Outdoor Idaho presents “A Sawtooth Celebration” Thursday, May 30, at 6 p.m. at The Community Library in Ketchum
Idaho Public Television and the Sawtooth Society will host a free screening
Forty years ago legislation was passed to create a national recreation area to include the mountain ranges of the Sawtooths, the White Clouds and the Boulders, which became the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Almost anyone who has ever traveled through the Sawtooth National Recreation Area or spent any time hiking, visiting or recreating year-round in this region most likely has an incredible memory and story to tell, as well as a stunning photograph to accompany the words.
As an homage and future perspective on the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Outdoor Idaho will have a free screening of “A Sawtooth Celebration” on Thursday, May 30, at 7 p.m. at The Community Library in Ketchum.
“The Sawtooths, the White Clouds, the Boulders—they’re more than just mountain ranges,” says Executive Producer and show host Bruce Reichert. “They represent a vision that, forty years ago, was considered quite unusual in Idaho—a national recreation area.”
For more than one hundred years, various political leaders had pushed to make the Sawtooth Mountains Idaho’s first national park, said Reichert. But it was not to be. In 1972, the three mountain ranges became the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, administered not by the National Park Service, but by the U.S. Forest Service.
“How this came to be is a story worth telling,” said Reichert. “As we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Sawtooth NRA, it’s fair to ask: what was gained, what was lost and what is yet to be considered?”
Come see the beauty of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area at the free screening of “A Sawtooth Celebration” through the people, photographers, naturalists and stewards of this magnificent region that is an Idaho gem. After the screening, join Idaho Public Television and the Sawtooth Society for a reception at the library.
“As a non-profit dedicated to the preservation, protection and enhancement of the Sawtooth NRA for now and future generations, the Sawtooth Society is delighted that ‘A Sawtooth Celebration’ captures the beauty and essence of the area,” said Sawtooth Society Executive Director Gary O’Malley.
Also present for the screening will be Matt Leidecker, the author of “Exploring the Sawtooths—A Comprehensive Guide,” and photographer James Bourret of James Bourret Fine Art Photography’s whose limited edition Sawtooth NRA images commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Sawtooth NRA.
Idaho Public Television provides four subchannels of free programming to the Wood River Valley area. If viewers are located in parts of the valley where they can’t get IdahoPTV’s over-the-air broadcasts, which transmit from the Picabo Hills, all four channels are now available via cable from Cox Communications.
For more information, contact Executive Producer Bruce Reichert at 208-373-7362 or Director of Development Megan Griffin at 208-373-7313 at Idaho Public Television and Executive Director Gary O’Malley at 208-721-2909.
