Western Biofuels Research

Sustainable Oils, a new joint venture between Seattle-based Targeted Growth and Houston-based Green Earth Fuels, will be expanding in Bozeman soon. The research and development center will provide genetically refined seeds to Montana camelina producers and will also purchase camelina crops produced from those seeds through contractual agreements. The harvest will then be refined to produce biodiesel – 100 million gallons worth by 2010, according to the company.

The European Camelina sativa plant is particularly suited for Montana’s cool, arid climate. Recent support for biofuel production of camelina from Governor Brian Schweitzer and Montana Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester is creating a friendlier environment for camelina producers in Montana; first-time camelina growers in the 32 counties covered by Montana's Agro Energy Plan can now recoup some of their seed costs.

“I believe Montana is going to be the poster child for developing a crop like this because of the great support from Helena and the industry at large,” Sustainable Oils President Donald Panter posits. [more]

Delisting the Gray Wolf

With the federal government inching toward removing the gray wolf from the Endangered Species List, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (MFWP) is allowing the public until February 13, 2008 to comment on the proposed wolf season.

According to MFWP, there were a minimum of 316 wolves in Montana at the end of 2006. There are approximately 1,500 wolves in the Northern Rockies.

Among the three Northern Rockies wolf states (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming), Montana is leading the way in an effort to manage the wolf as any other wildlife species. In 2001, a broad-based, citizen-led Wolf Management Advisory Council released a report followed by the MFWP’s draft Montana Wolf Conservation Management Planning Document in 2002. This process laid the framework for Montana's current management plan.

Montana’s process stands in contrast to Wyoming’s wolf management plan, which the federal government rejected in 2004. Federal delisting is currently stalled pending a lawsuit over the new Wyoming plan. [more]

Documentary Looks at Wolf Reintroduction

No wildlife species is as iconic and controversial as the wolf. Canis Lupus is a symbol of wildness and healthy ecosystems to some, but to others it is a callous killer and an economic threat.

Loathed and loved, the American Gray Wolf has gone through a tumultuous history in the West. They were hunted as vermin to virtual extinction by the early 20th Century, reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, and now are around 1,500-strong across the Northern Rockies. Biologists say wolves are officially recovered in the West and should be removed from the Endangered Species List, but – true to form – disagreements over wolf management between pro-wolf and anti-wolf groups has delisting at a standstill.

In 1999, journalist William Campbell began a documentary film to tell the story of what wolf reintroduction meant for people living in wolf territory. The result, “Wolves in Paradise,” sheds invaluable light on this story, giving a face and a voice to the many people trying to live with this species. [more]

Introducing...

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In the Spring Issue and online here:

• Montana’s Cash Cowboy
• Real Ranch Living: Not Everyone is Selling Out
• Essay: The Family Farm, Version 2.0
• Essay: Tracks Across A Landscape
• Have Your Ranch & Develop It, Too
• Design Showcase: The Big and Little of Western Building
• Stuff It: Can Wolf Hunting Help Conserve the Species?
• Traffic Perplexes New Western Communities
• Boise in Its Own Little Bubble
• Revenge of the Resource Economy
• Spotlight North Idaho: On the Agenda: Youth, Growth & Silver
• Spotlight North Idaho: Players of the Panhandle
• Spotlight North Idaho: Coeur d’Alene Tribe Rides the Idaho Boom

[more]

By Robert Struckman, 2-01-08 | comments (23) | email story | print story

 

Popular trailhead transferring from private to public property

It may only be about four acres, but the land that encompasses and surrounds the west side of the Bozeman Creek Trailhead is the base of one of the most popular recreational destination points in the valley, and now, that land is guaranteed to be protected in perpetuity.

Landowners, Michael Delaney and Ileana Indreland, decided to give a parcel of their land to the Gallatin Valley Land Trust instead of pursuing potential development. This donation will ensure public access to one of Bozeman’s most used, and loved, trails for both winter and summer recreation. This donation also marks the first time the Land Trust has taken outright ownership of property. [more]

Conservation and Ranching

Sun Ranch owner and Sun Ranch Institute Board Chairman Roger Lang is currently working with the Forest Service and the Trust for Public Land to add about 11,000 acres to an existing 6,800 acres of conservation easements on his Madison Valley property. Lang, a former Silicon Valley CEO, purchased the ranch ten years ago. Using an experimental “Sun Ranch Model,” Lang has strived to balance conservation and ranching on his wildlife-rich property, most famously amidst reintroduced gray wolves.

