Due to the extended drought in Montana, water availability in many areas has become severely limited. Reservoirs have dried up and are becoming covered in weeds. Montana State University Extension educators are cautioning livestock managers to evaluate weed feed and grazing land for nitrate toxicity during drought.

“Due to the severe drought, weeds have become prevalent across pastures and many producers are limited in their cattle movement this year,” said Custer County Extension Agent Mike Schuldt.

Although weeds can be high in protein and energy for livestock, caution should be used when cattle are grazing weedy areas or are fed weedy hay, according to Megan Van Emon, Extension Beef Cattle Specialist. Some weeds, including kochia, prostrate knotweed, Rocky Mountain Goosefoot and Lambs Quarter, accumulate nitrate during draught conditions. These weeds may be the only green feed available, and livestock often gravitate to green areas to graze. 

Recently, Schuldt and Van Emon investigated a weedy reservoir and collected samples for nitrates. When analyzed through a Nitrate Strip Test, the Rocky Mountain Goosefoot had approximately 50,000 ppm of nitrate and the Lambs Quarter and knotweed had approximately 10,000 ppm of nitrate. Van Emon said these levels are extremely high and should not be fed to livestock. Nitrate Strip Tests are available at MSU Extension county offices.

“These weeds were extremely worrisome due to their ability to accumulate nitrates, and this became more apparent after we watched a cow grazing in the area and eating the Rocky Mountain Goosefoot,” Van Emon said. “The producer indicated that these weeds are normally not present and when traveling through the pasture, the Goosefoot and Lambs Quarter were not observed anywhere other than the dried reservoir.”

Ideally, feed or grazing pasture for livestock should contain less than 1,500 ppm of nitrate, said Van Emon. As the concentration of nitrate increases, more risk is associated with providing those feeds to livestock. Van Emon recommends keeping livestock away from feed that has nitrate concentrations over 10,000 ppm.

“The recommendation to the producer was to remove the cattle from the area of concern or fence off the reservoir to reduce the risk of cattle grazing the weeds,” Schuldt said. “Nitrate concentrations at that level are concerning and nitrate toxicity symptoms and death can occur rapidly."

Symptoms of nitrate toxicity in livestock include labored breathing, muscle tremors, weakness and staggering gait. If these symptoms are observed, remove the nitrate-containing feed or move the livestock out of the pasture and contact a veterinarian for a treatment plan right away. When moving cattle from a high-nitrate feed area, move them slowly, as moving livestock too quickly can exacerbate the symptoms.

Join park staff in celebrating some of the Caverns’ most fascinating residents: bats 

WHITEHALL – Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park’s Bat Week begins Sunday, Aug. 8, kicking off a variety of daily events and speakers celebrating bats.  

Bat Week has been an annual event at the Caverns for 12 years, and park staff are looking forward to to sharing their passion and knowledge with visitors each night from Aug. 8 through 14.  

Every evening that week at 8 p.m., there will be a campground talk or walk for visitors that will focus on many different aspects of bats. While visitors wait for a tour, park staff will also have interactive bat programs happening on the porch of the park’s visitor center.  

Bat Week at the Caverns will include these presentations, some of which will be followed by bat-spotting walks:  
• Sunday, Aug. 8: The Misunderstood Bat, by Tom Forwood 
• Monday, Aug. 9: Bat Mythology, by Emily Dickerson 
• Tuesday, Aug. 10: River Bat Walk 
• Wednesday, Aug. 11: The Mystique of the Night, by Aubrey Enderle 
• Thursday, Aug. 12: Midnight Flight, by Zack Story 
• Friday, Aug. 13: The Mysterious Montana Bat Walk, by Matt Bell 
• Saturday, Aug. 14: The Evolution of Bats, by Ramona Radonich 

Also keep an eye out on the Caverns’ social media channels for “Bat Facts,” a short video series where all members of the park staff will be sharing one of their favorite bat facts. 

Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park is about 15 miles southeast of Whitehall, along Montana Highway 2. For more information about the park, please visit stateparks.mt.gov/lewis-and-clark-caverns or call 406-287-3541. 

Follow the performers around the Tinworks Art exhibition at Story Mill in the immersive new theatre production Strange Mating Calls, a co-production between Nervous Theatre and Bozeman Actors Theatre. This world premiere theatre piece reimagines Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial 1968 film Teorema. The adaptation is created by the company of actors and directed by Connor Berkompas.

A mysterious visitor descends upon an upper-class home and seduces each member of the household, radically disrupting the family structure. Pasolini’s original story begs the question, what happens when we are suddenly forced to really look at ourselves- our identities, our impact on the world around us, our repressed desires... all at once?

“Our production subtly interpolates the audience into the show,” says performer Danielle Sather, a board member at Bozeman Actors Theatre. “There will be very little possibility for passive consumption of the piece, which makes it a really exciting collaborative experience with the community!”

Director Connor Berkompas says of the adaptation process, “this is the first time we’re using a film as our source material. Pasolini’s sparse screenplay contains very little dialogue, and we wanted to embrace that. We’ve been exploring how compelling behavior and theatricality can exist in silence.”

