Home of: Denver Holt

CHARLO - He might be well known locally for his annual "Hat Party" fundraiser, but Denver Holt's Owl Research Institute in Charlo has garnered him and his colleagues international acclaim as leaders in researching the bird.

More than 80 published papers, countless appearances in magazines and on television and myriad memories of living his dream for the past several years are just some of the things Holt has accumulated since the inception of ORI in the mid-1980s. Not to mention becoming an expert on the bird that Holt said has been under researched over the years.

"When you look at some of the other things I was interested in wildlife - eagles and falcons and hawks and bears and wolves - we know a lot about them and there are a lot of researchers," he said. "But the owls, the research was really wide open. And it still is. There are very few owl researchers in the world and very few that study them for life."

While his original interest in wildlife revolved around large predators, Holt, originally from the Boston, Mass., area, turned his attention to birds, and eventually owls, after a discussion with the quintessential "little old lady" as a teenager.

"I accidentally met her and she saw my interest in wildlife," he said. "She opened a few doors because she knew people in the Audubon Society. She was into the hawks and falcons so I took an interest in that. She bought me my first pair of binoculars."

Reading Lewis and Clark's journals of their travels out West made Montana sound like an appealing destination, Holt said, so he came out to the University of Montana to study History as an undergraduate. While a junior, Holt and a friend observed an owl nest and wrote down observations and notes on the bird.

"I thought this was pretty cool, owls are birds of prey," Holt said. "It was at that time I decided owls were pretty cool and that there were very few owl researchers in the world."

They eventually published the work and Holt increased his wildlife studies, focusing mainly on a broader-range of bird species.

After graduation, various wildlife jobs, either in Montana or back home in Massachusetts, revealed a reality that struck Holt: such jobs require lots and lots of deskwork.

"That didn't really appeal to me," Holt said. "Doing research or whatever jobs I got, I always had to report back to someone that most of the time sat behind a desk. Maybe that was my misconception but that wasn't what I thought being a wildlife biologist would be all about. The reality was, if you're lucky enough to get a job, you'd be sitting behind a desk."

Holt's ideal tasks as a wildlife biologist included working as outside most of the time. While working jobs for non-profit organizations like the Audubon Society, Holt realized there was a way to have some flexibility in his work and still produce meaningful research.

"I realized you could always do research," he said. "You don't need to be affiliated with anyone to do research, you just need an idea."

Holt's idea turned into the Owl Research Institute, a non-profit organization itself that survives on grants to promote conservation of owls and their habitats.

"We work year-round in the field on long term research," he said. "We don't want to take on a study unless we can put at least five years into it, and now I wonder if that's even enough."

The work Holt and his current staff of four have churned out has been influential worldwide. The ORI has received requests from 50 different countries and 40 different U.S. states for copies of its published works and a 2002 National Geographic cover story on Snowy Owls highlighted the Institute's research, specifically in Alaska. Other adornments on the wall of Holt's office include a letter from Princess Diana's lady in waiting Alexandra Lloyd, who wrote to thank Holt for meeting and conducting a program on owls for Prince William during a holiday he took to a Montana ranch in 1993, a neat memento that speaks to the influence Holt has had in his field.

Holt's unique take on research includes bringing members of the public into the field during observations. That revolutionary change in science and the public involvement, as well as his life-long devotion, earned Holt a Wildlife Biologist of the Year Award from the Montana Chapter of Wildlife in 2000.

"We got it because of our hard work and our ability to bring science to the public," Holt said. "I think that was one of the biggest issues and communication skills. That was kind of controversial at first, bringing people out into research projects, the powers to be didn't like that, but now everybody's doing it and we were at the forefront of that."

Holt has taken his role even further, working part-time as a wildlife guide for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours, the largest wildlife tour company that hosts trips around the world. His interest in wildlife and helping others experience it has led Holt all around the planet, experiencing animals in the environment he dreamed of from day one - outdoors.

Still, his travels always end at his home and the ORI's office on seven acres of land in Charlo on protected conservation lands. While Montana boasts 14 breeding species of owls and 15 species total, the most of any state, Holt said the Mission Valley contains approximately 12 or 13 species, making it an absolute owl-watchers heaven.

"The farming and ranching community and the conservation lands lend itself to supporting wildlife," Holt said. "Here, we're right in the midst of it. A place like the Mission Valley has all the types of habitats needed. We can work in the mountains, we can work in the forest, we can work in the grasslands, we can go in the creek bottoms. It just lended itself to being the perfect place for us."