My Page: Lucia Stewart

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We all care for this land

Last week I spent two days with 20 ranchers and 2 journalists. Everyone except the journalists wore boots and pants. Everyone except the journalists was up early. At times I felt totally out of place, yet right at home.

I know I come from a different breed, a more urban outlook. That is why I was nervous to attend the Undaunted Stewardship tour with the Montana Stockgrowers Association, knowing I would be on a tour bus, eating three meals a day with folks that I didn’t think I would have much in common with, nor really know what to discuss. As a journalist, of course I’m going to undertake the challenge, and I sure didn’t expect to be so enthralled, tutored and standing on the same ground as my weathered neighbor. [more]

Is trouble in paradise really over?

The battle over control of the exclusive Yellowstone Club may be coming to n end, reports the Wall Street Journal, with Edra Blixseth taking over her estranged husband Tim's 50% stake and becoming the sole owner of the club.

The deal came as part of the couple's divorce settlement, the Journal reported (though the Journal last year ran a story characterizing the divorce as a model of amicability, and that turned out to be far from the case). The story of the club's woes has turned into a veritable courtroom soap opera, echoing with phrases such as "liquidity crisis," "breach of fiduciary duty" and "hopelessly conflicted."

The Journal says Edra will bring in Discovery Land Co. to manage the club, which is struggling with a heavy debt load and a cratering real estate market. At least some club members, who are horrified by the negative publicity, have told New West they favor professional management.

History suggests this is not the end of the story, so stay tuned.

[more]

Late Fun in the Summertime

It’s the weekend to get out and enjoy the rivers, as they've reached their max and the weather is going to be 80’s-90’sF and sunny across Montana. To many of us, it seems like an amazing year of river flows, but not so.

“This is historically a normal year in Montana,” said Mel White, chief of the data management unit for the USGS in Helena. “We have just forgotten about what normal is because we’ve had a drought in effect for at least the past seven to eight years.”

Because of the unusually high snowpack along with the timely late May and June rains, the rivers have continued to rise up to this point. White concluded they have peaked and starting on their way down.

“It’s a good thing,” said White. “Due to the increase moisture in the high country, it will keep the fisheries happy and curtails our fire season.” [more]

Conflicts between State and Development

A month after a Helena judge ordered Montana DEQ to issue a permit to a gravel-pit developer in Gallatin County because of environmental assessment time delays, a Big Sky developer used the same court ruling in attempts to obtain a water permit from the DNRC for groundwater pumping that Fish, Wildlife, and Parks says will have negative flow affects on the Gallatin River.

The DEQ, according to the Environmental Policy Act, must complete an environmental assessment and, in accordance with the Opencut Mining Act, issue a permit within 60 days of acknowledging an application – a potential conflict in Montana laws. The Belgrade News reports the Montana DEQ currently has four staff to cover the state on open-cut mining, where currently 200 permits are awaiting approval and ES statements.

Originally, the gravel pit owners used this loophole when their expansion projects were threatened when the Gallatin County Commission considered adopting emergency interim zoning due to the sudden four gravel pit applications and being amidst the Countywide Planning and Zoning. Although hours after the permit was court ordered the Gallatin County Commissioners immediately adopted interim zoning, it was ruled the interim zoning would be exempt from the gravel pits’ permits. [more]

When can a community afford to say no?

A moratorium on all new 20-acres or more development applications in Teton County, Wyoming until Dec. 31, 2008 has left a litigious air in the majestic Jackson Hole Valley.

Teton Meadows Ranch filed a lawsuit last week to reverse the moratorium, which was approved by commissioners one day prior to the development’s scheduled hearing.

The moratorium has essentially killed their 500-unit, 288-acre development in South Park, 4miles south of Jackson, which contained the condition to rezone the rural 50-home zoning allotment — a density 10 times more than is currently allowed. Many residents began “emergency” conversation with the commission in March when two additional projects, both in the South Park area, submitted plans for rezoning to allow 614-units, a total of over 1,000 new residences projected in the area.

Jackson faces a tough challenge of how and where to grow. Overflow from Teton County, Wyoming over Teton Pass into Teton County, Idaho has become rampant. [more]

Telluride MountainFilm Review

In Bristol Bay, Alaska, a controversial copper and gold mine is proposed at the headwaters of Talarik Creek and Koktuli River, the world’s largest salmon fishery where tens of millions of trophy-size salmon spawn each year.

The film, Red Gold, tells a story of Native American sustenance-users, Alaskan commercial fisherman and sport fisherman that all share the commonality of salmon fishing at the core of their existence. For the first time, all user groups have come together in opposition of Pebble Mine development — the story at the heart of this film.

Ben Knight, the co-director of Red Gold, had a goal of no narration in this film. After 10 years at a newspaper industry, he wanted to be unbiased as possible. “I wanted people to tell the story the way they wanted it to be heard,” he said. [more]

A Small Town VS Big Development

The City of Telluride, Colorado is rejoicing this week after a Supreme Court 6-1 ruling found the condemnation of 572-acre Valley Floor lawful and within the city's jurisdiction.

This stretch of red-carpet open space that leads into Telluride is a decade-old battle that shows what a little town with a large motive can do in the face of big development.

After the town condemned the open space acreage under the Colorado Constitutional right for a city municipalities use of eminent domain, the developer Neal Blue and the San Miguel Valley Corporation worked on passing the “Telluride Amendment” to HB1203 in the 2004 Colorado Legislature term that made it unlawful to allow this kind of acquisition and condemnation outside city boundaries. [more]

VOTE on TUESDAY, June 3rd

Voting in Montana primaries is easy. You pick one political party and vote that ballot. And how exciting to be a part of a primary that the entire nation is keening watching.

You don’t have to vote your own party or belong to any party. You just have to follow through and vote just one party’s ballot.

More after the jump on where to vote, candidate information... [more]

A Festival Wrap-Up

Surprisingly, I never saw an adrenaline-based movie at Mountainfilm Festival.

Even though it was founded 30 years ago on subject of climbing and mountains, it has reached beyond its boundaries to reveal through art, books, films, presentations, and round-tables conversation, the current conditions of the world, people who have or are influencing the greater good, and that which provides a sense of place and hope in the world.

“It’s amazing to see so many people who care and want to see and learn what is happening in the world,” said Ben Skinner, winner of the Mountain Film Prize for his work on freeing modern-day slaves.
[more]

Telluride MountainFilm Festival

“Growth itself is not the enemy, it is the nature of that growth and the quality within it.”

It’s a story of development, citizen campaign and the future of open space. Sound familiar?

The film, The Unforeseen, is a complex story about the development of the rural land outside of Austin, Texas, but has themes that ring true in the Northern Rockies. [more]

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