Western Watersheds Project invites the public to take a look at “Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West.”
The nonprofit, which works to conserve public lands and wildlife throughout the American west, will screen Ashley Avis’s documentary film, which traces the history of wild horses in North America and the modern controversies surrounding their management on public lands, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the Park City Library’s Jim Santy Auditorium.
The screening is free, but RSVPs are strongly encouraged, said Dagny Signorelli, Western Watersheds Project northern Utah and Wyoming director.
“We already have 350 signed up, so we’re expecting a lot of people,” she said.
Visit tinyurl.com/bdstanzn to RSVP.
Released in 2022, “Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West” won Best Documentary at the Boston Film Festival and the St. Louis International Film Festival, as well as Best Cinematography at DOCLA, during which Avis won Best Director.
Avis’s connection with Western Watersheds Project stems from the nonprofit’s executive director Erik Molvar, who also appears in the film.
Avis, who wrote, directed and edited Disney’s 2020 remake of “Black Beauty” starring Academy Award-winner Kate Winslet, is the founder and president of Wild Beauty Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting the wild horses, wolves and wildlife, and through the Western Watersheds Project, she and Erik developed a working relationship, Signorelli said.
“Our organizations work together, and wild horses is one of those initiatives,” she said. “At the heart of the wild horse issue is that the livestock industry, as we see it, often scapegoats wild horses for the damage that is ultimately caused through livestock grazing on public lands. And we do a lot of work to bring that into the light. We work with a lot of advocates in and around Park City, and we thought it would be a great place to screen the film.”
Some of the Western Watersheds Project’s wild-horse initiatives include involvement in protecting the Onaqui Mountain wild horses in Utah’s West Desert and the Muddy Creek horse herd in Emery County, according to Signorelli.
The Bureau of Land Management Price Field Office is currently working a 30-day public scoping period for the proposed Muddy Creek Wild Horse and Burro Herd Management Area Plan and associated Environmental Assessment, according to blm.gov.
The public scoping period closes at 11:59 p.m. mountain time on April 1, and the BLM is inviting the public to review the materials and submit comments about including but not limited to environmental concerns, reasonable alternatives and recommended measures to reduce impacts.
Project documents and information as well as comment submissions are accessible at tinyurl.com/uud5h65t.
“Since the comments are due next week, this is pretty timely,” Signorellis said.
The “Wild Beauty” screening will be followed by a discussion with Molvar and, hopefully, Avis, according to Signorelli.
“Erik will be there in person,” she said. “We’re not entirely sure Ashley will make it in person, but we are working on getting her virtually.”
The evening will also include opportunities for attendees to donate to the cause, Signorelli said.
If people can’t attend, they can still donate through the website, and we also have QR codes on our social media pages — Facebook, Instagram and Substack,” she said.
Signorelli discovered Western Watersheds Project just as she was wrapping up grad school at Western Colorado University.
“I looked for jobs in the ecology sphere, and Western Watersheds Project emphasizes ecological knowledge and background because they bring science into the work they do,” she said. “I felt really connected with that.”
‘Wild Beauty: Mustang Spirit of the West’ Screening
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