The First Era
My photography is split into two different eras: the first being from 1991 to December of 2009 where I worked on a part time basis as a professional nature photographer being represented by Alaska Stock Images.
This was the film era; it was do or die photography at its best. Meaning in most cases, you either captured the image or you didn’t.
Publication credits included Alaska, Alaska Geographic, Backpacker, Shape Magazine (perhaps my most unusual photo sale - Dec 1995) Popular Mechanics, the National Park Service (exhibits outside the Denali Visitor Center) and others.
While it was nice to be published and make sales, the best part of photography was actually being in the field observing/learning about wildlife behavior and photographing wildlife.
Landscapes and more rarely, people in the outdoors were also photographed. There is nothing better than being behind the view finder and being “In the Zone” totally focused on your subject. Everything else disappears when you are completely in tune with this nature related experience.
My last photo shoot from this era was a trip to Nepal on a trek from Jiri to Everest Base Camp with two, close friends in Bob Tourtelot and Jeff Forsythe. After Nepal, we traveled to Tibet and later by myself, to Thailand to hit the beach.
I took two cameras on this trip: my Nikon F100 (film) as well as a small digital camera in a Cannon G11. Even though I was happy with many of the images from this shoot, very few of them have seen the light of day. Once I return to Alaska, I plan to review those film images that I took during this trip.
By December of 2009, Alaska Stock made the decision that they were no longer accepting film images. This left me with a huge dilemma: either buy a $5,000 full frame, Nikon D3 camera that didn’t meet my needs or leave photography. There were no other Nikon full frame cameras at that time and I had no interest in partial frame cameras or in investing into another camera system.
In perhaps the single most gut wrenching decision involving photography that I have made, I chose to leave photography without any assurance that I would return. All of my equipment from Nikon AF-S lenses, F100 (film) cameras and my two Gitzo tripods would be hibernating in my storage unit like Rip Van Winkle until if and when Nikon created a digital camera that met my needs.
Conservation
While photography resided in my heart an even bigger and more foundational part resided in my soul and that is the conservation of wildlife and wilderness. Without the conservation of wildlife and wilderness, there would be far fewer subjects to photograph, enjoy, be inspired by and to learn from.
I grew up with animals and they have always been a part of my life in one form or another. And even at a very young age living in the Deep South, I had a fascination with grizzly bears and later; wolves.
This fascination with grizzlies would lead me to one of my first wolf sightings in Denali in my first year of 1987, where I saw a wolf stalking two grizzly spring cubs. This occurred on the east side and near the top of Sable Pass from the confines of a yellow Shuttle (or Transportation) bus.
The wolf was using one clump of willows after another to hide from the grizzly female as it stalked her young cubs. She knew that there was a wolf near by, but she didn’t know the wolf’s exact location.
As the wolf approached, the female bear kept her cubs close to her on either side. When the wolf finally left the cover of the willows, the female grizzly made a brief and short charge at it. The wolf nonchalantly retreated to a safe distance having failed in its stalk, looking back at the bear.
It was fascinating to watch and I became hooked on both grizzlies and wolves. I have always had a special fondness for predators and was certainly aware of the historical and current persecutions that have occurred to wolves, grizzlies and countless other species; something that magnified that support.
I do believe that there is a duality in being a nature photographer and tour guide and that this includes the obligation to give back to nature. This obligation can take many forms from trying to educate and ideally create appreciation for nature in others to active lobbying, writing, speaking out on their behalf or through photography and videography.
This relationship at least, in my mind, is reciprocal. If some of the best moments in my life have come from being in nature then I should be willing to give back to preserve it.
Fundamentally I believe, one has to act by what is in one’s heart and soul. To try to be a voice for the voiceless; regardless of the opposition.
The Second Era: The Decision to Return
In September of 2021 after the season ended in Denali, I rented a Nikon D780 for three days from Stewart’s Photo. This was the first camera that Nikon had produced that grabbed my attention and I took it for a three day test shoot into the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
The shoot went well, although I was very rusty. I returned the camera and was planning to take a few days to decide on whether I wanted to purchase it or not.
