Conservationist provides a birds-eye view

Local media recently were given a chance to view the mountains and valleys of Northwest Montana thanks to the efforts of Bruce Gordon and his non-profit organization Ecoflight.

Gordon has run his non-profit out of Colorado for the past 10 years and has been doing what he calls conservation flying for at least 25 years.

“Our mission is to educate and advocate for the environment by using small airplanes,” he said. “It’s as varied as the gambit of conservation issues.”

Gordon flew his Cessna 210c up to the Flathead recently to show off some of the work that’s being done to restore parts of the Flathead National Forest. He flew local media over the Swan Valley, Mission Mountains, Rocky Mountain Front and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, where oil exploration is a growing concern for environmentalists.

One week earlier, Gordon was hosting flights to highlight coal development, fire and land strategies, oil and gas development, wilderness and road issues across Montana and Wyoming. All told, Gordon spent a week in Montana this time around. He plans to return at least two more times this summer.

A former mountain climber, Gordon said he got into flying while looking for a lifestyle change, first as a mountain rescue pilot in Alaska, which was how he met his mentor Michael Stewart. Stewart had started a conservation organization called Lighthawk in the early 1980s, using flights to highlight conservation issues, just as Ecoflight does now.

“It was a perfect match for me,” Gordon said.

A lot has changed over the three decades he’s flown for conservation issues, Gordon said. The change that concerns him the most is how people think about issues now. People operate out of ideological and philosophical concerns for a broad range of issues rather than a desire to fight for something specific they have a genuine interest in, he said.

“Both sides are hurling rhetoric at each other about the issues,” he said. “And these sound bites are picked up by people without proper factual documentation or educated opinions.”

Gordon said he’s more concerned about informing people about the issues, and through flight he can provide a view like none other.

“It gives a birds eye view of how the land works together,” he said.