Tom Opre

award-winning filmmaker|founder|adventurer|bestselling author|sportsman|human rights advocate|wildlife conservationist|speaker|father of 4 Montana kids

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

Six species went locally extinct in Zambia’s Lower Luano Valley.

Today, they’re beginning to come back.

Conservationist Roland Norton joins me on Episode 52 of Shepherds of the Wild to discuss how commercial bushmeat poaching devastated wildlife populations, how local communities helped reverse the trend, and why buffalo and puku are now being returned through Operation Return of the Wild.

This is a story about wildlife, people, biodiversity, and the future of conservation in Africa.

🎧 Watch on YouTube:
https://t.co/SJxCT1hKPa

Also available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever podcasts are found.

#OperationReturnOfTheWild #Conservation #Zambia #ShepherdsOfTheWild

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

If you care about elephants, you should care about the people who live with them.

The future of elephants won’t be decided in London or New York.

It will be decided in the villages of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia.

When wildlife has value to local communities, wildlife survives.

When it doesn’t, it disappears.

That’s conservation.

#ShepherdsBrief

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

Grasslands evolved with grazers.

Bison. Wildebeest. Buffalo. Elk. Antelope.

Earlier this year, I spent time with Allan Savory at Dimbangombe in Zimbabwe. The lesson was simple: healthy grasslands need animals.

When grazers move across the landscape, they recycle nutrients, stimulate plant growth, build soil health, and support biodiversity.

Remove grazers, and many ecosystems begin to decline.

Nature is not static. It is dynamic.

Mother Nature doesn’t practice conservation.

People do.

What conservation, wildlife, hunting, ranching, farming, or environmental question would you like addressed in a future Shepherd’s Brief?

#ShepherdsBrief #Conservation #AllanSavory #Grasslands #Wildlife #Stewardship

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

@GrayFeist @CatherineSemcer 100%

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

They call it the “PEACE Act.”

Oregon IP 28 could criminalize activities tied to hunting, fishing, livestock production, animal husbandry, breeding, and food production.

Supporters submitted roughly 120,000 signatures last week. If verified, it could be on Oregon’s November ballot.

What happens in Oregon won’t stay in Oregon.

Watch the first edition of #ShepherdsBrief and decide for yourself.

#IP28 #PEACEAct #Conservation #Agriculture

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

Yesterday I posted on FB about a local precinct captain election in Montana and suggested the results might reflect broader dissatisfaction with Republican party leadership.

The response was interesting.

Some people agreed.

Some disagreed.

One person called me a traitor.

Which raises a question:

When did asking questions become betrayal?

In my view, independent thought isn’t disloyalty. Holding leaders accountable isn’t disloyalty. Disagreeing with people on your own side isn’t disloyalty.

Montana has always been full of independent-minded people who think for themselves.

That’s not a weakness.

That’s one of our greatest strengths.

[Tony Bynum @TonyBynum]

I filmed this tonight, on the Prairie after three days of rain in central Montana. My friend @Halherring1 called it, "The symphony of things." #mtwx #afterthestorm #montana @Todayinmontana

[Shepherds of Wildlife Society @wildshepherds]

This is what real conservation looks like. Communities stayed in the fight and poaching dropped by an estimated 80%. Wildlife returned. The land began to heal. #Conservation works when people have a reason to protect wildlife. #OperationReturnOfTheWild

[Shepherds of Wildlife Society @wildshepherds]

Mother Nature does NOT practice wildlife #conservation, people do!

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

I left home with $900 in my pocket.

No connections. No guarantees.

Just long days, production offices, film sets, and a willingness to outlast the obstacles.

My latest essay, Nine Hundred Dollars, tells the story.

https://t.co/ZVjUYsouhm

#Filmmaking #Storytelling

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

Mother Nature does not practice conservation. People do.

Join me live on Newsmax with Rick Leventhal tonight at 5:40 PM MT as we discuss the future of wildlife, conservation, and the communities that live closest to nature.

@NEWSMAX

Watch live:
https://t.co/E0NgUGxwGW

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

People often ask where my perspective on conservation, storytelling and media comes from.

The answer has a lot to do with growing up around newspaper journalism during the collapse of Detroit’s industrial economy, helping my father produce the Detroit Free Press outdoor section, and learning firsthand how quickly stability can disappear.

This is one of the more personal essays I’ve published.

“The Phone Rang in My Father’s Office After Dark.”

https://t.co/gl7Ghfbtm1

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

@DeeWardRottal How about environment? Wildlife? Rural communities? What are those details?

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

It’s been interesting going back through old memories and photo albums lately, trying to understand how I ended up where I am today. The older I get, the more I realize how much of my life was shaped long before I ever picked up a camera. Certain rooms. Certain rivers. Certain men. Conversations I probably understood far less than I imagined at the time. Funny how some of the smallest moments from childhood stay with you the longest.

This first essay begins a five-part series about the people, places and experiences that quietly shaped the course of my life long before filmmaking ever entered the picture.

https://t.co/Ai9aDTONRr

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

We’re $525 away from restoring wildlife to a landscape where Cape buffalo and puku antelope were wiped out by criminal bushmeat gangs. One final push and we cross the line together. If 21 people give $25 today, we hit our goal and help bring biodiversity back to the Lower Luano in Zambia. Be part of something real. Be part of bringing the wild back.

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

Worth a read.

https://t.co/NStRdeyDkw

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

@AdamHartScience @WilliamJohnOwen Unfortunately, outfits like born free have to raise money to pay their overhead and without a crisis you can’t raise money. Seems to be a similar theme to every anti-use, Scottish rewilding charity, and other animal charities throughout your country.

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

@DeeWardRottal @BenGoldsmith He doesn’t have any! 🫣

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

Certainly a more than worthy cause. If you want to see wildlife, come back to rule Africa, then check out this video.

[Shepherds of Wildlife Society @wildshepherds]

Wildlife doesn’t survive on good intentions.

It survives when the people living with it have a reason to protect it.

That’s the truth most of the world ignores.

In this video, Roland Norton explains what actually works

[Tom Opre @tomopre]

Bahamas trip chasing bonefish & permit.

Weather shut us down early. Then perfect conditions—but water temps shifted and the flats went quiet.

Saw fish. Caught a few. Nothing big.

But the bigger story—

A cruise/cargo terminal is planned. Marina. Mangrove dredging. ~2,000 workers.

Locals already seeing offshore boats harvesting aggressively.

This island will change.

We’ll be back. Watching closely.

#Bahamas #Bonefish #Permit #FlyFishing #Conservation #CoastalDevelopment #MarineLife #Fisheries #Environment