New West Network

My Page: Dave Loos

In The New West magazine

Orderly roundabouts -- as opposed to the disorganized rotaries of East Coast cities such as Boston -- are a safe, quiet, clean and community-friendly alternative to traffic lights and stop signs.

Here's the pitch: A roundabout eliminates almost all of the risky split-second decision-making that occurs at most congested intersections. Do I try to make that left before the red light? Does that guy see the stop sign?

You wait until the circle is clear and move forward. The new roundabouts include signs in advance explaining what lane you should take in the circle, depending on where you plan to exit. If it doesn't make sense the first time, proponents say it will on every subsequent trip.
[more]

Film Review

They began to arrive in the early 1970s, wide-eyed idealists, via Volkswagon bus or a hitchhiked ride from the East, inspired and angry. The small cult of Ed Abbey followers descended on the American Southwest, most with a worn copy of Desert Solitaire in their backpack, many with dreams of preserving it’s natural beauty via any means, a la The Monkey Wrench Gang.

Jim Stiles was one of them. A native of Kentucky, Stiles came to Utah in 1975 and never looked back. Three decades later, with most of the gray-haired Abbey devotees having long ago dispersed to other locales, Stiles remains, a one-man show of sorts who has devoted his life to carrying on Abbey’s legacy, no matter how many people he pisses of in the process.

His exploits as a publisher and activist are captured in Brave New West, a new documentary from the Missoula-based High Plains Films that will begin screening for the public next month. [more]

BWAM!

The Bike/Walk Alliance for Missoula, one of this town’s newest non-profits, has an admirable mission, eager volunteers and already more than 90 members. It also arguably has one of the worst acronyms -- BWAM -- of any local organization (a quick Google search shows a Missouri-based bike group of the motorized variety and a definition in the Urban Dictionary that can’t be printed here).

We’ll try not to hold that against them. After all, Missoula needs all the help it can get improving its bicycle and pedestrian network. The group’s organizers also throw a really good chili dinner, which NewWest.Net attended last weekend. The event served as launching point of sorts for the group, which officially formed last year but had yet to host any community gathering like this one. [more]

skiing and dollars

The proposed Bitterroot Resort, which some have said could become North America’s largest ski area, would have a major economic impact on Ravalli and Missoula counties, according to an independent report released this morning.

The Bitterroot Resort Economic Impact Analysis, conducted by the Portland-based group ECONorthwest, concludes that under the larger of the two resort proposals, the amount of additional economic activity to the study area “is large both relatively and absolutely.”

Bitterroot landowner and developer Tom Maclay has proposed to build a major resort on former ranchland that would include residential housing, lodging, commercial development, a convention center and two golf course on nearly 3,000 acres of private property. Under the larger proposal, the ski area would extend on to Forest Service land on Lolo Peak, though Maclay has yet to be granted such a permit for the highly controversial plan. [more]

NATURE'S WISDOM

Nearly 10 years after writing a book that essentially created the field of biomimicry, Montana resident, author and entrepreneur Janine Benyus was named one of Time magazine’s 43 “Heroes of the Environment” late last month, a recognition that included a profile in the magazine and trip to London for the awards ceremony.

Benyus, whose 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature sought to explain how humans could create a more sustainable planet by mimicking designs perfected by nature, said the recognition came a gratifying surprise. “They told us a few weeks before that we had been nominated, but I didn’t find out until right beforehand that it had happened,” the Stevensville resident said this week.

Among the 43 honorees are an array of environmental leaders, scientists and activists, including David Attenborough, Al Gore, James Hansen and Richard Branson. [more]

Column: Making it in Missoula

Over the years I have come to appreciate and revel in the morbid irony that on a day when millions throughout the world celebrate death, I celebrate birth.

Today, November 2, is Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. Yes, here we are 30. It sure isn’t what it used to be. They’ve even got a new trendy name for it. As New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote last month, the four traditional phases of life -- childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age -- have been replaced by at least six: childhood, adolescence, odyssey, adulthood, active retirement and old age.

“Of the new ones, the least understood is odyssey, the decade of wandering that frequently occurs between adolescence and adulthood,” Brooks wrote, most likely to placate his fellow baby-boomer parents who eye their offspring with nervous optimism. [more]

lots of action in the lolo

An extended fire season exacerbated by severe drought made for higher burn totals than normal this summer, according to National Forest officials who are in the midst of tallying up figures for the 2007 season.

For the Lolo and Bitterroot National Forests, while the number of fires caused by humans and lightning did not increase dramatically, the number of acres that burned did. In some cases, though, officials let the fires burn as part of fuel reduction programs. [more]

milltown milestone

The journey from one Superfund site to another begins Tuesday for thousands of tons of toxic soil at Milltown Dam at the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork Rivers.

The first of what will be hundreds of sediment-laden trains is expected to load up behind the Milltown Reservoir Sediments Superfund Site this evening, en route to the Anaconda Smelter Superfund near Opportunity, where the soil will be dumped and spread.

Officials estimate it will take more than two years to transport the approximately 2.2 million cubic yards of Milltown sediments to Anaconda. [more]

helping the land rich, cash poor

A bill passed last week by Senator Max Baucus and the Finance Committee he chairs could significantly lower the tax bill for farmers and ranchers with conservation easements.

The Habitat and Land Conservation Act, which passed by a voice vote last Friday in the Senate Finance Committee, includes several tax incentive components that supporters say will enable land-rich but cash-poor residents to place voluntary easements on their property without the financial hits they currently incur.

The legislation still must pass in the full Senate, where floor time has yet to be scheduled. [more]

manipulated breeding?

A mystery predator responsible for 12 sheep deaths in Eastern Montana last month could be connected to the dozens of similar attacks in late 2005 and early 2006, which some officials blame on a domestic hybrid species of wolf.

Montana’s top wolf official said this week that two suspicious animals remain on the loose in and near Garfield County following the sheep deaths in late August. A third animal killed in a coyote snare earlier this month has yet to be positively identified as wild or domestic.

The recent deaths revive last year's furor in McCone and Garfield Counties over the 100-plus sheep slaughtered, and the subsequent hunt that ultimately left dead a domestic wolf, the product, officials believe, of manipulated breeding in captivity. [more]