BOZEMAN -  In an effort to create more access and opportunities for female anglers in and around Bozeman, Two Gals and a Boat, LLC, in conjunction with TroutChasers Lodge, has launched a series of women-specific fly fishing educational programs which focuses on curriculum designed by women, for women. 



"We are on a mission to break down barriers so women feel confident in exploring Montana's rivers on their own, with family, or with new fishing friends whom they meet through these classes," said Two Gals and a Boat's Founder and CEO, Sue Kerver.  "Our goal is to provide space so women can learn fly fishing fundamentals through small, personalized classes which will be conducted on the water and through workshops."



Sessions begin on March 31, 2022 and will be held monthly, through December.  Discounted pricing for the 10-session package is available until the end of February. Starting March 1, individual classes will be sold online. Space is limited to 15 participants per session, so interested individuals are encouraged to sign up early. 



"I firmly believe that we all should be able to engage in outdoor pursuits without anxiety or fear," added Kerver.  "And I'm thrilled that Two Gals and a Boat is positioned to build an angling community that focuses on growth, inclusivity and education in a nonjudgmental and empowering way.

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Two Gals and a Boat desires to provide fly fishing education and outdoor experiences for all women, regardless of financial position.  Limited scholarship opportunities are available and more information, including sign-up details, may be found on the website. 

BOZEMAN — While newly renovated Romney Hall is providing much-needed classroom space and student services at a growing Montana State University, the century-old structure's upgrade also marks progress by demonstrating that even the oldest buildings on campus can achieve high energy efficiency as part of an ambitious strategy to reduce operating costs and carbon emissions.

Originally constructed as a gymnasium in an era when leaky windows, thin insulation and fuel-intensive central heating were the norm, the repurposed Romney, which opened last November after an extensive remodel, is expected to use roughly half the energy as the old building.

“What we’ve shown here is that we can take the same technologies and strategies that we've proven with new construction and make them work with a major retrofit," said Megan Sterl, engineering and utilities director in MSU’s University Services. "It highlights how these older buildings can be a key part of our energy-saving vision for the future of campus."

At the core of the building's energy performance is a geothermal system that benefits from the relatively constant temperature deep underground. In tandem with the Romney renovation, 80 geothermal boreholes — each 700 feet deep — were constructed in the open space north of the building. The boreholes house closed-loop pipes, encased in a special grout, that circulate a water solution to store unused heat extracted by Romney Hall's ventilation system, such as when the building is being cooled. The stored warmth can later be extracted and concentrated to heat the building. Modeling by the design team shows that the annual cycle of heat storage and extraction is relatively balanced, resulting in minimal change to the ground temperature.

The boreholes also store unused warmth captured by a "solar wall" on the building's south face that converts sunlight to heat. During sunny weather in cooler months, the solar wall pre-warms the ventilation air before it’s circulated to roughly 40 heat pumps throughout the building. The heat pumps, which are like air conditioners that can also operate in reverse, are what transfer heat to and from the geothermal system. The geothermal system and solar wall provide most of the heating for the building, meaning that the main energy input is electricity that efficiently runs the heat pumps and ventilation units.

Romney joins six other campus buildings with geothermal systems. MSU first applied the technology during its biggest energy conservation project, a multi-phase effort in 2011-2015 that was integrated with the construction of Jabs Hall. The Jabs geothermal system, which also serves three other MSU buildings that are much newer than Romney, has reduced energy costs by an average of $130,000 per year. Norm Asbjornson Hall, which opened in 2018, as well as the recently completed American Indian Hall, also each have geothermal systems.

Compared to those projects, however, integrating a cutting-edge geothermal system into Romney's 98-year-old structure was a challenge, according to Michael Bowers, project manager in MSU's Campus Planning, Design and Construction, who oversaw the Romney renovation with Grant Peterson, MSU construction manager. With a premium put on space for 17 classrooms as well as centers for mathematics, writing, veterans and students with disabilities, "we had to get really creative with fitting in the heat pumps and other equipment and tying it all together," he said. "It's definitely a lot harder than with new construction, but we were able to make it happen."

The renovation included other upgrades to improve energy performance, Bowers noted. To reduce heating and cooling losses, high-performance insulation was added throughout the exterior walls, and all the windows were replaced or restored. All lighting is provided by LEDs, which use significantly less energy than traditional bulbs.

Besides demonstrating what's possible for an older building, the Romney project directly opens other opportunities for advancing energy efficiency on campus, Sterl noted. The geothermal boreholes under the Romney Oval are situated and sized so that they can also easily serve other nearby buildings, including the forthcoming Student Wellness Center, to form what's called an energy district.

