BOZEMAN – Years of work on the new Public Safety Center in Bozeman are coming to an end. The City of Bozeman invites all members of the media and public to celebrate the grand opening of the Bozeman Public Safety Center, located on 901 N Rouse Avenue, on Sept. 16 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a ribbon cutting followed by tours of the building.

“This occasion recognizes the hard work of so many contractors and staff members and the support we have had from the community to bring the vision of the Bozeman Public Safety Center to fruition,” Mayor Cyndy Andrus stated. “We are fortunate to live in a community that values public safety as much as we do, and this building symbolizes that.”

The safety center was designed to address the impacts of the rapidly growing city as the city had outgrown the Law and Justice Center previously located on South 19th Avenue. It is a 3-story 95,000 square foot structure with room to add employees as the city continues to grow, and is now home to  the Bozeman Police Department, Fire Station #1, Municipal Courts, Prosecution and Victim Services. The building also includes state of the art public meeting spaces and was built with the best practices in sustainability and disaster preparedness in mind.

The project began with a land exchange with the Montana Department of Transportation in 2013. Construction on the building began in summer 2020 and wrapped up in summer 2022.
 
Members of the public can now access the building for services. With multiple public safety services located in one space, staff can better serve the public through convenient, centralized, and state-of-the-art facility for many years to come.
 
“We invite all to join us on Sept. 16 to take a tour of the new building and chat with our staff,” said Mayor Andrus.
 
More information on the Bozeman Public Safety Center can be found at https://www.bozeman.net/our-city/city-projects/bozeman-public-safety-center.

BOZEMAN — Being relatively new to academia, Rodrigo Marques, an assistant professor in the Department of Animal and Range Sciences at Montana State University, never anticipated receiving awards for his research, at least this early in his career. But, despite the short time he has been part of the College of Agriculture faculty, he has gained recognition for his research centered on maternal nutrition of beef cattle and its impacts on offspring performance.

Marques received the 2022 Young Scientist award from the western section of the American Society of Animal Science, which recognizes outstanding research achievement by members under the age of 40 in the organization. Marques will be celebrated during the 2022 ASAS Western section meeting in Park City, Utah, in late September.

“Congratulations to Dr. Marques for this well-deserved recognition from his peers,” said Sreekala Bajwa, vice president of agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture and director of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. “During the short time since joining MSU, Rodrigo has established productive partnerships with the livestock industry to build a research program that addresses current and emerging challenges in livestock production. He is also an effective teacher. It is quite inspiring to hear his students gushing about the opportunities he provides them to learn and engage through his classes and research work.”

According to ASAS, “Dr. Marques is quickly setting himself apart as a top-tier and highly productive scientist with an astonishing list of accomplishments for a scientist of his career stage.” He has authored or coauthored 53 refereed journal articles, four book chapters, 16 proceedings papers, 21 peer-reviewed extension articles, 27 conference abstracts, nine station reports, and seven popular press articles. 

Marques, who came to MSU in 2020, focuses on nutritional and management strategies to enhance productivity and profitability of cow-calf systems. He currently runs fetal programming trials, where his team feeds cows during gestation and sees the results on the calf after it’s born in terms of performance in feedlots, whether they get sick, carcass data and more.

Marques also does research on preparing calves to face the inevitable stressful situations that occur during road transport and feedlot entry in other states like Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas. One project is examining administrations of bovine appeasing substance, or BAS, and measuring its performance, health and psychological effects on cattle. BAS is a synthetic analog to the bovine appeasing pheromone produced in a cow’s mammary gland. It has a calming effect and lowers stress levels.

“It’s great to see Dr. Marques being recognized for his contributions to the animal science field through this prestigious award” said Carl Yeoman, head of the Department of Animal and Range Sciences. “He has really hit the ground running since he joined the department with several grants and industry contracts that have resulted in a succession of highly impactful papers. I’m looking forward to seeing his career continue to flourish and the impacts he will have on animal agriculture in Montana.”

While Marques’ academic career is still fresh, he had more than a decade of industry experience. A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Marques worked at a feedlot as a manager and oversaw 15,000 animals. He received his bachelor and master’s degrees in animal science at São Paulo State University (UNESP-Dracena, Brazil) and received his Ph.D. in animal science from Oregon State University. While he initially worked on feedlot nutrition, he found working with calf nutrition more compelling.

“I started to study the impacts of maternal nutrition during gestation on the baby calf and it was very interesting,” Marques said. “When a cow is pregnant, you don’t know what is going to happen to the calf. But when you make little changes in the diet or management, you can change the future of that calf, and that is what got me.”

The switch to academia and research has been rewarding for Marques. He teaches livestock feeding and animal nutrition and uses a lot of his real-life experiences in the industry to explain difficult concepts. For instance, when discussing the importance of carbohydrates, he talks about how he has had to use biochemistry to prevent diseases like ruminal acidosis, a potentially lethal condition resulting from changes in gut pH levels.

He also opens his research labs to any of his undergraduate students to get a more real-world understanding of working with cattle.

“My students can have a perspective of how to do things in a research way, like how to design a research trial and publish a peer-reviewed article using the university farm,” Marques said. “They have to feed the animals, make sure to take care of their health and more. I’ve had some vet students come to my research program to learn how to bleed a calf or do a liver biopsy. These are things you can’t do in the classroom. It’s very rewarding to see them learn in a hands-on way.”

BOZEMAN — A workshop series that connects Montana K-12 teachers to Montana State University researchers will begin on Sept. 22. The workshops are free and part of the MSU Science Math Resource Center’s series of online professional development opportunities for educators.

The monthly presentations are part of the MSU Research in Action series that highlights the work of MSU researchers so that K-12 teachers may incorporate that cutting-edge research into their classrooms.

In addition to learning about the research, participating teachers will learn about the importance of using authentic activities in their classrooms to meet the needs of diverse learners through supporting a sense of identity and belonging in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Teachers will also hear about each researcher’s personal journey through STEM so they can bring the stories to their classrooms.

The Sept. 22 workshop features Emily Dieter, a postdoctoral researcher who works in MSU professor Joan Broderick’s lab to understand how methanogens use pyrite as a nutrient source. Dieter previously worked at Children’s Medical Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, where she investigated alternative drug targets for a pediatric sarcoma.

This workshop is most appropriate for teachers of grades 9-12. Future workshops will be tailored for elementary or middle school or all grades.

The workshops are online from 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays, Sept. 22, Oct. 13 and Nov. 10. The workshops are free, but attendance is capped at 30 people. Attendees must register in advance. Office of Public Instruction renewal units are available for all attendees.

To register or learn more visit montana.edu/smrc/profdev.html or contact Jeannie Chipps at jeanette.chipps@montana.edu or 406-994-7476.

BOZEMAN – Over the next three years, a Montana State University professor and his students will fly drones over wintry landscapes in Montana and Finland to measure albedo, the proportion of energy reflected from surfaces on the earth.

Those field expeditions will be timed as closely as possible with the overpass of satellites taking simultaneous albedo measurements from the same locations. The drone- and satellite-derived data will then be analyzed, compared and quantified, and the results will be used to calibrate instruments on the satellites for improved collection of precise albedo data from all over the globe.

The project, funded by a recently awarded $750,000 NASA Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR, grant, is designed to significantly advance the quality and quantity of albedo data available to scientists, a priority identified in 2017 by the National Academies of Sciences for the coming decade. That’s because albedo is one of the primary factors influencing snowmelt, and snowmelt is a primary source of water for one-sixth of the world’s population.

“If we can improve measurements from satellites, we can hopefully better manage water resources that are becoming increasingly valuable,” explained albedo expert Eric Sproles, assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Earth Sciences in the College of Letters and Science, the principal investigator for the project.

The grant awarded to MSU via Montana NASA EPSCoR is one of 14 made to U.S. universities in 2022 to fund studies that align with NASA’s priorities. It was matched with $375,000 in funding from MSU’s Office of Research and Economic Development and the College of Letters and Science.

Venice Bayrd, MSU data curation librarian, and Joseph Shaw, director of the Optical Technology Center and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering, are MSU’s co-investigators on the project.

Assisting Sproles and Shaw will be an MSU earth science doctoral candidate and an optical engineering doctoral candidate. In addition to those graduate students, a handful of undergraduate students will join the team.

“Students who work on this project will get to work with primary data capture and apply it to a NASA product,” Sproles said. “This has applications in the private sector and the research sector.”

The study will build on work Sproles and Shaw did in 2019 that tested the viability of obtaining and using sensor data from drones to determine albedo in snowy, mountainous landscapes. “It worked really well,” Sproles said.

Snow albedo is influenced by numerous factors, the primary one being sunlight. In simple terms, the more that snow reflects the sun’s energy, the slower it melts. Throughout the winter as the snow changes, its albedo decreases, thus absorbing more incoming solar energy. Similarly, dirty snow, being a darker color, also absorbs more light. Understanding the snowpack’s ability to reflect energy is an important control on how fast or slow the snowpack melts.

Describing albedo, however, is easier than calculating it, precisely because it can vary considerably in even a small geographic area. When a satellite passes over while measuring albedo, Sproles explained, each single data point is taken from an area measuring 30 by 30 meters, or 900 square meters. That’s equivalent to almost 9,700 square feet, the size of a good-sized residential lot.

That makes the albedo data not completely indicative of what is actually on the ground, Sproles noted, while pointing to a photograph of a snow-covered landscape on a treed mountainside. If the single albedo reading is taken from a patch of exposed snow on the slope, it will be entirely different than one collected a few yards away in a dark clump of trees.

And “snow might vary considerably – maybe only part of a square in a grid has snow,” Sproles explained. “This is a challenge of measuring snow albedo from space.”

Sproles, Shaw, and a team of students will use optical sensors developed by Resonon, a Bozeman-based company, to gather data in the field. Two sensors will be mounted on each of several unmanned aerial vehicles (UVAs), or drones. Upward-facing sensors measure incoming radiance, and downward-facing sensors measure reflected radiance. Both numbers are used to calculate the albedo of the surfaces being surveyed.

To improve granularity of sampling, the team will divide the 30x30-meter squares delineated for satellite readings into 900 individual square meters, then take a reading from each. Additionally, those measurements will encompass 156 bands of the electromagnetic spectrum as opposed to the seven wavelengths of visible light measured by the satellites passing overhead – and that’s significant because albedo varies across spectral wavelengths. 

Shaw, Sproles and students will analyze the data in MSU’s Optical Technology Center, and the research data and related workflows will be curated and archived to support replicability and reusability in collaboration with Bayrd and an undergraduate student studying Earth data curation. The resulting archive of data sets will be continually updated so that the newest data will be available for further calibration of satellites.

The field team will gather data in the mountains of southwest Montana near Big Sky; at the headwaters of the Missouri in Gallatin County; at MSU’s Bozeman Agricultural Research and Teaching Farm in Bozeman; on the plains of central Montana at MSU’s Central Agricultural Research Center in Moccasin; and at the 70th parallel north latitude in Finland. Those locations were selected to ensure sampling amid a wide range of albedo-influencing variables, including varied terrain and solar geometry – the angle of the sun in relation to the Earth.

The work in Finland will be done in conjunction with the Finnish Meteorological Unit, and data from the European Sentinel satellite will be incorporated into the study.

Sproles also leads one of six field sites in the western U.S. for NASA’s SnowEx project, which seeks better ways to measure snowpack and its physical properties on a global scale. He believes both projects may contribute to advances that will in turn result in positive sociological impacts due to improved water resource management, locally and globally.

“If we can better estimate how much water we have, we can plan accordingly, and make better-informed decisions that can hopefully reduce conflict,” he said. “Our efforts are very true to the Montana State land-grant mission, pushing science forward to impact people’s lives and beyond.”

MONTANA - The Bozeman Fall MADE fair will kick off the holiday shopping early, and we are excited to connect artists with the Gallatin Valley community again. Shop and discover a curated collection of over 190 local and regional artists. You can expect to see everything from affordable, functional works of art to fine heirloom pieces at the show. Make a day of it with your friends and enjoy strolling the aisles and supporting your local artists. Visit our website for additional details and pre-shop all of the participating artists.

Those interested in a head start on their shopping can purchase a Friday Night $10 VIP Pass valid 6 pm- 8 pm or an Early Bird $5 Pass valid for 9 am-10 am an hour before the show opens to the public. Get a solid head start shopping and check out the best selection. All proceeds from ticket sales benefit American Prairie, a local non-profit whose mission is to create the largest nature reserve in the contiguous United States, a refuge for people and wildlife preserved forever as part of America’s heritage. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.

This year we are formally inviting wholesale buyers from around the state to connect with all of our unique and talented artisans. Over half of our curated collection of artists can do wholesale and offer their amazing products for retail spaces. We are encouraging buyers to discover new makers and fan favorites and tell their stories in their shops this holiday season. Buyers must preregister online to participate and attend the event on Friday 6 pm-8 pm during VIP hours when the aisles aren’t as full, and they can have a proper meet and greet with the artists! 

The MADE fair is a modern art & handcrafted market featuring local & regional artists and makers. Our events are a curated collection of skilled artisans and a handful of non-profits. The MADE fair’s mission is to increase awareness of handmade goods as an alternative to mass-produced items and to support local and regional small craft businesses by providing a place to sell their goods. We provide opportunities to artists of all levels—from hobbyists to seasoned professionals. The MADE fairs are presented by handMADE Montana—the recently named Retailer of the Year Award by the Made in Montana program.

Event Details
Date:  October 14-15
FRIDAY: 6 pm-8 pm : $10 VIP PASS
SATURDAY: 9 am-10 am $5 EARLY BIRD PASS
10 am -4 pm: FREE ENTRY
Location: Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, Bozeman, Montana 
Cost: Free Entry/Parking*

Please bring a non-perishable food item to help support the Gallatin Valley Food Bank.

*VIP passes can be purchased online. There is a limited number available. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/handmademontana/742586

Wholesale Buyers Registration: https://form.jotform.com/handmadeMT/BFMF22-WS

Whether you’re trying to help your child stay awake during the day or help your kid ace their exams, taking a supplement to support brainpower might pop up on your radar. It’s not a surprise that nootropics, also called smart drugs or cognitive enhancers are on the rise. People use nootropics to feel more alert, enhance focus, increase energy, and improve memory.

Types of nootropics can range from natural stimulants like tea, coffee, or L-theanine to organic compounds and supplements like creatine monohydrate and vinpocetine. There are also synthetic compounds like piracetam that are available over the counter in the US. While smart drugs can help your child stay awake, reduce stress, and perform better in the classroom, it’s important to discover if nootropics are safe and beneficial for children.

Discover how nootropics for kids work and if nootropic supplements are brain boosters or a risky drug choice for your child. 

What Do Nootropics do?

A nootropic is any type of substance that can improve, change, or boost cognitive performance. A nootropic agent does this by stimulating or blocking certain neurotransmitters in the brain. For example, a nootropic can inhibit stress signals while sharpening and enhancing memory, creativity, and concentration.  

If you’re trying to get your kid into an Ivy League school or prep for an important test, a cognitive enhancer might seem like the answer. In fact, nootropics’ power to maintain concentration and increase the ability to rationalize and analyze information can seem magical.

A nootropic acts like an effective shortcut that helps your child succeed better than extra tutoring, smart educational materials, and increasing your involvement in your child’s academics. At the same time, most parents are concerned if it’s safe for a child to use a nootropic substance.

Do Nootropics Work?

A few small studies demonstrate that some kinds of nootropics can boost brain and memory function. It’s important to understand that nootropics haven’t been studied in large, controlled groups. Due to a lack of research and hard evidence, experts aren’t recommending nootropics as a safe and tested way to help children perform better in school.

While studies among older adults with memory loss report good results from nootropic use, most experts can’t say for certain that they work for everyone or that they’re safe for young, healthy adults or children to use.

Are Nootropics Safe for Kids?

The jury is out on whether nootropics are safe for kids.

According to Dr. Barry Gordon, who directs cognitive neurology and neuropsychology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, there’s “no strong evidence” to indicate that the wide range of memory-boosters for sale across the country really works.

