UM Alum Shares Love For Outdoors with Montana FWP
Colorado native Lauren Karnopp first made her way to Montana on a road trip with a high school friend to look at colleges. After a stop in Bozeman, she asked her friend if they could head west.
“I had gotten a postcard from the University of Montana in the mail and I said, ‘Can we just swing by the University of Montana?’” Karnopp explained.
Adding a couple hundred miles onto their journey turned out to be worth it. Karnopp felt right at home on UM’s campus and came back to Missoula as a Grizzly. She arrived without a chosen major but eventually felt called to one subject in particular.
“I always heard about the journalism program being one of the best,” she said. “I knew it was competitive, and I liked to be competitive.”
Karnopp enjoyed learning and gaining experience in small groups and getting to know her classmates. After graduation she took a job with a small production company. She spent her late-night shifts downloading and logging footage for editors to work on the next day.
Karnopp always had enjoyed the outdoors, but her passion for wildlife and wild spaces began to flourish when she met her now-husband, Justin. Breaking from the traditional first-date venues of the movies or a sit-down dinner, he introduced Karnopp to hunting and fishing.
“I remember thinking we would be having a romantic conversation in the woods. But we got out there and he was like: ‘Stay quiet, don’t make any noise and here’s some elk piss for your shoes,’” she joked.
Karnopp gained more experience working in production for shows focused on the outdoors. She traveled for shoots and learned more about the world of hunting and fishing. Her knowledge and experience in journalism and production, as well as her love for the outdoors, came in handy when she took a role with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks as a video content manager.
With creativity, her own foundational knowledge and assistance from expert FWP biologists, Karnopp makes informative and engaging content to share on social media. From hiking to demonstrate bear safety to flying in a helicopter surveying antelope populations, her videos are hands-on and full of adventure.
“It’s basically me taking the audience to these amazing places in Montana with experts to help them understand Montana’s landscapes, the species and the conservation efforts,” Karnopp said of her social media show, “Field Trips.”
Her work highlights FWP’s mission to steward Montana’s wild places, but also to educate and inspire Montanans to get out and enjoy all the state has to offer. Traveling across the Treasure State for work has even given Karnopp ideas for how to enjoy the outdoors on her own time with her family.
“Now I have a list of all these places I’ve been where I want to take the kids,” she said. “My list has just gotten longer. You never get bored in Montana.”