Livingston Weekly

Annual Manual 2009 to Hit the Stands July 11 after Printer Delays Resolved

Still Looking for the Annual Manual?

Hey...so are we!

The local printer has still not yet had effective communication with us or delivered a product as scheduled.  In other words, nothing distributable has printed and we are not getting calls back regarding the printer errors.

We are working to get this product out on the streets as soon as possible, but are working within very difficult constraints to do so.

Hopefully, we'll get this great product out in Livingston and the surrounding area by the end of the week, and we sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused our readers or clients.  We strive to deliver and follow through on all of our products and feel it best to be forthright about this complication.

If we have to go to the next state to get it printed, we will, so thanks for your patience and understanding and we can guarantee this: The 2009/2010 Annual Manual will be worth the wait!

-Reilly Neill, Publisher

Livingston Current

406.222.3633

Where is the Annual Manual?

For the past three months, the staff at the LIvingston Current has been working hard to compile the 2009/2010 Annual Manual publication for the Livingston community.

From local artist David Swanson, who provided nearly 100 original art works for the product to the LIvingston Chamber staff, who worked for weeks to develop comprehensive Chamber member listings for the Chamber Guide within, many in the community have put considerable effort into helping craft a unique product which is more than a visitor and relocation guide and also a great celebration of area culture and activity.

For many months we have scheduled and attended planning meetings for this product with the printer, sent numerous emails confirming printing schedules and made dozens of calls to touch base.  Still, when we went to pick up our product Friday afternoon, only a small regular issue of the Current scheduled to appear inserted in the Manual was bundled un-inserted on the docks of our printer.  Attempts to contact the printer—for nearly five days from upload to scheduled print and press check—were unsuccessful.

As publisher I want to assure our contributors, clients and readership that we will soon have a product on the way and an explanation for the error.

We can only assume that this has been an honest error on the part of the local printer.  If the error is our own, we will certainly make this known, but we strive to have integrity in this community and as a business in business with the public and for the pubic, we do hold our company to a high standard when it comes to follow-through.

Holiday weekend or not, when we make a commitment to our readership, we always intend to follow through, and want it known we continue to work to bring this product to the community.

As publisher, I thank all who have worked hard on this project and again restate my commitment to deliver the Annual Manual whatever it may take.  Clients or readers who wish to discuss this matter further are welcome to contact me directly at (406) 222-3633 for information, and I will be happy to share contact information regarding the Enterprise staff responsible for our print if there are further questions.

Reilly Neill

Publisher

Livingston Current Productions

Montana Grizzly Encounter: At Home with Livingston's Largest Celebrity

At the top of Bozeman pass, wide vistas of high mountains span the horizon.  A sign points to Jackson Creek Road and an impressive log-sided enclosure marks the boundary of grizzly bear terrain.  Inside the boundary, two 20-year old females, a 7-year-old juvenile male and two 3-year-old cubs forage for food, root in the spring grass, swim in a deep pool and climb boulders for a better view of their surroundings.  

At the entrance to the enclosure is an unassuming sign, “Montana Grizzly Encounter,” but inside the high chain-link fence it is apparent that Brutus, Christy, Shina, Jake, and Maggie are much more than another roadside attraction.

The oldest male, Brutus, is sometimes visible from the highway, sniffing the air from the high rocks surrounding his concrete enclosure.  At nearly 950 pounds, Brutus is arguably Livingston’s largest new celebrity co-host of a national television series.

National Geographic Wild recently aired the first of many episodes starring Brutus in  “Expedition Grizzly.”  Owner Casey Anderson narrates commentary on wild animal behavior in the national forest near Yellowstone Park and then simulates the action with Brutus as the obliging sidekick/stunt bear.

Brutus is an obvious showman.  During a later video conference interview via skype with Oprah Winfrey, Brutus appears to be a camera hog and natural ham.  Easily influenced by sugary treats, he happily attempts to follow instructions for a screen test before settling front and center of attention.

“We call him ‘King Brutus,’” Anderson says,”He can’t catch a fish...We imagine he’d want his salmon sauteed in butter and garnished with lemon.”

Due to the publicity from the National Geographic show, Anderson says he has heard from people around the world—from China to New Zealand and South Africa—who have been amazed by this nearly-mature grizzly who appears as sensitive and playful as an oversized collie pup.

Three years ago, Anderson remarked that Brutus was a “young actor,” and now he is coming into his prime of life, acting in Animal Planet commercials, stealing scenes in feature films and working in public service announcements.

Brutus was born in a captive breeding facility in Idaho but the facility could not sell the bear and was prepared to euthanize him when Grizzly Encounter intervened.

“Brutus went from being ‘unknown result’ to one of the most famous grizzly bears in the world right now,” says Anderson, who, along with Montana Grizzly Encounter manager Amy Otten has raised the bear from his birth.

A Place to Call Home

Montana Grizzly Encounter is the 6-year-old brainchild of bear activist, biologist and animal enthusiast Anderson, a child that was born out of seeing the bad side of captive wildlife,  “Most of it is strictly for profit with no effort to give back to the animals,” says Anderson.  

With captive animals often comes a controversy that a circus mentality is present.  “Everyone would hope there would be no captive animals,” says Anderson, “but these bears cannot live in the wild.”

While both Anderson and Amy Otten travel with Brutus to film shoots or for public appearances, Otten is the primary manager of the facility, and lives on-site to monitor all of the bears on a daily basis.  “It’s not a job, it’s a life,” Otten says.

Each bear at Grizzly Encounter has a unique history.  Recently, the staff at the site chose to invest in helping two new bears rather than continue ornamental improvements in the bear enclosure.

“The cubs were worth it,” says Otten.

The 3-year-old cubs, a male and a female, were living in dog kennels before being transferred to a zoo in Oregon.  The zoo was unable to house the animals and Grizzly Encounter stepped up to offer their facility.

“The older girls didn’t want to be outside so much anymore,” says Anderson of the two 23-year-old twin female bears, Christy and Shina.  Having the extra space outside allowed the staff at Grizzly Encounter to take on the sizable commitment of the two additional cubs, one of which may grow to be an adult male larger than Brutus, notes Anderson.

The twin females were the first bears to come to the facility.  The bears had been purchased for use in a circus but their owners never trained them.

“They had great plans for the little cubs,” says Anderson, “but they didn’t realize it’s really difficult to make money with bears.”  Instead, the owners kept the bears in small 6-foot cages for almost 18 years.

“The cages were just hosed out and food was thrown in,” Anderson says, “and the only lock on the gate was a rope.  They could have opened the door with one swat but they were so used to their captivity.”

When the bears first came to the facility, Anderson released them from their kennels and they walked 

over the first hill.

“They hated it,” Anderson says, “They had lived in these small cages in a dense wooded area and I think being able to see and smell—it scared them.  It took them two weeks to finally come around.”

When Christy and Shina started to get used to their surroundings, “They got in the pond and swam like little cubs,” Anderson says.  “Just what a little blade of grass was to them—it was amazing.”

Anderson notes that the older females and the younger additions will not be trained for performance as Brutus.  “They are bears that do not have the same connection with us,” says Anderson, “but we still want to provide the best life possible for them.”

“Brutus is a showman by nature,” Anderson adds, “He enjoys mental stimulus and a challenge...We only allow him to perform because he enjoys it.”

Although there are plans for future updates to the facility, including a trout aquarium and the replication of granite on the interior walls, at present taking care of the five bears is a considerable commitment.

Feed the Bears

  

Manager Amy Otten says donations from Lee and Dad’s IGA in Belgrade provide the main food source for the bears, along with donations from many local meat markets and game processors.

“The only reason bears hibernate is because of scarce food supplies in the wild,” says Otten.  The five bears at Grizzly Encounter stay awake all winter, and require a full diet year-round.

Otten notes that it’s sometimes difficult to find donated food sources to fit the requirements and needs of the bears.  Some sources require daily pickup or taking more than the bears would need at one time, like 15 pallets of frozen chicken recently donated from an Idaho food bank.  She notes that in such a case they were lucky because the food bank is storing the extra pallets and letting them take the chicken as needed.

Otten says donations of food for the bears are always welcome, and Grizzly Encounter staff can coordinate pickups on a regular or one-time basis.

The bears are 70 percent vegetarian and eat all kinds of vegetables and fruits as well as bison, elk, venison, chicken and bacon scraps.  Grizzly Encounter feeds the bears in their kennels and also stashes food within the enclosure every morning so the bears get to forage.

Brutus eats 35 pounds of food a day alone.  Anderson notes that bears in the wild will need to consume over 20,000 calories a day and sometimes have a range of over 3,000 miles.  “Some say that’s why the bears in Yellowstone are smaller.  They have to forage for food in a small area.  They have a hard life.”

Connecting to the Wild

One of the main objectives of Grizzly Encounter, and Brutus’ work on film, is to educate the public about bears.

“A lot of tourists come just off the highway on their way to Yellowstone or Glacier,” says Otten, making it a prime time to educate visitors about traveling in bear country.  The facility not only provides various educational and safety advisory placards on display at the bear enclosure, but also provides reference tools and even bear pepper spray in the office.  Admission to Grizzly Encounter is free for local schools, “because these kids are the future of bears’ preservation and conservation,” says Anderson.  

Often referring to Brutus as “an ambassador for his wild cousins” Anderson cites the bear’s ability to now reach millions of people.  Nearly 40 wild grizzlies died in the last year and Anderson says many of these deaths could have been avoided if people traveling through the wilderness were better informed about being in grizzly country.

A handsome and well-behaved grizzly can do wonders for perception and attention spans, says Anderson, admitting that Brutus’ showmanship is a hook.  “But it’s an effective hook,” he adds, “We can make a difference.”  The more people Brutus reaches, the more people may be inclined to pay attention to the plight of the wild grizzly currently facing habitat destruction and fragmentation in America’s wild lands.

As for Anderson’s on-camera interactions with the 950-pound Brutus, “I am very aware that he’s a grizzly bear and he could swap my head off with one whack,” Anderson stresses in nearly every public interview.  “This connection...comes from years of experience and training, and by no means should anybody ever be this close to a grizzly bear, whether it’s in the wild or in captivity.”

Plans to continue to connect viewers with wildlife will commence with the next scheduled episode of National Geographic Wild with Anderson which will feature Madison and Teton, two wolves Grizzly Encounter helped to place in the Wolfkeep facility near Potomac, Mont.  “It will be an insider’s view of wild wolves,” says Anderson.  The episode will attempt to dispel myths about the wolf as well as educate viewers about the animal’s habits and habitat.

Further episodes will feature an expedition to Kodiak, Alaska to film wild bears and attempt to teach Brutus to fish, and a predator/pray episode featuring the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

“Expedition Grizzly,” the first in the series, ran earlier this month but will air again on the National Geographic Channel.  Visit nationalgeographic.com or more information.

Grizzly Encounters

The five bears at Montana Grizzly Encounter Rescue and Education Sanctuary were born in captivity and could not today survive in the wild.  All were destined to be euthanized before arriving at the facility but now live peacefully within the enclosure, providing entertainment for passerby and facilitating the opportunity for bear awareness and education.

“We want to bring people in to see the bears but also fill them full of useful information.  We are trying to give back to the wild bears,” says Anderson.

Volunteers are always encouraged at the facility, says Manager Otten.  Although volunteers do not get to directly physically interact with the bears or enter their dens or enclosures, they are needed to become bear educators, work the ticket booth, and for general maintenance.   

Donations of Simple Green cleaner, blankets and any type of fruit are also welcome.  Otten says the Grizzly Encounter staff attempts to avoid feeding bears directly from the viewing platform of their enclosure to discourage begging behavior.  Vistors are welcome, however, to bring fruits for the bears which the bears will eat at mealtimes.

Montana Grizzly Encounter, located off Interstate 90 at the Jackson Creek Road exit, is open from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. every day with expanded hours in the summer.  For more information, call 586-8893 or visit the bears on the web at grizzlyencounter.com or brutusthebear.com. 

—Reilly Neill

PHOTOS BY LINDSAY WRIGHT

30 years of Livingston History ComesFull Circle On Stage in “The Fantasticks”

Photo by Scott Black

For director Bill Koch, the Blue Slipper Theatre’s latest show has been a long time coming. Thirty years ago in Livingston, Koch’s father told him how to get his foot in the theatre door—by learning the business from the ground up—performing menial but necessary tasks like taking coats and hats, passing programs and sweeping floors at the theatre. For the starry-eyed young aspiring actor, Koch says his first show at the Slipper was something truly special as he watched the magic build daily from nuts and bolts behind the scenes. That show was the first and only musical staged at the theatre and reopens now, 30 years later: “The Fantasticks,” by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.

Many audiences are familiar with the show, the longest running musical in the world to date and a fixture off Broadway for 42 years. But for the uninitiated, this show has elements of Shakespeare, Flaubert, Carl Jung, Dr. Seuss, John Waters, and a musical score to tie it all together. In a case of the whole emerging as much more than the sum of its parts, the result is a timeless classic of American theatre of which worldwide audiences never tire.

