From The New West Blog
The WUI and The Western Fire Season
Laura Zuckerman has a pretty comprehensive story today for Reuters that looks at the overall outlook of this summer's Western fire season, with a primer on how more homes in the Wildland Urban Interface (know as the WUI) and the effects of global warming are changing the regional and national, approach to firefighting.
That's not really news to most of us in the West who have watched tactics evolve first from the warfare-like 10 a.m. rule to a realization in the 60s and 70s that fires are natural and in some cases, should be managed, not suppressed. Now though, fire managers stuck trying to balance managing fires for natural benefit and protecting property (and in some cases lives) as more and more homes creep closer to the wildland interface. Throw global warming into the mix and you're also weighing which fires are natural and beneficial to the ecosystem, and which can turn into catastrophic ones that can actually do more harm than good -- in the remote wildlands or in the interface.
Oh, and then there's the question of how to fund all of this.
Zuckerman's story doesn't fully address all the issues hanging out there, but it does raise some of the more important ones and gives some good fodder to think about and discuss as we head into another fire season.
[more]
Understanding the land you live on
A Sense of Place: Microclimates in Your Backyard
In the Intermountain West climate varies – by elevation, aspect, within valleys and even within backyards.
In natural landscapes, the varieties of plants (and where they grow) offer clues to microclimates. But man-made landscapes (like wheat fields and blue grass lawns) “mask” the diversity of climate within. The mask leads landowners to assume that the climate on their property is all the same. They discover their mistake when their plantings fail.
Natural features like elevation, aspect, and wind affect local climate, and therefore your backyard is a microclimate.
[more]
guest column
Building a New and Sustainable Residential Model
About a year ago, a client of mine came to me and asked me to design a house that would have no energy bill -- a "Net Zero House," producing as much energy as it used. During the same year, I found that my energy bill for my own house was beginning to become much more of a burden on our family budget. These two events led me to research energy costs and how those costs are impacting the average American household. It was immediately clear from the research that energy prices are outpacing income and our current way of building houses will create energy bills that will not be sustainable for the average household. [more]
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timberlands and real estate
Missoula County Asks Mark Rey to Halt Plum Creek Talks
Wednesday the Missoula County Commissioners sent a letter to Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey asking him to drop consideration of the forest road easement amendment until the documents proposed for amendment have been identified and made available to the public.
The commissioners wrote: "...the failure to identify, review, and properly reference the easements to be amended will make the proposed Easement Amendment legally void, and the process leading up to your expected approval fatally flawed."
Rey, overseer of the Forest Service, said during a meeting last week with officials from western Montana that he would not make the paperwork available and invited a lawsuit, which appears imminent.
[more]
MSU Wheeler Center Annual Spring Conference
A Discussion on Montana’s Energy and Agriculture FutureWhat does the future of agriculture and energy in Montana appear to be, particularly in the variable climate challenges we face?
This is the spotlight of the discussion at the Burton K. Wheeler Center’s statewide conference next week, “Climate Change in Montana: Impacts and Opportunities for Energy and Agriculture.”
On May 12-13, an immense conversation between the agriculture and energy sectors, environmental, educational and state agencies, legislators, officials and climate scientists will focus on Montana’s energy and agriculture sectors’ innovations and opportunities, climate challenges and its impacts, and future prices and outlook.
[more]
guest opinion: plum creek and mark rey
Backdoor Deals on Public Lands Deeply DisappointingIn Montana, we are proud of our sunshine laws that keep government actions open and responsive to the public. Unfortunately, the laws that apply to the federal government are not as enlightened, which can sometimes lead to nasty surprises from Washington—surprises that impact the clean water and open spaces we treasure on our public lands.
Montanans got just such a surprise two weeks ago, when the Missoula County Commissioners and Senator Jon Tester discovered that Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, the Bush Administration political appointee who oversees the Forest Service, has been quietly negotiating a backroom deal with real estate developer Plum Creek.
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By spending time with the land, you know
Sense of Place: Understanding Microclimates in the Gallatin Valley
Most people are aware of regional differences in climate. The Southeast is hot and humid. The Southwest is hot and dry. But in the Intermountain West, mountains affect air currents and moisture distribution to create many microclimates within just one valley. Visitors don’t recognize those microclimates. Most residents find out about them by trial and error.
At the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, I met a couple in their mid 30’s that were visiting from Las Vegas. They said they were tired of the rat race and were looking for a place with a little acreage, to garden and maybe raise some livestock. The first question they asked me was “How much snow do you get here?”
“It depends on what part of the Gallatin Valley you are in,” I replied. They looked at me blankly.
“The climate isn’t the same across the whole valley,” I explained.
[more]
New West News Brief
TERRA Video Series Explores Bison Issue
As the controversy over the Yellowstone National Park’s population of bison continues, Bozeman-based TERRA shares a three-part video series on the “free-ranging” population’s scenerio and the hazing that is occurring. (Click video above for a preview of the series.)
As there are passionate people on both sides of the debate, this series tries to understand all sides of this issue.
[more]
Guest Commentary: George Wuerthner's "On the Range"
Conservation Easements: The Need for Closer ScrutinyWith development pressures increasing on lands throughout the country, particularly in amenity-driven regions like the Rockies, Pacific Northwest, Northeast and elsewhere, the use of conservation easements to preclude subdivisions and other developments has become the conservation method of choice for many non-profit and governmental organizations. [more]
