About Us - Tom and Melanie Parker
Tom and Melanie Parker bring decades of experience to WTR Outfitters. Tom has owned and operated Buck Creek Guide Service, Inc. in the Swan Valley since 1978 and has been a licensed hunting guide and outfitter his entire adult life. He has also worked on a number of world class wildlife research projects including those with the Hornocker Wildlife Research Institute and the Rocky Mountain Research Station to study wolf-lion interactions in Glacier National Park, mountain lion population dynamics in Yellowstone National Park and Canadian Lynx inside the Great Bear Wilderness.
Buck Creek Guide Service, Inc. acquired and merged with WTR Outfitters in 2012. WTR Outfitters is a division that operates primarily in the Scapegoat and Bob Marshall Wilderness and offers a diversity of services including traditional pack trips, guided fishing and hunting, and livestock-supported backpacking and mountain hiking adventures.
Tom and his wife, Melanie, initiated Northwest Connections fifteen years ago, an organization dedicated to ecological monitoring, field based education and collaborative conservation. Tom has an excellent reputation for being someone who provides not only a high quality guide service, but who goes the extra mile to interpret even the most subtle signs of wildlife and other aspects of natural history for his clients.
Melanie Parker has been the Executive Director of Northwest Connections for fifteen years. Melanie has taught field-based ecology courses for twenty years, and has worked in a wide diversity of outdoor jobs including backcountry ranger, wilderness guide, environmental educator and field ecologist.
Melanie is the recipient of the Cecil D. Andrus Award for Sustainability and Conservation (2009), and the Parkers received the Len and Sandy Sargent Award for Conservation in 2011.
Tom and Melanie are each accomplished outdoors persons with an infectious enthusiasm for the outdoors. They have two children, Kyra and John, in whom they work to instill a strong work ethic and a love land, animals and people.
Tom and Melanie are both certified Wilderness First Responders, they have highly trained and engaging staff, and they aim to provide an outstanding experience wherever you wish to adventure in the heart of the Crown of the Continent.
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