“It’s a quintessential love story,” says Koch. “It shows the dreaminess and fantasy of what we think love is when we’re young—although I don’t know if you ever lose it; we’re always capable of achieving that kind of stupidity and bliss.” The play certainly doesn’t allow the romantic ideal to prevail entirely, however. The mawkish mooning of the young lovers Matt (Micah Price) and Luisa (Jennie Lynn Stanley), eventually gives way to harsh realities each must face about their callow perceptions of love and the strength of their bond.

Although falsely feuding fathers Bellomy (Koch) and Hucklebee (Rick Nelson) conspire to unite Matt and Luisa, their efforts are no match for human nature or their children’s wanderlust. The well-intentioned parents further their scheme with a mock melodramatic kidnapping staged by worldly con artist El Gallo (John Sullivan) and his hokey henchmen, Henry the Old Actor (Gary Fish) and Mortimer “The Indian” or “The Man Who Always Dies” (Ray Ortega). El Gallo facilitates the corruption of young love’s naiveté and even dupes the young couples’ fathers, a sort of inevitable Judas, traitor to the immature love of these as-yet unseasoned lives.

The stage is primarily set by El Gallo’s narration. He asks the audience to remember their own youthful romantic yearnings, and his monologues evoke the sweet Septembers of a collective past. As the arc of the story progresses, the lighting, simple props and minimalist set design contribute to the plot only as signifiers—the story is carried on the tides of archetype, shared experience, nostalgia, and emotion.

Stark visual metaphors of props usually offered by “The Mute” (Audrey Laviolette)—a cardboard “Lover’s moon,” confetti for every kind of weather, a tree made of a dead branch and stick-on leaves—allow the audience to project its imagination onto the stage. “It’s storytelling for adults,” Koch says.

Piano accompanist Edie Linneweber underscores the emotional pacing of the play with theme music for each character, a soundtrack alongside the dialogue and body language of the play. “Every song has a meaning, a reason,” Koch says. “When they do happen, it’s a storytelling thing or an emotion-revealing characteristic.” For example, once the bloom is off the rose for the young couple, from, “This Plum is too Ripe”: “Take away the painted sunset; Take away the blue lagoon. What at night seems oh so scenic, May be cynic much too soon.”

Although Director (and father Bellomy) Koch describes the show as “campy in spots,” rife with exaggeration and overstatement, “blatant” costumes, tongue-in-cheek clichés and stereotypes, this caricature is a deliberate device of the storytelling. The deeper themes resonate through the broadly painted strokes of these elements and the comic relief, offering a post-modern moral of sorts.

“We overestimate what it is we really want…we make it bigger than it really is…we make mountains out of molehills,” Koch says. “If people could find this in real life--we’re all fallible, we all make mistakes, and our biggest fault as a people is that we don’t forgive,” Koch says.

A Love Affair With Theatre

In the March 1979 performance, local newspaper publisher John Sullivan played the main character, narrator and worldly trickster “El Gallo,” as well as directing the first staging at the Slipper. When Koch was mulling over the decision to stage the revival of “The Fantasticks,” he says he casually approached Sullivan with the idea to reprise his role as the dark thief of wide-eyed innocence. Koch says he got only a laugh from Sullivan initially, but later Sullivan appeared at auditions and won the role.

Spurred and encouraged by Sullivan’s sign-on, Koch says he began to contact other members of the original Blue Slipper cast to come to the show’s opening on Friday, September 13, 2008. Despite the passage of three decades, Koch was able to invite them all, and all were eager to join the reunion: Val Bryce (Luisa; she happened to be honeymooning in the area); Zach Woodhull (Matt), Arnold Huppert, Jr (father Bellomy).; Mike Art (Henry The Old Actor, just up the road at Chico Hot Springs), and local Dick Cain (Mortimer/The Indian) The only two who could not be physically in attendance are Barbara and Roger Case (The Mute and father Hucklebee). The couple had a prior commitment at another reunion, but told Koch they would be sending flowers for opening.

The board then agreed to make their opening a celebration of the cast of 30 years ago, as well as an opportunity to honor their sponsors and contributors over the years. “It’s a feel-good party for those who’ve contributed time and money over the years to get an acknowledgment for what they’ve done,” Koch says. The group of actors, patrons and theatre-lovers in attendance for the opening night had the added benefit of witnessing a rare reunion, one of the community-building experiences of local theatre.

This production is evidently deeply personal and nostalgic for Koch, but he makes no apologies. He intersperses the set with nods to the past—images of the past production amongst the confetti of the backdrop, and the use of the original lighting that John Sullivan bought for the first production. They are touches that no one else might notice, but part of his homage to the show and players that Koch says “changed the course of ambitions and aspirations” in his young life.

“I think we have to connect with what was; if we don’t remember what we’ve done, not just life but also theatre—you can’t look back and see the good or the bad and how to do better. Nothing ever starts where you begin. There’s always been people before us who’ve done the exact same thing.”

“The Fantasticks” runs weekends September 13 through October 4, 2008 at the Blue Slipper Theatre at 113 E. Callender St., Livingston. Call 222-7720 for reservations or show information.

—Jen Eames
editor@livingstonweekly.com

An Unchristian Policy of War and Greed

It’s election year and it’s time for Americans to put on their blinders, make their political allegiances and remain entrenched in their belief systems until the big storm blows over November 5.

At stake in this year’s elections? Two global issues: war and oil. As far as domestic issues, housing woes and the stumbling economy, even affordable health care are all on the back burners. What matters most is getting that oil out of the ground and into our economy and keeping terrorists at bay in the Middle East—or is it?

In the last week, I have spoken with three business owners across the the nation who have had to cut their work forces by over 30 percent in the last few months. During the past summer, nearly every business in Livingston has reported record low revenues (except the bars and casinos, of course), and it looks to me like our economy is in true trouble.

The rising price of gas is partially to blame. But this oil shortage was something being predicted some 30 years ago by geologists around the world. A 1973 National Geographic article meticulously outlines the “End of Oil” and predicts the advances that would be made in the future to prepare for this eventuality. Thirty-five years later, we have seen precious few of these advances. When record profits are at stake, why look for cheaper or more efficient options, or options that might even prevent prolonged conflicts with countries across the world from us?

War. More important than houses over our heads, healthy babies or a healthy economy is the war machine that creates billions of dollars in revenue for war contractors like Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Dick Cheney’s corporation Halliburton, as well as thousands of companies with politicians (and millions in profits) in their pockets.

What is really going on in Iraq? Some soldiers I know who have served over four tours in Iraq tell horrific tales of guerilla warfare and say they now feel like hired guns for contracting firms, while fewer say the work they do is effective, or even rewarding.

Meanwhile, more and more people die every day in Iraq, and more and more civilians—the young family members of dead moms, dads, brothers and sisters—are growing up to hate the people who killed their family members, and continue the terrible cycle or murder and hate by fighting back. According to a recent study by the medical journal Lancet, over 650,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq, and half of those people are dead at U.S. hands, many of these innocent people victims of aerial strikes over civilian neighborhoods. Some studies abroad put the numbers at closer to one million dead, with half killed by U.S. forces.

The Republican party supporters in America say that we need to “drill, drill, drill” for oil and “kill, kill, kill,” the terrorists and it is disturbing and confusing to me that many of these right-wing conservatives also stand behind the Christian doctrine of thrift, charity and forgiveness. Jesus Christ yielded to the hatred and force of his persecutors, but the modern Christian right seems anti-Christian at times, rallying for war and encouraging excessive consumption of finite resources.

Where is the thrift in our use of a finite resource such as oil? Where is our compassion for our brothers in the Middle East? Are we treating them as we would wish to be treated? Are we open to diplomacy with those that are different than us? Where is the charity? Where is the forgiveness? Why all this greed and war fueling the Republican party? Where is the true Christian doctrine that should guide a party that aligns itself with God’s will?

Listening to a number of recent Republican speeches, I find myself frightened at how easily good Christians are accepting such a a narrow-minded doctrine of greed and force. Have we exhausted every other option with our foes? Have we tried in every manner to communicate with our enemy, and have we looked within ourselves to see what America might be doing to cause others to want to hate and fight us?

This election year, regardless of what political party an American might align themselves with, they would do well to also examine such party’s eventual objectives, and consider whether or not those objectives are truly in line with the way the voter lives his or her life. This year, regardless of the spin on television and the flat brilliance of politicians’s speeches composed by speechwriters trained in industrial psychology to tap into American’s dreams and desires, Americans need to research and investigate the parties and candidates they will support.

If we go down the road toward more war-mongering and greed, we may end up in a terrifying place where these qualities are prized, and it certainly won’t be a place of love, understanding or forgiveness.

—Reilly Neill
news@livingstonweekly.com

Farm to Restaurant:The Corporation for the NorthernRockies Launches New Campaign

Every Friday morning this summer, Callender Street in downtown Livingston bustles with vendors selling fresh herbs, greens, dusty red beets, locally-harvested honey, home-baked goods and eager shoppers looking for the freshest produce in town.

The Corporation for the Northern Rockies (CNR) Friday morning vendor market is a new addition this year to the many services sponsored by the local non-profit organization.

In keeping with its mission statement to “advance sustainable choices that enhance economic opportunities which preserve open space, wildlife habitat, farm and ranchlands and quality of life for future generations,” CNR launched the Friday morning market earlier this summer to cater to food-only vendors looking for another regional venue to sell their products. The market, which will continue through the harvest season, was the site of the formal kickoff to CNR’s local “Farm to Restaurant” campaign last Friday, August 22.

Chefs from local eateries came out to browse the fresh, locally-grown produce and sign “Sustainability Pledges,” committing them to buying from local and sustainable farmers and ranchers and participating in staff training to promote local and sustainable food. The chefs also agreed to prepare a number of menu items each week in their restaurants using local ingredients. The pledge of sustainability included commitments to using biodegradable take-out containers, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and biodegradable cleaning products and hard soaps.

Among the chefs on hand to browse the selection of locally-grown produce and sign a sustainability pledge was Ross Martin of the Livingston Bar and Grille. Martin chatted with Beth Ridgeway, a grower who specializes in organic heirloom tomatoes.

“I’ve been looking for you!” Ross exclaimed when he approached her stand, a long table filled with baskets of ripe, multi-colored tomatoes. The two engaged in a discussion about tomato seeds and growing conditions.

Ridgeway grows the tomatoes at the top of Cokedale road near the Bozeman Pass, and explained the construction of her greenhouse using “all sustainable scrap wood” as well as a wood-burning boiler to warm the greenhouse during the colder seasons when she grows lettuce mixes, herbs and mustard greens.

Chef Martin left the stand with a bulging bag of fresh tomatoes which would reappear on diner’s plates at the Bar and Grille later that evening.

Another local chef present at the market was Brian Menges of the Second Street Bistro. He browsed the fresh selection of zucchini and greens at Mark Rehder’s booth, comparing each item with those grown in his own urban organic garden, a satellite of Rehder’s Geyser Farms Menges has been tending all summer.

Menges’ small farm utilizes many of Rehder’s sustainable farming techniques such as drip irrigation and hand-weeding. Menges took a bushel of extra greens from Rehder to use at the Bistro that evening. Rehder and Menges are in constant communication about ripening produce at each farm and Menges is able to utilize Rehder’s supply as well as his own in the Bistro kitchen.

Chef Jim Liska of Adagio has been present at each Friday market so far this summer as the back door of his restaurant Adagio opens up to the market street. Liska made a recent trip to Italy where he said he visited local markets each day.

“I came back thinking Livingston needed a food-only market,” Liska said, adding that he shared his idea with Rob Bankston and the staff at CNR who had been working on more marketing options for suppliers and vendors. Along with collecting fresh produce from the various vendors to utilize in his restaurant each weekend, Liska also prepares “breakfast pizzas” for Friday morning market-goers.
Along with participants in Livingston, CNR also links Montana products with Montana restaurants in the Gallatin Valley and Big Sky areas, and last year counted nearly 40 restaurants as participants in the program. This year’s program will continue efforts to connect farmers and ranchers willing to produce sustainably with creative chefs eager to source local ingredients.

For more information about the Farm to Restaurant campaign, visit www.northrock.org or call CNR at 222-0730.

Healing With Herb:A Comprehensive Reporton Medical Marijuana in Montana

In November 2004, 62 percent of Montana voters passed a proposal to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in the state. Of 11 other states that have voted to legalize “medical marijuana,” none have approved legalization by such a margin. There are now 1,080 registered users of medical marijuana in Montana and many users–some of whom are terminally ill–report success with the drug.

However, some details of the current law regulating the use, growth, and proliferation of marijuana have caused difficulties among both users and law enforcement. Legislators and law officials agree the decision Montana voters made should be upheld, and have begun working with advocates of medical marijuana to clarify and improve the current law.

Marijuana is popularly used as an illegal “recreational drug,” but many recent scientific studies have found the plant to be of medicinal value. Marijuana has a long history as medicine, and was used by the Chinese as early as 2700 B.C. to treat conditions including pain, gout, malaria, and rheumatism. Other conditions traditionally traditionally treated by marijuana included seizure, nausea, insomnia, asthma, poor appetite, and depression. Current medical uses of marijuana address many of the same conditions, and physicians have also discovered new uses for the drug. Laws regulating use vary among the states in which medical marijuana is legal, and Montana law allows use by patients who suffer from a “debilitating medical condition.”

