New West Network

My Page: Contributing Writer

Philosophy for the cowboy golfer

When the rooster doesn't croak at dawn, we wake up to the sound of cars and busy people. The dog barks, a nail squeaks and thump, construction two houses away. This is the myth of the West, and my tendency is to personify everything, give it a name and dream it. Glorified and egoistic, the state becomes human, lights a BIC, and smokes a camel. *blowing smoke*

Rivers watch with tiny eyes, helping spawning-trout run through mighty-tight stretches like blood—veins around arteries, swirling through prairies, valleys, aborted by a beaver and confluence with the big. The hills have peaks, with trees to mountains and snow in June. Two bald eagles enjoying three white fish. *munch-munch and a crack*

Horses have lifestyles, like drunken wild men. [more]

Can Bozeman manage a park that is not a soccer field?

Bozeman’s largest wetland is the center of controversy as developers want to drain and develop and locals want to see it preserved and transformed into a park.

The key location of this wetland, right off of Main Street, is a cause for concern. “It can be built on, if it is not a wetland,” said Chris Nixon, President of The Northeast Neighborhood Association (NENA), who gathered on Tuesday, June 24th to vote on what to what to do with the 23.7-acre wetland that is situated in their section of Bozeman.

Delaney & Company, the current owner of the wetland and largest developer in the city, has interest in keeping it a wetland. “They’re willing to look at a lot of options,” said Nixon, who also said that “A wetland preservation group has worked with Delaney & Company.” Nixon argued that to try to market and sell properties on swampland is not the best publicity for Delaney & Company.

But in the wake of lack of city involvement, Delaney & Company hired a professional wildlife service to come in and remove several beavers and beaver dams from his wetland property. [more]

Sense of Place

My husband and I looked at each other in bewilderment. What have we done? We thought we were putting in a windbreak. We planted three rows just like the extension booklet said – lilacs and caraganas, hybrid poplars, and blue spruce. In subsequent plantings, we filled in with Siberian crabapples and Nanking cherries After 20 years, we claim our windbreak is a success, but for whom?

Unintentionally, we created new wildlife habitat. Provide cover with access to food and the critters move right in.

Our windbreak is now a wildlife super highway and an apartment complex for birds. Have we made it easy for them to plunder our garden and fruit trees and murder our chickens? [more]

Wheeler Center Conference

In Montana, agriculture is a 1.6 billion dollar business, comprising 64% of the state’s land area. Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on water supplies and the productive capacity of agricultural lands.

Speakers at the Wheeler Center Conference on “Climate Change in Montana: Impacts and Opportunities for Agriculture and Energy” at MSU in early May discussed the demands for water, food, and fuel on agricultural landscapes. [more]

Sense of Place

Gardeners in the Intermountain West face two challenges: Short growing seasons and microclimates — even at the garden plot level.

Awareness of these factors allows gardeners to adapt their seed choices and garden layout to mitigate the affects.

Some vegetable plants grow best in cool, damp conditions – peas, lettuce, celery, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, onions, carrots, beets, and turnips. Some vegetable plants like heat – corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and squash. Therefore it is important to know the hot and cool parts of a garden plot or design a garden layout that modifies temperatures.
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Re-defining Urban and Rural

Kids getting dirty hands in the rural ways of life is important to the Gallatin Valley.

Therefore, the Gallatin Valley Agriculture Committee created the Farm Fair, held May 7-8, 2008, involved an amazing 643 fourth graders over two days.

Duane Burkenpas, the coordinator of the Farm Fair since its inception in 2005, said the goal is “ to provide a rural ranch atmosphere where students and teachers have the opportunity to see and touch where our basic food supply originates, how it is prepared for processing for human consumption, and to demonstrate agriculture’s commitment to protecting the natural resources on which it depends.”

Here’s how kids rate their Farm Fair experience: “Farm Fair is the best day I’ve had at school!” and “It’s the best field trip I’ve ever had!” What makes it so great? Come along and see... [more]

Guest review: Idaho Green Expo

With the Saturday Market and the First Annual Green Expo all being held on Saturday May 17, it was hard to find a parking spot downtown, let alone maneuver through the crowds. The warm and sunny weather beckoned Boiseans to come out and play, and they did – by the thousands.

Boise is beginning to look like a real Metropolis, with people from all over the world at the Expo and many languages being spoken.

Despite the heat, the crowds and the general commotion, people were happy. The atmosphere was festive and chatty, all with one shared interest to learn more about choosing a more environmentally responsible way to live. [more]

Part 1: Conference on Impacts and Opportunities for Agriculture and Energy

Mitigate. Adapt. Use Wind Power as an Engine for Economic Development. Promote Local Action Plans.

Panels of experts shared diverse perspectives this week on the future of Montana as affected by climate change at the Burton K. Wheeler Center Conference on “Climate Change in Montana: Impacts and Opportunities for Agriculture and Energy,” at Montana State University.

The conference format accepted global warming as a given and moved forward with suggestions for dealing with a warming world. [more]

Understanding the land you live on

In the Intermountain West climate varies – by elevation, aspect, within valleys and even within backyards.

In natural landscapes, the varieties of plants (and where they grow) offer clues to microclimates. But man-made landscapes (like wheat fields and blue grass lawns) “mask” the diversity of climate within. The mask leads landowners to assume that the climate on their property is all the same. They discover their mistake when their plantings fail.

Natural features like elevation, aspect, and wind affect local climate, and therefore your backyard is a microclimate. [more]

By spending time with the land, you know

Most people are aware of regional differences in climate. The Southeast is hot and humid. The Southwest is hot and dry. But in the Intermountain West, mountains affect air currents and moisture distribution to create many microclimates within just one valley. Visitors don’t recognize those microclimates. Most residents find out about them by trial and error.

At the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, I met a couple in their mid 30’s that were visiting from Las Vegas. They said they were tired of the rat race and were looking for a place with a little acreage, to garden and maybe raise some livestock. The first question they asked me was “How much snow do you get here?”

“It depends on what part of the Gallatin Valley you are in,” I replied. They looked at me blankly.

“The climate isn’t the same across the whole valley,” I explained. [more]