Ben Long

1 month ago | writersontherange.org | Ben Long |David Marston

Imagine a million-acre wilderness: Mountain peaks. Rushing rivers. Bears and wolves. Now imagine a city the size of, say, Chicago. In my corner of Montana every summer, those two things merge. Montana is home to Glacier National Park, and 30 years ago, the park had about a million visitors a year. Nowadays, the park attracts more than 3 million people a year. It’s like a major city teleported to the spine of the Rockies. Those visitors have needs—food, restrooms, parking lots and trails.

2 months ago | writersontherange.org | Ben Long |David Marston

Sometimes when I drive past the little house my wife and I bought when we first married, 30 years ago, it makes me sad. Not only because of nostalgia, but because of economics. We were young professionals and bought a cute one-bedroom crackerbox in a small Montana town for less than $50,000. Today on Zillow, that house lists for more than $300,000. There’s no way salaries have kept up with that kind of inflation. Clearly, rising costs are hitting the working class hard.

Oct 2, 2024 | hungryhorsenews.com | Ben Long

By Ben LongBiologist Diane K. Boyd has had a front-row seat to 40 years of wolf recovery in the West, but her new memoir reveals that entanglements with humans in Montana were often tougher than dealing with the four-legged predators. There’s a proud literary canon of women telling their stories of studying wildlife in remote places—Mardy Murie in Alaska, Jane Goodall in Tanzania, Dian Fossey in Rwanda.

Sep 18, 2024 | threeforksvoice.com | Ben Long

Biologist Diane K. Boyd has had a front-row seat to 40 years of wolf recovery in the West, but her new memoir reveals that entanglements with humans in Montana were often tougher than dealing with the four-legged predators. There's a proud literary canon of women telling their stories of studying wildlife in remote places-Mardy Murie in Alaska, Jane Goodall in Tanzania, Dian Fossey in Rwanda.

Sep 17, 2024 | portlandtribune.com | Ben Long

Biologist Diane K. Boyd has had a front-row seat to 40 years of wolf recovery in the West, but her new memoir reveals that entanglements with humans in Montana were often tougher than dealing with the four-legged predators. Boyd was raised in Minneapolis, where her suburban upbringing included regular escapes to local swamps and a zoo. At the zoo, alarmingly, one of the caged wolves bit her dog. Nonetheless, Boyd emerged enamored with both wolves and the wildness they represent.