Debilitating medical conditions include cancer, HIV, glaucoma, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The law also identifies any medical condition causing severe or chronic pain, nausea, seizures, muscle spasms, or wasting syndrome as debilitating. A physician can recommend the use of marijuana on grounds that its use will be more beneficial than it is harmful, but he may not legally prescribe it.

Belgrade physician Dr. Kurtz says marijuana is most useful for controlling things that no other medication controls, such as persistent nausea and the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, but he adds that most recommendations are for chronic pain. Physicians say they rarely recommend marijuana before a patient inquires about it. Patients often inquire about marijuana as a possible homeopathic or natural alternative to pharmaceuticals, and nation-wide interest in alternative medicine continues to grow: a recent study showed more than a third of Americans use some form of “complementary and alternative medicine.”

Under the current Montana law, a qualifying patient may grow and possess up to six marijuana plants and one dried smokable ounce of marijuana. A patient is also entitled to the services of a “caregiver” who may possess another six plants and one smokable ounce on behalf of the patient.

The law allows caregivers to receive “reasonable compensation” for assisting qualifying patients, and caregivers may assist multiple patients. Registered caregivers have begun businesses growing and distributing medical marijuana, among whom are Park County residents Dave Minnick, of “Caregivers of Montana” and Robert Carpenter, of “A Kinder Caregiver.” Caregivers of Montana is a conglomeration of three registered caregivers working out of an office on Park Street, while Carpenter works independently from an office on Callender Street; each serve separate client pools. Both caregivers are open about their operations and have clients state-wide: Caregivers of Montana currently serves 101 clients, while A Kinder Caregiver serves 44.

Caregiver Minnick says nine of his clients are terminally ill, and Carpenter reports six terminal patients. Both work to accommodate special needs of patients according to their conditions and incomes, as many patients are living on government stipends. Carpenter has a policy of providing his product free of charge to terminal patients. There is some debate among critics of medical marijuana concerning what conditions the drug should be recommended to treat, but caregivers say they are more concerned with following the law than inquiring about the particulars of patient claims. “It’s not our right to question legitimacy–it’s physician recommended,” says Minnick. As of July 31, 2008 there were 324 registered caregivers in Montana; 260 serving one patient each, and 64 serving multiple patients.

State law also restricts business interactions between physicians and caregivers. Physicians cannot recommend particular caregivers, nor can caregivers recommend physicians. The current law leaves registered patients to pursue legal means of obtaining marijuana on their own.

The federal government recognizes no medicinal value of marijuana, nor does it condone medical use of the drug. The Federal Drug Enforecemnt Agency (DEA) currently identifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, or a dangerous addictive narcotic with no recognized medical uses, and their position is stated on their website www.usdoj.gov/dea. Billings special agent Dan Dunlap did not return calls regarding medical marijuana by press time.

History of Marijuana

“Marijuana” is a relatively recent term of Spanish-Mexican origin for the plant *Cannabis Sativa, which has been used as medicine for thousands of years. The first documented use of cannabis for medicinal purposes is found in the ancient Chinese pharmacopoeia Pen-ts’ao, which appeared around the first century AD.

The drug was thought to have been discovered by the legendary Shen Neng, a mystical Chinese emperor who, according to legend, tested hundreds of herbs by ingesting them and gazing inside his belly to identify their effects. Ingestion was the primary means of use, and cannabis was often mixed with wine. The Chinese used the drug primarily for its pain-relieving properties, but named it ma, a word for “chaotic.” Physicians recognized some of the medicinal properties of the drug but advised against large doses, which might cause a user to see “devils” or communicate with spirits.

In India, people sought the psychoactive properties avoided by the Chinese. Cannabis is referred to in the ancient “Science of Charms” as one of the “five kingdoms of herbs…which release us from anxiety.” It was thought to have been brought from the Himalayas by the Hindu deity Shiva, who purportedly enjoyed the drug. Devotees offered cannabis to Shiva during religious ceremonies, and the herb continues to have a religious association in India.

Cannabis eventually moved west, where Assyrians used marijuana as medicine as early as 600 B.C. The Greeks and Romans recognized pain-killing and psychoactive properties of the drug, but its use was not widespread. The second-century physician Galen noted a custom sometimes practiced among wealthy Romans of serving a marijuana-garnished dessert with “warming” effects which, “when taken too generously affects the head, emitting a warm vapor and acting as a drug.”

The medical and psychoactive properties of marijuana were not well known in Europe until the eighteenth century when Napolean’s soldiers returned from Egypt with stories of the exotic “hashish.” In the mid-nineteenth century the French author Pierre Gautier formed the “Hashish Club” with literary notables such as Baudelaire, Balzac, Dumas, Flaubert, Hugo, and others. The reactions of these men to the drug were mixed, and they mentioned intense periods of both euphoria and dysphoria as well as synaesthesia, a confusion of one sense for another. Under the influence of marijuana Baudelaire wrote, “Sounds have odor and colors are musical.”

Americans also experimented with medical and psychoactive uses of cannabis during the mid-nineteenth century, but use did not become widespread until later. Cannabis reached Latin America and the Caribbean around the first half of the fifteenth century, and did not become popular in North America until a wave of refugees fleeing the Mexican Revolution of 1910 entered the Southern United States, bringing “marijuana” with them. By 1937 at least 28 pharmaceutical preparations had been developed from the cannabis plant, but the Marijuana Tax Act was passed the same year, placing a prohibitive tax on all uses of cannabis and effectively halting medical, commercial, and recreational uses of the plant.

Cultural Perspective

Harry Anslinger, founder and head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, led the social movement against marijuana that resulted in its prohibition in 1937. Anslinger was assigned to the post by Hoover in 1930 and held it until 1962. He is considered the first “drug czar” and a progenitor of what is now termed the “war on drugs.”

Recreational marijuana use in the early twentieth century was associated with minorities. Prejudice against Mexican immigrants led officials in Texas and California to criticize the use of “killer weed” among members of the growing minority. Officials sometimes claimed the substance aroused a “lust for blood” in immigrants and generated superhuman strength. In the Deep South, marijuana use often became associated with African-Americans, jazz musicians, prostitutes and others.

In “Legalizing Marijuana: Drug Policy Reform and Prohibition Politics”, Rudolph Gerber writes that the prohibition of alcohol led to an increase in the use of marijuana, and “tea pads” sprung up where “weed” and opium could be bought and used. In the twenties there were as many as 500 tea pads in New York City. When alcohol prohibition was repealed some government agents turned their efforts toward marijuana, which they claimed could cause “reefer madness” in users.

Conclusive medical studies were unavailable at the time, though an 1894 study by Britain’s Indian Hemp Commision had found cannabis to be of some medicinal value and “almost without exception harmless in moderation.” Anslinger’s campaign, however, did not seem founded upon scientific studies, but rather upon his own drastic and often racist determinations of the effects of marijuana. “Much of the irrational juvenile violence and killing that has written a new chapter of shame and tragedy is traceable directly to hemp intoxication,” he said.

One of Anslinger’s favored devices was the Indian legend of the “Old Man of the Mountains” and his band of assassins. Marco Polo first recorded the legend, telling of an old man who recruited members to the band by administering doses of hashish large enough to put the novices to sleep. The old man had them transported to a garden where, awaking under the influence of the drug, they were tended to by ladies and made to believe they had entered paradise. The old man then promised the assassins they would return to the paradise upon completion of the murderous tasks he assigned them. There is no evidence the legend holds any truth, but it was often used as propaganda by critics of marijuana.

During the court hearings of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, Anslinger’s colorful claims outweighed the testimony of a qualified physician. Anslinger asserted, “Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana usage.”

Dr. William Woodward of the American Medical Association defended medical use of marijuana as useful and relatively harmless, but members of Congress criticized him for attempting to impede the progress of the federal government. The Marijuana Tax Act was passed, and later–in 1970–marijuana was classified as a Schedule I drug, further restricting use.

Contradicting Claims

The federal government maintains a strict anti-marijuana policy. Nonetheless, federally supported studies have identified some medicinal value of marijuana. The federal identification of the drug’s medicinal value is evidenced by the Compassionate Investigational Drug Program, begun in 1978. Under this Federal Drug Administration-supported program, people with serious medical conditions could petition the government for legal supplies of marijuana. About three dozen applicants were accepted in the program before legal complications prevented further applications.

As of 2007, seven of the CIDP participants remained alive. Every month the federal government mails 300 joints, or about 10.75 ounces of marijuana, to pharmacies where the patients pick them up and use them legally. This program directly contradicts the official stance of the federal government.

The movement of states to legalize the medical use of marijuana has largely been a voter-powered movement. Legislators and officials have nearly always opposed medical marijuana measures. In Arizona, one of the first states to approve medical marijuana legislature, legislators even repealed the voter-approved measure. Voters reinstated the measure by means of a petition, and instituted a clause to prevent further such legislative repeals.

California passed the first state medical marijuana law in 1996. Before passage of the law, buyers’ clubs had dealt marijuana illegally to patients suffering from the side effects of chemotherapy and from chronic pain, AIDS, and glaucoma. With the passage of Proposition 215, medical use was extended to symptoms such as anxiety and depression. The federal government does not honor any state marijuana laws, and sometimes raids grow houses and buyers’ clubs in California cities. Clubs have developed low-profile images in attempts to escape DEA notice. They are often marked by dark windows and sparse signage, and do not advertise in public sources like newspapers or phone books.

The Montana medical marijuana law does not currently allow the recommendation of marijuana for symptoms of anxiety or depression. California is the only state to currently support such liberal use of medical marijuana. Belgrade physician Dr. Kurtz says he thinks medical use of marijuana in Montana could be expanded to include treatment of anxiety and depression. He says the common prescription drugs used to treat these conditions–including Xanax, Clanopin, and Valium–have significantly more dangerous side effects than marijuana.

Marijuana as Medicine

Many studies conclude the medical benefits of marijuana outweigh harmful side effects. The Institute of Medicine report of 1999 concluded, “Marijuana...is a powerful drug with a variety of effects. However, except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications.” Further, a Police Foundation review in 2000 concluded “By any of the major criteria of harm–mortality, morbidity, toxicity, addictiveness, and relationship with crime–cannabis is less harmful than any of the other major illicit drugs, or than alcohol or tobacco.”

A common consideration among critics and concerned parties is the “gateway” phenomena attributed to marijuana. This theory holds that marijuana is often a stepping stone or a gateway to harder drugs. Studies by the Institute of Medicine and others show marijuana has no inherent chemical properties that cause a gateway effect. The IOM study does point out that many of the factors associated with a willingness to use marijuana may also be factors of a willingness to try harder drugs, but the study found no causal connection between marijuana use and the use of harder drugs. Other studies report the same conclusion.

Marijuana’s long history of use as medicine has no bearing on a decision concerning its validity as a modern medicine. Modern medical standards by which the efficacy of medications are judged are more rigorous than at any time in the past. Some physicians hail marijuana as something of a wonder drug, while others are more conservative in their estimations of its use.

When prescribing any treatment, the physician usually heeds the principle, “First, do no harm,” meaning the first qualification of a medication is the degree of harm associated with its use. The use of marijuana in treating symptoms such as pain, nausea, seizures, lack of appetite, and other symptoms is generally accepted. One of the difficulties in determining the harmful effects of the drug is the variety of experiences had by different users. The psychoactive effects of marijuana are considered pleasant by some and unpleasant by others, depending upon personality, mood, setting of use, and other factors.

Euphoria and stress reduction are common side effects of marijuana use, but some users report adverse reactions including anxiety, paranoia, depression, and dysphoria. Among regular users of marijuana 17 percent report that they experienced negative effects, often early in their use. This figure is especially significant when considering medical marijuana patients who might be using the drug for the first time, many of whom are elderly.

Patients using medical marijuana to treat glaucoma, an eye disorder that can cause blindness, often praise the effects of the drug. The most significant symptom of glaucoma is pressure inside the eye caused by restricted blood vessels. Marijuana releases pressure on the vessels, and when smoked provides rapid relief from the intense pain caused by glaucoma. Marijuana use can prolong or prevent blindness in some glaucoma patients.

Park County resident and medical marijuana user Bill Dobrowski reports that the pain caused by glaucoma feels “like a nail in the eye.” He says other treatments are available in pills or eye drops, but they take a long time to act, whereas smoked marijuana provides instant relief.

Many patients prefer marijuana to prescribed pharmaceuticals because they say the side effects are less severe. Local card-holder Steve Stoelb used morphine to treat the pain associated with the degenerative tissue disease he suffers from, and says of the opiate, “It will steal your soul.” After a difficult recovery process from morphine use Stoelb began using medical marijuana, which eases his pain without the drastic side effects.

