New West Network

My Page: Bill Schneider

MICROBREW MONTANA

If you've been reading the Microbrew Montana series, you may have noticed a lot of similarities among breweries. That's true, sort of, with Red Lodge Ales, but owner Sam Hoffmann also likes to blaze his own trail. That's why he has a Hop Diver, Forklift Cowboy, Office Slug, and Director of Good Times on staff, why he has a refrigerator door on his cooler that opens right behind his taproom bar, and why he drives around with recycled restaurant grease in his gas tank.

"We have the passion," Hoffmann explains, "but other brewers do, too, but we're also pioneering some great things." [more]

Montana's Wilderness Drought

I've written extensively about Montana's Wilderness drought, 26 years and counting without Congress designated one acre of the Big Sky State as Wilderness. Now, Congress seems poised to pass S. 3213, a massive public lands bill, a collection of 90 wilderness and watershed protection bills covering almost every state.

For Montana wilderness advocates, it's another in a long line of no shows. In fact, Montana gets less than zero. [more]

WHAT THEY DON'T SAY IN THE DEBATES

Last Friday, at the onset of the ongoing congressional struggle over our "main street economic rescue package," fifty million of us watched Republican presidential candidate John McCain debate his Democratic rival Barack Obama. And tonight, as Congress is finishing up our economic rescue, even more than fifty million of us will watch Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin face off with Democrat Joe Biden.

Based on what happened in that presidential debate, I strongly suspect she won't say anything about the grizzly bear or harbor seal DNA. [more]

MICROBREW MONTANA

Todd Scott, owner and brewmaster at Bozeman Brewing Company thinks I have the world's second best job, traveling around visiting microbreweries, tasting some local brew, and writing about it, but of course, he also believes he has the best job, making that beer.

He is, in fact, so passionate about his job and his product that he mixed some of the chocolate malt he uses to make his Plum St. Porter with the drywall texture when he refurbished a corner of his facility, a retired pea cannery, into his tasting room, which is, according to Scott, "is a little known fact."

I told him I could keep his secret, but couldn't vouch anybody who used the Internet, so if you see chocolate addict chewing the taproom walls, well, you'll just have to blame it on me. [more]

CHANGE FOCUS TO SAVING WILDLAND HABITAT

Even though it has been around for 36 years, I suspect most people don't know that this Saturday, September 27, is National Hunting and Fishing Day.

Let's make this one the best ever by launching a national effort to protect the last of the best wildlife habitat we have left, our 58 million acres of roadless public land. [more]

Guest Commentary

Editor's Note: If you visit NewWest.Net regularly, you know I've frequently written about the gun issue, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the rival organization, the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA). Every time I mention AHSA, commenters claim the group is nothing but a front for anti-gun groups or the ultra-liberal wing of the Democratic Party, or both. To address these concerns, I asked the ASHA to respond in detail to these claims. The Advisory Board of the AHSA prepared the following guest commentary exclusively for NewWest.Net.--Bill Schneider

The recent national Slash and Burn: Why Does the National Rifle Association Leadership Support Congress's Biggest Opponents of Conservation?", a report prepared by the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) to shed light on NRA’s dismal conservation record, has once again fired up the old McCarthy-style, NRA-attack machine.

Rather than question the accuracy of the report, AHSA critics, once again dredge up old character attacks of AHSA leadership and guilt by association innuendo. In the past the AHSA leadership has not responded to the ridiculous NRA attacks, but now may be the best time to publicly respond to the absurd allegations that many NRA apologists on the internet feel compelled repeat.
[more]

WHAT IS THE CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN'S FOUNDATION HIDING?

My July 9 column titled, Hunters, Look Beyond the End of Your Gun Barrel, urged hunters to look at the big picture instead of basing their vote exclusively on the gun rights issue, which I consider basically over since politicians won't touch it and the Supreme Court has finally reaffirmed the individual's right to bear arms. The column wasn't about whether Barack Obama is more anti-gun than John McCain, even though most of the comments were. It was about voting for the candidate who would do the most to protect wildlife habitat and hunting access and therefore help save our hunting tradition.

Ironically, on the same day I posted that column, the Los Angeles Times ran an article about a new poll showing hunters preferred McCain over Obama by a 14-point margin.

This didn't jive with my feel for how hunters view the big race, so I decided to check out this survey.

Then, it got interesting. [more]

HUNTERS SHOULD DO MORE OF IT

Editor's Note: This is a rerun of a column I posted two years ago, slightly expanded with new research, and it seems, still quite timely.

Big game hunters, it's your time to rule the forests. Archery seasons are underway, and general big game seasons will be soon throughout the New West. Thousands of hunters will be crawling around grizzly country in the predawn darkness, alone, as quietly as possible, into the wind, and smelling like stale elk pee. If they have a successful hunt, they'll fill the wind with the smell of high-quality grizzly food.

Is this a problem? [more]

LET'S FOCUS ON ISSUES THAT REALLY MATTER

A lot of people are hot and bothered about the Bush administration's proposed rule to allow concealed weapons in national parks, but practically, is this really worth our time and effort?

Yes, it's maddening to tolerate such low-end, election-year politics spurred by the National Rifle Association (NRA), but I say give the gun lobby this hollow victory, so we can spend our time and energy on issues that could really help our national parks instead of worrying about something that's already happening and hasn't caused any problems. [more]

HOW CYCLISTS AND MOTORISTS CAN PEACEFULLY COEXIST

Nowadays, with high gas prices and renewed interest in good health fitness driving more and more people out of our SUVs and onto their bicycles, we also have a constant string of news articles about conflicts between motorists and cyclists. At the same time, government officials struggle to find a balance where all legitimate users of our roadways can peacefully coexist.

Being an active cyclist, I've frequently written about this subject over the past three years. Here is a chronology of those articles. [more]