
absence. In an effort to fill that loss, we made our home in the
mountains of Montana and brought back the bison who once roamed here.
Together with the bison and the many native wildlife species that
share this land with us, we hope the future will hear again the echoes
of the wild. And that you will hear it too.

 

"There are those who can live without wild things, and there are those
of us who cannot." - Aldo Leopold

When I was 18, I read those words, penned by Aldo Leopold before I was
born, and they sent a shock wave through me that changed my life. That
for many of us, wild things are an essential part of
living, and without them our lives are bleak and colorless.

I am a very fortunate woman. I met and married a gifted wildlife
biologist who felt those words in his soul as well, and together we have
traveled to many wild places around the world - from jungles and high
peaks, to deserts and islands, and we learned how rare wildness is in
this current world of ours. In coming home to the wild places
of Montana, we realized we needed to share what we have with others.
- Pam Knowles

 

"We shall never achieve harmony with land, any more than we shall
achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher
aspirations, the important thing is not to achieve but to strive." - Aldo Leopold 1937

Pasque-flowers at Wild Echo Bison Reserve

"For those of us in the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more
important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a
right as inalienable as free speech." - Aldo Leopold