A workshop on the cleanup and reuse of brownfields will be held today, Thursday, Sept. 4, at the Missoula City Council Chambers at 140 W. Pine St. and, in the afternoon, at the Missoula County Courthouse less than a block away at 200 W. Broadway, rooms 201 and 374.

Anyone interested is welcome to attend, including local officials, developers, landowners, bankers, lenders, community leaders, attorneys and consultants as well as the general public or anyone who fits some, all or none of the labels mentioned above. (Registration is $25 and can be done online or in person at 8 a.m. at the Council Chambers.) [more]

Edra Blixseth and the other top owner of the Yellowstone Club near Big Sky have retained an Arizona-based company to manage the private club and complete its long-overdue construction projects, according to an item on PR-inside.com.

Over the past year and more, the Yellowstone Club, the world's only private skiing and golf community, has been in and out of the news, thanks to the public divorce of owners Tim and Edra Blixseth as well as legal battles between owners and Tim Blixseth. Also, the club missed loan payments to creditor Credit Suisse and teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Earlier this year, Edra won control of the club and vowed to get its overdue construction back on track and to keep its business out of the public eye. [more]

Public Lands

The Bush Administration and conservation groups have reached a compromise agreement on rules governing roadless areas in the state, reports the New York Times. The deal involves the much-contested rules that Clinton Administration put in place banning road-building and other development on federal lands that don't already have roads - rules that were then reversed by the Bush Administration and have been the subject of a convoluted legal battle ever since. The Idaho compromise allows some road-building to log burned areas, and opens up some acreage for development in exchange for continued protection of most roadless areas, according to the Times.

News of Note

Wyoming's oil and gas industry is responsible for one in five jobs in the state and about one-third of the state's total economic output, according to a report detailed in today's Casper Star-Tribune

Business editor Tom Mast rounds up the highlights of the report, most of which confirm that while the direct economics of the industry are predictable, the "downstream" effects are even more staggering than one might expect.

As one investigator says, "It shows vulnerabilities associated with oil and gas in that it's such a large portion of Wyoming's economy." [more]

guest commentary

What is it about Lolo Peak that stirs the emotions of so many people? Maybe it’s the beauty and comfort we find gazing from the vehicle or kitchen window, reminding us why we live and work here. Perhaps it is the memories of family hikes or winter excursions, or the fabulous close-to-home white-tail and elk hunting.

One thing's for sure: thousands of western Montana citizens are concerned that this great place on our public lands might be sliced and diced so that a handful of people can make millions on real estate. Lolo Peak is already serving a useful economic, ecological and social purpose -- in its current condition. [more]

Environment in the West

Idaho Conservation League director Rick Johnson said the group won’t lose its vigilance over Idaho watershed quality, but that working with Formation Capital to plan a mining operation has been better than being antagonists.

Formation Capital Corp. is a Canadian mining company planning a cobalt mining operation in the Upper Salmon River region. There is abundant cobalt in the area, and Formation Capital plans to mine about 1,500 tons a year using underground mining techniques.

The company and the ICL announced an agreement and “ongoing working relationship” Monday at a press conference in Boise. The deal-broker is Cecil Andrus, four-term governor of Idaho and former Secretary of the Interior. Andrus is both a director of Formation Capital and a founding member of the ICL. He told reporters that he’d studied the Idaho Cobalt Project and endorses the company’s commitment to a protection program which includes annual meetings with the ICL. “This is a historic occasion,” said Andrus. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a real working relationship with people who have no reason to be adversaries, but traditionally have been.” [more]

PICKENS' CHARGE

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is a geologist by training, but lately he’s been testing the wind. The real wind, and the political winds.

Pickens looks at the eastern edge of the Rockies and sees a massive generator – a wind corridor that could host thousands of wind turbines and satisfy a big chunk of our nation’s energy needs. [more]

From The New West Blog

Edra Blixseth has officially taken over 50 percent ownership of the elite Yellowstone Club from her estranged husband, billionaire timber baron Tim Blixseth, Forbes reports.

It's the result of a messy divorce settlement struck in early July that was delayed. [more]

guest commentary

For anyone who has been hiking in the mountains of Montana or has flown into Missoula on a clear day, the beauty of the area is often tinged with a multitude of dirt-colored bands that wrap around the mountains like topographic lines on a map. The bands are logging roads, dirt tracks that wind up seemingly every slope in some areas. I was near Nine Mile in just such a valley several weeks ago. It could have been an image from a glossy magazine ad but for the foreground of large patches of clear-cut forest and roads that spiraled endlessly around every bend.

As I hiked I couldn’t help but feel a loss. The forest was scared deeply by the cuts and roads. But while I might have once seen logging in this area as unpardonable, a sin against the beauty of the place, now my feelings of loss were met equally with a new acceptance of logging. Things have changed. I’ve gotten some perspective. Some of that perspective came about 50 miles north of Nine Mile in Plains, Montana. [more]

Sheridan - Think of Wyoming as the giant ocean that it once was, with vast stretches of water between islands and atolls. Imagine traveling by boat. The more time and money it costs to reach each island, the more isolated it becomes – unless it has something singular to offer. The plain jane atolls affording nothing but tidal pools and coconuts eventually are ignored all together.

The high cost of fuel, circa 2008, has the same isolating factors on Wyoming as the oceans of yore.

Never mind the irony about how much fuel we produce. Wyoming communities, especially the small ones, depend on cheap oil. Wyoming relies on the outside world for practically everything. The more it costs to deliver those goods, the more they're going to cost the populace. [more]