That would effectively allow Romney Hall to exchange excess heat with other buildings, creating an added dimension of efficiency, Sterl said. As a result, the Romney geothermal boreholes are projected to reduce MSU's associated carbon emissions by 1 million pounds per year, or about 20,000 metric tons over the lifetime of the system — a significant step toward the goal in MSU’s Sustainability Framework of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040.

A recent report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory featured MSU's innovative use of energy districts as one of 15 case studies showing how smart planning and new technology can dramatically reduce energy consumption. Aiding in future MSU efforts, last September the Montana Board of Regents authorized the university to spend up to $500,000 on comprehensive energy planning that's expected to yield millions of dollars in energy savings over coming decades.

"Romney is just the first building to be connected to what we envision as the South Campus energy district," Sterl said. "It's the cornerstone for continued energy conservation in that part of campus."

The Madison River Work Group will meet Thursday, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m., in Bozeman at the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 3 office, 1400 South 19th Ave. The meeting will be livestreamed on the FWP website. The focus on the meeting will be on non-commercial recreational use.

An agenda will be posted to the website before the meeting.

The 12-member work group was organized by the Fish and Wildlife Commission, per an administrative rule. This is the fourth meeting of the work group.

For more information on the work group, including videos of their past meetings, visit fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/madison-river-workgroup.

HELENA – A poaching investigation in northeastern Montana that lasted more than two and a half years, ended with several men being sentenced last month in the Montana 16th Judicial District Court in Garfield County.   

TOWNSEND – A Helena man received a lifetime ban from hunting and trapping in Montana as part of his sentence for illegally killing a trophy moose east of Townsend in 2019.

Shiloh Berry, 41, was sentenced Friday in Broadwater County District Court after pleading guilty last fall to unlawful possession of a game animal, hunting without a valid license and waste of a game animal.

In addition to the lifetime ban from hunting and trapping, Berry’s sentence includes a three-year suspension of fishing privileges, $12,100 in fines and restitution, and a suspended five-year imprisonment term.

In November 2019, game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks received a tip via the department’s 1-800-TIP-MONT hotline about a dead moose with its head cut off and the meat abandoned. Wardens responded and found the carcass on Blacktail Road, about 17 miles east of Townsend. Wardens also found distinctive tire tracks and boot prints at the scene.

In April 2020, wardens received another tip that Berry possessed moose antlers he claimed to have found in the same area where the moose carcass was discovered. Wardens executed a search warrant and discovered the antlers, as well as boots and tires that matched the tracks at the kill site. During an interview with wardens, Berry confessed to killing the moose.

The moose’s antlers were 56 inches wide and had a Boone and Crockett gross score of 167 and a net score of 145.

Montana game wardens rely on tips from people who observe crimes against wildlife. FWP’s 24-hour hotline for reporting these crimes is 1-800-TIP-MONT. Callers could be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

DILLON – Fisheries staff at Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking comments on a proposal to construct a fish barrier on Reservoir Creek near Dillon. This project would help protect a genetically pure population of westslope cutthroat trout from non-native trout.

Reservoir creek is one of eight streams within the Beaverhead watershed that still supports an unaltered westslope cutthroat trout population. However, the population is only seasonally protected from non-native trout downstream. This proposal includes constructing a wooden barrier that would protect more than 5 stream miles of habitat for native trout.

Once protected, westslope cutthroats in Reservoir Creek could be used to repopulate future fisheries projects, which would help restore the species to more of its historical range. Today, westslope cutthroat trout in the upper Missouri River basin occupy approximately 5 percent of their historical habitat.

A draft environmental assessment has been prepared for this project. To view the assessment, visit go.usa.gov/xtF72.

The deadline for comments is 5 p.m. on March 12. Comments can be emailed to native fish biologist Ryan Kreiner at rkreiner@mt.gov or mailed to:

Ryan Kreiner
730 ½ Montana St.
Dillon, MT 59725

BOZEMAN – A brief conversation between Royce W. Smith, dean of the Montana State University College of Arts and Architecture, and photography professor Christina Z. Anderson about images processed in the MSU school colors led to a recent feature in the leading website dedicated to alternative photography.

Smith had learned that prints processed in gold metal, a process called chrysotype, could result in blue-hued prints, among other colors. As an art historian, he grew fascinated about the alternative process, so he reached out to Anderson to learn more.

Anderson, a professor in MSU’s School of Film and Photography is an international authority on hand-processing art prints with alternative materials, ranging from salt to palladium. She had already written the book, literally, about a type of blue photo processing, called cyanotype.

Anderson explains that in the 1960s and even before, photographers had a desire to quit being beholden to large corporations that controlled the photographic market and found alternatives to silver gelatin printing. Processes such as Vandyke brown, cyanotype, palladium, and salted paper were referred to as alt(ternative),” Anderson said.

“Today alternative process photography (also called alt process, alt pro, alt) references hand-crafted printing as alternative to digital ink jet, though these boundaries are not so—forgive the pun—black and white,” Anderson said.

