Forest ranger launches 2nd year of YouTube show

LOLO, Mont. — Dena Puderbaugh, a ranger at the Lolo Pass Visitor Center in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests, is launching her second season of “Story Time with Ranger Dena,” on the center’s YouTube channel.

Puderbaugh, an experienced storyteller, former librarian and forest ranger, said she is “wildly enthusiastic about children’s books and the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests.” The broadcast can be found at: youtube.com/@lolopassvisitorcenter.

Puderbaugh said she wanted to share her favorite books with people who haven’t heard of them.

“When I worked at the library, there was nothing quite like when kids really got into a story,” she said.

Puderbaugh created a weekly show that airs on the Lolo Pass Visitor Center’s YouTube channel. In the program Puderbaugh picks her favorite children’s books and treks to beautiful and historic locations on the forest to read them. Viewers can watch from their internet connection.

Seasonality is important to the program. Puderbaugh has recorded readings at the same place in multiple seasons. Speaking of Snowshoe Falls, of the Nez Perce-Clearwater forest, she said: “Instead of the rushing water when we shot in the spring, this year you see ice formations and icicles. It’s different and equally beautiful.”

Other locations for coming stories include the Colgate Licks, the Selway River, the Lochsa Historic Ranger Station and the Brushy Fork Cabin, which will expose viewers to the diversity of landscapes on the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests. Puderbaugh said that showing the forest in her story time makes an important difference for the future.

“People won’t fight for something they’re not invested in,” she said. “If kids can see how cool the forest is, they’ll care about it as much as I do. If they care about it even a fraction as much as I do, it will be great.”