Retrievers should wait, too

Boise River Too High for Floating

It’s going to be hot this weekend – in the ‘90s, says KIVI Ch. 6 Weatherguy Scott Dorval, but despite the wild temptation to mark the start of warm weather, don’t float the Boise river yet.

Waiting to float is a deep personal sacrifice for us, but we’ll do it. Actually, not do it. Right, Boiseans?

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.

NewWest.Net Conferences

Designing the New West

The Designing the New West: Architecture and Landscape in the Mountain West Conference is wrapping up here in Bozeman at the historic Gallatin Gateway Inn. Put on by NewWest.Net and sponsored by the Sonoran Institute, the conference brought together designers from all over the country to explore innovative design ideas, identify best practices, and better understand how to bridge the gap between good architectural theory and sometimes-messy building practices in the fastest growing region in the nation.

A mix of presentations and engaging panel discussions tackled pressing Western issues like sustainable development, land design and the special challenges of urban, rural and resort design, historic preservation and affordable housing.

Click on the photo or here for a slideshow of the days' events. Click "more" for a recap of the conference.

growth and rivers

Making the Case for Streamside Setbacks

Streamside setback regulations protect a stream from “death by a thousand cuts” hydrogeologist Dr. Chris Brick told City Club Missoula at its monthly luncheon Monday.

By themselves, a single home or a stretch of rip-rapped bank do not present much danger to a stream, but collectively, all the structures, armored stretches of bank and cleared riparian vegetation do, said Brick, the staff scientists for the Clark Fork Coalition, an organization focused on community development and environmental protection of the Clark Fork River.

“What we’re concerned about is how we can maintain our Montana values for our streams and rivers in the face of lots of people wanting to come here,” Brick said.

A Little More Room to Breathe

Yellowstone Bison Agreement Provides Additional Habitat

For the first time in a decade, wild bison will be allowed to legally roam outside of Yellowstone National Park.

The purchase of the cattle grazing rights from the Church Universal and Triumphant’s Royal Teton Ranch will provide an approximate 5,000-acre “zone” where bison can roam outside of the park boundary while having little-to-no risk of possible interaction and transmission of brucellosis to Montana’s cattle.

Although too small in landmass to provide the title “Free-ranging Yellowstone bison," the range is released through a pact agreement and collaboration between three federal agencies, two Montana agencies, one private landowner and a coalition of four non-profit organizations.

Bison Update

Yellowstone Bison and the Fate of the Royal Teton Ranch Lease

As changing land use and attitudes toward bison open the possibility for reduced conflict between bison, cattle and humans on the west side of Yellowstone National Parl, a potential deal on the north side of the park could allow bison to follow a traditional migration corridor for the first time in a long time. But the deal is short some $1.5 million from the federal government, and it is also not without criticism from bison advocates.

Bison Management

Bison Slaughter, Funding Woes and Landowner Demands at Horse Butte

Yellowstone Park and the Montana Department of Livestock sent this winter’s 991st bison to slaughter on Tuesday morning, and as the Billings Gazette reported, that number paired with the 166 killed in state and tribal hunts means nearly one quarter of the park’s 4,700 bison have been killed this winter. This year’s tally is the largest number of bison killed in a single winter, but not the highest percentage, which occurred in the 1996-97 winter when nearly one-third of the park’s 3,500 bison were killed. Park spokesman Al Nash said the park’s bison management strategies ensure genetic diversity and described the park’s bison population as “robust.”

Meanwhile, 69 landowners in the Horse Butte area filed a letter with Earthjustice addressed to four Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) signatories demanding all haze and slaughter operations in the Horse Butte area cease until an Environmental Impact Statement addresses the changing nature of the now cattle-free peninsula.

And if bison weren’t in the news enough, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle is reporting the Animal Health and Inspection Service (APHIS) doesn’t have the federal funds to complete a grazing lease on the Royal Teton Ranch, which would allow bison to access about 7,500 acres of winter habitat north of Gardiner.

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Pharmaceutical Report Begs the Question ‘What’s in Your Water?’

A few weeks ago I wrote on the always hot-button issue of water politics in the West, and a framework developed by Western Progress for divvying up the precious resource. They need to go back to the drawing board and figure in a new problem in the whole configuration -- how to make that water safe.

Editor's note: Joan McCarter's weekly blogs are part of NewWest.Net/Politics' "Diary of a Mad Voter" feature, a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post's Politics WestFor more columns check in with www.newwest.net/madvoter.

guest column

The True Cost of Brucellosis

During a recent call-in program on Montana's Yellowstone Public Radio, at time marker 22.30 minutes, I posed the following question to Senator John Tester:

"It has been shown that in Wyoming, loss of brucellosis-free status between 2004 and 2006 only cost livestock producers one percent of total production costs. Given that brucellosis clearly is not a serious economic threat to Western livestock producers, why do you continue to support the extravagantly wasteful Interagency Bison Management Plan?"

Senator Tester's answer clearly danced to a tune he didn't know well. We got the same awkward dance from retired Billings Gazette agricultural reporter Jim Gransbery, who appeared on the show with Senator Tester.