With the extreme cold and snow much of Montana experienced recently, it’s easy to take pity on wildlife and put out some food.

“Feeding wildlife is often undertaken with good intentions,” said Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Game Management Bureau Chief Brian Wakeling. “Despite those good intentions, providing artificial food for wildlife can have a number of negative consequences for wildlife and humans.”

Artificial feeding can alter natural movements, migrations and concentrations of wildlife, Wakeling explained. Due to the availability of artificial foods, wildlife may alter migration timing, which may place them at greater risk of mortality when seasonal changes become more extreme.

Artificial feeding also can create unnatural concentrations of wildlife, which may subsequently create greater opportunity for disease transmission and draw in predators, such as mountain lions.

If the artificial food is near human habitation, concentrations of wildlife may result in undesirable effects on vegetation or landscapes and create conflicts among neighboring landowners.

These changes also may present challenges for domestic animals, especially small pets.

“In short, artificial feeding may create far more challenges for the wildlife we feed or among neighbors who may have different interests in wildlife,” Wakeling said.

And, even with the best intentions, feeding wildlife is illegal.

Try not to stress wildlife at this time of year

Late winter is a difficult time for wildlife. After using fat reserves through most of the winter, along with trying to find what food is available, many animals are at their most vulnerable.  Although the winter of 2020-21 has been a fairly “open winter” concerning snow, often we get late winter or early spring snowstorms and folks may be eager to take advantage of that recreational opportunity. 

That’s why Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, along with the Bureau of Land Management, are asking shed hunters and other recreationists to give wildlife their space until all the snow melts and the animals are less stressed.

Shed hunting – looking for antlers shed each year by male members of the deer family – has become increasingly popular and competitive in recent years. Shed hunting is a good way to get some fresh air and exercise and is encouraged as an activity. However, shed hunters, along with snowmobilers, skiers and snowshoers, should avoid areas where deer, elk and antelope are currently wintering. It is safest to admire these animals at a distance.

Like any activity, shed hunting requires permission of the landowner/agency, and special rules may apply. For instance, the BLM is especially concerned that mule deer wintering areas, such as the Bitter Creek Wilderness Study Area in northern Valley County, are targeted for shed hunting with snowmobiles. Snowmobiles are not permitted off-road in the Bitter Creek WSA, and folks who are violating this law will be fined. Please know the rules of public land agencies regarding winter recreation, and always ask permission on private land including property that is in Block Management.  

In an international collaborative effort, researchers at Montana State University co-discovered a virus that infects bees, including both native mining bees and honeybees. The new virus was named Andrena associated bee virus-1, or AnBV-1, since it was most prevalent in mining bees, part of the family Andrena.

Michelle Flenniken, an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology in MSU’s College of Agriculture, worked with researchers from Israel, who collected more than 1,300 bee specimens from 14 sites in the central part of that country. The two most abundant bee species collected were mining bees and honeybees.

“Most bee-associated viruses are known as ‘honeybee viruses’ in recognition of the host from which they were first discovered and described,” write the authors of a paper, published February 12 in the journal Viruses, announcing the discovery. “Sequencing a greater variety of bee and other insect species indicates that many honeybee-infecting viruses have a broader host range that includes other bees, as well as other insects.”

Mining bees, said Flenniken, can be found all over the world, including in the U.S. They are much smaller than honeybees or bumblebees and do not live in nests. Instead, they burrow in the ground, living alone or in small groups. They forage on a variety of flowering plants, whereas other species specialize on particular plants, like mustard or canola. 

“It’s not that surprising that we discovered a new virus, because bee virology is an under-explored area of research,” said Flenniken, who co-discovered Lake Sinai virus 2, another bee-infecting virus, while doing postdoctoral research at the University of California San Francisco. “Viruses that affect bees have a wider host range than mammalian-infecting viruses, and this broader host range necessitates the study of multiple co-foraging bee species, because viruses can be transmitted between bee species via shared floral resources.”

It is unclear what the impact of AnBV-1 is on bee health, but that is something Flenniken plans to study. In the meantime, she said, the new virus isn’t cause for immediate concern. It is likely that insects have evolved alongside the virus, just as humans have the common cold. Like many bee-associated viruses, AnBV-1 doesn’t have outwardly obvious symptoms and was identified through RNA sequencing of samples taken from the bees collected in Israel. One of the most important impacts of the newly identified virus, Flenniken said, is the opportunity it presents for further study.

“Knowledge about the impact of a virus, even at the cellular level, could help lead to strategies that help mitigate colony losses that are associated with viruses,” she said. “Virus-host interactions are natural, common and prevalent, and most of the time a healthy host can clear a viral infection easily. It is important to do research aimed at understanding naturally evolved bee antiviral defense mechanisms, so that we can understand other stressors that perturb the bees’ natural ability to fight off virus infections.” 

