By Ben Long
Lex Blood, a lion of the Montana conservation community and one of the founders of Flathead Audubon Society (FAS), died in February at age 91. He is survived by his wife, Judith; his daughter, Lisa Blood Flowers; both of Kalispell, and three sons that live out of the area; Tom, Peter, and Nathanial.
A geologist by training, Lex received his doctorate in geology in 1968. After an international career in mining, Lex moved to the Flathead Valley in the mid-1970s to try his hand at cattle ranching. Soon after, he became alarmed about a proposal to build a coal mine at Cabin Creek upstream from Glacier National Park in the headwaters of the North Fork. In response, he helped create the Flathead Coalition, which over several decades developed binational plans that protected, rather than developed, the North Fork on both sides of the US-Canadian border. This marked the beginning of a leadership role in environmental education and conservation that continued for 50 years.
Lex Blood was a founding member of the Flathead Audubon Society in 1977. He also helped found Glacier Institute, Montana Environmental Information Center, Glacier Park Associates, Montana Environmental Education Association, Crown of the Continent Ecosystem Education Consortium, and the Flathead Forestry Collaborative Project; all while maintaining a vibrant teaching career in earth sciences and geography at Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC). At FVCC he was known for his enthusiastic lectures and adventurous field trips that traversed much of western North America. Lex lectured on the wonders of Montana geography wherever he happened to be — in the classroom, behind the wheel of field trip vans, in the stern of a canoe, or from a lofty spot on any Glacier Park trail.
Although admittedly more interested in rocks than birds, Lex Blood was integral to the founding and growth of FAS’s education program. In 2004, while serving as director of a local philanthropy called the Sustainability Fund, he granted FAS the seed money for a stipend to pay Sonja Hartman as FAS Community Naturalist. Building on that success, the Sustainability Fund continued to increase educational grants that FAS was able to leverage into more funding for educators and educational materials. This relationship continued until about 2012, when the FAS education program was able to stand on its own without the Sustainability Fund. Today the program regularly connects with thousands of students, both young and old, every year.
In 2006, FAS awarded Lex its Lifetime Conservation Achievement Recognition Award for his outstanding contributions to conservation and place-based education in the Flathead and across Montana, and in recognition of his crucial early support of Flathead Audubon’s Conservation Education Program.
Lex supported a host of environmental, peace, human rights, and other issues. In retirement he continued to aid many organizations through the Sustainability Fund and the Non-Profit Development Partnership. Working hand-in-hand with his wife, Judith, Lex lent his decades of geological expertise to Montana Land Reliance, Flathead Land Trust, and the Nature Conservancy of Montana, conducting mineral analyses for conservation easements across Montana. He was also a valued mentor to many young professionals. Throughout his life he shared his vast knowledge of Montana geology and landscape forces with us all, shaping our understanding of where we live.
“He was sort of like the air you breathe,” conservationist Steve Thompson, of Whitefish, recently recalled. “Any time you look out the window and see the mountains and the lakes and you remember that this is still a special place, you can thank Lex Blood for that.”