Have a good time music, conservation Sunday on the Merrill2 min read

The folks of Montana owe a debt of gratitude to the folks of Maine, who raised their voices to cease the Black Ram timber sale in northwest Montana’s Yaak Valley. I can’t consider one other time a whole state has stood as much as defend a forest 1000’s of miles away. However Maine has. And it’s our privilege to have a good time the protection of Black Ram with music, poetry and kinship Sunday night time at Merrill Auditorium. Tickets are nonetheless out there at PortTix.

For lengthy years, Yaak Valley Forest Council has labored tirelessly alongside a neighborhood of individuals for whom outdated forests matter, individuals who imagine we will flip this Edenic rainforest into the world’s first local weather refuge: a spot of nice carbon storage and uncommon magnificence, a spot for analysis and, not least of all, a spot the place the Montana band of the Kootenai Tribe can restore their relationship to their ancestral land. I’m so grateful to Francis Auld and Leslie Caye for bringing their ancestral music to Portland and know they are going to be warmly welcomed on the Merrill.

It is going to be an incredible night time. When Maggie Rogers discovered about Black Ram, her response was emphatic and beneficiant. The guitar she’s going to play was made in Montana from a 315-year-old windfallen spruce on the fringe of the forest. When he began the years-long technique of curing the wooden and shaping the guitar, luthier Kevin Copp requested, “Can one tree save a forest?”

We imagine it might. Come hear for your self.

I look ahead to internet hosting the night alongside our company from throughout the nation: Maggie, Francis, Leslie, Terry Tempest Williams, Invoice McKibben and Beth Ann Fennelly. Each particular person within the Merrill Auditorium will make a distinction. See you Sunday.

Rick Bass
Troy, Mont.