Photo by Rita Wolfe

In the coming seasons, the big bulls will feel secure in coming down from the high country a little earlier when they hear of the passing of William R. (Bud) Moore. He began "The Big Trip" on November 26 , 2010. His son Bill and friend Gordon Somerville were present to help him "pack up the string".

Bud was born in the Railroad Section Foreman's house in Florence, Montana on October 19, 1917, son of the late William and Hazel Moore. Bud graduated from Woodman Elementary School in the Lolo Fork of the Bitterroot River. In June of 1974, the University of Montana awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science Degree for his contributions to natural resource conservation.

Bud was the quintessential "Mountain Man." He ran winter traplines on his way to and from Woodman School, and cached his pack and rifle away from the school yard while in class. He started working for the U.S. Forest Service in 1934, working on fire crews at age 16. Bud worked until World War II as Lookout, Trail Crew Foreman, Fire Dispatcher and Alternate Ranger on the Powell Ranger District. At 17 he purchased a long line trap line down the Lochsa River and up on the Lolo Trail. Winters were spent trapping, guiding big game hunters and lumberjacking.

Bud spent three years in the Marine Corps during World War II as a machine gunner, scout sniper, and finally a Gunnery Sergeant. He served in the Pelilieu, Cape Gloster–New Britain, and Okinawa South Pacific campaigns. Following the War he worked as the Powell District Ranger, spent time in Utah and Washington D.C., and retired in 1974 as Chief of the Division of Fire Control and Air Operations for the U.S. Forest Service's 29 million acre Northern Region.

During his "FS" career he never lost his connection to the beloved Lochsa Country and lands he worked and managed. He rounded out his education listening to and learning from the land, a process he kept up throughout an active and engaged life. In 1996 he published "The Lochsa Story: Land Ethics in the Bitterroot Mountains." This book turned out to be both an historical adventure and has also become a textbook of sorts for those interested in forested ecosystem management. He was one of the founders of the current wilderness fire management policies and had the authority and confidence to orchestrate its early implementation. He was a forerunner of the thought process that led to the concepts of ecosystem management that are widely practiced today.

He put his ideas into practice on his own 80-acre Condon homestead and was in the process of developing a similar plan for a 200+ acre parcel he owned in Mineral County. He was in some respects a contradictory conservationist. A great hunter dedicated to wildlife conservation and management, a trapper who never set a trap inside his circle in order to maintain his population, an ecological forestry practitioner who was a logger and sawmill owner. He believed that resource harvest did not have to sacrifice sustainability. Bud started with the Forest Service when you could carry the rule book in your hip pocket, and ended up answering e-mails on his personal laptop.

Bud had a special appreciation for grizzlies, and he considered them his friends. He wrote about encountering a grizzly on a narrow trail at the age of 12, back when the Great Bear still roamed the Bitterroot Mountains. It wasn't unusual for him to find bear tracks around his property in the Swan. Not long ago, at the age of 89, he was behind the main cabin at Coyote Forest, hunting, following deer tracks down a game trail, and heard something behind him. He turned around and there was a big old male grizzly coming his way. The grizzly stood up, and they looked each other in the eye. That really impressed him—they had eye contact for several seconds. Then it walked right around him about 50 feet away, and got back on the game trail. It never looked back. Bud was pretty convinced the bear knew who he was—that he's the neighbor who lives in that cabin and won't do me any harm. It was like two old grizzlies sizing each other up.

Bud's insight, integrity, great heart and humor were molded by long years of intimate daily connection with wildlife and wilderness. Yet to understand how best to care for wildlife and wild places, his advice was simply, "Listen to the land." —Vital Ground

Bud will have a dual legacy. One will be on the land in actions and deeds. The other will be implemented by the people who were influenced by his stories, observations, and thoughts. He loved visiting with the young people who will be the decision makers of tomorrow. He was a source for learning who had been there at start and remained connected to the outcomes and policies of today. He will live on in the actions of all who knew him.

—Bill & Vicki Moore
Son and daughter of Bud Moore