We Inspire you to act!
Rachel Tilseth Producer/Director/Writer
Rachel is an art educator, freelance writer, producer/director, environmentalist, and DNR volunteer Winter wolf tracker.
She has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education, 1992, from UW-Stout, graduating with cum laude honors. Rachel’s first teaching job was on Pine Ridge Reservation in Kyle, South Dakota. Rachel believes an art education helps students to become better consumers. Rachel is a fine artist emphasizing watercolor and oil painting. Rachel brings her knowledge of design principles to her work as a documentary film director.
Since high school, Rachel has been an environmentalist and participated in the first Earth Day in 1971. In the 1990s, she participated in the sulfate mines protests alongside activists John Trudell and Walter Bresette at the Protect The Earth Festival near Hayward, Wisconsin.
In 1991 on a howl survey in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Rachel met Wisconsin’s Wolf Recovery Program Head Wolf Biologist, Adrian Wydeven. Seven years later became involved in Wisconsin’s Wolf Recovery Program. She became a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Volunteer Winter Wolf/Carnivore Tracker in the year 2000 and, as a result, learned about the lives of wild gray wolves.
In 2011 wolves were delisted, and she worked to draw attention to the plight of Gray wolves during the three years Wisconsin held wolf hunts. Rachel garnered the attention of the press to bring public awareness to Wisconsin’s wolf hunt, especially the regulations that allowed dogs to be used to track and trail wolves. Rachel made it known that Wisconsin quite literally throws dogs to wolves.
In 2011 She started a grassroots Facebook Page and a blog and named it after the county she tracked wolves in; Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin (WODCW). WODCW became known nationally and internationally. Rachel had editorials published in several Wisconsin newspapers. Silent Sports Magazine is the latest to publicize her articles.
In 1999 Rachel put together a story proposal about Adrian Wydeven’s volunteer Winter Wolf Tracking Program and submitted it to National Geographic Television Channel. Although the proposal didn’t get accepted, She received a telephone call from them to explain why. The National Geographic Channel at the time was busy working on starting a global network and tied up all of its resources in working on getting it off the ground. Rachel continued working to draw attention to Wisconsin’s Gray wolf and wrote to Dr. Jane Goodall in Tanzania, Africa, about the recovery program. To her surprise and delight received three handwritten postcards from Dr. Jane Goodall.
Rachel put together three film screenings and a film festival to bring education and awareness about Wisconsin’s wolf hunt. Rachel continues to be a participant in monitoring wolf populations in Wisconsin.
Rachel has produced a series of live-streamed broadcasts called People & Wolves Talk Show in both the USA & Italy. And several community radio talk shows. In 2019 WODCW became a film company.
Manish Bhatt Investigative Writer and Producer
I am a proud father, husband, veteran and wolf ally. I believe our natural spaces provide us with a richness beyond measure and we must work to coexist peacefully with all that share this earth. Manish is a writer for the Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin. In addition, he is an educator, attorney, military veteran and startup advisor. Having grown up in a rural community in the Catskill Mountains of New York, Manish enjoys hiking, fishing, sailing, skiing and observing nature with his family. Manish has also lived in Texas and Wyoming. He holds a B.A. magna cum laude from the George Washington University, a J.D. magna cum laude from St. Thomas University School of Law, and a LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. Manish is a committed environmentalist and is dedicated to following the science.
Brunella Pernigotti Guest Author
I love wolves and nature in general. Even if I’m not a biologist, I’m improving my knowledge of wolves and their problems to survive in my country, to devote myself to the protection of the environment and of the endangered species as far as I can do.I live in Turin, Italy. I’m a teacher, a writer and a photographer. I published a novel and a book of tales and have to my credit about ten one-man exhibitions of photos. I’m a member of the board of a no-profit association of Turin, “Tribù del Badnightcafè”, that organizes cultural and artistic events. Besides I created a group of volunteers to help women who are victim of domestic violence.
About Brunella’s writing career.
Someone says that from the moment we are born we begin to forget. Each story, therefore, has neither a beginning nor an end. Everything happens but nothing has happened, as in the eternal present of an empty hourglass. Time is not a line that projects us into a dark and distant future, time is circular, like the earthly sphere, like the universe, like everything that comes and goes …
Author of the Empty Hourglass
Brunella Pernigotti was born and lives in Turin. Besides being a teacher and translator, she writes with passion and enthusiasm.
She considers writing her main tool for investigating and trying to understand the human soul: “after all, every creative act is like a shell that is brought to the surface, after diving into the depths of ourselves”.
In addition to “The empty hourglass”, which won several prizes, including the first prize at the “Priamar” International Literary Competition in Savona, in the “Narrativa Edita” section, she has successfully published a collection of fairy tales entitled “Let’s pretend that … “. She also writes screenplays for short films and plays.
In the last ten years she has had photography exhibitions in various personal exhibitions and creating installations and artistic projects.
She considers life “a continuous search for new ways to express what he sees and hears”.
Lindsey Botts Guest Author
Lindsey is a wildlife enthusiast, conservationist, and outdoor lover. He aims to tell stories about the intersection of society and nature wit