About the Film
Dir. Barb Kuensting
In 1995, the federal government reintroduced wolves to central Idaho. A few years later, then newly-opened Timberline High School, with the wolf as their mascot, officially adopted a local wolf pack. Throughout the 2000s, students would go on wolf tracking trips in the Timberline-Pack's range, but as the wolf population dwindled, slowly the trips dwindled, and interest started to fade... that is, until 2021, when the T Pack, including its 8 pups, were reported to be slaughtered by federal agents.
Timberline Pack pups playing with an aluminum can as captured by a wildlife cam on June 29, 2017.
CHILDREN OF THE WOLVES is an observational and expository documentary about the complicated past of wolves in Idaho, shown through the lens of young people fighting to keep them around. The film will follow key players in Teens Restoring Earth’s Environment, a club at Timberline High School, and their efforts to raise awareness about Idaho’s methods of controlling the wolf population– which the state announced in early 2023 will be culled by 60%.
Ella Driever and Sasha Truax, both executive members of T.R.E.E., leading a meeting during lunch period on November 10, 2023.
Since then, Ella has been busy giving speeches to Idaho Fish & Game while studying for AP statistics. Sasha has been writing to congressmen in the same hour she’s getting ready for prom. Amid the chaos of growing up, generations of teenagers have gone to D.C., spoken in front of the state legislature and fought for the welfare of packs that are still alive. The fate of the wolves lies in the hands of teens, and whether their message is heard or not.
This film will use observational moments of kids being kids juxtaposed with them advocating to the masses. We’ll also get a timeline of events from experts in The Nez Perce tribe, wolf biologist Carter Niemeyer, Idaho Fish & Game, as well as environmental groups and local ranchers to provide context and depth to the TREE kids’ message.
Sasha Truax speaking with local Native leader Dallas Gudgell after an Idaho Fish & Game Commissioners Meeting in Lewiston, Idaho on November 16, 2023.
About the Director
Barb Kuensting leading a climate rally at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri with her scarlet macaw Luna in September 2019.
I’ve always been interested in the environment, since I was a baby on my parents’ backs as they hiked all over the West, to now as a filmmaker focused on the intersection of people and nature. I’m interested in directing a film about conservation through the lens of the community most impacted, yet least heard. I want to use my voice and platform as a filmmaker to share a youth perspective on western wildlife politics.
Sasha and Ella are just a few out of millions of youth interested in working with wildlife, and CHILDREN OF THE WOLVES will help us understand what it’s like to be a young person participating in wildlife politics. Do kids deserve a seat at the table? And perhaps more importantly, what are the consequences of not including the next generation in today’s wildlife decision-making?
The T.R.E.E. teens have been speaking up since 2021 about the lack of federal protection of gray wolves. Will they be successful in their efforts to get the species relisted as endangered, or will their concerns go ignored again?
And, what does that mean for our futures?
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