My Page: Alison Grey

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Non-profits of the Gallatin Valley

The Gallatin Valley is home to over 200 non-profits. These organizations do not hinge on metropolitan amenities, and are often created to preserve wild places and stimulate communities of the West. As part of our New West economy, NewWest.Net/Bozeman is highlighting Gallatin Valley organizations in a weekly series.

Since 1973, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County has been matching children with positive role models, striving to help them reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships. With 250 volunteers, 12 staff members and 17 directors, BBBSGC is dedicated to creating a stronger community by investing in our youth, matching 500 children to community mentors last year alone.

Their annual fundraiser Bowl For Kids Sake, in which teams of five bowlers, raising at least $500 as a team, show up for a friendly competition, takes places at The Bozeman Bowl this weekend, October 27 and 28, and next weekend, November 3 and 4. All proceeds go back to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County. [more]

Offering free classes and parts

When Taylor Lonsdale and Emily Harrington were researching community cycle centers across the country to help create a model for their own, they came across the Missoula Free Cycle Web site. Their first piece of advice: Have a space before you have all those bikes.

For its first year, The Bozeman Bike Kitchen, a free community center to build and repair bikes, was operating out of Harrington’s driveway. As more donations came in, they quickly outgrow the space and needed a place to store their growing collection of bikes, bike parts and tools.

This summer, the center found a home on a plot of land where every Tuesday evening, the doors have been opened for every member of the community to build and repair bikes.

More than a bike shop, the organization hopes to promote bike advocacy through fostering the budding relationship with the Bozeman School District and local students by possibly integrating bike safety and mechanical education, especially those at risk of not graduating, in order to have a place to pursue a life-long skill and gain confidence. [more]

Fact or Fiction

In college, most of my wheat and barley came in the fermented form and my vegetable intake was somewhat nonexistent. By the end of my freshman year, I'd avoided almost everything in the eating hall besides tater tots and root beer floats. Prescribing to some warped reasoning, I'd decided frozen food deep-fried in grease was safer than those mystery casseroles.

Twenty pounds later, I found myself fat, and considering skyrocketing tuition, I was unable to upgrade my wardrobe to accommodate an increasing waistline. I don't intend to bash university food systems, as most of my qualms and fears are most likely unfounded.

Recently, I read an article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle profiling Jay Hendricks, an employee at the MSU Ask Us Information Center, a place where people can ask any question pertaining to the university.

The article noted that Hendricks knew what to do when a live chicken was caught in the Bobcat Grill. Wait a second. Back up. A live chicken caught in the grill? Seriously, did anyone else wonder what that was all about? What was a live chicken doing running around the kitchen, and how the hell did it get caught in the grill? [more]

The FCC Opens Air Waves for New Public Radio Station(s)

A new public radio station could be hitting the Bozeman airwaves if its applicants are successful in a bid to the Federal Communications Commission to be granted a permit for a new frequency.

For the first time in seven years, the FCC announced that they would be accepting applications for new non-commercial educational FM radio stations, due by Oct. 19. It is a unique opportunity that might not present itself for a long time and could be the last chance for small, community non-profits to be granted frequencies.

Gallatin Valley Community Radio, a new radio organization, and the longtime Bozeman-based KGLT have both applied for frequencies in the Gallatin Valley.

Can this area support two public radio stations and is there enough frequency? [more]

Why Buy Local and Support a Sustainable Food System?

The Northern Rockies Bioneers Conference, held annually in Bozeman October 19-21 by the Bioregional Outreach Network (BORN), brings together progressive communities throughout the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem to consider a vast array of local issues and empower them to create real solutions.

This year, the Northern Rockies Bioneers Conference is focusing on local food by bringing together local and national experts and leaders in the food movement, including policy decision makers, growers and environmental groups, to talk about the real challenges that lie ahead of us. The conference stresses the importance of supporting local farmers and producers, based upon the notion that a sustainable food system is the best thing for both our environment and our communities.