Nervous Theatre is a nomadic theatre company dedicated to producing new works and radically reimagined classics. Winner of Bozeman Magazine’s Readers Choice Award for ‘Best Touring Production’ and hailed as ‘Ambitious and Fabulous’ by the San Diego Reader, Nervous Theatre was last seen in Bozeman with their critically acclaimed production of Mommy’s Dead and They Buried Her in Moscow. For Strange Mating Calls, Nervous Theatre is teaming up with Bozeman Actors Theatre, a staple of Bozeman’s performing arts community. 

Strange Mating Calls will be presented at the Tinworks Art exhibition in Bozeman’s Story Mill warehouse, August 5-7 and 19-21. All performances begin at 7:30pm, doors open at 7pm. Due to the immersive staging of this performance, there will be no late seating.

Tickets for Strange Mating Calls are available at two pricing options, $15 for a General ticket or $30 for a “Support the Arts” ticket. To purchase tickets to this event, go to www.bozemanactorstheatre.org. For more information about the show, please visitwww.nervoustheatre.com.

HELENA – The lower end of Holter Reservoir may be closed this week to allow fire-fighting resources access to the water.

The public should be aware that if a closure is implemented, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks wardens, along with other law enforcement agencies, will be contacting boaters and other recreationists using the reservoir to leave immediately. Boating activities will be restricted from all private and public launch sites and boaters will not be allowed to travel on the water once the closure is initiated.

Additionally, FWP and other agencies will post closure signs at their sights around the waterbody alerting the public to the closure.

The potential closure would be in effect from Log Gulch Campground to Holter Dam. This closure would allow firefighting planes to safely fill from the reservoir. The Gates of the Mountains area and the upper reservoir would still be open to recreation.

The fire resources are ordered to support efforts on the Harris Mountain Fire, southeast of Cascade.

At approximately 12:37 am, the Bozeman Police and Fire Departments were dispatched to an address in the 200 block of South McAdow Avenue to a report of a structure fire. Police arrived and were able to evacuate the sole resident. As a precaution, police also evacuated the neighboring homes.

At this time the fire appears to have been intentionally set. As with all structure fires, this will be jointly investigated by the Bozeman Police and Fire Departments to identify the cause and origin of the fire.

We would like to thank the Bozeman Fire Department who responded and did a great job suppressing the fire and containing it to the single residence, AMR who responded to provide medical care to the resident, and the neighbors who called in to report this incident.

Anyone with any information about this fire is encouraged to call the Bozeman Police Department.

Points of Contact:

Detective Dave Ferguson
Bozeman Police Department
406-582-2247
dferguson@bozeman.net

Detective Sergeant Joe Swanson
Bozeman Police Department
406-582-2951
jswanson@bozeman.net

Properties managed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks in Gallatin County have entered Stage-2 fire restrictions due to high fire danger.  

This change follows a burn ban with similar restrictions enacted recently by Gallatin County. 

Stage-2 restrictions at FWP sites ban campfires and allow smoking only in vehicles and areas 3 feet in diameter that are cleared of flammable materials. Gas or propane stoves that can be turned on and off are still allowed. Driving motorized vehicles off designated roads and trails is prohibited. 

Fireworks are always prohibited at FWP sites. 

Affected FWP sites in Gallatin County include: Axtell Bridge, Blackbird, Black’s Ford, Cameron Bridge, Cherry River, Cobblestone, Drouillard, Erwin Bridge, Fairweather, Four Corners, Gallatin Forks, Greycliff, Kirk Wildlife Refuge, Milwaukee, Shed’s Bridge, and Williams’ Bridge fishing access sites; Madison Buffalo Jump and Missouri Headwaters state parks; and Gallatin Wildlife Management Area.  

Fire restrictions are in effect in other areas of Montana. For more information, visit mtfireinfo.org. 

A climate report for the Greater Yellowstone Area co-authored by Montana State University Regents Professor Emerita Cathy Whitlock has been gaining traction around the world since it was published June 23.

The Greater Yellowstone Climate Assessment, a collaborative effort between MSU, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Wyoming, is a comprehensive look at climate change in the area using data from 1950 to 2018. Since 1950, the report states, average temperatures in the Greater Yellowstone Area have gone up 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit and snowfall has decreased by 25%. If the trend continues, that average temperature could rise another 10 degrees by the end of the century and drastically change the landscape.

Whitlock, a paleoecologist who has spent more than four decades studying environmental change, has been on the faculty of the Department of Earth Sciences in the College of Letters and Science­­­ at MSU since 2004, co-founded the Montana Institute on Ecosystems and was the first ­­researcher from a Montana institution elected to the National Academy of Sciences. In March, she gave a talk for TEDxBigSky on how the Yellowstone ecosystem’s history can shed light on its future. Since the report’s publication, Whitlock has been featured in follow-up articles in news media such as The Guardian and a Canadian Broa­­­dcasting Company radio program.

Much of the coverage has delved into the potential changes in some of Yellowstone National Park’s most prominent features, like its geysers. A July 16 segment on “Day 6,” a CBC news radio show, begins with note on this summer’s extreme heat, drought and wildfires in western Canada.