Prevalence and transmission of viruses like AnBV-1 could also potentially be lessened by land management strategies that enhance floral diversity, write the authors of the paper. The greater variety and abundance of flowers available for pollinators, the lower the chance that they will encounter a flower that was recently visited by an infected bee.

“That could be an important reason to promote ecological diversity and, by extension, help promote bee health,” said Flenniken. 

Now that the virus has been identified, members of the Pollinator Health Center, which includes research scientists across multiple disciplines as well as graduate and undergraduate students, plan to further study its impacts on bee health at the cellular and individual levels. In collaboration with Charles Carey, a bioinformatics specialist and associate member of the Pollinator Health Center, Flenniken and her collaborators will examine bee genetic sequence archives and frozen bee specimens to see if AnBV-1 is present in bees from other locations, including Montana. 

“Further study will be more at the individual bee level, which is both interesting and important,” Flenniken said. “It helps us narrow a little bit the actual real-life effects of this new virus.”

The permit lottery results to float Smith River State Park in 2021 are now available online at fwp.mt.gov. In addition to the online results, successful applicants will be notified via email. Links within the email will allow permit holders to download and print their float permit, as well as access vital and detailed information regarding their upcoming Smith River float. 

For applicants who were unsuccessful in the regular permit drawing, Smith River Super Permit chances are available through April 1 for $5 each. One Super Permit winner will be allowed to launch on any date of their choosing. Chances may be purchased online at  fwp.mt.gov. The drawing will be held on April 2. 

For more information about Smith River State Park visit:  https://fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/smith-river.  

GREAT FALLS – Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking input on a proposal to introduce burbot in Martinsdale Reservoir. The goal of the introduction would be to provide future additional angling opportunities at the reservoir.

FWP has stocked the reservoir since 1940, primarily with rainbow trout. It is currently managed as a put-grow-and-take fishery for rainbow trout and brown trout. Burbot have not been stocked historically or documented in Martinsdale Reservoir. The proposal is to move burbot from a nearby source via a wild fish transfer.

The effort would look to move between 100-500 burbot into Martinsdale Reservoir. The transfer effort may begin as soon as 2021 and transfer efforts could reoccur as needed until an adequate number of burbot (100-500) are introduced to allow the opportunity for the species to become established in the reservoir.

To review the draft EA and to comment online, go to FWP’s website, fwp.mt.gov, under “News and Public Notices.” The draft EA will be open for public comment for a period of 30 days from Feb. 17 through March 19.

Comments can be submitted electronically via email to fwpr4publiccom@mt.gov or can be mailed to: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks , Martinsdale Burbot Introduction Comments, 4600 Giant Springs Road, Great Falls, MT 59405

Culminating years of work, a small satellite designed and built by Montana State University students is set to launch Saturday aboard a cargo resupply rocket bound for the International Space Station.

The bread loaf-sized satellite, called by the acronym IT-SPINS, will dock at the space station until later this spring, then be propelled into orbit and commence a more than six-month mission of measuring the properties of Earth's atmosphere at the edge of outer space.

Since the project kicked off in 2015 with a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, more than 30 MSU students in MSU's Space Science and Engineering Laboratory have been involved in developing the satellite, according to David Klumpar, SSEL director and research professor in the Department of Physics in MSU's College of Letters and Science. The launch will mark the 12th time a small satellite designed and built by MSU students in SSEL has been sent to outer space.

"We give students the opportunity to take a lot of responsibility in developing the mission, designing and making the hardware, putting it all together and then testing it to make sure it'll survive the launch and work in space," Klumpar said. "It's a really hands-on experience."

Using a specialized sensor created by the nonprofit research institute SRI International, the satellite will measure ultraviolet light emitted by charged particles, or ions, in the upper layers of Earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere and thermosphere. IT-SPINS stands for Ionosphere-Thermosphere Scanning Photometer for Ion-Neutral Studies. The study could lead to improved forecasting of "space weather" in which variations in solar ultraviolet and X-ray radiation cause the number and intensity of ions to increase, sometimes interfering with satellites and orbiting spacecraft.

Besides the sensor, the satellite — including solar panels, batteries, communications hardware and a variety of computerized controls — was almost entirely designed and built by students, mainly engineering and computer science majors, with the help of SSEL staff, Klumpar noted.

Nevin Leh, who earned his bachelor's in computer science from MSU in 2016, worked on the project as a junior and senior. He programmed the software that sends commands to the satellite, tracks it in the sky and downloads the data it collects.

"It was a great experience, working in a small lab with people from all different disciplines," said Leh, who returned to SSEL after graduating from MSU to work as a research engineer. "You really get to see the whole process."

