Distinctly Montana Magazine

BY BRIAN SCHOTT T om Brokaw was born in Webster, South Dakota, and began his journalism career in 1962 at KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska. With his notable baritone voice, he went on to host "The Today Show" from 1976-1981 and was the anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News" from 1982-2004. Since 2005, he has served as a special correspondent for "NBC News," producing long-form documentaries and providing expertise dur- ing election coverage and breaking news events. While New York is still home base, during the long summer months his Montana ranch provides him and his wife lessons from nature and playtime with grandchildren. We caught up with Tom to discuss his love of the outdoors, the environment, the media, and what gives him hope. BS: Can you take me through a typical day in the life for Tom Brokaw right now? TB: In Montana, I get up around six. The first thing I do is take my dog down to the West Boulder river and dive in. I'm a big cold water buff. So whatever the season, I jump in the river to get my heart started. Then I come back and do some yoga-like exercises. Yesterday I fished in the afternoon. My wife is riding this morning and I'll ride tomorrow. Early this afternoon I am going to take my dog up into the hills and start to inventory the upland bird population; we look to see how the hatch went this spring. And then there's the routine stuff like weed control and talking to the ranch manager about how we're doing. What is your mix between New York and Montana these days? Montana is probably 70/30 during the summer months. But then in the fall I begin to wind my way back to New York. By late October I am back in New York because Mon- tana starts to close down because of weather and condi- tions and so on. What advice would you give to young journalists starting out today? I think the best thing to do is to pick out an area of interest to you and pursue that. Richard Engel, our foreign correspondent, is a perfect example. He graduated from Stanford [in 1996] and wanted to be a Middle Eastern cor- respondent. He moved to Cairo, learned the language, and he's made a huge reputation over there. He's a terrific asset for "NBC News." Let's go back to Montana. Do you have cattle on your ranch? We do, but it's a lease arrangement we have with a neighbor who is a real working Montana cattleman but he doesn't have enough grass of his own on the family place. We lease to him about 2,000 acres. We did have bison until a couple of years ago until the state required us to vaccinate them and that complicated the situation greatly. He does it holistically, moving the cattle quickly across the grass. We've had the benefit of great grass for the last several years and it helps for range management. I am curious to get your thoughts about the role of the wolf in the West and any experiences you've had in that regard. As you know it's a very hot-buttoned issue. The wolves have been in and out of our valley for five or six years now. We were in favor of wolf introduction and followed the issue very carefully from the beginning. It was not an easy issue for our neighbors. There's been a very small calf-kill, maybe three or four. All were compensated, except one be- cause a bear got on it, but we just said that we'd just pick up the cost of the calf. A wolf did kill a dog, a pet, recently, and that, of course, lit it up again. My own impression, and it's not just anecdotal, is that they have proliferated a lot more than anyone had projected and I do think that we can have a management program. Two years ago when they had the hunt out here in Montana, one was shot not too far from here and the wolf pack dispersed very quickly. And the elk began to move around in an entirely different way, which is how it was supposed to work. You've said many times how important the outdoors and Montana are to you. Please say more. It's constant renewal. I learn more from just watching the complexity of the wilderness and the grass and the animals that are around than I do from almost anything else. It's always an instructive summer to come out here and see how nature moves on its own terms, how animals take care of each other, how they avoid predators and how the predators make their living. We don't kill anything on DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL Read Tom's UM 2011 Commencement speech. Go to... www.distinctlymontana.com/brokaw123 www.distinctlymontana.com 75

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