Since human cognition circuits are a complex function, it’s not just that easy to create a smarter, more concentrated, and analytical child. Many studies only proved that believing in nootropics gave participants a placebo effect since they believed that the drug would help them perform better.

Other experts, such as Dr. Chris D’Adamo, the University of Maryland’s Director of research for the Center for Integrative Medicine, think that nootropics can help some people optimize brain function, particularly for people experiencing cognitive decline due to aging.

Can nootropics help your kid study better? Some types of supplements can help your child relax and perform better by boosting rational and analytical brain functions.

When it comes to children, it’s best to err on the safe side when it comes to cognitive-enhancing drugs. If you’re considering adding a nootropic to your child’s diet, it’s best to talk to a medical professional first even if the drug seems safe or recommended.

Risks and Side Effects of Nootropics for Kids

It’s important to know that nootropics can affect people differently depending on the type of supplement used, the dosage, age, and the health of the person. 

A bad reaction to a nootropic can include nausea and headaches. 

According to experts, a child’s brain is a fragile organ that is still undergoing massive development during childhood. That’s why over-the-counter boosters or some types of supplements could do more harm than good to a developing brain. By age 20, many experts agree that it’s safe to take most nootropics to hit those college exams.

Alternative Options to Nootropics

According to Medical News Today, much of the cognitive dysfunction observed in children can be traced to nutritional deficiencies.

If you’re trying to boost your child’s brain power, natural foods and safe, kid-friendly supplements are a better and less risky way to go. For example, taking omega-3 fatty acids, found in salmon and walnuts, can improve a child’s concentration, reasoning skills, and memory.

The good news is that improving your child’s diet and overall nutrition can support their overall health and provide important neurological support.

BOZEMAN - It's official, Bridger Bowl has hired Hiram Towle as the new General Manager.  He will be coming to Bridger from Mt. Ashland outside Ashland, Oregon, also a non-profit ski area.

Hiram has been in the ski industry for 20 years where he started off at Sunday River in Maine.  When asked about his background he said, "I grew up at a soulful community ski area from the age of two with a dad who was a dedicated patroller. It was there that I developed my love of the sport. I joined the ski industry to give back to the sport I love, and protect its purity and purpose that I saw being lost. I have learned without a doubt that areas like Bridger Bowl are the most important on the planet, providing affordable access to this life-changing sport. I am honored to join Bridger's passionate alpine community and add to the ski area's already stellar operation. I'll see you on the mountain soon!"

Bridger Bowl is excited to have Hiram join the team and have he and his family be a part of the greater community.

HELENA – There are only two remaining trapper education field days left this year before trapping season for most species begins on Nov. 1.

As a reminder, to purchase a Montana resident trapping license, trappers must complete the Montana Trapper Education Course online or have purchased a trapper’s license in at least three prior years (in Montana or another state). The trapping course requires an in-person field day.

The trapper education course consists of an online component, an in-person field day, and a written test. This general trapper education course also satisfies the Montana wolf trapper education requirement.

The remaining field days are Sept. 17 in Billings and Oct. 15 in Kalispell. Trappers who still need to take a trapper education class must complete the online coursework and attend a field day if they wish to trap during the 2022-2023 trapping season.

To register for the online course and an in-person field day, go to https://fwp.mt.gov/hunt/education/trapping.

Volunteer trapper education instructors are still needed to help with field days. For more information or to be a trapper education instructor, please contact Wayde Cooperider at 444-4497 or at wacooperider@mt.gov.

Download a copy of the 2022 Wolf and Furbearer Hunting and Trapping Regulations for more information.

Important requirements
• Youth 6 to 11 years old who wish to trap must purchase a youth trapping license and are exempt from the requirement to take a trapper education course until they are 12. However, youth trappers are limited to trapping only mink and muskrat.
• Nonresidents are exempt from the trapper education requirement as they cannot purchase a trapper’s license to trap furbearers in Montana.
• Nonresidents who desire to trap wolves must still take the virtual wolf trapper education course (sign up for wolf trapper certification course here).
• Resident trappers who have purchased a trapper’s license during three previous seasons, but have not taken the wolf trapper certification course, must take the course to trap wolves.
• Resident trappers who have not purchased a trapper’s license in three previous seasons, but have taken the wolf trapper certification course, must take the trapper education course.