Some patients find marijuana helps treat damaging side effects of other heavy-duty medications. Park County resident Jay Zuhlke suffers from terminal end-stage liver failure. He uses marijuana to relieve chronic pain, loss of appetite, muscle spasms, and other symptoms. He says marijuana use prevents him from having to use the prescription drug Oxycodone, which harms the liver. Zuhlke says marijuana helps relieve the side effects of some of the 13 medications he takes two or three times a day, including nausea, vomiting, and loss of weight. He smokes marijuana before going to bed, and says it replaces the need for anti-convulsants and anti-hystamines.

Many patients prefer marijuana to prescription drugs because it is often cheaper. Lewistown card-holder Eric Billings suffers from neuropathy and other symptoms of AIDS, and says he used to take four to six different pain pills every day to treat the symptoms. Now he says marijuana limits his need for pain pills to 50 or 60 pills per year, rather than approximately 120 per month. He claims using medical marijuana saves him $30,000 dollars per year in prescription medications and says, “It has given me my life back.”

One difficulty associated with medical marijuana use is providing patients with consistent doses of the drug. Quantities of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other active components of marijuana vary depending upon plant varieties and the methods used to grow and harvest marijuana crops. Marijuana use is recommended, like some other prescription drugs, according to “patient required need,” or PRN. This means that the patient may use the drug in the quantity and manner he or she desires to treat the symptoms of an ailment.

The current marijuana law is sometimes criticized for allowing marijuana to be smoked, and studies have linked smoking marijuana to increased risks of bronchitis and other respiratory ailments. But smoked marijuana is particularly effective in providing rapid relief, as in the case of glaucoma, and studies also show that experienced marijuana smokers can control the amount of THC they inhale by varying the amount of oxygen they intake with each puff. Thus users can attain the desired “effect” regardless of the specific THC content of the marijuana they smoke. Ingestible forms of marijuana are slower to act and dosages are more difficult to control.

Medical Legalization in Montana

As in other states that have voted to legalize medical marijuana, Montana voters showed a surprising amount of support for the proposition in 2004. The 62 percent margin by which it was passed is a greater margin than any issue or candidate has received in Montana in more than 25 years. The proposition had more support in Montana than did Representative Denny Rehberg, Governor Brian Schweitzer, or Senator Jon Tester.

In early 2004 the Montana Medical Marijuana Policy Project sought to push medical marijuana legislation in the state. The group hired political communications consultant Tom Daubert to spearhead the campaign, and it was a success. Daubert says the process of working on the campaign was enlightening, and he felt compelled to help the many people he met suffering from terrible medical conditions.

Daubert helped write Proposition 148, the Montana medical marijuana legislation. He says the main concern at the time of writing was to create something that would establish the legality of marijuana as a medicine for people suffering from the most severe conditions, for whom marijuana was best established as effective treatment. He says the initiative committee wanted to make the law as workable as possible for suffering patients without making it overly problematic for people who might be innately skeptical of the idea. The committee used the medical marijuana laws of other states as models for Montana’s law.

Since passage of the law, Daubert says he has become aware of situations in Montana which pose unique difficulties for the function of the current law. For example, many rural Montanans see a nurse or a physician’s assistant rather than a practicing physician as their primary doctor. While nurses and physician’s assistants can legally prescribe opiates and other prescriptions, they cannot currently recommend marijuana. Other difficulties are the possession limit and the logistics of transportation of medical marijuana. Daubert describes one patient in remote Eastern Montana who needs about one ounce of marijuana per week to treat her condition. Due to the one-ounce possession limit she has to restock every week, and the nearest grower is 100 miles away. Because the patient’s condition prevents her from operating a motor vehicle her elderly mother makes the trip every week, breaking medical marijuana transportation laws.

After the campaign Daubert formed the group Patients and Families United, a support and public education group for registered users of medical marijuana and for any patients who suffer from pain whether they use medical marijuana or not.

Economy of Grow Houses

Medical marijuana sales are untaxed in Montana, and many proponents of medical marijuana say the state would greatly benefit from taxing sales. Medical marijuana dispensaries in California pay an 8.25 percent sales tax to the state on marijuana sales, totaling about $100 million annually. The medical marijuana business is relatively young in Montana, and local caregivers report they are just beginning to break even as they establish growing patterns and clients. If the demand for medical marijuana in the state continues to increase, a tax on sales could benefit many state programs, while patients would be largely unaffected.

Of the 1,080 registered medical marijuana users in Montana, 323 have no registered caregiver. Some of these patients may be in the process of getting a caregiver, but many are likely growing their own plants. Park County caregiver Dave Minnick says he encourages patients to grow their own plants if they can, because it costs less than the standard $300 per ounce charged by growers. The commercial grow operation is expensive and time consuming, and Caregivers of Montana pays as much as $1,000 per month in energy bills to support high-powered lights. Light is carefully controlled in the grow houses, as the plants are kept on a strict regimental cycle of absolute darkness and bright fluorescent light.

Some patients prefer the product they can buy from a commercial caregiver because the commercial product is often more potent than the product they can grow themselves, and caregivers offer a variety of strains. There are two primary types of marijuana, called “Indica” and “Sativa,” which produce different types of “highs.” Indica is reported to induce a sleepy and lethargic feeling, and works as a good pain-reliever. Sativa is reported to induce a more energetic and creative high. Within these two categories there are many hybrids and strains, with titles such as “White Widow,” “Mauwie Wauwie,” “Kush,” and “Purple Haze.” All produce different types of high, and users can sometimes sample varieties before a purchase.

Nearly every step in planting, cultivating, and harvesting a crop influences the character and potency of the final product. It is often difficult for patients to begin to grow crops at home and they must start by purchasing seeds, which is illegal.

Federal Consequences

Federal law assigns a mandatory prison sentence of five years to the possession of more than 99 marijuana plants, whereas the federal penalty under the 99 plant ceiling is less severe. The only plant limit imposed on caregivers by the state is the per-patient limit of six plants. Growers who serve enough patients to exceed 99 plants by state law usually stay below the federal plant limit to decrease the risk of severe penalty. So far there have been no major medical marijuana busts in Montana. Growth and use seem to be tolerated to some extent, if growers and users heed the established rules. Caregiver Minnick says agents of the Missouri River Task Force, the local branch of the Drug Enforcement Agency, have inspected his growing operation four times and left on good terms each time.

The legal status of marijuana affects several aspects of its growth, use, and perception. Prohibition ensures high prices for users, and creates an atmosphere of secrecy around many state-sanctioned medical interactions. Caregivers operate out of unmarked buildings, physicians hesitate to take public stances on marijuana use, and some patients report disapproval of family members or friends.

One concern expressed by the federal government and shared by Livingston Police Chief Darren Raney is that allowing medical use of marijuana sends a mixed message to youth. It is thought youth will be more likely to abuse or try marijuana if they are told it has some value. Several studies, including the Institute of Medicine study of 1999, present data contradicting this concern. During the 1990s marijuana use increased at the same rate in the Netherlands–where possession of marijuana is legal–as use in Norway and America, where use is strictly forbidden. Further, approximately equal percentages of American and Dutch 18-year-olds used marijuana. Another study showed no increase of marijuana use among youth during the California medical marijuana legalization debates of 1996-1997, when the subject of marijuana was all over the news.

California’s medical marijuana laws have changed and developed since the state passed marijuana legislation in 1997. Dispensaries and growers in the state have undergone major DEA busts, and some counties have responded by changing possession limits and regulations on sales, and some cities have recently instated moratoriums on dispensaries. Responses among city, county, and state law enforcement officials in California have ranged from passivity toward DEA activity to opposition to the agency. Police Chief Raney says he believes law enforcement should enforce and uphold laws passed by voters, and the medical marijuana law is no exception. He expresses concern over aspects of the current law but says it should be improved rather than making any attempt to discard it.

Propaganda vs. reality

As of 2004, federal, state, and local governments now spend a total of about $60 million, or $380 per average American adult each year on the “war on drugs.” A large portion of this war is waged on marijuana users. In the year 2000, 734,497 people were arrested on marijuana charges. As of 2003, it cost $1.2 billion per year to keep 60,000 people imprisoned for marijuana misconduct.

Some critics of medical marijuana claim it is a step toward legalization of the drug. The future of marijuana law will determine whether or not this claim is true, but Montanans made a firm decision concerning medical use of marijuana. Nearly four years in effect have highlighted successes and shortcomings of the law, and voters now have a chance to examine some of the effects of their choice.

State Representative Bob Ebinger is organizing a meeting of law enforcement officials, attorneys, and medical marijuana advocate Tom Daubert on August 20 to discuss the current medical marijuana law. “I feel that the people spoke pretty emphatically that they wanted medical marijuana; whether they realized there weren’t the necessary checks and balances, I don’t know,” says Ebinger. Park County legislators and law officials have demonstrated respect for the decision of the people, and seem to be taking a more clear-headed approach to the medical marijuana issue than officials elsewhere in the country.

Scientific studies continue to report medicinal value of marijuana, and states continue to legalize medical use despite federal prohibition of the drug. Some advocates express hope that a quorum of 25 supportive states will force the federal government to reconsider its draconian marijuana policy. Among other things, the medical marijuana movement has demonstrated the influence voters can exert on pressing and controversial matters of law.

—Wes Venteicher

Living with the Volcano:The Life and Science ofthe Yellowstone Caldera

Geysers, mud pots, and other relatively benign thermal features in Yellowstone Park hint at the fiery origins of the landscape. Heat from a magma chamber or “hotspot” beneath the surface drives the thermal features in the park, which boasts the largest geothermal field in the world. Visitors stroll among the steaming waters of Yellowstone with little apparent concern for their safety, and wildlife abounds in lush mountain valleys. The landscape differs greatly from the smoking cones people usually associate with volcanic activity. There is none of the towering menace that caused volcanoes to be termed the forges of Volcan, the Roman god of weapons, and later, gateways to hell.

According to geologists, the hotspot sits about three miles beneath the surface of Yellowstone National Park and impacts nearly every aspect of the land above it. When a hotspot erupts and ejects enough of its contents to cause the overhanging crust of the earth to collapse, the hotspot creates a depression in the surface known as a caldera. The Yellowstone caldera, located above the hotspot in Yellowstone Park, is the result of a past eruption of the hotspot.

The landscape, climate, geology, and ecology of the Yellowstone ecosystem have all been affected by periods of explosive violence and millennia of incremental change caused by the hotspot. Previous eruptions of the Yellowstone caldera have been some of the largest in global geological history, blowing apart mountain ranges and propelling their heated remains as far as Louisiana, Southern California, and Saskatchewan. The most recent major eruption occurred about 640,000 years ago, ejecting at least 250 cubic miles of magma, or 1,000 times the amount ejected by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

Visitors and scientists enjoyed and studied America’s first national park for decades before anyone discovered the caldera. It was not until the late 1960s that geologist Bob Christiansen identified jutting cliffs around the park as the rim of a large caldera. Observers were slow to recognize the Yellowstone Caldera because of its immense size. Most calderas are approximately one to three miles in diameter, but the Yellowstone caldera is one of the largest calderas on earth, measuring approximately 30 miles by 50 miles.

The effects of the last major eruption in Yellowstone and about 80 other minor eruptions are apparent in the landscape today. The “Lava Creek” eruption of 640,000 years ago is believed to have swallowed a portion of the Washburn Range extending from Mt. Washburn to Mt. Sheridan. From either of these peaks one can look 37 miles across the expanse of the caldera to the other peak. The summits are within 65 feet of each other in elevation and both ranges are dated by geologists to be 50 million years old, while the intervening landscape is composed of younger lava flows which emerged during and after the massive Lava Creek eruption. The sloping land above the caldera composed of “young” lava flows is commonly referred to as the Yellowstone Plateau.

Much of the Yellowstone Plateau is composed of rhyolite, a low-nutrient lava that erodes into fine soil incapable of retaining water or supporting extensive vegetation. Most of the rhyolite soil is covered by uninterrupted forests of lodgepole pine, which are well adapted to the barren rhyolitic conditions. But some areas in the park, such as the Hayden and Pelican valleys, support richer vegetation despite their rhyolitic foundations. Ice-age glacial lakes deposited nutrient-rich silt in these locations, allowing grasslands, sagebrush steppes, and meadows to form habitat for deer, elk, bears, and bison in valleys that were once covered in water.

Many landscape features of the park are recognizable rhyolite formations. Park geologist Hank Heasler compares viscous rhyolite flows seeping out of the earth to toothpaste being squeezed out of a tube. The flows form dome-shaped hills such as Elephant Back Hill on the north rim of Yellowstone Lake. Rhyolite also forms obsidian, and the Obsidian Cliff between Mammoth and Norris Junction provided a nearly limitless supply of the shiny black stone to local Native Americans. Other areas of the park adjacent to the plateau rest on basalt and andesite, which are richer in nutrients. These areas can be recognized by grassland expanses and forests of Engleman spruce, subalpine fir, whitebark pine, and Douglas fir.
Numerous minor eruptions and rhyolite flows over the last 640,000 years have contributed to the rise of the Yellowstone Plateau to an elevation of 8,000 feet.

