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spring brings out the bikers

Three out of every five rides. That's the number of times Linsey Corbin estimates that drivers harass her as she logs hundreds of miles on her bike along the winding roads of Western Montana. A professional triathlete, Corbin says that she experiences more negative interactions with drivers in her home state than anywhere else.

"Of all the places that I've traveled, where I live is the worst," she says.

In the last few months, Corbin has experienced many unpleasant incidents from her saddle. Doors swing open from passing cars, horns blare, words fly. Corbin cranks on, perplexed by such unprovoked hostility. "It's frustrating because we're just as human as they are." [more]

Wilderness Issues Lecture Series

Christianity has a responsibility to protect the environment and be stewards of God’s creation, said Boise-based Pastor Tri Robinson Tuesday night at the University of Montana in Missoula.

"People have to awaken to the idea that (environmental degradation) is not right and it’s not acceptable," he said.

Speaking as part of the University's Wilderness Issues Lecture Series, Robinson, the author of Saving God's Green Earth and pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Boise said his decision to speak out on the importance of the environment was the result of years of deliberation. [more]

wilderness issues lecture series

Ecologist Tom DeLuca, during his lecture Tuesday night at the University of Montana, made the case for an adaptive approach to wildlands management in order to help the West’s ecosystems adjust to a changing climate.

DeLuca, a Senior Forest Ecologist with the Wilderness Society and former UM professor speaking as part of the Wilderness Issues Lecture Series, acknowledged that there may be no way to avoid climate change, but the region’s forests and wildlands have evolved under changing climates and possess a measure of resilience to variations.

“One thing that is constant in nature is change...resistance to change may prove to be a catastrophic failure,” he said. [more]

New West News Brief

Wyoming’s natural gas-rich Pinedale region faces tightening air quality regulations, the EPA announced Wednesday. The new EPA regulations would cut the area’s allowable amount of ozone by six percent.

As Chris Merrill reports today in the Casper Star Tribune, officials with Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality say the new standard will necessitate changes in the region's natural gas industry.

An article by Cory Hatch in Tuesday’s Jackson Hole News and Guide described the EPA’s concern for the region's air and water quality as the primary motives for the new standard.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Wyoming DEQ issued ozone warnings for Sublette County residents warning of potential respiratory problems for children and the elderly. Hatch’s article mentions some 500 gas wells on the Pinedale anticline and noted that industry officials have proposed adding 4,399 more, a move the EPA is strongly criticizing. [more]

wilderness issues lecture series

“Almost all of the solutions to climate change have potential drawbacks,” said Donald Brown via live videoconference at the University of Montana Tuesday night.

Brown, speaking as part of the ongoing Wilderness Issues Lecture Series, urged his audience to consider the ethical implications posed by climate change solutions.

Among these drawbacks are the possibility of future CO2 leaks from poorly planned carbon sequestration projects, deforestation and rising food prices driven by biofuel production, and bird migrations being disrupted by wind power farms.

Brown, an associate professor of environmental ethics and program director for Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change at Penn State University, acknowledged that these concerns are important, but insisted that it would be unethical for them to limit action if the technology could lessen the environmental degradation and human suffering associated with climate change. [more]

the treasure state's new energy trove

Montana is beginning to ramp up its efforts to capitalize on the energy potential carried in winds rolling off the Rockies and whipping east across its plains.

But it's been slow in coming. Despite Montana's No. 5 ranking in wind potential by the American Wind Energy Association, statistics from the Department of Energy have Montana accounting for only 145 megawatts of wind power out of a total of 16,596 MW nationwide.

On Tuesday, Governor Brian Schweitzer announced that German wind turbine manufacturer Fuhrlander AG plans to construct a new manufacturing facility near Butte, with the expectation that turbine demand will greatly increase in the coming years.

And this spring Spanish wind developer Naturener will begin construction on the first phase of a wind power facility near Shelby called McCormick Wind Farm that could more than double the state's current capacity. [more]

sustainable building

There's a gaping hole in the ground on the corner of Higgins Avenue and Front Street in downtown Missoula, where a new LEED-certified First Interstate Bank will replace the one just torn down. And across town on Russell Street, construction has started on a LEED-certified Missoula Federal Credit Union building that’s putting to practice some of the "greenest" technologies in the building industry.

Nationwide, "green" building is the fastest growing sector in an otherwise floundering industry, and its reach is particularly strong in the West where a number of emerging green architecture and engineering firms are putting their stamps on the West's fast-growing cities, including Missoula. [more]

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