Getting Wild In Alaska

by

The following is courtesy of Mark Titus, director of The Breach and The Wild:

But First, The Tongass…

If you’ve seen The Breach, you know that I spent the better part of my 20s and into my 30s working as a wilderness fishing guide at Yes Bay Lodge in the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska. This is the place I fell head-over-heels in love with wilderness and realized exactly where my truest home is. The Tongass is currently protected from rapacious clearcutting by a roadless rule that prohibits building logging roads into the remnant stands of virgin old-growth wild salmon depend on to survive. The current administration is trying to repeal that roadless rule and open the largest intact temperate rainforest on Earth – and its pristine salmon habitat to logging its guts out. Click HERE (then click on COMMENT once on page) to make your voice heard on protecting this rarest of and most precious places on Earth. As a gift for doing so in this Season of Light – here is a link to own The Breach for free and watch it over the holidays with your family.

Click HERE
Click BUY
At Checkout, Enter Coupon: EATWILDSAVEWILD

Thank you, read on for details about The Wild Tour
and Long Live Wild Salmon!….
Season of Light

There is a feeling alighting in me despite myself this time of year. Despite the daily dis-ease evident in our rabid consumerism – a belief that there is a greater song in composition through this dark night. A glow in the still-mornings that is a yearning for serenity. Like the peace of the still-water out in the salt of the Sound right now. And the languid tailbeats of Steelhead winding their way home in the Elwha River. A flickering expectation of something wondrous coming. A yearning for connection.
 Where We Are

As a species, our evolution toward tribalism was designed to keep us safe. We needed to band together to defend ourselves from large toothy-critters and warring factions out to destroy our extended family.

Tribalism is now killing us. We daily seek out ways to separate ourselves from one another and the natural world that sustains us. Rival political parties, religions, races, class-structures, cities, states, nations, – hell, we’ll find a way to fight over burger joints – Dick’s for those in the Great Northwest – In and Out for our neighbors to the south. (Seriously, everyone knows Dick’s tartar clearly takes it over the top).  See!?…I bet you’re thinking about the argument for your local burger joint right now.

Currently, the fierce, mindless political tribalism in our country is a divide leading us toward a morass my generation has never seen – one that hasn’t been this vitriolic and pervasive since the 1960s. It is pitting family against family. And just about every social issue I can think of is tainted by this enmity. Exceptt for maybe one…

At every single film-festival screening of The Wild in 2019, audience members who have been fierce tribal rivals have come together in a unified voice to exclaim a singular anthem: Save Bristol Bay.

Bristol Bay, Alaska is the last fully-intact wild salmon system left on Earth. Half the world’s supply of sockeye salmon comes from Bristol Bay. It supports more than 14,000 American jobs a year and contributes over 1.5 billion dollars to our economy – year after year. In the last five years, Bristol Bay’s wild, sustainable sockeye salmon runs have yielded over 250 million sockeye salmon returning to their pristine birth-houses. 2020 is expected to see over 50 million salmon return, again, to sustain new life for themselves, us and 137 other species.

People of every color, gender, spiritual-stripe and political affiliation across the United States are unifying in the belief that we cannot allow Bristol Bay’s headwaters and salmon birth-houses be exhumed by a Canadian mining corporation in its rapacious pursuit of short-term wealth for themselves.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently forecast to deliver their decision on granting the Pebble Mine a permit to proceed by May of 2020.

This is our last chance to save something perfect – just this one thing – just the way it was created – for future generations. Bristol Bay is a world treasure that feeds us the most sustainable and healthy protein imaginable. And it is a food source that MAKES ITSELF. Why would and how could we ever allow this treasure to be annihilated by the greed of a foreign corporation? We can’t. And we have to come together, right now, to make sure of it.
There is hope, through decisive action, on the horizon.
The Wild Save What You Love Tour – 2020

I have very close friends who have been working on protecting Bristol Bay for all of their adult life. For my part, I’ve made it the central work of my life for the last 9 years. There are organizations and impact brands who have made the preservation of Bristol Bay the focus of their work for justice: The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association (BBRSDA); Trout Unlimited; Salmon State; United Tribes of Bristol Bay; Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay; Natural Resource Defense Council; National Wildlife Federation; Alaska Wilderness League; Waterkeepers; Slow Food USA; Tiffany and Co; Tom Douglas Restaurants; Orvis; Patagonia and many more…

All of us are banding together, right now, to carry our collective song of love for Bristol Bay and our demands for its protections to the highest levels of government and most importantly – to the rest of our brothers and sisters across this country we still love so desperately.