“We decided to focus on food for a number of reasons, but mainly because the local food movement and sustainable food movement has a lot of power and interest in the community,” said Dean Williamson, director of BORN. [more]

Non-profits of the Gallatin Valley

The Gallatin Valley is home to over 200 non-profits. These organizations do not hinge on metropolitan amenities, and are often created to preserve wild places and stimulate communities of the West. As part of our New West economy, NewWest.Net/Bozeman is highlighting Gallatin Valley organizations in a weekly series.

Created in 2005, the developers of Headwaters Economics were frustrated by the lack of reliable information on vital Western land use topics, particularly growth and development, and the changing economic role of our public lands.

As an independent research organization, their mission is to improve community development and land management decisions in the West. Most recently, they have conducted research delving into the potential for future development on fire prone lands and the implications this growth will have on future firefighting costs. [more]

Thriving Farms of the Gallatin Valley

In Namibia, farmers are using guard dogs to drive off predators from killing their livestock. In another rural African community, a woman is planting chili peppers around her crops to deter the elephants. In Mongolia, farmers are building corrals for their sheep with thorny tops to ward off snow leopards.

In Montana, Becky Wood and her husband Dave Tyler, are using guard dogs to protect their flock of sheep and lamb and herd of cows from coyotes and mountain lions.

These non-lethal tactics of protecting livestock are beginning to be utilized around the world. For Wood and Tyler, the tactic has proven successful, with no dead livestock since they began.

At their ranch, Thirteen Mile Lamb and Wool, a natural fiber processing mill located just outside of Bozeman, Wood is committed to preventing conflicts with wildlife, and her ranch has been certified as “Predator Friendly.”
[more]

My Solidly Wasteful Journey

It’s hard to imagine that nestled in the foothills of the Bridger Range, adjacent to million dollar homes and a picturesque golf course, is a landfill filled with millions of tons of Bozeman’s solid waste. And within that tonnage of garbage, is a lifetime contribution of my own daily consumption, all beginning with my dirty diapers.

Like many landfills around the country, Bozeman’s is nearing capacity and closure is imminent, forcing local city and county officials to re-examine what to do with the mass accumulations of solid waste that continues to pour in daily.

Frankly, I’ve never thought much about my garbage, and would rather have someone else deal with it. It’s that wonderful ‘out of sight and out of mind’ philosophy. Distraught by this attitude, I decided to subject myself to what I’ve termed as my “social experiment.”

For one week, I pledged to save everything I threw away, including recyclables, forcing myself to confront and examine my daily impact on the world. [more]

Thriving Farms of Southwest Montana

It’s Friday evening at the Bozeman Community Food Co-op and Mark Rehder is busy roasting 500 pounds of his home-grown chili peppers.

There is a pot on the table filled with the latest batch of roasted peppers, and as Rehder opens the lid, a whirl of smoke flows into the air emitting a spicy southwestern scent into the Montana air.

Hailing from New Mexico, global warming moved Rehder north. He has settled just north of Livingston, where he has been farming on a 10-acre, intensively-managed organic farm, Geyser Gardens, for the past three seasons.

Surviving as a local farmer in a world dominated by industrial food powers can be a daunting task, but Rehder is passionate about providing good food, and education, to the community. This year, he and his partner, Erica Lighthiser, created Farms for Families — a non-profit with a mission to build healthier communities by promoting a self-relying food system.
[more]

Celebrating National Public Lands Day

The endless RV brigades of the summer tourist season have slowly made their departures from our national parks and autumn, a thankful reprieve from the scorching heat and smoky air, has finally arrived - the ideal time to get out and enjoy our public lands. And for the penny-pinching, ramen noodle eating, debt ridden among us, we won’t even have to worry about an admission fee for one day.

In celebration of the 14th Annual National Public Lands Day, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks are opening their gates and waiving all entrance fees on Sept. 29. That’s $25 for a private, non-commercial rig. In my world, that’s enough savings to justify splurging on a burger and a beer on the way home.

And that’s not all folks! [more]

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