By this time, I had moved on from photography and there were questions regarding whether I still had the fire, passion and endless patience for it. For instance, would I still be willing to wait for hours for wolves to return to a carcass? This is relevant because the vast majority of my Denali wolf images were taken when wolves were either traveling to, on or leaving a carcass.
I found that this was actually the best way to view and photograph wolves as it creates predictability in their movements and behavior. Wolves are gorge feeders and after feeding on a carcass will return to the den or rendezvous site, regurgitate meat back to the pups, rest, digest as well as cache meat. They may be gone for several hours…….but they will return. You just have to wait for them or…..hope that your timing coincides with their return.
I had been planning to drive down to the Lower 48 and visit Yellowstone and Bear Ears National Monument but needed to get my truck serviced first at Kendall Toyota in Anchorage. While waiting for my truck, I was struck by an editorial lighting bolt as I read an online article describing how three Yellowstone wolves had been killed by hunters after they had left the park.
See: 3 Yellowstone wolves killed in first week of Montana hunt
This is the very same scenario that has been occurring in Denali………for years. Where hunters and trappers literally target and kill Denali’s and now Yellowstone’s wolves as they leave both National Parks.
Later, over the course of this winter, twenty five Yellowstone wolves would be killed by hunters and trappers. 20% of the Yellowstone's wolf population needlessly killed by those who care nothing for wolves, wolf viewing, the visitor experience, park visitors, or the overall Yellowstone ecosystem that wolves benefit.
See: ‘Unprecedented killing’: The deadliest season for Yellowstone’s wolves
In Denali, it has caused massive disruption and/or disintegration to wolf family groups and behaviors that allow for visitor viewing. Consequently, visitor viewing in Denali has plummeted from its high of 45% in 2010 to 1% in 2019 and 2022 with 2018 being the lone exception. This was due to the wolf family group Riley Creek West establishing rendezvous sites west of the Toklat River. This was short lived though, as Riley Creek West didn’t survive the winter due to natural causes.
Fueling the Fires for Conservation:
It is actions such as the above, that fuels the fires to protect wildlife and wilderness.
To paraphrase and revise a famous Edward Abbey Quote:
"The idea of living wolves, grizzlies and all wildlife needs no defense, they only need more defenders."
While I had been active for years in supporting Denali’s wolves and other issues (writing letters to the editor, articles, newspaper editorials, comments, 2019 driver lead wolf sighting survey, creating Denali Wolves on FB, etc) the September 2021 killing of these Yellowstone wolves would confirm my return to photography. The decision was instantaneous - the Wolves would bring me back.
At that time, the photographic and editorial goal was to demonstrate the undermining of protections in America’s first National Park……Yellowstone along with Denali. Like a metastasizing cancer, this subversion could easily expand to other National Parks and protected areas, not only for wolves but for other species such as grizzly bears.
I wanted to (and still do) obtain quality Yellowstone images to combine with my past work of Denali’’s wolves (all prior to 2009) to demonstrate this connection between both National Parks. With the new Nikon D780, taking video became a new and valued possibility to further enhance this connection.
Collapse of Photography Sales
Shortly after making the decision to return to photography, a friend and professional photographer/writer contacted me regarding this decision. He told me that the stock photography market had essentially collapsed and that the rates for images was almost non existent.
After a brief amount of research, I discovered that he was right. Fortunately, I wasn’t starting from scratch but would be using my older, Nikon AF-S lenses in a marriage with the D780. Additionally, I was ready to leave my self imposed photographic exile and get in the field again as my desire to photograph had been reawakened.
The Mulchatna Massacre
In May of 2023, the State of Alaska killed 94 grizzly bears, five black bears and five wolves with the use of spotter planes and helicopters.
Of the grizzlies, this would include 74 adults, five two year old cubs, four one year old cubs and eleven spring cubs or cubs of the year.
See the below photo of a Denali spring cub that is roughly a month to a month and half older than the eleven spring cubs killed in the Mulchatna Massacre.
A Denali grizzly spring cub (cub of the year) that is older and larger than the eleven spring cubs killed in the Mulchatna Massacre by Alaska Fish & Game in May of 2023.
Denali grizzly bear spring cub photo being used to illustrate how young and small these bear cubs actually are.