At the time she and Smith talked, she had not yet tried the chrysotype process but was encouraged when Smith thought it would be both fun and fitting to make a blue print out of gold at MSU.

Anderson said the chrysotype process uses gold chloride in solution combined with two other solutions, a ligand and ammonium ferric oxalate, to make a photo-sensitive solution. The sensitizer is brushed onto paper, dried, exposed to light under a negative, and then processed in a series of chemical baths. When the processing is done the image is composed of nanoparticle gold. Anderson signed on to teach a class about chrysotypes for fall 2021.

“Usually, I know alt processes inside out, but this time I had to learn along with the students,” Anderson said. “We had to research the process together.”

The result was a class project featured in an article about chrysotype processing that Anderson wrote and published in the Dec. 16 edition of Alternative Photography, a leading website for the art form. The article is accompanied by illustrative photos from several of the MSU students and one recent graduate who took the class: Fran Browne, Kirk Cochran, Jake Culbertson, Alex Glenn, Caden McCullough, Max McDonough, Alyssa McKenna, Joren Nelson, Charlie Parrott, Nick Sramek and Thomas Callahan, who is an MSU graduate.

Anderson said the technique of using the precious metal to process photography originated in 1842 but fell out of favor about three decades later when platinum and palladium came onto the scene. Then Mike Ware, a chemistry professor in England, developed a user-friendly method of chrysotype. Still, now only a few dozen people in the world practice the technique.

Anderson first saw a chrysotype in 2015 when she attended a symposium in Australia taught by Leanne McPhee, a leading expert in the technique. McPhee is also featured in the MSU Alternative Photography article.

“I have since found the process to be addictively engaging, due to its wide range of color possibilities and surprises,” she wrote in the article in Alternative Photography.

She said that while the chrysotypes are processed with pure gold, the resulting prints are usually shades of blue or pink-tinged brown. She plans to add the technique to her large quiver of alternative processing techniques. Anderson has published six books about alternative process photography with one more coming soon. She has co-authored two more and edited six other books.

Alyssa McKenna, a senior from Denver, Colorado, who took the class, said she was captivated by the process.

“It creates such beautiful coloring and split-toning that other processes aren’t able to. What surprised me the most was how the absolute slightest change in humidity or thickness of the coating solution could completely change the print’s color outcome,” McKenna said. Her photo of an arbor-rimmed tunnel was used in the article to demonstrate bronzing, or bronze tones in the images “This process really made me appreciate that very historic photographic practices are still being taught and evolved such as the chrysotype process.”

Jake Culbertson, a senior who is also a wedding and portrait photographer, said he wasn’t interested in the process at first, especially because of the technical, mathematical and scientific knowledge needed. He later fell in love with it.

“It can be very time consuming to just make one print; however, the results that one can achieve are immaculate and beautiful,” said Culbertson, whose aerial of downtown of New York also accompanied the article. “Chris Anderson's infectious love for the alternative processes has spread to not only myself but to my classmates, as well.”

Culbertson said he was surprised that there are so few people in the world that practice the historic form of processing. “The class made up almost a third of the chrysotype practitioners in the world!”

He added that he is grateful to Anderson and Smith for making possible the passing on of alternative processing, which also includes cyanotype, palladium and gum printing.

“Across the country, so many universities have gotten rid of their darkrooms and the alternative labs,” he said. “Having these facilities allows students to explore different avenues of photography and work with different mediums within the arts.”
Smith concurred.

“Professor Anderson’s published article and her deliberate, impactful integration of teaching and scholarship are testaments to the global reach of our college and its sophisticated scholarship,” Smith said.

HELENA – The wolf harvest in FWP Region 3 is approaching the threshold of 82 wolves, which will trigger the end of the wolf trapping and hunting season in Region 3. The harvest as of today is 80 wolves.

Last month, the Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to close wolf hunting and trapping in Region 3 upon meeting the threshold of 82 wolves in the region. The closure will go into effect immediately after FWP announces the harvest of the 82^nd wolf in Region 3. At that time trappers in the region must remove their equipment from the field as quickly as possible.

The commission established harvest thresholds in each of FWP’s administrative regions, which total 450 statewide. If harvest meets any of these thresholds, the commission convenes to revisit the regulations and potentially adjust the season structure.

Those interested in up-to-date information on the status of Montana’s wolf harvest can view FWP’s wolf dashboard, which shows the number of wolves harvested by region and wolf management unit (WMU). The dashboard is updated multiple times per day. 

For all wolf hunting and trapping regulations and information, visit FWP's wolf webpage. 

Accidents happen, but personal injury victims shouldn't assume that there's only bad luck to blame. When accidents occur on another person's property, in a commercial building, or sometimes even in a public place, there's often an element of negligence involved. The property owner or municipal authority responsible for keeping the area safe may not have done their job, leaving that person open to a premises liability lawsuit.