Streams flowing outward from the plateau cut steep tracks through the rock and form colorful canyons. The Yellowstone River cuts 18 miles into the plateau to form the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Numerous waterfalls throughout the park flow over transition points in the rock, often marking a change in density of the underlying rhyolite.

Shifting gases and magma in the hotspot contribute to an extraordinary amount of seismic activity on the surface. There are more than 1,000 earthquakes on average every year in the park, most of which are very minor, but there have been dozens of moderate to large quakes registering from 5.5 to 7.5 on the Richter scale since 1900. The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake in the Madison River area near West Yellowstone caused a landslide that killed 33 people and nearly dammed the Madison River, creating the six-mile-long and 190-foot-deep Quake Lake.

One of the most dramatic effects of the hotspot is uplift. Geologists estimate between 1,500 and 3,000 feet of uplift since the Lava Creek eruption. The plateau experiences periods of uplift and subsidence, which are sometimes dramatic. Between 1923 and 1985 scientists measured over two feet of uplift followed by a period of subsidence. Scientists studying indications of past periods of uplift and subsidence have discovered movements of more than 10 feet up and down.

Monitoring the Volcano

The hotspot exerts a constant influence on the activity and appearance of the land above it, and geologists monitor the known effects to assess the risk of a future eruption. Park geologist Hank Heasler expresses confidence in the abilities of Yellowstone’s monitoring system to predict an eruption, but adds, “As a scientist I don’t deal in 100 percents, nature always teaches us humility.”

Heasler compares scientific assessment of geothermal activity in the park to a doctor’s assessment of a patient‘s health. A doctor measures vital signs such as pulse, blood pressure, and breathing rate to form an idea of general health. In the same way, geologists and volcanologists measure surface level “vital signs” of the hotspot to gauge the status of the geothermal system. They monitor three primary vital signs-earthquakes, ground deformation, and hot water and gases coming out of the ground.

The “vital signs” are ongoing phenomena in the park, and they maintain a consistent level of activity. The park “breathes,” says Heasler, releasing heat and tension by means of earthquakes and the other phenomena. In the preface to an eruption all three of the vital signs would show dramatic increase in frequency in a concentrated area. Based on the size of the area where the activity would occur and other factors such as the kinds of gases being released, experts could predict the size of an eruption. Large eruptions give more advance warning than small eruptions, but generally there are weeks to months of prefatory activity before an eruption. A very small eruption might not give any warning, but Heasler says an eruption of this size would be the sort of non-threatening event visitors would photograph by the roadside.

The hazard level of volcanoes is assessed from the standpoint of people on the ground and aircraft in the sky. Currently the volcano alert level is normal and the aviation color code is green. These indicators have never reflected any danger in Yellowstone, but in active volcanic areas like the Hawaiian Islands there is more variance in hazard levels. Real-time statistics of earthquake activity, ground deformation, and gas and geyser activity are available on the website of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo).

The Year Without a Summer

An eruption the size of the major Yellowstone eruptions has not occurred during recorded human history, but there have been large eruptions with devastating effects within the last two hundred years. From such an eruption we might paint a picture of what the effects of a major Yellowstone eruption would be.

The largest recorded eruption is the explosion of Mt. Tambora on the island of Sambawa in Indonesia in 1815. Scientific methods at the time were still crude, but the volcano is believed to have propelled about 12 cubic miles of volcanic material as high as 25 miles into the atmosphere. The explosion killed as many as 70,000 people including immediate casualties and victims of starvation and disease following the eruption. The eruption peaked April 10 of 1815, and explosions were heard up to 1,550 miles west of Tambora, in Sumatra. Shock waves shook houses 500 miles away in eastern Java. Observers 25 miles away described three tongues of flame that arched out of the volcano, merging into one column high above the mountain. Soon after the sighting, clouds of volcanic ash and fist-sized rocks began to descend upon the town. Hurricane-force winds swept away nearby villages, and 16-foot-tall tsunamis wreaked havoc on boats and islands. The ash created an atmosphere of almost total darkness within 186 miles of the eruption for three days, and after the eruption Sumbawa was covered in more than three feet of ash.

The effects of the Tambora eruption were global. Worldwide temperatures dropped and patterns of rainfall changed. Crops failed in many countries the following year, bringing famine to some. The year 1816 became known as “the year without a summer” because of snows and killing frosts in the northeast United States in June, July, and August. Some Americans called it “eighteen hundred and froze to death.”

Even the smallest of the three major Yellowstone eruptions ejected about 70 cubic miles of magma into the atmosphere. Another major eruption of Yellowstone could cover much of the continent in darkness, and might cover much of the land west of the Mississippi with molten volcanic material within hours of an eruption. The global climate would undergo severe changes and the human race would scramble to adapt, likely suffering millions of casualties.

Geologists say such an eruption is unlikely to occur without prior warning, and they say Yellowstone National Park is safe to visit. Nonetheless, other volcanic eruptions, including Mount St. Helens and a recent eruption in Alaska have occurred with very little warning. Another consideration is the effect that other geological events can have upon Yellowstone. A recent earthquake in Alaska altered the behavior of geysers and thermal features in the park, which came as a surprise to geologists. Even if scientists had sufficient warning, an eruption on the scale of Yellowstone’s largest would necessitate an evacuation of at least the Western United States and would be a logistical nightmare.

Hotspot and the Path of a Continent

Such are the possibilities of the Yellowstone hotspot. However, people have been living alongside the caldera for thousands of years and continue to enjoy the benefits of the volcanic landscape. While research continues, we now understand more about the caldera than ever before. In order to understand the action of the Yellowstone hotspot, one must slow to geological time and consider the motion of the entire North American continent.

The prevailing theory among geologists claims the hotspot pushed from the earth’s core through soft layers of mantle, bubbling up as a molten “plume” 250 miles in diameter. The plume of magma lurks beneath the solid upper mantle, or lithosphere, three miles beneath the earth’s surface. From this depth the hotspot affects surface volcanism, faulting, and uplift.

The first indication of volcanism caused by the hotspot is a 16 million-year-old caldera formation on the Nevada-Oregon border. There the plume reached the lithosphere and erupted several times as the North American Continental Plate moved across it in a southwest direction. The plate moves about one inch southwest every year giving the Yellowstone hotspot the appearance of migrating northeast across the continent. Evidence of widespread volcanic activity attributed to the hotspot lies in its inferred track in Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho.

About ten million years ago the hotspot is believed to have contributed to the Twin Falls and Picabo volcanic fields in Idaho. At this time the hotspot track began to trace a linear course northeast. This course left in its wake the eastern Snake River Plain. The hotspot arrived in the greater Yellowstone area about two million years ago. Three major eruptions have occurred in the greater Yellowstone area over the last 2.1 million years, and they have produced an unfathomable total of more than 1,500 cubic miles of volcanic material which blanketed the western half of what is now the United States.

The first eruption, “Huckleberry Ridge,” is one of the largest known eruptions ever to have occurred on earth. The eruption took place 2.1 million years ago, ejecting more than 620 cubic miles of fresh magma-the equivalent of six mountains the size of California’s 14,000-foot Mount Shasta. Ash flows from the explosion traveled thousands of miles so quickly that the molten rock barely cooled in transit, and fell glowing to the earth as far away as southern California and northern Louisiana.

More than a million years of minor volcanic activity followed the first eruption, during which rhyolite flows seeped out of the earth and filled the depression left by the first caldera. The second eruption was the smallest of the three and occurred near the head of the Snake River Plain about 1.3 million years go, releasing about 70 cubic miles of magma. After the eruption, rhyolite again seeped out of the hotspot, ramping up to the Yellowstone Plateau.

The third eruption occurred 640,000 years ago beneath what is now the Yellowstone Plateau, ejecting 250 square miles of magma into the atmosphere. After the eruption the roof of the chamber collapsed, forming the present Yellowstone Caldera. Since the last major eruption another 250 square miles of magma have seeped out in extensive rhyolite flows, the most recent of which erupted about 70,000 years ago. These flows have contributed to the rise of the Yellowstone Plateau.

The hotspot beneath the Yellowstone Plateau is also believed to be responsible for extensive faulting in the area, contributing to the creation of the area known as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, or GYE. The GYE includes the mountain ranges, foothills, and valleys surrounding the plateau. Faulting in the GYE created characteristic landscape features of rugged forested ranges alongside grassy valleys. The Teton Range and Jackson Hole as well as the Madison Range and Madison Valley are good examples of GYE faulting. Substantial heat and the mingling of layers of the earth’s crust combined with the motion of the continental plate causes stress along fault lines. This stress eventually causes earthquakes like the one in 1959 that created Quake Lake.

The hotspot has also caused extensive uplift in the GYE and is responsible for many current climatic conditions in the ecosystem. Uplift pushed the plateau approximately 3,000 feet above the Snake River Plain. The high altitudes created by uplift define the environment of the ecosystem by affecting the weather patterns moving across the continent from the Pacific Ocean. High altitudes create snows that remain throughout much of the year. The high altitudes surrounding Yellowstone Plateau allowed for formation of glaciers that had enormous effects on the landscape.

Headwaters of 25 major drainages originate in the GYE, and the Continental Divide passes through it. Waters flowing from atop the Yellowstone Plateau create deep canyons. If uplift had not occurred in the GYE as it had, the Beartooth Range might look more like the Black Hills, and the Absaroka Range might look like the high prairies covering much of Montana and Wyoming.

The hotspot formation of Yellowstone is relatively rare. Volcanoes are more common along continental faults where magma finds an easier route to the surface, as in the case of the famed “Ring of Fire” around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. When hotspots do occur they usually form under the ocean.

The Yellowstone hotspot began to carve out a geological history 16 million years ago, far before mankind had any interaction with it. The span of mankind’s history of interaction with the caldera, spanning approximately 11,000 years, is a blink in geological time.

An Uncertain Future

The Greek philosopher Heracleitus said, “The world…was created by neither gods nor men, but was, is, and will be eternally living fire, regularly becoming ignited and regularly becoming extinguished.” Life on earth is thought by some scientists to have begun with volcanoes, where the elements of water churned and then melded during eruptions. The same forces could end life on earth, but there is currently no indication of any imminent apocalyptic eruption.

—Wes Venteicher

Now on the StandsSpecial Print Editionof Hoboeye.com

Local artist Brad Bunkers designs a unique printed edition of the online arts journal: hoboeye.com

A Season of Music in the Rockies

Every year the brief heat of summer in Montana sparks a frenzy of activity among residents and visitors attempting to enjoy the state’s many charms before the chilly weather again descends on the mountains. Summer outdoor music festivals are one way Montanans celebrate the spirit and sunshine of the short season, and Livingston will joining a host of festivals across the region starting this weekend with the annual Livingston Summerfest along the Yellowstone River.

Summerfest will be underway July 18, 19, and 20 in Livingston, where headliner The Kingston Trio will be joined by local favorites such as the Fossils, Ringling Five, Montana Rose, and Savage Creek, along with Missoula-based Montana Tunesmith and the Bop-a-Dips.

George Grove, banjo player for the Kingston Trio, says he expects people to walk away from Sunday’s performance saying, “Wow! That was more than I had hoped for, better than I expected.” Grove says the band will perform many of the hit songs which brought the Trio fame, including “Tom Dooley,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “The Tijuana Jail,” and others. The Kingston Trio is often credited with sparking the folk revival of the early 1960s by giving pop and comic feels to dormant traditional tunes. According to the Trio’s official website, the revival led to the rise of folk musicians such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary, and the Byrds (www.kingstontrio.com). Grove attributes the early success of the trio to the enduring quality of folk music coupled with the presentation and personality of the band. He says the band filled a void, not just with their music, but with insouciant attitudes and clever discussion of the political system. The group rarely plays in Montana, but Grove says they are “delighted to come see the beauty of Montana and to play there again.” He says the band will arrive on Saturday and take some time to explore the region before their performance. The Kingston Trio will perform Sunday, July 20, from 2:30 until 4:30 p.m. at Sacajawea Park.

The Fossils will close the show Saturday night, July 19, with a danceable set of “hippie rock” from 8:30 to 10:00 p.m. The Fossils were voted Livingston’s best live music group in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in the Best of Livingston Reader Poll in the *Livingston Weekly. Sunday’s Summerfest lineup will include performances by Glass Lane, Montana Tunesmith, and The Kingston Trio. For more information about Summerfest visit www.livingstonsummerfest.com or call (406) 222-8155.

Blues at the Depot

Livingston’s next big summer festival is the return of a familiar local event. Boss Blues Promotions organized “Blues at the Depot” at the Livingston Depot Center annually from 1999 to 2003, and will bring the blues back to Livingston on July 26 with a “Big Railroad Blues Festival.” Promoter John Taillie refers to the event as an alternative blues festival, and says the lineup will feature four acts that promise to bring youthful enthusiasm and talent with an alternative flavor. “It’s something a little different,” he says. Cincinnati’s Buffalo Killers and the Boston-based Tarbox Ramblers will make their first appearances in Livingston, joined by Partland-based Hillstomp and Bozeman’s Jawbone Railroad.

