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 Taxpayer groups, editorial writers and fiscal conservatives rail against them. Incumbent politicians wave them like trophies. The Montana economy seems to live by them.
Earmarked, or so-called “pork-barrel”, projects added $86.7 million to the Montana economy in the 2008 budget, according to an annual report from the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste.
That’s $90.67 per resident, almost three times the national average and placing Montana ninth in per-capita receipts of earmarked federal dollars. Top states in pork-barrel receipts tend to be rural, sparsely populated and of some military significance. Alaska leads the way with $555 per resident. Hawaii’s receipts were $220 per resident, and North Dakota was close behind with $208 apiece.
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Responding to recent news that the Student Assistance Foundation (SAF) is laying off 23 staff members, U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester are calling for SAF and the Montana Higher Education Student Assistance Corporation (MHESAC) to disclose their financial records and to take steps to ensure that students in Montana continue to receive loans efficiently and effectively.
In a letter dated April 25, 2008, the senators wrote to the chairman of both group’s board of directors asking for more information to make sure Montana kids continue to have access to higher education through federal grants and loans.
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The Montana Department of Transportation is notifying the public and seeking comments on a proposal to construct a bicycle/pedestrian crossing underneath I-15 at Broadway and Colonial Drive. The intent of the project is to provide safe pedestrian access across the interstate just south of the Capitol Interchange.
The proposed project extends from the intersection of Broadway and Colonial and continues across I-15 until it ends at the gravel roadway south of the MDT building. The gravel roadway connects to 18th Street, which intersects U.S. Highway 12 near Wal-Mart. The crossing will allow the connection of the Broadway sidewalk system with the East Helena Pedestrian Trail, providing safe pedestrian access from southeast Helena to numerous businesses along Prospect Avenue.
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Helena is celebrating Earth Day this year with a variety of fun and educational offerings. These include a Neighborhood Conservation Club Kick-Off on Tuesday, April 22, 7 pm, at ExplorationWorks Museum in the Great Northern Town Center.
Participants will learn how to work with neighbors to conserve energy, water and the environment we all depend on. There will also be an electric car demo and a raffle of a gray water recycling system.
Montana Fiberarts is hosting a Recycled Fibers Celebration Tuesday from 6-9 pm at 433 N. Last Chance Gulch (in Crazy Woman Beads). This will be an art show and silent auction of recycled fiber pieces, refreshments of locally produced foods provided by friends and volunteers, and demos of recycled fiber techniques.
Don’t forget the Growing Friends of Helena, S.A.V.E. Foundation, and City of Helena semi-annual recycling day known as “Trash for Trees”. It’s Saturday, April 26, 9 am - 4 pm, at the Northgate Plaza parking lot. See www.savemobile.org or call 431-0815 for more info.
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If global warming or Helena’s rising summer temperatures frustrate you because you don’t know how you can help, I have a simple suggestion. It’s spring, go plant a tree. Before you write me off as a naïve tree-hugger, let me explain how an aggressive tree-planting effort, by us citizens, can benefit our community.
If you plant a tree in the right place, it will provide your household and the community with a number of important environmental, economic, and aesthetic benefits.
•Deciduous trees, planted on the south, southeast, and especially southwest of your home, provide shade for your windows and keep your home cooler in hot weather. Home-shading is the most important benefit of tree planting because shading is an alternative to refrigerated air-conditioning, which is Public Enemy No. 1 in our fight against global warming. Every air-conditioner owner needs it running full tilt at the same time during the summer heat. Residential and commercial air conditioning constitutes about 60 percent of our rising summer electrical peak load, which is pushing our electricity costs ever higher. Every air conditioner we install or use brings us a few kilowatts closer to our next new coal-fired power plant.
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A hike is just what the doctor ordered this time of year if you’re prepared for it. Top photo is the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness up Hunters Gulch; bottom is Fields Gulch showing effects from the Meriwether fire; middle is the pasque flower. (Photos by Stanley Simpson and Drake Barton)
Three miles up Big Log Gulch, I was relieved and surprised to see the wilderness boundary sign had survived. A celebration was in order. The pack hit the ground with a soft thud. I saluted the wooden board extending a welcome to the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. Sitting on a rock thoughtfully placed against a ponderosa pine, I snacked on trail mix.
The flames of last summer’s Meriwether fire may have consumed more than 42,000 acres, charred millions of board feet of timber, and threatened lives and property and the short-term health of an ecosystem, but, by god, this sentry of the wild borders of the Gates of the Rocky Mountains was unscathed. That warranted a stick of beef jerky, too.
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The gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountains is thriving and no longer requires the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett announced this past week. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has removed the species from the federal list of threatened and endangered species and affected states will assume legal management authority of the wolves in the northern Rockies this coming Friday.
“The wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery goal and continues to expand its size and range. States, tribes, conservation groups, federal agencies and citizens of both regions can be proud of their roles in this remarkable conservation success story,” Scarlett said, noting that there are currently more than 1,500 wolves and at least 100 breeding pairs in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
Believing the federal decision to be premature, 11 conservation groups served notice on the USFWS in late February that, in their view, the agency has violated the Endangered Species Act and that they intend to challenge the decision in federal court.
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Road trip
by Rick & Susie Graetz
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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As you look over Harlowton from your perch near the place where Andrew Garcia might have caught his first view of what he called paradise, consider that you are catching a big sweep of Montana and a bit of geography where time and space intermingle well. The Musselshell Country witnessed it all, including the passing of the bison and the free-roaming Indians who followed them. Read Garcia’s book, “Tough Trip Through Paradise”, and you will understand why this part of Montana’s past is rich, vibrant and extensive.
Look a bit to the northwest to the Musselshell River’s birthplace. Launched by springs and creeks on the eastern fringe of the northern Rocky Mountains, its north and south forks pour out of the Crazy, Castle and Little Belt mountains (all within your range of vision), cutting their way through the last ridges and hills of Montana’s mountainous province before joining and forming the Musselshell River.
Not far from your vantage point, bonding of the tributaries takes place in a mixture of wetlands and pasture that spreads onto a prairie landscape heading toward the sunrise and the beginnings of Montana east of the mountains. From this simple start, the Musselshell will twist and turn for 364 miles through the heart of Montana, a landscape short on human presence and long on gentle beauty.
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More homeowners are focusing on health by planting their own vegetable gardens this year, rejecting the rising cost of food and fuel and pesticide-laden produce most often found in supermarkets.
Just about every environmental group in the United States, Canada and in Europe warns that store-bought produce is loaded with petro-chemical pesticides that build up in the human body. These chemicals are being blamed for many illnesses, from autism in children to cancer at all ages. Consider the following:
•Potatoes, lettuce and cucumbers have the highest concentration of pesticides, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s annual crop report.
•A major study by the New York State Department of Health directly links pesticides to diabetes, now one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the United States.
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A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Feb. 14, killing five students and injuring 16 (one of whom died later) before killing himself. The man was armed with a shotgun and two handguns.
The Northern Illinois University shooting falls less than a year after 32 people were killed and at least 15 injured before a gunman killed himself during a shooting spree on the campus of Virginia Tech.
“It was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history,” wrote The New York Times of the Virginia Tech shooting. “And (it) came nearly eight years to the day after 13 people died at Columbine High School in Colorado at the hands of two disaffected students who then killed themselves.”
A week before the Northern Illinois shooting, a nursing student shot two students in the classroom of a Louisiana technical college before shooting herself.
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