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Show WASATCH WESTERN MOUNTAIN TIMES WOMAN‘ HER % * MARGARET PETTIS ART SHELTERS WILDLIFE By Steve Lewis and Special Guests Coaeaaies from any vantage point, the sandhill crane (Margaret) is clearly a bird to be reckoned with and is one of the birds (activists) in the and even the intrepid Audubon (or wary Utah once plunged into a river to the men’s room) to wrath and fury (passion) (human dynamo) with John * ‘ James legislator) (evacuated escape the of a crane a broken wing. In the far distance we hear the wild call of the sandhill crane in flight — a vibrant, triumphantsounding whoop that can be heard long after the great bird disappears into the clouds. And in the hall next door, a high pitched whirling whoop calls out to the crowd. Margaret just finished reading prose from “Chokecherry Rain” and sends us sky high “ln our parliaments or soviets, rivers, and animals, human beings. In part... with ritual, dance, and who becomes a bear in the in an NET, a newsletter dedicated to con- servation of the American Black Bear. With her husband, Dick Carter, she drafts, illustrates and skillfully sketches bear cubs, cougar and towering peaks that grace the quarterly Utah Wilderness Association Review and Utah Wildlife Manifesto. One of her favored testimonies relating to bears is that announced by wildlife activist Gary Snyder: wt Arena Tickets Go On Sale Saturday April 22 at 10 a.m. bear- By Phone - 467-TIXX, dance for a brief while can speak for 1-800-888-TIXX the bear.” ment. skipping & May 19th — 8:00 p.m. as well as his is done myth. She - leaping, Wolf Mountain Wwe must include the votes and voices of trees, Titans PROCEEDS BENEFIT THE INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S NETWORK Margaret speaks loud and with force for wildlife. Purchase a $15 Utah Wildlife Heritage certificate and celebrate the growing demand for nonconsumptive wildlife manage- bowing, Li ROTEG' Margaret Pettis with her spirited crane calls. In an article titled “Birds of the Little Bear,” she once wrote: “The dance of the sandhill crane intimate duet or in the company of hundreds of its kind— is a stunning celebration. ” Travel north to Cache County — Hyrum, Utah, gaze through the windows of South Cache Middle School and there you'll find Margaret, a former “Utah” and current “Cache Valley English teacher of the year,” tutoring shinny faced youth in art, poetry and writing. Later, as dusk rolls in, she strides cross fields atop favorite Finale, her appaloosa mare, and glances west to the mountains, lamenting the state of wildlife and wild lands, so much in decline. Later, that evening, she edits her final long-standing edition of BEAR- a wariest American Wilderness. It (she) wields a long pointed bill (art & writing device) with the speed and skill of a swordsman (a ‘90s swords-woman) Attend a heated DWR hearing on the bear baiting, spring bear hunts, hounding of cougar - Utah’s bears, mountain lions and wild lands applaud. Hike in the Mt. Olympus, Twin Peaks and Lone Peak Wilderness Regions — “Yes, Utah, too can have wilderness,” announces Writer Karil Frohboese captured an early image of Margaret when she wrote: “At the age of 21, dressed in Pettis boarded a bus in her home town of Marysville, California and forget being out at the House Range by Tatow Knob. We had gone to sleep and wild horses visited us in the night. They came clattering headed around cowboy argue? Margaret's inspiration, spirit, artistry and activism, in tandem with compatriots, is at the forefront of it all. Thomas fessor, J. Lyon, naturalist Natures and Terms: Voices, university editor of On Contemporary praises Pettis’ work: “Margaret pro- hat and northeast Margaret to her summer job us in our sleeping bags, Her goal was simply to spend time in snorting and sniffing. The drifted off and the moon came up. It was like the whole desert was on fire. I didn’t the know horse Idaho’s Wilderness Sawtooth outdoors summer came with wrangler horses. to mean But much in Area that more.” ccording to Pettis, that’s where her “life began” for at summer's end, she joined Carter at USU, acquired a teaching certificate and thereafter became a staunch wilderness and wildlife advocate. ‘Utah has this incredible landscape to explore,” she says. “The Great Basin, the West Desert, the Deep Creek Mountains, the High Uintas, Book Cliffs — all places very rich in wildlife.” Pettis’ poems have things in them: clouds, rain, ground, wet leaves, horses — the world. And people, old-timers especially. And an outward-looking mind. They refresh me like a walk in the woods.” boots, as the first woman Pettis. Marvel at the art and verse of youth, tutored by a master. Who’s to Margaret recounted an early visit to Utah’s basin and range: “Ill never AT Nee drawing by Margaret Pettis PAGE 5 what it was. But it was one of those gigantic harvest moons that just popped up behind the mountain and burned its way across. It looked like it took in six mountain ranges, it was such a broad expanse. I thought, this is such an amazing place. Why would people live in cities?” Feel the passion and pulse of this woman and you are reminded of the carefully crafted line by John Keates: “I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of the imagination.” Watch and meet Margaret, or read her verse and gaze at her art, and you quickly catch the spirit of this vibrant and dynamic human pilot. She has a shinny countenance, smile and spirit that radiates. In the future, that spirit and imagination, no doubt, will continue to touch countless lives and shelter the wildlife and wild lands of Utah and the West. @ |