Jawbone Railroad will step on stage at 4:30 on Saturday, July 26 to begin the show. The band combines blues, folk, gospel and bluegrass. Much of their repertoire is drawn from blues classics of the 1920s and 30s. Following the railroad will be Hillstomp, a band familiar to the Livingston live music scene. In their hometown of Portland, Oregon the *Willamette Week awarded the blues duo Hillstomp with its “Best Local Album of the Year” award in 2005. The group plays songs by classic blues artists such as Mississippi Fred McDowell and R.L. Burnside, adding their own modern touches.

The Boston-based Tarbox Ramblers will play original blues, gospel, and traditional songs and will feature electric slide guitar by frontman Michael Tarbox. A *Rolling Stone review of the band’s 2004 release *A Fix Back East says the album “jumps with old-timey authenticity...Michael Tarbox’s sour-mash-soaked voice and grunting guitar burns like canned heat through any doubts you have about Yankees fooling around with plantation moans.”

The highlight of the festival will be indie-rock trio the Buffalo Killers from Cincinnati, Ohio, whose music is described by promoter Taillie as a fusion of rock, blues, and psychedelia. The group received the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards “Artist of the Year” award in 2007, and they have toured with the nationally renowned Black Keys. Bassist Zach Gabbard promises that attendees “can expect a sweaty, swaggering, rockin’ good time.” The Buffalo Killers will close the show on Saturday night.

John Taillie says the blues are at home at a railroad depot. “It’s perfect...trains and blues have been side by side since trains started running, all the old bluesmen used to hop trains.” Taillie encourages locals to come enjoy a day of great music and notes the efforts of organizers to keep ticket prices low.

The festival will offer full bar service and food. Tickets are available for $18 in advance or $22 at the door. Children under 12 get in free. Doors open at 4 p.m. on July 26 and music begins at 4:30. Advance tickets can be purchased at the Depot or Conley’s Books and Music, or in Bozeman at Cactus Records or Vargo’s Jazz City and Books. For more information visit www.bluesatthedepot.com or call 406-222-2300.

Magic City Blues Fest

The seventh annual Magic City Blues Festival, “Montana’s Urban Music Festival” will be held August 8 and 9 in Billings. The festival will take up two stages on Montana Avenue in downtown Billings and will feature Delbert McClinton, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Albert Cummings, Juke Joint Duo, JJ Grey and Mofro, Bettye Lavette, Moreland and Arbuckle, Po’ Henry and Tookie, Mighty Lester, Papa Mali, The Insomniacs, and Mary & the Mudcats. For more information, visit www.magiccityblues.com or call (406) 670-2329

Rockin’ the Rivers

The ninth-annual Rockin’ the Rivers Festival, held August 8, 9, and 10 runs the gamut of rock n’ roll, featuring everything from Brian Howe of Bad Company to alt-rockers Third Eye Blind. The festival has a history of bringing in big names of classic rock, and other participants this year include Soul Asylum, the Clintons Band, Fran Cosmo of the group Boston, Too Slim and the Tail Draggers, The Dave Walker Band, Roy Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings, and many others. For more information visit www.rockintherivers.net or call (866) 285-0097 or (406) 285-0099.

Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival

The Twenty-First Annual Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival, held August 8, 9, and 10, calls itself “the grandfather of bluegrass festivals in the northern Rockies.” The lineup at the festival features Grammy-award-winning artists such as Bela Fleck, Tim O’Brien, and Sam Bush. Other participants include the Infamous Stringdusters, Abigail Washburn, Casey Driessen, Ben Sollee, Tony Trischka with his Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular band, Jeff Austin & Friends (from Yonder Mountain String Band), Spring Creek, Blue Highway, and Darrell Scott. For more information visit www.grandtarghee.com.

Jackson Hole Music Festival

The Jackson Hole Music Festival, August 16 and 17, is a new event featuring a variety of popular musicians. The festival will feature bands such as Wilco, Brian Wilson, Medeski Martin & Wood, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, the Black Crowes, Kaki King, Backdoor Slam, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Son Volt, and The Avett Brothers. For more info search www.festivalnetwork.com.

River City Roots Fest

The River City Roots Fest, August 23 and 24 on West Main Street in Missoula, is a free event. Participating bands include the Clumsy Lovers, Martha Scanlan & The Stewart Brothers, the Emmitt-Nershi band featuring members of Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident, Great American Taxi, Wylie and the Wild West, South Austin Jug Band, and the Mike Bader Blues Band, among others. The festival also features a juried art show. For more info, visit www.rivercityrootsfestival.com.

—Wes Venteicher

Best of Livingston 2008Ballots on the Stands

It's that time of year again!

The Livingston Weekly and KPRK 1340 AM Fourth Annual Best of Livingston 2008 Reader Poll ballots will be available starting Saturday, July 12 in regular issues of Livingston Weekly. A full, large-print four-page ballot will be published in the July 12 issue, and will also be available at the Livingston Weekly offices at 109 East Lewis in Livingston.

Smaller one-page full ballots will be available in regular issues of the Livingston Weekly through the summer each week, and final ballots will be due by September 7, 2008. Ballots may be dropped at local coffeehouses Chadz on Main Street, Coffee Crossing on Second Street or MT Cup on Park Street as well as the Livingston Weekly offices and the offices of KPRK on Highway 10.

Please call the Weekly at 222-3633 for more information on the Best of Livingston, and don't forget to cast your vote for the best of the best in Livingston!

Summer 2008 Farmer's Market Preview

The Farmer’s Market is expanding operations to include a food-only Friday morning market from 7:30 until 10:00 a.m., according to Market Master Rob Bankston. A number of local businesses, including On the Rise Bread Company, Adagio, Chadz, and Hearthstone will be serving breakfast featuring local ingredients alongside market vendors selling fresh produce and prepared food including sticky buns, breakfast sandwiches, baked bread, and fresh-baked pies.

The food-only market on Friday mornings will supplement the regular market, which is currently held every Wednesday from 4:30 until 7:30 p.m. in front of the Miles Park Bandshell. The Wednesday market fare is varied and includes fresh produce, meat from local ranchers, shaved ice, fresh-cut flowers, plant starts, hot dogs and hamburgers, draft beer, jewelry, custom lawn chairs, pottery, massages, fresh bread, seafood, framed art-work, baked goods, and other wares. Many food vendors say they can demonstrate higher quality than is available in supermarket equivalents, and most offer samples and background information about their products.

Many market-goers describe the market as a community event rather than a simple shopping experience. There is a free raffle every half hour and local businesses donate items ranging from deep-fried Oreos to hot springs passes to gift certificates. Extra tickets are given to those who walk or bike to the market, and those who bring their own grocery bags. Every market features live music from 7 to 9 p.m., children and dogs are welcome, and local non-profits sponsor booths with information about their programs and volunteer opportunities.

The non-profit Corporation for the Northern Rockies (CNR) took over management of the weekly Farmers Market from the Livingston Depot Foundation in the early 2000s, and continues to manage the market. The market initially sprang from the efforts of five women: Ursula Neese, Dee Dee VanZyl, Betse Stuart, Hillary Roth, and Traci Isaly. Neese says they had no interest in managing the market, but saw a place for it in the community, and “did the legwork” to gauge interest and get vendors involved.

Big Brothers Big Sisters began managing the market in 1997, and the non-profit held the market at the fairgrounds for a short stretch before moving to Rotary Depot Park, where the Depot Foundation eventually assumed management. The Depot ran the market for about three years before CNR assumed management and moved the market to the Miles Park Bandshell, according to Lill Erickson, founder and executive director of CNR.

The upcoming Friday Farmer’s Market will reflect the growth the market has seen over the last seven years, says Erickson. Rob Bankston, Market Master, reports that when CNR began running the market a maximum of thirty-two vendors participated. The market eventually expanded to include as many as sixty-seven vendors, and over the 2007 season a total of 600 vendors participated, reporting $115,000 in sales.

Weekly attendance ranges from two to five hundred market-goers on average, says Bankston, who volunteers at the Farmer’s Market and six other local organizations. Bankston’s service in the community recently merited the Governor’s Civic Engagement Award. He says the market is a great community event and he is proud to be a part of it.

Erickson says a good reason to come to the Farmer’s Market is “it’s fun!” Also, the market “creates a sense of community” and “strengthens bonds among the people.” She calls the market a cycle of giving and receiving, and “a gentle kind of economic development that is very powerful.”

She also stresses the importance of “knowing your grower,” or establishing a relationship with a local farmer and being aware of where food comes from and how it is treated. Erickson says the Farmer’s Market is “an important component of a comprehensive marketing program that CNR has.” CNR promotes sustainable stewardship by focusing on economic incentives of sustainable practices and facilitating their employment, according to Erickson. Their marketing program includes the “Farm to Restaurant Campaign,” a state-wide campaign to facilitate the sale of regional meat and produce to local restaurants, which brought more than $150,000 to six regional producers last year from participating restaurants.

CNR encourages children to participate in the Farmer’s Market, offering “youth booths” for $2 each Wednesday. The booths were previously free to children, but CNR began charging a small fee in order to educate young entrepreneurs about business costs. Erickson says the children’s program is “one of the best economic development tools” as it teaches business skills and concepts like overhead and supply and demand. CNR donates the proceeds from youth booths to local non-profits, often with much ceremony, to teach children to give back to the community.

Some children are already doing well in the program. Hannah Gracey, 12-year-old jewelry maker, has benefitted from selling earrings from her booth “Hannah’s Creations.” Her success at the market selling earrings made from glass beads and clear string resulted in being offered a display at the Obsidian Collection, where she sells finer sterling silver pieces with some semi-precious stones. Gracey casually refers to her earring trade as “a side thing.” Other children sell everything from baked goods to painted rocks to spoon puppets.

July 16 will be Kids Day at the market, with a magician, a dunk tank, music by Jimmy Conley’s students, and other attractions.

Local businesses and organizations also work with CNR to make the market a success. Livingston Memorial Hospital, through the efforts of food and nutrition services manager Jessica Wilcox, works with CNR and market vendors to serve and sell local products at the hospital. Currently the hospital purchases all of its beef and lamb from vendors Wolfridge Lamb and Indreland Beef, and Wilcox is working with health inspector Doris Morgan to begin serving local produce as well. Wilcox says the hospital’s efforts to buy locally help the local economy, decrease the hospital’s carbon footprint, and provide food of a higher quality and nutrient content to patients and visitors at the hospital.

Many people involved with CNR and the Farmer’s Market express optimism about statewide success in efforts to buy local, natural food products. Programs like the Farm to Restaurant Campaign, the Farm to School program, and Livingston HealthCare’s budding “farm to hospital” program are meeting with success and garnering state-wide interest, according to Wilcox.

CNR’s Lill Erickson sees the new Friday morning Farmer’s Market as an important step in developing community participation in the Farmer’s Market. Many local businesses and institutions are beginning to buy local products, and many are finding the endeavor economically viable. The Farmer’s Market serves as a hub of local trade and community interaction, and recent growth of the market indicates growing community support of the burgeoning trend to buy local and sustainable products.

—Wes Venteicher
editor@livingstonweekly.com

A Responsibility to Impeach

In the aftermath of the Watergate crisis in 1974, the Senate Judiciary Committee produced a report on the historical origins of impeachment of the president, and what the intentions of the framers of the United States Constitution—that little document that gives us the right to live free in a democracy—had in mind when they hammered out the concept.

As noted in the report, “The debates on impeachment at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia focus principally on its applicability to the President,” and the maxim that no commander in chief would ever be “above the law.” The framers intended impeachment to be “a constitutional safeguard of the public trust,” but they may have failed to envision a future where the public cared little about their responsibility to contribute to a functioning democracy (or society for that matter), a world where the public would be more concerned with plasma televisions and serial dramas than a healthy country.

Some Americans may investigate what is going on in the world instead of mouthing off about the things they might half-know from watching a major news station broadcast each night before bed. Maybe some even understand what fuels the major television news broadcasts in this day and age (advertising dollars or corporate “responsibility”—read GE buying war gear for their NBC military correspondents two full years before the war on Iraq was declared) but it comes down to ratings, not integrity, and those relying on a network broadcast to keep them informed should realize they are being used as Neilsen numbers, not respected as fellow citizens.

How much longer are Americans going to sit back and watch what they are told, and hear what they want to hear? And how much longer are these Americans going to ignore their responsibility to the founders of this country? There will always be citizens who are happy to sit back and let someone else stand up and do the fighting for them, and I am one of them in some respects. When it comes to taking up arms and traveling overseas to do the bidding of our commander in chief, I leave that to our trained soldiers. However, here in Montana on my home soil of the U.S., I will stand up for my Constitution and the laws and bylaws that are essential in order to have a functioning democratic society and I will fight for our freedom right here at home, hoping to inspire others to do the same. At this moment, our government has been hijacked, and someone (most likely the American people) will have to take it back with a fight.

The battle cry of the lead-up to the war in Iraq, “Freedom isn’t free” was utterly true but terribly misused. If we want freedom, we must pay for it with constant vigilance, and constant attention to the health of our democracy. The founding fathers believed in us, and left us a rich and dynamic legacy in the Constitution of the United States, and before we go fighting foes abroad, each citizen must fight to keep our democracy alive in Washington by holding our representatives accountable to governing with integrity.

