Lars Larson Talks Montana Roots and Wildlife Issues with Tom Opre

We were broadcasting LIVE from radio row at the big SHOT Show in Las Vegas and chatting with Montana filmmaker and sportsman Tom Opre. That's when nationally syndicated radio host Lars Larson walked by, spotted the Montana folks, and jumped in on the conversation.

Opre is a wildlife filmmaker out of the Flathead Valley of Montana whose recent documentary, Killing the Shepherd, won a lot of awards.

He's now working on a new documentary about Montana ranch families and wildlife habitat. He says the title is a work in progress, but the concept is about "The Real Yellowstone" and what ranching in Montana is really like.

Tom Opre: I think by and large, 99% of the people I've met- those ranchers look that wildlife and they love it just as much as everybody else, all of our other sportsmen in the state. And I think we've got to start figuring out some ways where we can all work together. There's a lot of division going on. With the internet, there's a lot of people throwing hand grenades at each other. And it's unfortunate, because I think at the end of the day we're all a lot closer than a lot of the folks that don't want to see that lifestyle continuing- don't want to see us hunting on the land. And there's a lot of people out there, because only about 4 or 5% of the US population buys a hunting license in any given year. Now, Montana is a little different. We're a little over 20%.

Opre pointed to an initiative drive in Oregon called IP3 which he says would effectively outlaw hunting or animal production agriculture.

During one of the commercial breaks, we were talking with Tom and Lars Larson about hunting and the importance of hunting to placing a value on wildlife, which then encourages more protection of of the wildlife.

Tom Opre: For all those folks out there who don't understand how wildlife has a value- whether it's a lion, or a sheep, a wild sheep, or a majestic elk- because these animals provide a value through our system of hunting and conservation. If you have a rat in your house, what do you guys do? Kill it. Yeah, well the rat's worth $50,000- what do you do now?

By the way, you can follow Tom Opre's incredible work at ShepherdsOfWildlife.org

Here's the full audio of our chat with Aaron Flint, Tom Opre, and Lars Larson: