A story in the July 17 Chronicle covered a public hearing on the future of the gray wolf in Montana. Do you regard the wolf as being a species in need of management?

You can see all kinds of great things in our Montana

The green energy industry enjoys an exciting public image, from futuristic hybrid engines to caffeinated, playful work environments. But the real work of the green revolution is just that: work. Generating power with renewable resources creates a host of logistical and legal challenges, and it falls to several blandly-named government bodies to shape the future of alternative energy. In Montana, that government body is called the Public Service Commission (PSC).

An important recent decision by the PSC concerns a small Billings-based wind-power provider, Two-Dot Wind (TDW), and Montana’s largest utility provider, NorthWesternern Energy. Their legal conflict, and its resolution, should concern every energy-conscious Montanan.

According to a 1978 renewable energy law, NorthWesternern Energy must do business with Two-Dot Wind if it wants to do business in Montana. This law obliges electric utilities (such as NWE) to purchase renewable power from non-utility electric producers (such as TDW). The legislation was...

That's all I've got to say. Hope you enjoy the video clip

It's apparent to me that it is a weather trend that is being stirred into a politicized frenzy. Though, the good that may come out of that is eco-friendly manufacturing and
cleaner air and clearer thinking of how to be more "Green".

First FWP told me not to feed the bear cub leave it be,we will let nature takes its course, then they said in the article they were relying on me to monitor the situation? Which is it? Leave her alone and let her die or monitor the situation for us?
Wouldnt it have been protocal to give me the number to the MWRE Center in Helena if they could NOT or would not come up to check out the situation! I was told by the wildlife Center
the Cub was on her last leg and its was a good thing we did the transfer that day!

Over the past couple of years, I have heard over and over again about the energy crisis. How America needs power to run her industries. We need this power to run everything in our lives, from your refrigerator to factories that produce goods. The question is where are we getting the power for all these appliances? I will tell you, they come from a number of sources, coal, oil, and nuclear, or hydraulic. The question that I have is why haven't any of the major candidates talked about building more hydraulic damns? They are looking for a more green source of energy, what is more energy efficient than running water of a turbine? The reason that we burn coal is that is the cheapest, and very plentiful out on the east coast. The reason we burn oil, because it is convent if there is no other source. The reason we use nuclear is that it is cheap and efficient. The reason we don't run our power dams at full strength because environmentalist in the 80's and 90's said that it was harming the salmon runs up the...

i want to know if there is anyone that cares anymore about somone they have never seen or met but just becuase they were asked to help no strings attached. Or is it just my parents that were raised that way.
CC

My husband and i are moving to Bozeman to start our married lives together and get back to basics after living in the dirty, superficial city of Atlanta for way too long. While there is much I am looking forward to, I have to admit, my husband and I are afraid I am going to hate the weather! I am used to the mild "50 degrees is cold" weaher of the southeast, and have never even seen real snow. Are there any other Southerners that have made this move? Do you have any tips or tricks to adjusting/coping with the drastic weather??


*** As a follow up, I just arrived home from a weekend in Bozeman....snow on April 25th!!!! And I loved it!!! I am so excited to move to your beautiful town. And I have used much of your advice; we will be living very close to town, investing in apropriate clothing, a car with 4X4, and geting a season pass to a ski place.

And anyone else who may be in my same boat, let me tell you, the air is totally different from the south. We were driving with the windows down in 45 degree weather!.....

I have been reading in the news that the powers-that-be are considering canceling the salmon fishing season off the west coast, due to population crises in certain rivers. After reading all the demand for great, fresh fish in the Restaurant discussion I have some questions.

Is it possible for mountain-dwellers to have fresh ocean fish in the amounts we desire without totally screwing the ocean?

Are we (living in remote, landlocked locations) responsible for talking about cutting back our demand, or do we just start complaining when it gets to $40/pound?

Are there fish/seafood places around town that are more (or less) conscious of this issue and their impact on it?

Thanks for any feedback. I have had a hard time finding people who know much about this. My sister manages a sushi place way up in Telluride, CO, which makes them potentially one of the worst offenders at taxing the ocean, but there the staff is required to be educated on stuff like that, and purchase accordingly. Still, they feel like they are having...

I'm not interested in paying extra to recycle, and so I drop it off for free at the bins. Is the city going to replace the Babcock Street bins? At this point people on the west side of town have to go to MSU or N. 7th which is really pretty inconvenient. Where I came from, the city built recycling in, gave us the bin too. We sorted the bin, i.e. tin on the bottom, then plastic, then card board & paper. Then you had to buy "city" trash bags for all the other stuff. if you just dumped everything in these plastic bags, technically it cost you more. The bags were about 50 or 60 cents each. You could buy an extra bin for $5 ea. & if you really got good at recycling you were buying less of these bags. The city wouldn't take them unless they were in these special bags. I think this city's new and current policy is anti-recycle. Any thoughts? Am I missing something since I am relatively new here?

Anyone have any good ideas how to get rental housefuls of students/constructions guys/singles to act responsibly & keep their yards from looking like junkpiles or outdoor storage areas? Help!

We have a neighborhood who is digging up all the big rocks and selling. DEQ has told us this is strip mining and a permit is needed to do this and the land must be reclaimed. However we can not find out if he has actually gotten a permit and we can see that he continues to dig late hours and has not reclaimed the la
nd.DEQ has also told us that they thought we could as neighboring land owners request that he not dig after hours or on Sundays. But no one is seeing that he not do this. How do you get DEQ to enforce rules against people violiating environmental regulations?

But Bozeman is not-yet from some of the drivers I've witnessed in our little corner of the world, I'm sure it's just a miracle that our beautiful, serene town doesn't have as many dead people from traffic accidents as the California Freeway system has.
A few weeks ago, driving west on Main approaching the red light at 19th in the right lane...the vehicle in the left lane, going about 55 in the 35 zone, just blew right past the light-if anyone had been unfortunate enough to be travelling on 19th at that moment..well, you would have read the gory details the next morning. And that's just one of many incidents which miraculously didn't end in tragedy that I've seen recently-Traffic lights and stop signs in this town may just as well be Christmas decorations for all the attention people pay to them. They seem to be more like an inconvenience to all too many people rather than a way to prevent them from being killed.
Just amazing how stop signs, especially at smaller intersections,
are virtually ignored. Wake up people-...

What does everyone think about this development? I read that Dokken sold 4,000 acres to a candy man (Mentos heir?), so it sounds like the footprint will be a little smaller. I guess I don't understand how you can call a development like this "preservation". But, I guess it all goes back to the golden rule. Those with the gold rule.