New West Network

My Page: Lucia Stewart

Photos

More than 160 people gathered Thursday and Friday in Bozeman for NewWest.Net's 2nd Annual Designing the New West conference. Friday's conversations -- about design, architecture, the economy and the regulatory environment in which all those function -- took place at the Gallatin Gateway Inn, pictured here. [more]

A community reacts

I left the house on Thursday morning in Bozeman to walk a few blocks downtown for the usual errands: meetings, bank, post office, coffee. What I found was my community has been ripped open — literally.

I live nine blocks from the site of the explosion. At 8:12am, it sounded and felt like a dump truck had rammed my house. I ran out of my bedroom naked and then frantically checked out all my windows and thought, That was strange. Didn’t feel quite like an earthquake but it sure had that kind of sudden earth-shaking intensity.

My friend Ron told me he thought the big old tree in his backyard had fallen on the house. My friend Sara told me her bedside candles had fallen over. I can only wait for the stories we tell for years to come, “What were you doing when Main Street exploded?” [more]

Where is the future our media going?

Print publications in Southwest Montana are losing some ink these days.

After 18 layoffs at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle in late July that included well-respected reporters, The Tributary magazine, the area’s monthly alternative news source, will print their last issue in December.

Currently owned by Lee Newspapers, The Tributary had an editorial switch from Holly Zadra from Corinne Garcia this summer, who actually sold The Tributary and Explore magazines in 2004. The Tributary is a well-loved publication in Bozeman, and the community is sad to see it go after its 17 years on our news stands. They are looking for a buyer, so if your interested, contact . [more]

Staples in Ballots are no good

Update: Gallatin County completed counting the remaining 10 precincts at 5:30pm. Obama won with 23,984 votes over McCain with 22,375 votes. Click more for complete Gallatin County results.

Gallatin County is still processing ballots through the counting machines, with over 15,000 ballots left and are not expecting to finish until late this afternoon.

The clincher is that over 21,000 of the absentee ballots returned were pocked with staples marks and could not be processed by the automated reader. All unreadable ballots were then presented to a 3-person board that recreates a duplicate ballot for scanning. Another setback was the courthouse still had a line of 150 people when the polls closed at 8pm.

These 10 remaining of the 36 Gallatin County precincts are the only ones in the state not counted. Some of the statewide close elections may hinge on Gallatin County's results, such as Secretary of State that currently holds a 2,000 vote difference. [more]

Forest Roads to be used for Timber Harvest Only

The Government Accountability Office released a letter Friday that questioned the closed-door land use plan between Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey and the Plum Creek Timber Company — the largest private landowners in Montana with 1.2 million acres.

The GAO investigators — provoked by the secretiveness of the land use easement and potential impact on Montana’s forestland — referenced the National Forest Roads and Trails Act passed by Congress in 1964, which states the purpose is “to facilitate timber harvesting,” and concluded the agency cannot grant a right greater than what the act allows.

Many argue private driveways are not facilitating timber harvest, particularly when the road easements detail “cost-sharing agreements,” where taxpayers and Plum Creek split cost of road construction and maintenance.

In other news, Rick Holley, President and CEO of Plum Creek Timber, will be a Keynote Speaker at the upcoming Real Estate and Development in the Northern Rockies conference, and will be discussing the company’s approach to real estate activities. [more]

Hitting the pocketbook from all sides

Transportation issues are bearing down on the economy of Montana. How is this affecting our farmers, industries and how we view our future strategies, policies and approaches?

The Burton K. Wheeler Center, at the Montana State University, hosted a conference on transportation in Billings last week, with the goal to discuss with leaders and legislators how this increase in fuel has forced a shift in our economy and how are we to approach the future.

Representatives from three of Montana’s major industries — tourism, farming and food distribution — discussed how Montana’s markets are being significantly affected by fuel costs. [more]

From New West Blog

Gallatin County Planners are working closely with rural neighborhoods to draft neighborhood plans – recognizing that each neighborhood knows what they want more than an overlying Countywide Growth Plan.

This allows unincorporated towns to have a plan that acts as a guideline for growth in lieu of a community government.

In areas like Four Corners, where it was selected to receive a higher density baseline and developers purchase Transfer Development Credits (TDC’s) from large rural landowners, neighbors are not pleased with growth concentrated in their neighborhood due to the potential strain on infrastructure. [more]

Where will the future take us?

As transportation becomes a looming question affecting Montana’s economic future with its large and rural expanse, the Burton K. Wheeler Center is hosting a timely discourse on this critical issue.

“This industry of transportation has opportunities and challenges, such as additional train service across the state and the future of air service in Eastern Montana,” said Julie Hitchcock, Associate Director for the Wheeler Center. What service will continue and new developments may happen in our rural and urban areas?

The Wheeler Center is the state’s oldest public policy forum, and is host to the upcoming conference “The High Cost of Fuel: What’s Down the Road for Montanans?” with efforts to create a non-partisan dialogue based around statewide difficult topics, on October 1st and 2nd in Billings, Montana. [more]

University of Montana Law School Conference

The US Forest Service needs an overhaul in its management of public lands in order to effectively handle diverse recreation, climate change, extractive industries, as well as align with an emerging land ethic, said a prominent panel at the University of Montana Land Law conference.

The University of Montana 32nd annual Land Law Conference took place earlier this week in Missoula. This panel discussion on the future of the Forest Service as it moves into the next administration, was just one of the many in-depth land law discourses presented at the conference. [more]

From New West Blog

A judge ruled that Yellowstone National Park’s proposed increase in snowmobile use would have adverse effects on the nation’s first national park.

Federal District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan stated in his ruling that the proposed number of snowmobiles “clearly elevates use over conservation of park resources and values,” reports the New York Times.

The order negates the current plan to increase 540 snowmobiles daily into the park for the upcoming winter season, and demands another draft of the plan.
[more]