Recent months have been a scramble as Leh, along with other SSEL staff and students, went through the final rounds of testing to ready the satellite for launch. "After you send something to space, you can't just go up there and fix it," Leh said.

Part of the testing involved putting the satellite in a vacuum chamber at MSU and cycling the temperature between minus-20 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, simulating the harsh sun and chilling shade the MSU creation must endure as it orbits the Earth 14 times per day. The MSU team included specialized materials and coatings in the design to help the device retain needed warmth while also radiating excess heat.

SSEL will be involved in monitoring IT-SPINS and downloading data when the satellite passes within line-of-sight of the MSU campus, which will happen a couple times per day, according to Klumpar. MSU researchers will be involved in analyzing the data using a software developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University, a collaborator on the project.

The project has had some hiccups, Klumpar said, including a canceled launch last year because of COVID-19 impacts, so it's bittersweet that many of the students who originally worked on the project have graduated and moved on. Several have gone on to work in aerospace at

Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin and Los Alamos National Laboratory. "These students are really sough after once they graduate," Klumpar said. "They get snapped up."

The launch on Saturday, Feb. 20, is set for 10:36 a.m. Mountain Time and will be available for public viewing online at:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nasas-northrop-grumman-15th-commercial-resupply-services-mission-launch-registration-136289113407.

The new license year opens March 1, which means that is the day you can buy your 2021 hunting and fishing licenses and begin applying for permits and special licenses. The deadline to apply for deer and elk permits is April 1.

Applications for most species – deer, elk, antelope, deer B, elk B, antelope B, moose, sheep, goat, bison, bear, turkey – can be made beginning March 1.

Hunters and anglers can buy licenses and apply for permits on the FWP website beginning at 5 a.m.; click on “Buy and Apply.” Most FWP offices will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The licensing call center will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from March 1 through April 1; after April 1, the hours will return to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The call center can be reached at 406-444-2950.

Remember, if you’re applying for a special license or permit, you will need to have a valid email address.

The Ennis, Valley Garden and York’s Islands fishing access sites have been closed temporarily due to flooding.

Ice jams have caused water, ice and debris to flow into the sites, creating dangerous conditions, including the possibility for trees to fall. These sites have been closed until flooding conditions subside and FWP staff are able to make the necessary repairs to roads and other infrastructure.

The Ennis Fishing Access Site is a half mile southeast of Ennis, and the Valley Garden Fishing Access Site is about two miles northeast of Ennis — both are on the upper Madison River. The York’s Islands Fishing Access Site is about four miles north of Townsend on the Missouri River.

The Bozeman Symphony makes its much-anticipated return to the Willson Auditorium for a free livestream concert, “Dvořák, Saint-Georges, and Verdi,” featuring the immensely talented violinist William Hagen playing Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ Concerto for Violin in A Major. The performance opens with Antonin Dvořák’s painstakingly beautiful Lento from String Quartet No. 12 “American,” and the Symphony concludes with Giuseppe Verdi’s only surviving chamber music work in his catalogue: String Quartet in E minor, arranged for full orchestra.  

 
The Bozeman Symphony is delighted to showcase William Hagen for the second time after his debut at the Symphony’s Ranch Around concert series presented in September 2020. Along with Hagen, the string section of the orchestra will be featured during this diverse performance reimagined from the previously scheduled program announced in the 2020 – 2021 season brochure.  

 
Hagen will dazzle the audience with first known classical composer of African ancestry Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ charmingly upbeat Concerto for Violin in A Major. Saint-Georges, born in 1745, had many masteries beyond composing, as a virtuoso violinist, renowned champion fencer, and leading military man in the French Revolution. Also highlighted in this performance is well-known composer Antonin Dvořák and extremely popular opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, who will bookend the program for a wonderful evening of music from the classical and romantic canon.   

 
The “Dvořák, Saint-Georges, and Verdi,” concert will livestream to the Bozeman Symphony’s website, YouTube and Facebook pages on Saturday, March 6, 2021, at 7:30 PM. The Symphony wishes to thank David Ross and Risi for their season sponsorship along with Drs. Anne and Dennis Wentz for sponsoring this performance. For more information about the free livestream concert, please contact the Bozeman Symphony at (406) 585-9774 or info@bozemansymphony.org. 

 
William Hagen, violin - The riveting 27-year-old American violinist William Hagen was the third-prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, one of the highest-ranking Americans ever in the prestigious competition. Already a seasoned international performer who has won friends around the world, William has been hailed as a “brilliant virtuoso…a standout” (The Dallas Morning News) with “an intellectual command of line and score, and just the right amount of power” (violinist.com). William performs on the 1732 ‘Arkwright Lady Rebecca Sylvan’ Stradivarius, on generous loan from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation.  

Find out more: https://mkiartists.com/artists/william-hagen