This unprecedented slaughter of grizzly (brown) bears occurred close to Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, Togiak National Wildlife Refuge and Wood Tikchik State Park and would become known as the Mulchatna Massacre.
The State's reasoning for the above massacre was to try to increase caribou calf survival to the Mulchatna caribou herd. This herd has been rapidly declining due to over grazing of critical and slow growing food sources such as lichen and mosses. Additionally, they were suffering from brucellosis and over hunting by.........people.
These actions were not scientifically justified, nor had any grizzly (brown) bear population study been conducted beforehand, nor was information provided to the public or any opportunities for the public to comment on such a plan.
With caribou suffering from the above factors along with potential climate change impacts to lichen and mosses, it is highly doubtful that these actions will result in any significant increase in their numbers; especially for the long term.
Of the $440,000 allocated for this massacre, only $309,200 was utilized due to weather preventing flying for a nine day period of time.
This means that for each and every grizzly bear adult, subadult, cub and black bear and wolf that the state killed, the State of Alaska spent $2,973.07 for each animal. Furthermore, if the State had spent its total $440,000 in total, yearly allocation, the cost per bear and wolf would have been $4,230 including…….spring cubs.
If the weather had been good to allow more flying on those nine days, the total kill would have been even higher.
Grizzly females are the cornerstone of any grizzly bear population. They have the lowest reproductive rate of any North American mammal. Females will have their first litter of cubs from anywhere from 5-10 years old and will hold onto and raise them for at least 2 1/2 years.
In Denali, in rare occasions we have witnessed females holding onto to their cubs for as long as 4 1/2 years and during this time, they do not mate. In other words, you will not see different aged cubs with a female. She has them, she raises them, she then boots them out and would then come back into estrus to mate again.
Consequently, if you wish to devastate a grizzly bear population like the State of Alaska is doing in this area, then you target the females. Out of the 94 grizzlies killed, 42 were female, 48 were male with 4 unknown.
It is plausible that through the efforts of Alaska Fish & Game, that they achieved a 74% reduction in the local grizzly (brown) bear population within the calving grounds. If continued as is planned until 2028, such a program would devastate the grizzly bear population within this area for decades.
It is expected that the State of Alaska will conduct this program again in May of 2024.
The following are three excellent editorials by former Alaska Governor Tony Knowles, nature writer Bill Sherwonit and Doug Peacock on the Mulchatna Massacre:
Opinion: Let's make sure the Mulchatna massacre never happens again
Opinion: Alaska's bear slaughter is disgusting, heartbreaking
The Coming War on Grizzly Bears
Our Greatest Challenge:
The greatest challenge to the human species is to allow wildlife to live and flourish. To preserve intact, full and complete ecosystems with the natural ebb and flow of predator/prey populations. To allow for naturally regulating ecosystems where there is no human manipulation of wildlife species for destructive and selfish purposes.
This may sound grossly idealistic in our capitalistic and modern world, yet this is the very purpose of National Parks: preservation and visitor enjoyment.
It is also a test of the human spirit: do we have the understanding, acceptance, tolerance and desire to protect species that offers us challenges on many different levels? Wolves and grizzlies are two examples of species that challenge us in a variety of ways. Protecting them along with the habitat that they require also protects the various kinds of other wildlife and plant life that is within their ecosystems.
The establishment of National Parks, National Monuments, Wilderness Areas, National Wildlife Refuges, National Preserves, etc. isn't just an environmental, political and/or economic act, it is the greatest act of compassion, tolerance and acceptance that we have collectively created for the natural world.
Protecting these areas and the areas adjacent (State or Federal) to them is paramount to their long term preservation and to insure the truly wild experiences that many wish to have.
And Finally:
The stills and videos on my website are meant to help inspire, educate and create understanding, tolerance, passion and support for wolves, grizzlies and all wildlife and wild landscapes.
If you wish to help support my conservation efforts, please check out my Buy Me a Coffee button below.
Lastly, whether it is turning people onto wildlife in person during the summer season in Denali as a Wilderness Tour Guide or doing so online, wildlife and wilderness has always been my passion. My hope is that this passion will come through my photography, videography, writing, advocacy and tours and will inspire you to your own discoveries and experiences.
All the best.
Bill Watkins