Author: admin

An Obituary

For Richard Milton — December 7, 1940–November 27, 2022

My brother Richard Milton died peacefully at home after a difficult journey with an incurable movement disorder. He is the last of my pack.

Richard was a director, producer and actor in the entertainment industry but he also comes from a legacy of Milton family achievements.

During the course of his illness Richard and I worked on a series of small films we called ‘wolf commercials’ centered on wolf protection offering a perspective viewing wolves beyond stereotypes and their essential role in nature for our future.

Clip from “Ancient Wolf“

Winter by Lucy Campbell appeared the day after my brother died. For me Lucy’s image touches upon how losing my brother changes the fabric of my existence while still holding onto the solidity of that love. The work reminds me of his quiet way, like a wolf, Richard carried his love in life with others who knew him.

Snow geese flying in the background and Sandhill Cranes during this time of migration call to one another from the land below in order to bring their other family members home. I have watched thousands of birds collapsing to the earth out of this perfect V formation find one another and unite.

The night before Richard passed away he had an experience of feeling called home while landing safely in his sleep to a new location.

Richard was an Emmy-nominee, producer, director, writer, and executive in the film and television industry. Formerly with Universal Studios he has been involved in the production of over 400 hours of prime time domestic television as well as foreign feature films. He has been an executive producer and creator of his own cable series for Viacom as well as a consultant for feature film development, financing and distribution of motion pictures in Australia, the UK and America. He was a member of the Director’s Guild of America. He has also been a member of the WGA and PGA. He was formerly a teacher and intern psychologist. Richard started in the Universal mailroom. He had eight relatives in Entertainment. His late Uncle, Franklin Milton, won three Oscars at MGM for Best Sound. His father Larry Milton won a Life Time Achievement Award as Key Grip in film and television.

He leaves behind his sister, Nanda Currant and his wife, Carol Milton and a legacy of creative work that can inspire the way for new talent.

May his life be a blessing for all who knew and loved him.

Winter by Lucy Campbell

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For further information please email Nanda at hearth@cruzio.com

We are grateful that wolves have been re-listed as endangered in parts of the county again but we have a continual struggle in other places in our nation. Wolves are not back on this list and not protected in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. We are dealing with an uptick of deaths as a flood of laws in those states continue to condone species genocide of gray wolves. The stories of loss are tragic.

We are watching in our world a war where power was dictated by not by a majority but a minority of one trying to destroy a nation that was just living its life.

But as the stories unfold about the destruction, and refugees going all over the world to find safety, their families are torn apart.

We are social beings. We have our own pack. We want to find home.

I have watched how wolves have the same instinct and the unfortunate way they became merely listed as something to “harvest” or in the way of a singular progress that does not keep all of life in mind.

In both wolves and Ukrainian people their courage, fierceness, strength impress me. Oppression is not the answer for our future on any front.

We can keep helping wolves find freedom and protection, and stop the false claims against their lives.

Spring brings with it promise and renewal. I continue to believe that Ukraine can reclaim its homeland. I feel the misuse of power will never ever win the battle. I hold this same desire for wolves as I do for humankind and think of all the young people I have met over the years many with families of their own.

I want to say to them we do have a chance to change course as new life flourishes in our hearts and lives each moment of the day.

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Wolves need attention and help. 

The Sedona Wolf Week is free or accepts donations. There are some amazing paid events in Los Angeles as well as the public zoom speaker series. It is an amazing gathering of folks from around the globe that are helping wolves. 

https://www.sedonawolfweek.org/shop/SWWschedule

I completed this short video to send around to continue to make visible wolves and draw attention to them at this very critical time. Please feel free to use the video to send around or create something yourself.

Wolves Need Help
https://vimeo.com/643790570

I am in the group 12×12 show at the Cabrillo College Art Gallery in Aptos, which is now open to the public as of Nov. 8th — the first time they have been open for a long time. There is amazing work at this show, and I have a pack of wolves up that are for sale. Proceeds benefit Save Our Wolves and their efforts to re-list the wolves as federally protected and stop the hunt.