A golf holiday is probably something that you have never thought of considering. Most of the time, we spend our vacation traveling without traveling. But did you know that golf holidays can be an all-in-one vacation bonanza? Sounds interesting right? Make sure to read down below on why you should book your golf holiday now.

More and more people are getting to know more about golf. A lot of beginners have been enrolling and excelling in the said sport. If you happen to be one of these people who have been currently hooked on the sport, then maybe booking a golf holiday might do you good.

In this article, we are going to give you tons of reasons why you should be booking a golf holiday for yourself and your family. Who knows, we might just be able to give you some of the best reasons you should Book a golf holiday ASAP.
 
Huge Savings

One of the important reasons why you should consider booking a golf holiday is the huge saving. Golf holidays are much cheaper compared to booking a beach resort. Many golf resorts come with similar amenities as beach resorts. Aside from that, you get the place mostly to yourselves. You can even play golf while your family is having fun on the beach. One of the best places that you can book is a cheap and luxurious golf resorts like Bermuda and Barbados. You get to enjoy playing golf in the sun while everyone can bask on the beach.

More Privacy and Space
 
Another important reason you should consider going on golf holidays instead of ordinary holidays is that you have more privacy and space. When we talk about summer holidays, often we see people on the beaches instead of gold courses. It means that you have less competition when it comes to booking and space. You don’t have to worry about being shoulder to shoulder with other people on the golf course. You can play to your heart’s content without worrying about anything else.

 
A perfect surprise for an avid golf player

If you are someone who isn’t into golf but would rather surprise a family member who loves to play golf. This surprise can mean a lot to your loved ones. They get to enjoy the sport that they want all day long. In many golf resorts, everyone has the amenities that you can enjoy. It’s a perfect present for the whole family. Whether you are a golf player or not, there are still some enjoyable things that you can do in the golf resort. Golf resorts are complete with amenities. You can rest assured that they get VIP service on the golf course.

 
You deserve to play golf all day long

Another important reason why you should book a golf holiday is simply that you deserve it. If you happen to be working most of the days in the week and feel the need to take a break, then why not spend time playing your favorite sport? You can boast to your friends about the best scenery of you playing golf in the background. Who wouldn’t get jealous of that view?
 
Playing with the Pros

If you want to play with the best golf players during your holiday week, why not go to a golf resort? Believe it or not, tons of professional golf players would often spend their holidays in golf resorts. It allows them to unwind and play the sport that they love playing. So, if you want to know more tips about playing golf from professional players, I suggest that booking a golf holiday is the best choice for you.

 
Meeting like-minded people

Lastly, another reason why you should consider going on a golf holiday is to meet new people who play golf. You can meet new friends on golf courses, and you get to bond with these people and create a good rapport with them. It is different when you play golf with people who like to play the sport itself. You can even play in a friendly competition without offending each other. I tell you, it hits differently when you play with the pros.

 
Conclusion

Golf holidays are a go-to experience for new and old golf players. Aside from the fact that it can be cheaper, it is also equipped with amenities for both players and non-players. You get to enjoy the sport while your family enjoys the other services offered by these golf resorts. So why wait to ponder on where to go? Book your golf holiday now and enjoy the best days playing golf and basking on the beach all in one place.

HELENA – While air temperatures remain hot, smoky conditions have caused water temperatures to cool down to meet the criteria to lift fishing restrictions and closures on several rivers in western Montana. The restrictions and closures will be lifted, Wednesday, Sept. 7.

All restrictions on rivers in Region 2, including the Bitterroot and the Clark Fork, will be lifted. In addition, restrictions on the Gallatin and East Gallatin in Region 3, southwestern Montana, will be lifted.

Angling restrictions are implemented based on several considerations: stream flow, water temperatures, angling pressure and other angling restrictions in the area that may divert use to waterways where circumstances are increasing stress on the fishery.

Before you go fishing, please be aware of the conditions. Numerous other rivers in Montana are also under fishing restrictions. For a full list, visit FWP’s website: https://fwp.mt.gov/news/current-closures-restrictions/waterbody-closures.