Bear expert to show film in Plains

The president of the Great Bear Foundation will be making a presentation in Plains at the United Methodist Church on Sunday, March 25, at 2 p.m.

Frank H. Tyro will be showing the documentary film "Walking Bear Comes Home: The Life and Work of Chuck Jonkel a Pioneer of Bear Biology." Tyro, a Pablo resident, served as director and editor of the 56-minute film of his former partner and friend, who passed away two years ago. Tyro is also an Arctic guide and a bear and habitat conservationist.

"This documentary film examines the life, work, and legacy of a legendary biologist and conservationist who spent much of his life in Montana, but whose work and legacy reach around the world," said Tyro, who taught at the Salish Kootenai College in Pablo for 32 years until his retirement in 2016.

Tyro and Jonkel made regular trips to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, for the past 40 years, serving as guides in the "Polar Bear Capital of the World."

The film about Jonkel was completed last year and has already been shown to groups in Polson, Missoula and Canada. It will be screened at the Bigfork Independent Festival in April. "With archival footage of Jonkel's early polar bear research and extensive interviews with Jonkel, his family, friends and colleagues spanning his more-than-fifty year career, the film examines the many facets of Chuck Jonkel, from his work as a biologist to his impact on the lives and communities he worked in and cared about," said Tyro, who added that Jonkel is the only person to have done extensive studies of black, grizzly and polar bears.

The presentation is being sponsored by Plains resident Jean Morrison and the Clark Fork Enrichment Corporation. The event is free, but a $5 donation is suggested, said Morrison. Tyro will be available after the film for a question and answer session.

Jonkel was a co-founder of the Great Bear Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Missoula and Haines, Alaska, and is committed to the conservation of the eight different species of bears and their habitat around the world, said Tyro, who, along with his wife, Lori Lambert, owns Caribou Crossing, a media design and production company in Pablo.