The publicly funded $4.5 million easement will include 10 three-acre building envelopes in the Papoose Creek area, but it will also erase over 200 platted subdivision lots from previous property owners over vast stretches of the property.

Wild bison advocates are embracing the easement cautiously; initial negotiations include talk of studying genetically pure bison on land within the easement. Bison advocates worry domestic bison would preclude chances for the traditional bison range to again carry wild bison populations, but Lang says the hope is to one day open the property to wild bison should the politically sensitive issue of brucellosis become resolved.

“If and when society says ‘let’s let bison roam again,’ then I want to be in a position to help,” Lang says. “I don’t want this easement to preclude Sun Ranch from participating in those kinds of issues.” [more]

The Big Hole Valley Saga Continues...

A critical 2,600-acres in the Big Hole Valley that contain two crucial tributaries for the imperiled river-dwelling Artic grayling, is now covered under a Nature Conservancy conservation easement.

The Wisdom River Ranch, a working cattle ranch, is one of 30 other ranches in the Big Hole Valley who are a part of a major effort to improve the fisheries in the remaining 4 percent of grayling habitat. But with continued water shortages, landowners, guide businesses, management, municipalities and ranchers have strained to make collective efforts to maintain the lifeblood of the valley.

In a two-part film series titled, Fish and Cow, (Part 1 and Part 2), the Wisdom River Ranch and owner Guy Peterson, as well as other valley ranchers, discuss the previously hostile debate over the valley’s decreasing water, their livelihood raising cattle and hay, and the biological efforts to restore and maintain habitat for the artic grayling and other fish species. [more]

Interagency Bison Management Plan

Bison are powerful American icons and stir deep emotions in many different people. The Interagency Bison Management Plan (IBMP) meeting in Bozeman last Tuesday night was testament to this; dreadlocks and cowboy hats commingled as officials from federal and state agencies presented an update on the IBMP and answered an array of questions on what they predicted the coming winter would hold for Yellowstone’s bison.

In panel discussions and public discussion sessions with the IBMP’s five signatory agencies, officials had one overarching message: all agencies would be fully implementing the IBMP this winter, including – if necessary – the costly and controversial practices of hazing and slaughtering bison who wander out of the park.

Bison, elk and many other mammals carry the disease brucellosis, which showed up in a Montana cattle herd this summer. Though the Department of Livestock (DOL) says the transmission likely came from elk, if another cattle herd tests positive before May 2009 Montana will lose its brucellosis free status, and the DOL will not be taking any chances with bison. [more]

How Values of Property Differ

The urban and rural definitions of property and open space are colliding in the West. These differing definitions and lifestyles of rural and urban are fragmenting each other. Susan Duncan discusses if the current understanding between the urban and rural will allow both to maintain and to survive on the landscape of the West. -Editor's note

Open space and planning issues have brought forth the differences between our rural land-based culture and our mobile urban opportunity-based culture. (As I describe these lifestyles, remember these are both extreme stereotypes. Many people are hybrids of the two, including me.)

In a land-based lifestyle, the land is the only asset. This asset requires enormous commitment and deep family and community bonds to hold it together. The farm/ranch is not only home, but a livelihood, the family’s 401K and the keeper of the family heritage. The family business requires its members be on call 24 hours and 7 days a week. [more]

Is the Pint Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

Since humans began making beer nearly 6,000 years ago, few things have stood between them and the beloved beverage. Here in the U.S., Virginia Colonists first brewed ale from corn in 1587, and any given beer commercial today is proof beer still hasn't gone out of style. Even though taps went dry by decree during Prohibition, it did not last long (easy for us to say).

Today Americans are just as in love with suds as ever, and their pallets are becoming more and more discerning too. Craft brewers are cranking out many different flavorful beers, and Americans are thirsty for them. According to the Brewer’s Association, the craft beer industry’s sales have grown 31.5 percent over the last three years.

The bad news is, craft beers take a lot of hops to make, and a worldwide shortage of the ingredient is killing the buzz of craft beer brewers and drinkers everywhere. [more]