What Is Premises Liability?

The concept of premises liability comes into play in a certain type of personal injury case. More specifically, when a person suffers an injury as a direct result of a property owner's failure to provide safe conditions, premises liability laws allow the victim to hold the negligent party accountable. Both property owners and visitors to commercial establishments, apartment buildings, and municipal facilities need to know about premises liability, so read on to find out more.

Common Types of Premises Liability Claims

When most people hear the term premises liability, they immediately think of slip-and-fall cases, but premises liability laws apply to a broad category of personal injury claims. If a property owner, manager, or landlord behaves negligently and their actions lead to an accident that causes a personal injury, the accident victim may have grounds to file a claim. In addition to slip-and-falls, some of the most common examples of premises liability claims include the following.

Dog Attacks

In many cases, dog bites or attacks fall under premises liability laws. If a dog is aggressive, is not trained, and is not properly restrained, and those factors lead the animal to bite someone who has been invited onto a residential property, the dog owner may be held liable for any damages caused by the attack.

Negligent Security

Commercial property owners may be held liable for damages under local premises liability laws if they fail to provide adequate security and an invited party suffers an attack or robbery as a result. It's relevant to note here that proving negligence is easier if a similar incident has happened on the property in the past.

Exposure to Toxic Substances

The best-known example of premises liability claims involving exposure to toxic chemicals is asbestos poisoning. However, if a property owner exposes a person to other toxic substances such as solvents, mold, or pesticides, that individual may be held liable for any resulting injuries. Property owners are considered negligent if they don't follow relevant laws regarding the safe storage of substances.

Lack of Maintenance

Building elements can be dangerous if they aren't maintained. Premises liability claims related to a lack of maintenance may involve elevators, appliances, or even light fixtures. An especially dramatic example is one of an elevator dropping suddenly because it hasn't received routine service, resulting in injuries to its passengers.

How to Prove a Premises Liability Case

Every premises liability case is a little different. However, there are always four things an injured party must prove.

The defendant was negligent in fulfilling that duty of care.

The plaintiff suffered material harm as a result.

The harm caused to the plaintiff was reasonably foreseeable given the defendant's negligence.

Hire a Lawyer

There's no need for the average person to understand all the ins and outs of premises liability laws. Accident victims just need to know enough to identify a potential claim and seek an attorney's help. A personal injury lawyer provides assistance with all the details.

BOZEMAN – Montana State University remains one of the top research universities in the country, according to classifications published by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research’s Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

MSU has again been designated an R1 university for its very high research activity. Only 146 institutions in the nation received R1 classifications, and among them, MSU and Utah State University are the only two that also have an enrollment profile of “very high undergraduate.”

The R1 classification was developed by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and originally published in 1973. It is based on factors including research expenditures, staffing and the number of doctorates awarded. MSU was designated an R1 institution from 2006 through 2015 and regained the distinction in 2019.

“This designation is a testament to the hard work put in by remarkable faculty, researchers, students and staff across campus who are committed to advancing the MSU research enterprise,” said Jason Carter, MSU’s vice president of research, economic development and graduate education. “To continue to have MSU recognized as Carnegie R1 only motivates us to continue that research and scholarly excellence.”

MSU announced in September that, for the third year in a row, it had recorded an all-time high for research expenditures, with more than $193 million for the fiscal year ending in June 2021. That was a 16% increase over the previous year’s record, as reported to the National Science Foundation. Research expenditures at MSU have topped $100 million per year for more than a decade.

“Montana State’s successes in research are thanks to the efforts of many people across our campus and across the state of Montana,” said university President Waded Cruzado. “We are fortunate to have a group of dedicated individuals and partners who understand the intrinsic value of research and the creation of art. These endeavors, as we have said for years, can change lives and benefit our communities and society.”

That sentiment is encapsulated in MSU’s strategic plan, “Choosing Promise,” which includes goals of expanding interdisciplinary scholarship and graduate education, among others. Carter also said that MSU’s research has striven to substantially address the “grand challenges” identified in MSU’s strategic plan, including community wellness, food and fuel security, and environmental stewardship.

MSU research is well known for its engagement of undergraduate students in research and is a national leader in securing prestigious Goldwater Scholarships. A total of 82 MSU students have won the award, the nation’s premier scholarship for undergraduates studying math, natural sciences and engineering. In addition, this past December, MSU senior Mayuri Singh was one of just 151 students named as a 2022 Schwarzman Scholar. Also in the past year, three MSU graduates drew upon their undergraduate research experiences to win NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, and three current MSU graduate students also won that award. And numerous MSU graduate students and postdoctoral researchers won prestigious awards, including the Ford Fellowship.