About Rachel Tilseth, filmmaker, educator, author, fine artist, environmentalist, and founder of Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin Media.
I’ve always had an affinity for the natural world, spending as much time as possible nourishing my soul in the woods. At a very young age would sit quietly listening to all the sounds in the woods. In elementary school, my teacher taught us all about the natural world, and I wrote a letter to Senator Gaylord Nelson asking him to stop the flooding of the Grand Canyon. In high school, I participated in the very first Earth Day events.
Environmentalist
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, while in college, I protested against a mine in northern Wisconsin and participated in the Project the Earth Festivals held on the Lac Courte Oreilles Band, where I met the Native American activists: John Trudell, a Native American author, poet, actor, musician, and political activist. He was the spokesperson for the Indians of All Tribes’ takeover of Alcatraz beginning in 1969, broadcasting as Radio Free Alcatraz. Walter Bresette, a prominent Ojibwe activist, politician, and author most notable for his work on environmental issues and Ojibwe treaty rights in Northern Wisconsin and the Lake Superior region. He founded or co-founded several organizations, including Witness for Nonviolence, the Midwest Treaty Network, and the Wisconsin Green Party. These two activists helped form and influence my values about protecting our Mother Earth.
Activist for wolves
Around the same time, Gray wolf recovery began in Wisconsin. In the year 2000, I became a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Winter Wolf Tracker, volunteering to track them.In 1999 I wrote to Dr. Jane Goodall about wolf recovery in Wisconsin and she wrote back telling me how much she loves wolves. I tracked them, learning all I could about thier lives. I tracked wolves in Douglas County, Wisconsin, for 11 years, becoming an activist to protect them because, after being delisted in 2011, Wisconsin began to hunt them. I started a blog named after the area I monitored wolves in, Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin Media.
This was devastating news because wolves had been protected and allowed to recover in Wisconsin starting back in the late 1970s, and now they went from protection to trophy hunting. Not only hunting, but the barbaric methods used to hunt them; they allowed the use of dogs to track and trail wolves in the hunts. I began to fight this and garnered the attention of the press to call attention to the practice. You can learn about my campaign to stop the use of dogs in the wolf hunt. Just click on the menu Media Interviews to learn more about the history of working to ban it.
Fimmaker
Around 2019, I became a filmmaker. I felt this would be the perfect vehicle for my wolf advocacy work. I directed and produced the award-winning People & Wolves: a story of coexistence, now on YouTube. I approached Jane Goodall and she agreed to be in the film. My other film is More the a Wolf: Wolf 813. Click the menu under films to learn more.
Art Educator
I graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts Education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout.My first art teaching position was on the Pine Ridge Reservation at the Little Wound School in Kyle, SD.
Author
Published in Silent Sports Magazine’s April 2022 issue
Blogger at Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin, founder since 2012
Numerous Op Eds
