New West Network

My Page: Justin Ringsak

Butte, Montana has always been full of stories, legends, tall tales and the stuff of history that is the meat and potatoes of folk songs. Mining culture, the violent birth of the labor movement, the class struggles, the cosmopolitan industrialism, and the environmental situation practically beg to be put to song. Despite this abundance of material to draw from, today we have few folk songs about Butte. Now Butte singer/songwriter Chad Okrusch is stepping up to fill in the Butte folk song void with Wisdom Road, a collection of mostly original songs that remain firmly anchored in the specifics of Butte’s corner of Montana while still managing the difficult trick of feeling general and universal enough to appeal to anyone who enjoys a solid chorus and good melody. [more]

Widely acclaimed conservationist, oceanographer and sea turtle expert Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D, will present a discussion of his work and our inland connections to our oceans on Sunday, April 20, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Copper Lounge of Montana Tech’s Student Union Building. Dr. Nichols will also officially announce the creation of the EcoDaredevil Award, inspired by legendary daredevil Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel. The award, to be presented during Dr. Nichols’ keynote address to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, will recognize young individuals from around the nation who, through science, policy or personal action, have taken particular risk and shown exceptional courage and creativity to go against the mainstream to successfully solve or raise awareness for an environmental issue. The event, sponsored by the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program (CFWEP), is free to the public. Donations are appreciated. [more]

On Friday, March 28th, near Missoula, the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers flowed freely past the remnants of the Milltown Dam for the first time in over a century. While the breach has garnered considerable media attention, the real story is not the breach itself, but the history and context that led a community to spend an ocean of time and money to unmake what our history made. [more]

Things seemed to be looking up for the Butte animal community. In 2006, Erin Wall, the new director of the Chelsea Bailey Animal Shelter, planned to revamp the facility, which had been known around the state for a relatively high amount of euthanizations, into a positive community asset, a place for people to come and interact with animals, even if they didn’t adopt one. And, by most accounts, she has been succeeding. Then came this week’s Council of Commissioners meeting, where Commissioners voted 8-4 to deny the shelter's request to build a new free-roaming cat-room that would be paid for entirely by a donation fund. The Commissioners’ rationalizations for voting against the addition to the shelter reach back to the bad old days of the Chelsea Bailey. Commissioners questioned the number of animals being housed at the shelter and why an existing ordinance stipulating that animals be euthanized after 30 days isn’t being followed. The shelter has not been following the 30 day ordinance since reopening in 2006, so it is curious that the ordinance is only becoming an issue now, after two years of established practice Wall has justified by noting that most animals find a home after three to five months- a 30 day death sentence just doesn’t leave much time for the clemency of adoption. [more]

Writing about Evel Knievel is like dancing about architecture, and, in the wake of his death, there has been a lot of architectural dancing. But Knievel himself was certainly no stranger to diving headlong into projects destined for failure, so on the day after the high-flying wildman was laid to rest here beneath the Richest Hill on Earth, it only seems appropriate to consider the man and the myth. [more]

Imagine for a moment that you are a bird flying about on a cold winter day in Montana, soaring around the mountains of Continental Divide. A storm rolls in, bringing fog, snow, and cold. Flying isn’t much fun anymore. You look for a hospitable spot to land and ride it out. Hey, what’s that down there? A big, open body of water? It must be a lake. And it’s not even frozen. Could be a good spot to rest, maybe get some food. So you cruise on down and, tired and cold, take a refreshing drink. But something is amiss, you realize as the acidic water eats at the lining of your esophagus and moves into your internal organs.
Shortly thereafter, you’re dead. [more]

Conventional wisdom regards environmental restoration as a cost, but, throughout the West, that old notion is being turned on its head. These days, there is a new phrase on the tongues of progressives and greens, a phrase that conjures up images of hundred dollar bills floating down pristine mountain streams: “Restoration Economy.” [more]

The Center for Biological Diversity, a multi-state nonprofit focused on protecting wildlife, along with the Federation of Fly Fishers; the Western Watersheds Project; Butte, Montana's own ecorover Pat Munday; and former Montana fishing guide George Wuerthner on Thursday, November 15th, sued the federal government regarding the removal of a number of species for consideration for protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In Montana, the suit addresses the removal of the “threatened” status of the fish with the unwieldy title of Big Hole River fluvial arctic grayling. [more]