“There is also a crisis south of the border, including in the iconic Yellowstone National Park which is now under a fire alert,” host Brent Bambury says in the introduction to the segment, “As the climate warms, Yellowstone Park is losing its snow — and potentially Old Faithful,” from Episode 555.

“I worry about future generations, like my granddaughter,” Whitlock says on the program. “Is she even going to recognize the places that I love in Yellowstone when she starts to explore it? It’s changing so fast.”

The Guardian, one of the leading newspapers in the UK that has become a global news organization, proclaimed “Yellowstone’s most famous geyser could shut down, with huge ramifications,” in a July 6 headline.

In the article, Whitlock states that Old Faithful has dried up in the past, and the mega droughts that caused it to stop erupting were potentially less extreme than what we’re seeing now.

“We are now moving into a climate that seems even warmer and drier than those periods,” Whitlock says in the article. “That’s crazy. It’s possible that this whole geyser basin and the plumbing is going to change.”

Geysers aren’t the only thing at risk as temperatures rise.

“As trees die off due to the hotter climate, forests may shrink in the coming decades, which will have a cascading effect: less forest and fewer tree roots mean more grass and more erosion,” the article states. “Drier grass means fewer nutrients for large mammals. Less water also hurts everything from migratory and aquatic species to grazers like bison, who face decreased nutrients from dry plants.”

The article ends with a plea and a bit of hope from Whitlock, who is noted for devoting much of her career to sharing the changes she sees in her research with the public in hopes of fueling positive change.

“What we do in the next decade is critical,” she says to conclude the article. “We have new technologies, we can solve this. We just need the will to do it.”

Effective as of July 21, 2021 Bozeman Fire Chief Josh Waldo has issued an emergency order banning all burning in City limits. This order ensures consistency with the current countywide burn ban passed by the Gallatin County Commission earlier this week.
 
The burn ban includes but is not limited to all open burning, recreational fires, outdoor fire pits, and charcoal grills.
 
The public is reminded that fireworks are prohibited in city limits with the exception of certain times and days during the Fourth of July and New Year’s holidays.
 
Fire Chief Josh Waldo adds, “We are experiencing extremely dry and fire prone conditions in our entire community. Be vigilant and exercise personal responsibility. Consider your choices and the impacts they may have even with your day-to-day activities. Things like driving, smoking, or towing anything that may cause a spark are simple things that could have grave impacts if poor choices are made.”

 
To view the entire order visit the City’s website. To view the Gallatin County Commission’s order from earlier this week visit their website.

This year’s Festival takes place August 6-8, 2021, at Bozeman’s Lindley Park. As one has come to expect, this year’s 44th festival has an amazing line up of arts, entertainment and activities for everyone.

The most notable change for the 2021 Festival is the addition of a main box office. This temporary box office will be located in front of the Bozeman Public Library during the Festival. The box office will allow for the seamless and expedient pick up of advance-purchased wristbands as well as for the purchase of wristbands during the Festival. Wristbands will not be sold at entry points during the festival. They will only be available for purchase at the main box office.

Currently, wristbands are available for purchase via the Sweet Pea Festival website: https://sweetpeafestival.square.site/ as well as the following local outlets:
Albertsons, Bank of the Rockies, Bob Ward’s Sports & Outdoors, Co-op Downtown, ERA Landmark, First Interstate Bank, First Security Bank, Heebs Grocery, Leslie’s Hallmark, Lewis & Clark Motel, Opportunity Bank, Rosauers, Safeway, Schnee’s, Town & Country, or at the Sweet Pea Festival office located at 424 E. Main Street, Suite 203B.

The cost of a three-day weekend pass purchased in advance is $25. A three-day pass purchased during the festival is $35. A cost of a day pass is $25.

The health and safety of festivalgoers is paramount. Therefore, this year’s festival capacity is slightly reduced. It’s important to purchase wristbands early to ensure admission. Purchasing wristbands in advance will allow for fast, contactless delivery as well as efficient and expedited entry to the Festival. Children 12 and under are free this year. No wristband is needed for children’s admission.

The Festival relies on hundreds of volunteers to organize and set up the event and assist festivalgoers. This year we offer a free three-day adult wristband to all volunteers working three or more hours. Additional information and sign ups can be found at: sweetpeaafestivalofthearts.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/

For more information please contact the Sweet Pea Festival office at 406-586-4003 or visit the Festival website at https://sweetpeafestival.org.

ABOUT SWEET PEA FESTIVAL:
 
The Sweet Pea Festival is a three-day festival of the arts held in Bozeman, Montana, since 1978. Festival dates are always the first full weekend in August with other events, such as Chalk on the Walk and The Bite of Bozeman starting off the festivities of Sweet Pea Week.  The festival includes everything from music, theatre and dance, to children’s activities, arts, and crafts vendors from Bozeman and around the country, and adult painting workshops. The Sweet Pea Festival is committed to its mission statement of “promoting and cultivating the arts.”

 
Hundreds of volunteers run and organize this annual event, a testament to the community’s desire for its ongoing success. All monies raised above what is needed to operate the festival are given back to the community in the form of grants for the arts, art education, and special projects in the Bozeman area. Where art and community meet.