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An Amateur Photo Contest

Try to capture — in one photo — what you care about in the Gallatin Valley.

That is what dozens of amateur photographers strived to do as part of the Gallatin Valley Speaker Series photo contest “Shaping the Future of our Valley: Picturing our Place.”

With the Mayors of Three Forks, Manhattan, and Bozeman and a Gallatin County Commissioner as judges, the unveiling of the winners will be exhibited on Wednesday, March 26th at the Museum of the Rockies from 5:30-8pm.

There will also be a special evening presentation by world-renowned, Bozeman-based adventure photographer Gordon Wiltsie, sharing his stories of adventure and power of place. [more]

Across State Lines as a regional whole

The 25 counties that comprise of the Yellowstone-Teton region of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana may be separated by state lines, but all share common amenities: high-quality natural areas, extensive amount of public lands, large wildlife populations and plentiful outdoor recreation.

But this also subjects the region’s economy to seasonal fluctuation — a shared challenge between both the rural and urban centers. How does this region, which shares similar environment and economic drives, understand and coordinate with each other in order to turn on the off-season?

The Yellowstone Business Partnership recently completed the first phase of a research project to characterize and analyze off-season assets and economic opportunities in the region. Therefore, local businesses and governments can grasp the regional growth trends and build an understanding across jurisdictional boundaries and vast geography. The recently completed report can be found here. [more]

Which is more of value?

Downtowns are fragile areas in our Western landscape as the increase of big box stores sprout up and retailers sprawl outward from our cities’ core. Local commissions and groups seek out economic infusion, and sometimes as the cost of historic preservation.

In a hard decision on Monday night, the Bozeman City Commission decided to give the green light for the destruction and demolition of the 1941 Bozeman Armory, an art-deco style building listed on the National Register of Historic Places located in Downtown Bozeman.

The replacement will be a new 4-story, brick and glass façade building highlighted to have environmental qualities including an earth-covered roof laden with trees, water features and a glass lounge.

“We need to encourage investment downtown,” said Commissioner Jeff Krauss. “We need to look at what downtown needs now and in the future. It’s not just about building east and west, but also north and south.” [more]

TERRA film series

In today's Western landscape, ranchers are often faced with a decision to maintain their agricultural heritage or face rising costs and financial struggle. One rancher, Duke Phillips, discusses in a three part series how his holistic management practices are integrated with the health of the land, how this will extend the life of his ranch and the value of passing on a land-based lifestyle to his children.

See the trailer below, or visit Terra: the nature of our world, to view the full length series.

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Call-in and chat

Senator Jon Tester, D-MT will be taking live call-ins to answer questions and take comments on Yellowstone Public Radio tonight from 7-8pm. He will be joined with Jackie Yamanaka, YPR news director and Jim Gransbery, retired Billings Gazette agricultural and political reporter.

You can submit questions through YPR website or call 800-441-2941. You can also listen online or check the radio calls numbers for your area here. Please read details on how to participate. [more]

a one-stop guide

A new website highlighting Bozeman’s green building resources launched late last week, BozemanHouse.com

At a time when green building resources are disperesed in this town, its the first comprehensive guide to contractors, materials and financial incentives in Bozeman. The site is a non-commercial, community resource with links and listing.

The website was launched by Ron Gompertz, owner of Eco-Auto Dealership in Bozeman, as a way to track his own “extreme green makeover” of their home on 810 S. Willson, across from the Story Mansion, and share their findings with the community.
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Bison families are no different from mine and yours

Bob Jackson is a member of the bison family — that is if more viewed a bison herd as a family unit.

Many NewWest.Net readers may be familiar with Bob Jackson from the five part series Todd Wilkinson wrote late last year. (Read the series here.) From this series, a local Livingston organization, Bison Vision, found Jackson’s views and perspectives — as a former Yellowstone Park ranger turned bison rancher — to be viable source for developing alternatives and sustainable practices in bison ranching.

Bob Jackson is the only rancher in the world who raises bison and sells them as a family unit. “Yellowstone is why I started raising bison the way I do,” he said. “I have more feelings for what is happening here.”

He will be hosting a presentation tonight in Livingston on the structure of the bison herds in Yellowstone National Park, how they live as an extended family network and social order (similar to the social structure of indigenous people and elephants) and how ranchers or families can raise bison practicing this idea. [more]

Popular winter playground slides

An avalanche death in Beehive Basin outside of Big Sky, Montana yesterday brings the reminder that our winter playground is not inconsequential under the weight of 4 feet of new snow received in the past five days.

The two skiers were on the ridge between Middle and Beehive basin. They had dug a stability pit on the northeast-facing slope but they had not tested the stability of the southwest-facing aspect where the avalanche occurred.

The two skiers picked a line just a few feet to the left of lines another party had skied just prior. The victim was caught in the 400-500 foot wide, 1-3 feet deep avalanche and swept him 500 vertical feet into a group of trees below. Although he was unburied in 10 minutes with three separate groups witnessing and assisting in the rescue, he had unfortunately died of trauma. [more]

Big Sky Nordic Skiing

Lone Mountain Ranch, the historic and premiere Nordic ski resort in Big Sky, recently sold to Everlands and will soon become a part of the worldwide luxury resort network, available only on a member-basis.

Since 1977, Bob and Vivian Schaap have operated Lone Mountain Ranch as a guest ranch offering fly-fishing and horseback riding in the summer and 80km of cross country ski trails in the winter. Due to the ski trail’s integral part of the Big Sky community, the Schaap’s have made strict agreements with the future owners to continue public access and maintenance on all Nordic ski trails. [more]

A recap from Southwest Montana

Here's a fantasitc roundup from the best of 2007 NewWest.Net/Bozeman articles.

Read the poignant articles on growth and development in Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley. Or the lively conversation on Yellowstone Bison management in Southwest Montana. And of course, stories about our unique character that we have here for, particularly our profile series of Gallatin Valley's 400+ non-profit organizations.

This year's recap after the jump.
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