When the constitutional impeachment process was debated with James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and others in Philadelphia over 200 years ago, the founders of the Constitution were concerned a future “Chief Magistrate” would attempt to subvert the very document they were composing, and they had much reason to worry.

A brief scan of history confirms the cliché, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and many a good leader has become easily a tyrant or dictator when unchecked by the laws and restrictions of the populace. We Americans have it written in our Constitution that such a leader will be unable to serve a full term in office, and such a leader must answer to us, the American people, when we call him to task. But in the last eight years, the safeguards put in place in the founding laws of this country have been subverted.

One will not hear of this subversion on the evening news, in fact, one would have to work diligently uncovering the complexity of the issue by searching for themselves to find the truth. I first saw the truth in the eyes of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan years ago when he was continually confronted by the White House press corps about the leak of a CIA agent’s identity in supposed retaliation for her husband’s “lies” that Iraq had no WMDs. I was at the time addicted to daily and weekly White House press briefings and “gaggles” and rarely missed a session. McClellan would field tough questions from the press corps, looking always as if he were weary of the lies and avoidance of the truth that was becoming his daily chore. I was unsurprised when he stepped down in April of 2006, the look in his eyes was that of a defeated patriot, and I noted then the obvious reason for his departure.

Now, two years later, McClellan has made a brave move in admitting his knowledge that the Bush administration made poor, and sometimes illegal choices in governing the country, and he is now scheduled to testify before Congress about the “propaganda campaign” that led up to the Iraq war, the possible authorization of torture by administrative officials, and the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame (about which other Bush officials have refused to testify, citing “executive privilege” or having been given commuted sentences for their participation). Current White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, responded to the allegations in McClellan’s book with a cheery but practical, “Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House. We are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew.”

No one in the Bush administration seems willing to admit any wrongdoing, any possibility of illegal activity or corruption, and so now the time has come for the rest of us to stop swallowing the lies and speak up without fear.

Last week, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) presented Congress with 35 articles of impeachment against President George Bush. These were not articles addressing the possibility of covering up a sexual affair in a civil case, these were articles accusing the president of true high crimes and misdemeanors: putting our dedicated soldiers in harm’s way for profit, lying to the American people, misleading the nation in a rush to get to war profiteering, sacrificing lives, imprisoning children, spying on citizens, failing to respond with aid in a national emergency, obstruction of criminal investigations and other alleged improper and illegal acts. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi immediately dismissed the articles (after all, it is an election year, and impeachment proceedings would not come across well to voters—or politicians—wanting to maintain a certain political status quo), saying impeachment was “off the table,” and all the hopes of the founding fathers that a corrupt leader would be tried and examined were extinguished.

Why is Pelosi dragging her heels? It’s understandable that the American people (probably most of them having missed that a member of Congress even presented articles of impeachment this month against Bush) have no reaction to or interest in the wealth of damning evidence against the President, but the Speaker of the House? Someone schooled in this country’s law and Constitution? How can she not see the intention of the framers of our democracy to protect against tyranny? Perhaps it is because she is one of the wealthiest members of Congress with a family net worth of over $25 million, and integrity is not often the driving force behind the motivations of the rich. Whatever her reasons for tabling the articles, she is only doing this country a grave disservice, one that history will remember as politically and not ethically motivated.

Over two hundred years ago states held ratifying conventions to approve the Constitution, and in North Carolina James Iredell argued a case that is as valid today as then, that a president: “Must certainly be punishable for giving false information to the Senate. He is to regulate all intercourse with foreign powers, and it is his duty to impart to the Senate every material intelligence he receives. If it should appear that he has not given them full information, but has concealed important intelligence which he ought to have communicated, and by that means induced them to enter into measures injurious to their country, and which they would not have consented to had the true state of things been disclosed to them,” would the Senate be able to deny that this was an offense against the government and an abuse of constitutional duties?

President Bush did without a doubt mislead both Congress and the American people in the lead-up to the Iraq war, and thereby committed a high misdemeanor against the very government he took an oath to protect.

Bush’s crimes against this country are many and severe, and the time has certainly come for all American citizens to become involved with the preservation of our democracy. Some may argue that Vice-President Cheney or other members of the Bush administration are more to blame for the crimes committed, but the President took an oath of office, and he has not upheld his oath. Few in Congress will stand up for our Constitution, so now we must become the fail-safe the founders of this country intended us to be. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain...this Constitution for the United States of America.

I am neither a Republican nor Democrat, but a student of history, and I recognize now that we are our only hope, and we must come together in our communities and hold our elected representatives responsible for protecting the articles of our Constitution, and we must at all costs preserve the democracy which was designed to bless us all with liberty, or the great democracy of America the founding fathers envisioned will be little more than a faded vision and an impossible dream.

—Reilly Neill
news@livingstonweekly.com

A Bird in the Hand:Tracing Patterns in a Changing Climate

During one of the recent late-spring thunderstorms here in Livingston, a small group of dedicated wildlife enthusiasts gathered in a classroom at Washington School to increase their awareness about birds and learn about bird conservation through a special lecture by master bird bander Neil Travis, titled “A Bird in the Hand.”

In the prelude to the final lecture of a weekly series celebrating International Migratory Bird Day, bird bander Travis milled among the crowd answering questions and preparing for his presentation.

Even the steaming coffee offered on a side table was certified “bird friendly,” from farms in Latin America that provided “good forest-like habitat for birds” according literature from the Smithsonian National Zoological Park displayed alongside the carafe.

As the birders took their seats, Rachel Feigley, a bird biologist for the National Forest Service, introduced herself and the topic soon to be discussed: “Tundra to Tropics: Connecting Birds, Habitat and People,” the theme of the 2008 International Migratory Bird Day.

“I see many familiar faces,“ Feigley noted, indicating a number of individuals and couples who had previously been present at Migratory Day field trips and lectures held over the past month. She then turned the floor over to Travis, a naturalist who has held a master bird banding permit since 1964.

Travis traced a long history studying birds, from a youth in the midwest in Michigan to the Rocky Mountains and the American southwest. A seasonal summer resident of the Livingston Area, he maintains a mountain bluebird trail along Trail Creek Road and bands birds in the area. During the winters, he volunteers as an interpretive naturalist in Saguaro National Park near Phoenix, Arizona.

In his long bird banding history, Travis said he had experienced close encounters with “hawks, owls and big birds all the way down to the hummingbirds,” which he affectionately referred to as “hummers.”

Travis is one of only 2,000 master bird banders in the United States and Canada, and admitted that since otherwise it is a federal offense for any unlicensed person to handle or disturb migrating (not game) birds, he considered his volunteer position “a great privilege.”

From the Time of the Pharaohs

“Bird banding started originally with falconry, and was initially used to mark trained birds,” said Travis, introducing a short history of the banding of birds. He indicated te origins of falconry went all the way back to ancient Egypt, but the first record of a metal band (or “ring” in Europe) used to mark a bird could be traced to the reign of Henry IV in France in the late 1500s. According to the tale, one of the king’s peregrine falcons took off after a large swift-running bustard. The banded falcon was recovered 24 hours later 1,350 miles away on the island of Malta, meaning the falcon would have traveled at least 56 miles per hour in the overnight flight.

By 1710, bird banders were beginning to realize that birds were moving around quite a bit when a German bander captured a banded heron from Turkey. The first purely scientific banding ever noted can be traced to John J. Audubon who tied thin silver wires to the legs of a brood of eastern phoebes in new England and discovered the following year that many returned to nest in the same location. However, it was Hans Mortensen, Travis said, who set the current standard for present banding procedures. In 1899, Mortensen placed bands inscribed with his name and address around the legs of waterfowl, starlings and hawks in hopes the bands would be returned to him if found.

Throughout the early 1900s, more bird banders tested effective techniques for banding and identifying birds and began to get organized in conjunction with the 1916 Protection of Migratory Birds Convention. In 1918 the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was established between the United States and Canada insuring that all migrating birds (not game birds) were protected, making it a federal offense for any unlicensed person to handle or disturb birds.

Shifting Patterns

“Birds have fascinated man since the earliest dawn of time...because they can do something we all wish we could do,” said Travis, “They’re the only creature that, under their own power, can fly.”

Man has always wondered where birds go when they fly off, especially for a season, continued Travis. He explained that among many of man’s early theories as to where the birds might have been going included the idea that the birds in the winter and the summer were the same and just changed their appearance with the season or the once widely-accepted idea of spontaneous regeneration.

Many may have even thought the birds could have been hibernating, said Travis. But eventually as people traveled around the world and across continents they realized that birds migrated, or moved from one region or habitat to another each season. Then the question arose as to how some of the smaller birds such as the “hummers” were migrating; were they nestling in the feathers of larger birds?

Decades of work by dedicated bird banding volunteers has helped to dispel many myths and strengthen scientific evidence about bird migration patterns. Banders have tracked individual birds, looked at general species distribution patterns and determined how numerous any given species may have been in any particular area. And while bird banders continue this work, “We pretty well know where birds go and where they are concentrated now,” Travis said, indicating the major flyways of the Atlantic, Mississippi, Rocky Mountain and Pacific in the western hemisphere.

Now, banders are looking more at the condition of birds the capture and release. “Migratory birds are in trouble,” said Travis. Due to fragmented habitats and obstacles that make it difficult for birds to migrate, some bird species are in steep decline.

After studying bird populations for over 40 years, Travis said he has a clear indication that something in the climate is changing, “I don’t know why it’s changing, but I know that it is...Birds are coming north earlier and we are seeing species in places they have not been before.” Travis noted as examples the turkey vulture and the common crow in Park county, “30 years ago you never say a turkey vulture here, and never a common crow and now they’re all over the place...something is happening.” He also indicated the disappearance of once-plentiful species such as the nighthawk, but noted that the reason for the particular species scarcity may have nothing to do with the local climate, but perhaps changes to one of the other climates the nighthawks call home.

Some of the changes Travis noted have been ongoing and subtle for the last 30 years, but recently he said has seen changes “so rapid and accelerated things cannot adapt to them.” He also indicated weather patterns that appear to be changing, and since most birds migrate during the spring or the fall—two of the most violent seasons of the year—this could disrupt migratory patterns. He also stressed the importance of darkness for night migration patterns in a country that is becoming rapidly illuminated.

Presently, banders are still accumulating longevity records and endeavoring to establish averages to see if the averages are changing, said Travis, as well as accumulating nesting and breeding information with an emphasis on sexing and aging but the continuing data collection will provide scientists with a barometer of the change currently being experienced by migratory birds.

Catch and Release

Originally, bird banding started out with simple traps, said Travis as he displayed a number of traps he said he still sometimes uses. But the traps had many limitations, among them the ability to catch flying birds (as the traps were located on the ground), and the fact that the traps could only hold a few birds at a time.

Another option for catching birds in the wild would be to find a nest and weigh, examine and band hatchlings. Travis said that although the method could be successful for banding large colonies of birds like seagulls, it limited the age range of the birds dramatically.

With the advent of the Japanese-developed fine nylon net in the 1940s, bird banders finally had the perfect tool for humanely netting and releasing birds. “It changed bird banding in ways we never could have imagined,” said Travis.

The mesh-like net is stretched between two aluminum poles and suspended in the air where it may catch everything from snowbirds and turkey hawks to sparrows.

After netting a bird and getting it in the hand, Travis explained that banders record data of the weight and possible pollen cover on the bird before attempting to determine the age or sex, which can be a near-impossible challenge in some cases. Some breeding females have a “brood patch” on their chest, or a small featherless area where they nest close to their eggs to indicate their gender, but without such a patch some birds are difficult to sex.

“There are some birds you still cannot identify in the field,” said Travis, holding up a large and thick manual and flipping through it to display microscopic text. He explained that the manual in his hand described minute differences in feathers and beak measurements, among many other indicators, that made it possible to gain a good identification.

Banders also perform fat studies on the bird to determine health and age and sometimes collect blood samples or DNA data to aid in population studies. Some banders even track avian pathogens such as bird flu while gathering the regulation banding data. Once data is collected, the birds are set free to fly away

All data collected is entered into a computer program that feeds information to the USGS Bird Banding Laboratory. The government provides the computer software and the bird bands, but it is up to the banders to come up with their own nets, safety glasses, gloves and other tools of the trade. Regardless of the investment, Travis admitted, “Its just fun to handle birds; it’s every birder’s dream...warblers, terns, gulls, screech owls, long-eared owls...”

In order to gain a master bander’s permit Travis explained that a birder must not only know birds, but must be willing to learn much technical information. Interested banders must serve an apprenticeship before being endorsed by a licensed bander. The process can take up to two years, and is a completely volunteer effort.

The Migratory Mystery

Once Travis had prepared the group for the upcoming early morning trip to net, band and release birds on DePuy’s Spring Creek, he shared his deep affinity for the avian species with all assembled in the small classroom by telling the story of the bristle-thighed curlew, a bird that nested only in a small part of western Alaska, and its phenomenal journey from birth to follow a genetic migration route from the tundra to the tropics with no roadmap, fellow bird or parent to show it the way. How did they do it? He asked.