I’d like to ask you right now – in this Season of Light – as a gift to your children and your children’s children and this Great Land we adore, please join us on The Wild American Road Tour in 2020.  Our Save What You Love Tour…
JOIN THE WILD NETWORK

 

JOIN THE WILD NETWORK
The Tour
And now, without any more fuss, here we go…

  1. Los Angeles, CA
  2. San Diego, CA
  3. San Clemente, CA
  4. Santa Barbara, CA
  5. San Luis Obispo, CA
  6. Esalen, CA
  7. Monterey, CA
  8. San Francisco, CA
  9. Napa, CA
  10. Sacramento/Davis, CA
  11. Tahoe, CA
  12. Salt Lake City, UT
  13. Helena, MT
  14. Butte, MT
  15. Bozeman, MT
  16. Leadville, CO
  17. Couer D’Alene, ID
  18. Washington DC
  19. Missoula, MT
  20. Whitefish, MT
  21. Sun Valley, ID
  22. Boise, ID
  23. Bend, OR
  24. Eugene, OR
  25. Portland, OR
  26. Olympia, WA
  27. Seattle, WA
  28. Newport RI
  29. Providence RI
  30. Boston, MA
  31. Maine (Location – TBD)
  32. Ithaca, NY
  33. NYC
  34. Bloomsburg, PA
  35. Dubuque, IA
  36. Madison, WI
  37. Chicago, IL
  38. Minneapolis, MN
  39. Kansas City, KS
  40. Raleigh/Durham, NC
  41. Asheville, NC
  42. Kentucky (Location – TBD)
  43. West Virginia (Location – TBD)
  44. Atlanta, GA
  45. New Smyrna Beach, FL
  46. New Orleans, LA
  47. Mobile, AL
  48. Anchorage, AK
  49. Fairbanks, AK
  50. Bristol Bay, AK
Firm dates are coming to you, right after the holidays – the tour will run from early February through May.
Save What You Love – RIGHT NOW

In the last few months, I’ve received dozens of messages asking how to help. There will be clear decisive actions to take as soon as we start the tour – but here’s what you can do right now.
  1. Follow @thewildfilm on social media: Instagram; Facebook; Twitter
  2. Donate to The Wild Education Fund. We have a full-blown education kit underway, right now, for grades 6-12 and beyond that will include a 44-minute version of The Breach & The Wild and an 80-page core curriculum guide for teachers. All donations are tax deductible through our 501C3 fiscal partner, Northwest Film Forum. Click HERE to donate.
  3. MOST IMPORTANTLY ~ JOIN US. Become a member of The Wild Network right now. Send an email to connect@thewildfilm.com by clicking the button below:
JOIN THE WILD NETWORK
After you click on the Button Above – here’s the rest:
  1. Write your full name (and phone number if you want to stay connected by text and phone)
  2. Write how you’re interested in helping. We’ll take whatever you’re serving up, but especially need help in the following areas:
  • Promotion/Marketing in each of our tour locations
  • Collecting  Airline Mile Donations
  • Fundraising for The Wild Education Kit
  • Finding/Arranging Lodging for up to 5 folks on the tour
  • Engaging Local Schools
  • Engaging Local Media
  • Engaging Local Chefs
  • Engaging Local Conservation Orgs
  • Policy Advice
When you write me at connect@thewildfilm.com I will add your name to The Wild Network private Google Group, invite you to The Wild Network Private Facebook Page and send you a link to our downloadable Digital Action Kit.
JOIN THE WILD NETWORK
…And if you want to go ALL the way, become a Wild Ambassador like our dear friends Michael Doughton of Davis, California and Carl Bressler of Los Angeles. Michael and Carl are working tirelessly on the ground in their communities to help secure venues, partners and rally their entire communities to pack our screenings.
JOIN THE WILD NETWORK
If you choose to become a Wild Ambassador – simply write Wild Ambassador in the Subject Line of your email to connect@thewildfilm.com– and in addition to all the digital assets you’ll receive for becoming a part of The Wild Network- we’ll send you stickers, postcards, flyers, info-posters and a Wild hat for $20 – which includes the cost of shipping. You’ll have everything you need to start promoting The Wild screening in your hometown:
If you are moved by wild salmon, by the grandeur of Bristol Bay – of Alaska – of wild places – of whatever it is that you desperately love – join us. If you were moved by watching The Wild, thank you – and now, let’s share that feeling with others.
JOIN THE WILD NETWORK
Our goal is to bring as many of our fellow citizens as we can into this feeling of saving what we love, together, by taking action. There is a plan – and I’ll share all the details of how we will take action, together, right after the holidays.
This is where the magic happens. Once we connect, we rise, hand-in-hand to protect the last best place for wild salmon – Bristol Bay Alaska – come what may…
…For the love of wild salmon, for the love of this Great Land, for the love of each other, join us now.
JOIN THE WILD NETWORK

Wishing you Serenity, Connection and  Blessings in this Season of awakening through the darkness. There is still light inside us – and more, glowing on the horizon.

In Wildness,

Mark