Eric Chaikan, a graduate of MSU's Science and Natural History Filmmaking Program, confers with Cliff Montagne in the field. Photo courtesy of BioRegions International.

"International sustainable development works best when changes are generated at the village level by the villagers," Montagne said. "We are very careful not to push. Mishig has been invaluable in helping us work with the community to discover their desires."

Another Mongolian who has worked for the organization is Temuulen Tsagaan-Sankey, whom Montagne met in 1996 when she was serving as an interpreter for Kent Madin, the owner of Boojum Expeditions, a Bozeman-based adventure travel company. Tsagaan-Sankey had earned a degree in English and Russian and served as interpreter and logistician for Montagne when he brought the first group of MSU students to Mongolia in 1998. In her conversations with Montagne, she started to see a different path for herself.

"Cliff is the kind of person who looks at big pictures," Tsagaan-Sankey said. "When he looked at the grazing system in the Darhad, he looked at the whole social and economic system. It wasn't just an ecological issue for him. I found that very interesting."

With Montagne's help, Tsagaan-Sankey enrolled the next year in MSU's land resources and environmental sciences master's program. Over the next six years she earned a doctorate and accompanied BioRegions' trips to the Darhad for many summers.

"Both of my parents passed away a long time ago, and when I first moved to the states for my schooling, Cliff and his wife became like my parents. They filled that space in my life," she said. "Cliff has been family, friend, mentor, teacher and role model."

During her first year at MSU, she was a teaching assistant for Montagne's Soils 201 class, along with undergraduate Joel Sankey. The pair fell in love and married. They have twin boys they hope to raise in both the U.S. and Mongolia. Tsagaan-Sankey is now a research assistant professor at Idaho State University, where her husband is pursuing a doctorate in soil science, and she is working on grazing research in the Darhad Valley. She sits on the board of advisers for BioRegions.

"My husband and I have invested a lot in the Darhad Valley and would like to continue that," Tsagaan-Sankey said. "As a family we would like to be living in both cultures and working in both cultures so we can continue with the basic mission of BioRegions—to learn from each other and help each other."

The philosophy of working with the locals was part of the reason MSU land resources analysis and management graduate Patrick Lawrence, from Bellingham, Wash., was attracted to the program. He went to the Darhad in 2007 and later worked part time for BioRegions.

"I lived overseas growing up and have done quite a bit of traveling," Lawrence said." I've seen how some aid organizations have an authoritative attitude. Cliff's philosophy is not like that at all. He's very grassroots, bottom up and wanting to learn what they need."

Bioregions' work, which began as an ecological partnership, has expanded to programs in health, culture and education. And 12 years after his first trip to the Darhad, Montagne is still excited to return annually to the valley.

"We've learned so much from them. We've learned that it's a value judgment on our part that things need to be 'fixed,'" Montagne said. "We've learned that taking the time to understand another culture first and earn their respect as true partners enriches both sides."

Yurts, gers and yaks

BioRegions bases its work out of the small town of Renchinlhumbe, which sits on the eastern edge of the Darhad Valley and is the equivalent of a county seat in the United States.

Of the 1,100 residents who live in Renchinlhumbe (pronounced wrench-in-lum) during the spring and summer months when BioRegions' groups visit, most live in log cabins or gers, the traditional housing of Mongolian nomads—large, circular tents of felt covered with canvas that can be packed and moved. The Russian name for the structure is yurt.

Beyond Renchinlhumbe, another 9,000 people—almost exclusively family groups—live nomadically in the Darhad Valley with herds of yaks, cattle, yak-cattle crosses, horses, cashmere goats, Bactrian (two-humped) camels and fat-tailed sheep, a breed common to Mongolia. The roughly 100,000 head of livestock form the backbone of the local, barter-based economy.

In late autumn, the herding families and their stock leave the Darhad on an arduous migration over a series of mountain passes for the neighboring valley of Lake Hovsgol, where the 85-mile-long lake moderates the harsh winter climate.

Return to regular view	Text-only              Email this article	Published: 11/24/2008