“We will never know how they do it, and it is that marvel that keeps me coming back,” said Travis, “Despite all of our human intelligence, birds do something we are unable to do,” or even understand, when they follow their natural migration routes. He then closed the lecture with a reading from “Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds” by Scott Weidensaul.

“In our lifetime, migration as we know it will fade away,” read Travis.

As he continued with the excerpt, the crowd was visibly moved by the rhythm of the Earth Travis described evident in observing the patterns of birds.

Regardless of the unknown future of migratory birds and the uncertain climate of the world, Travis said he still has great hope for bird populations, and stressed that education is key to a healthy future. “If people get an affinity for something,” he said,” they are inclined to preserve it.”

—Reilly Neill
news@livingstonweekly.com

Birding Experts Share theWorld's Greatest Destinations

You know those irresistible, “palpable” kinds of books that a reader yearns to touch? A book that’s ideal in size—eight by seven inches with a satisfying heft—which elicits delight when the perfect pages are turned, or by caressing the flawless dust cover or running a hand hand along the elegant spine? Such a book is “Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die” by Chris Santella.

Readers will recognize its high quality instantly when they open it to any page and see that it miraculously lies flat when opened. Absolute perfection. And by the way, the book’s editorial content is darn good, too, which is a bit surprising since author Chris Santella is not a hardcore birder. Instead, he’s the “Fifty Places” guy—writer of several other guides in Stewart, Tabori & Chang’s series, including “Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die”, “Fifty Places to Play Golf Before You Die”, “Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die”, and “Fifty Favorite Fly-Fishing Tales”.

Santella was well aware that he was less than qualified to select “top birding sites” all on his own, so he solicited input from a host of birders and ornithologists, biologists, tour leaders and science writers, and a different individual nominated each of the 50 places in this book.

The author interestingly showcases many of the greatest bird-watching venues in the world—both at home and abroad—with interviews from stellar birding notables like David Allen Sibley, author and illustrator of the “Sibley Guide to Birds”; John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the world-famous Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology; Rose Ann Rowlett, the mother of modern birding; and Steve McCormick, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, among many others. Santella interviewed these birding world luminaries and elicited the most amazing places they’ve been to bird watch. Included among the fascinating destination descriptions are also travel tips and great-read stories about the fifty “faraway places with the strange-sounding names.”

It’s estimated that some 60 million Americans count birding among their hobbies, be it to hang bird feeders in their backyards or accumulate personal “yard lists,” or to participate in annual “Christmas counts.”

A lucky few have the means to travel to the ends of the earth to, literally, see every bird in the world. If you are one of those arcane individuals who actually do aspire to personally “see every bird in the world,” fellow birder Dan Koeppel’s wonderful yet sobering memoir, “To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession” may be an inspiration. Author Koeppel describes his father’s dogged pursuit of glimpsing every single species of the world’s 10,000+ birds, at enormous cost to his family, his own personal happiness, even his sanity.

No list of “Fifty Favorite Birding Places” is going to please everyone, and one’s top birding spot may not have made it onto Santella’s list. (No place in Montana did, except for Yellowstone National Park which was listed under Wyoming.)

But one of my favorite places did: the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, New Mexico. Yes, it’s about 1100 miles from Park County, but hey, it’s a straight shot south—an easy day-and-a-half drive. Yes, gas prices are criminal and getting worse all the time, but who knows what the state of affairs may be by late November—the best time to visit the Bosque? Perhaps the planets will realign themselves serendipitously, and lovely, long road trips may yet again be possible for us all. At any rate, birders looking for the ultimate experience have just got to visit the Bosque sometime, at dawn and dusk, and especially under the light of a full moon.

From late November through early January, visitors to the Bosque witness the spectacle and grandeur of migrating greater sandhill cranes (at times up to 20,000), white and blue phases of lesser snow geese, Ross’s geese, Canada geese (around 30,000 geese altogether), and an impressive array of ducks (up to 50,000), all coming to rest and feed for awhile in an oasis in the Chihuahuan Desert. Oh yes, and there are plenty of raptors, too: bald and golden eagle; prairie falcon; hawks including ferruginous, Swainson’s, and red-tailed, northern harrier; and the beautiful, feisty little American kestrel.

A visitor’s first sight of the 57,191-acre Bosque is of a sun-drenched flood-plain with more than 80 constructed water impoundments, rimmed by vegetation and graced by occasional, large and lovely cottonwoods. The remainder of the refuge is comprised of arid foothills and mesas, bounded by rugged, distant mountains to both west and east. The refuge straddles the Rio Grande about 20 miles south of Socorro, New Mexico, at the far northern edge of the Chihuahuan desert.

The ducks are the first to show up here, in early October. Then the greater sandhill cranes start coming in later in the month, then the geese start arriving in early November. Mid-November through mid-January are the best wildlife viewing times. By the first of March, most of the waterfowl have moved on—and (a word to the wise) mosquitoes start moving in. Choose your visiting time at the Bosque accordingly.

Be sure to check out what I call the “sandhill crane sneak.” About 30 minutes before sunrise, make sure to be in place along the water impoundments on the west side of the road between the refuge and the village of San Antonio. Get your binoculars ready—alas, it’s too early and dark for cameras. Observing from the dirt levee, you can dimly see the sleeping cranes in the middle of the pond: dark motionless lumps, heads tucked under wings. And then, the false light of pre-sunrise begins to gather. The cranes pop their heads up, almost in unison. First one, then two, then choruses of cranes begin their characteristic vocalization, a chittering silvery purr. But the growing light elicits no great flurry of crane wings to the sky—that frenzy is for the ducks and geese. Cranes are far more sedate and stately.

As the sunrise light grows and finally touches their bodies, the sandhill cranes gradually begin what I call their “sneak walk.” One at a time, the cranes begin walking very, very slowly—step by deliberate step—from the water onto land. Sometimes they appear to be moving in single file, other times not. As full sunshine paints the landscape, the cranes slowly and deliberately take wing, usually in small clusters of three to eight individuals. Their huge wings flash magnificently against the dawn. Fifteen minutes after sunrise when camera shutter-speeds are still too slow to catch action in the dim light all of the cranes have left the ponds. Show’s over, folks, now it’s time for feeding in nearby fields.

My favorite Bosque activity is walking out onto the refuge under a full moon, when the waterfowl and cranes fitfully attempt to sleep frequently “startling”themselves awake with a torrent of vocalization due to some danger, real or imagined.

Most folks come to the Bosque to see the daily “fly-out” just before dawn or the “fly-in” shortly before sunset—the wonderful sights and sounds of thousands of waterfowl moving to and from the relative safety of mid-pond where they cluster together for the night for safety. The silhouetted skeins of geese, ducks and cranes against the flaming skies are heart-stoppingly beautiful.

During the last two weeks in November, the world-famous “Festival of the Cranes” at the Bosque celebrates the annual spectacle of the southbound waterfowl and crane migration, typically drawing up to 10,000 visitors to the refuge and surrounding area. Someday—gas prices permitting—I hope to go back to the Bosque, and I hope local birders get a chance to see it too, sometime.

Inevitably, the experience of visiting these birding hot-spots will be changed (and quite possibly degraded after a time) by the increasing number of folks who will visit them… not to mention issues of habitat degradation, deforestation, and global warming. But you’d better go and see the birds anyway. Now, while they’re still here.

—Jane Susan MacCarter

Larry Lahren's "Homeland"

Archaeological evidence in Park County confirms a human presence 11,000 years ago, placing the region among the earliest in North America known to have been populated. Just after giant ice age glaciers receded, the area that is now Park County was covered in steppe-tundra vegetation similar to present-day Alaska. Natives hunted wooly mammoth along the Yellowstone River and roamed the country alongside beaver as big as grizzlies and Hummer-sized giant sloths.

When a present-day resident of Park County feels pangs of hunger, a cheeseburger or a sub sandwich might spring to mind. The modern hungry human does not need to rouse a group of spear-hurtling hunters to pursue lunch, but at the end of the quest he or she will experience the age-old satisfaction of a full belly. “Whether you’re killing a jackrabbit and eating it or whether you’re going to Albertson’s, you’re doing the same thing, you’re acquiring protein,” says Larry Lahren, local archaeologist and author of a collection of essays titled “Homeland: An Archaeologist’s View of Yellowstone Country’s Past”.

In the collection of essays Lahren attempts to make archaeology accessible by noting common elements in the lives of ancients and moderns. “There is no such thing as a primitive culture; culture adapts,” he says.

The book opens with an autobiographical essay where a young Lahren is introduced to the hunt by his father, grows to engage in “tribal warfare” with neighboring gangs of 1950s toughs, undergoes rites of passage in the world of academia, and later gains intimate knowledge of animal behavioral patterns as a hunting guide. Lahren spends time in Calgary, but is inevitably drawn back to Montana.

In the book Lahren identifies basic needs that have always driven humans. “There are certain anthropological mandates that go through all cultures; there are just variations in them in time,” says Lahren. Such necessities include food, the technology to get it from somebody else, social and family organization, division of labor, and a religious system.

By focusing his research on survival needs, Lahren says he avoids what he calls “the symbolic, spiritual, noble savage thing.” Instead he interprets artifacts in the context of their use for survival in the environment where they are found. He seeks evidence of a sustained and consistent relationship with the land over generations which could contribute to the identification of a homeland.

Lahren identifies a “Greater Yellowstone Homeland,” which includes the Northern and Middle Rocky Mountains of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho as well as the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. He approaches the region as “an environmental and cultural system that is first viewed in and of itself, and not as a marginal part of other ethnographically known culture areas.” Lahren’s method differs from the traditional approach to Rocky Mountain archaeology, which considers some cultures in the Continental Divide area to be “marginal” or “non-typical” branches of central core areas. Core areas were identified by anthropologists according to relatively recent written historical accounts, whereas Lahren’s method identifies cultural trends in much older archaeological records of hunter-gatherer cultures.

Lahren refers to a quote by newsman Tom Brokaw, who said “regions and eras influence those who come of age in them…I will always be a descendant of those who bent their backs against the soil and hard times and held true to their bearings.” Lahren expands upon Brokaw’s notion of a lifelong connection with a place, stating his intent to tie one life to “everybody else’s lifetime over 11,000 years, so everybody’s considering this a homeland.”

The essays also cover specific “digs” led by Lahren. The most significant dig site Lahren worked was the “Anzick” site near Wilsall, which Lahren calls the “Rosetta Stone” of the people of the new world. The discovery of the Anzick site in 1968 was particularly important with regard to the religious practices of the native inhabitants of 11,000 to 11,500 years ago, during what is called the Paleoindian period. Before the discovery of the Anzick burial site, the finds from the Paleoindian period in North America were limited to a few scattered kill sites and campsites. The Anzick site is the burial site of a 2-year-old child and a wide array of intact artifacts at a location where drainages come together and trail systems meet. The burial site indicates religious practices of the ancient inhabitants. Lahren writes that the child was buried at the geographically significant location with the artifacts because “it was possible to enter the underworld passage to the ‘otherside camp’ through the most distinctive land form in the valley floor.” Many of the artifacts were coated in red ochre, which Lahren identifies as an attempt to appease hunting spirits. The inclusion of heirloom tools and an intentionally broken antler tool likely indicate shamanistic rituals performed at the site.

The remains were dated by identification of projectile points found at the site. “Clovis” projectile points found at Anzick are of the same make as a distinctive point first dated in Clovis, New Mexico. There a point was found embedded in the remains of a wooly mammoth that became extinct 11,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating also confirms the age of the artifacts.

Lahren calls his collection of essays a humanistic contribution, because he wrote the essays for the lay reader. The credo of Lahren’s consulting firm, Anthro Research, is “to sell science and contribute to humanity.” Lahren’s firm was contracted by federal and state agencies to oversee several major digs in Montana and nearby states. The firm currently conducts environmental impact surveys of locations slated to be altered by construction. Lahren also attempts to contribute to humanity outside the activities of Anthro Research, conducting educational outreaches and seminars as well as museum work to preserve and display artifacts of Park County’s past. He recently gave a slide-show presentation at Carnegie Library in Big Timber, where master flint-knapper Ray Alt demonstrated aspects of prehistoric hunting practices and the stone tool-making process.

One notable endeavor was a summer program to educate Indian youth of the Fort Peck tribes (Assiniboine/Sioux) about their cultural identity. Lahren worked with Don Petterson and Ernie Bighorn to teach youths how to craft stone tools, construct stone hearths, and to conduct “archaeological reconnaissance” to locate places where their ancestors may have resided. Lahren says it helped teach the kids to get away from “a savage image that they were different.” Some went on to pursue degrees in anthropology.

Lahren defines a homeland as a place where one was born and one’s ancestors were buried. He says the average person with an interest in people could look at the archaeological record and see patterns and parallels relevant to their day to day world. He says archaeology and anthropology develop a historical framework so that you can look at the past and at the present and project what the future might be.

–Wes Venteicher
editor@livingstonweekly.com