Gary Burnett learned to relate to other farm families by accompanying his father on his visits as an agricultural extension agent in northern Illinois and through his family’s ownership of farmland in central Illinois. He developed his appreciation for nature by exploring the woods and fields of his boyhood home which served him well during a lifetime of natural resource conservation. Gary earned a bachelor of science from the University of Illinois and studied pine marten ecology in Glacier National Park while earning his master’s degree in wildlife from the University of Montana in 1982.
Gary’s career as a wildlife biologist started with Plum Creek Timber Company, a large private landowner in western Montana. He returned to Illinois to work on private landowner agreements with the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. In 1988 it was back to Montana to join the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, where as part of a team of field directors, he helped establish and nurture fundraising chapters and facilitated many of RMEF’s conservation partner habitat/stewardship projects. Initially, his responsibilities stretched across Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Alberta, and British Columbia. He later became RMEF director of development, building their fund development program then leading the fundraising campaign for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s headquarters at Grant Creek.
Much of Gary’s later work centered on the Blackfoot Watershed, where he became executive director of the Blackfoot Challenge. Always on the lookout for partnerships, he was among the many stakeholders who advanced the work of the Forest Service’s Southwest [Montana] Crown Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration project. He also served on the Lincoln Restoration Committee and the Montana Forest Restoration Committee (now the Montana Forest Collaboration Network). Gary’s success as a fundraiser allowed the Blackfoot Challenge to expand its work by hiring a water steward, a land steward, a full-time wildlife program coordinator, several range riders (to reduce the risk of predators attacking livestock), and establishing a pick-up program to compost livestock carcasses so they would not attract bears to Blackfoot ranches.
Seeing the need to coordinate local actions to address large landscape conservation challenges, Gary went to the Heart of the Rockies Initiative in 2017, retiring in the fall of 2024 as a managing director. He developed the “Keep it Connected” program, linking donors with 29 land trust members to complete funding gaps for projects that permanently protect ungulate and carnivore connectivity habitat around Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks, and beyond. Gary recently led efforts to support more than a dozen Montana agricultural landowner-led groups partnering with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, America the Beautiful Challenge, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to reduce conflicts between people, livestock and carnivores.
Closer to home in Potomac, he served as a firefighter and continues his service as a board member of the Greenough-Potomac Volunteer Fire Department and Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Park. There he enjoys the quiet of the Blackfoot with his life-long partner Wanda.
By Bert Lindler
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