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Sanity prevails in California with the recall stopped and our Governor remaining in office but today we have another recall to consider as the hunt begins in Montana. We must recall how far we have gone to help wolves in Yellowstone and wolves around the country and realize what is at stake if the Montana hunt continues to move into the foreground as we lose wolves in the background.

I have attached the link to this well done article at the ‘Mountain Journal’ about the travesty wolves face in Montana and the potential effect on Yellowstone wolves especially the Junction Butte Pack in the Eastern part of the state.

Let them know you appreciate their good work in reporting — here is the article: Montana Defiantly Puts Yellowstone Wolves In Its Crosshairs

At the same time this wonderful artist DJ Cleland-Hura (djclelandhurafineart.blogspot.com) was on Instagram and I asked if I could post some of his art he created of wolves. I think they bring to mind the importance of pack, the dignity of the wolf and their relationship to the landscape.

We must continue to push President Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to do something now to put them back on the Endangered Species List and counter the plans in front of us in Montana.

Decades of research could be lost in Yellowstone by carrying out these plans but also we would witness a further degradation of our humanity and a blow to pact survival.

We can lose the stability of the species.

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© 2021 artwork by DJ Cleland-Hura

Presently we are focused on the Afghan War and the funds that have been spent in vain as the troops leave the country as the old rulers move in again. There remains the suffering of those caught in the crossfire and the brutality of the past threatening the future of the present. Many have felt the progress possible to live in another way being destroyed.

Right now I witness wolves being killed making decades of work and effort lost in a few months, and watch an old rule that is no longer viable move to the foreground. There is much rhetoric around the topic of global health and climate change, and the in the Department of the Interior there is the emphasis on ‘America the Beautiful’ without bringing predators and especially wolves as important factors and species that influence greatly the possibility of global health and beauty in our world. 

I do not see wolves being put back onto the ‘Endangered Species List’ and  watch how federal funds that are  for protecting wildlife being used to hire people to kill wildlife in the most inhumane methods to date. 

We are recolonizing the west in the ways we did before where we wipe out what is indigenous and whatever is in our way for our own short term gains that take precedence over the wisdom present in the species that surround us and the life in front of us. 

We are blindsided by our politics of place and who owns it, how it can be used for profit without purpose.

This site below created and constructed by various groups through the Center for Biological Diversity lists petitions to sign and people to contact. 
If you know about wolves I bet you will learn more on the four podcasts on this site by Animalia but you also can skip to the last or four segments to understand what the issues are presently.

Please weigh in and contact Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and President Biden, write places you may love to go to in the states that are causing this pain and ask others you may know in those places to speak up for wolves to view this site.

We sold two more pieces of art and the funds were given to protect wolves. Both of these pieces are for sale if you want to take a wolf home. 

https://www.saveourwolves.org/

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This week Idaho proposed a bill to kill 90% of its wolves. Over a thousand wolves will die if B1211 is not opposed by their Governor. The bill is ill advised and opens the door to lethal and inhumane means that not only destroy the lives of wolves but other wildlife. The  bill continues along a path of continued environmental degradation taking us further from a healthy future  for ourselves and the loss of needed recovery for wolves. By diminishing protection for keystone predators vital for a strong ecosystem we are going backwards. We are creating a debt to our country that we may never be able to repay. 

We recently lost in a three days over two hundred wolves in Wisconsin miscalculating wolf counts during a recent hunt that far exceeded any necessary balance in the wolf population. State management is not working, wolves need to be federally protected and we must support another direction. Our art work supports the work necessary to aide and protect wolf recovery and this on going campaign. (Below are watercolors on wood panels by Nanda Currant.) View art on our site and take a wolf home or donate to our campaign and speak up for wolves. Also we have a wolf in our midst, OR 93, may he find safety and a mate on his journey in California. He has traveled over 1000 miles to date.

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Art by Nanda Currant © 2021