A statewide survey conducted by Montana State University researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic determined that food security — or having consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life — has decreased substantially among Montanans. At the same time, anxiety and other feelings of mental distress are on the rise.

The survey results, released in December under the title “The Impact of COVID-19 on the Health of Montanans,” include the responses of 1,944 participants between April and September 2020. The research received grant support from MSU’s Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity, or CAIRHE.

“This survey was the first of its kind in Montana to report about the immediate impacts of COVID-19 on food security,” said lead researcher Carmen Byker Shanks, a CAIRHE investigator and associate professor in MSU’s Department of Health and Human Development. “In addition, we investigated a variety of health variables, since the causes and consequences of food insecurity are multifaceted. To build solutions to food insecurity in our state, we must understand the entire scope of the issue.”

Byker Shanks leads a separate CAIRHE project that aims to increase the availability of healthy foods at two rural Montana food pantries while promoting nutritious diets to decrease health risks. When the pandemic reduced her ability to work with her food pantry partners last year, she pivoted a portion of her research to include the statewide survey. The project is supported by a three-year, $464,943 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Byker Shanks’ co-investigators on the survey project are Michelle Grocke, assistant professor in the Department of Health and Human Development and an MSU Extension specialist; Justin Shanks, former faculty at the MSU Library; Eliza Webber, CAIRHE research project manager; and graduate research assistant Kimberly Scanlon.

“This research casts light on an often overlooked consequence of COVID-19, which is greater food insecurity and anxiety among many sectors of our rural population that are already facing health disparities,” said Dr. Alexandra Adams, director of CAIRHE and a nutritional scientist. “It should be an important tool for those who are working to make sure underserved populations aren’t left behind as the pandemic continues.”

During the early months of 2020, the research team developed the online survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 on Montanans’ food security, health behaviors and health outcomes, then distributed it statewide through email and social media beginning in late April.

Among the survey’s most significant findings is the reported increase in food insecurity. Prior to the pandemic, 11% of the survey respondents were food-insecure, while 18% reported food insecurity during the pandemic.

“Recommendations to stock up on food and limit trips to the grocery store aren’t possible for those who can’t afford to purchase large amounts of food, or who live in communities without access to a consistent food supply,” Byker Shanks said. “COVID-19 requires considerable and rapid behavioral shifts for everyone, including food management skills to cook more, plan ahead and reduce waste. Not everyone has the resources to navigate our new situation.”

Not surprisingly, with food hoarding rampant in the early weeks of the pandemic, respondents reported a decline in food availability, particularly in remote communities, Byker Shanks said. About 77% of respondents indicated that some of the foods they needed were unavailable. Nearly half of the respondents reported buying more food out of fear or anxiety.

Beyond the pandemic’s particular effect on food security in Montana, the survey also explored the broader impact on the well-being of respondents. For example, 34% reported financial hardship due to COVID-19, and 37% said they had engaged in negative health behaviors, such as greater alcohol consumption and more screen time, since the start of the pandemic.

In a six-question assessment of psychological distress, respondents indicated an increase in all six measures since the pandemic began. For example, thinking back to the period before the pandemic, 2.4% of respondents answered “all of the time” or “most of the time” in response to the question “How often did you feel nervous?” That number jumped to 21.5% for the time after COVID-19 struck Montana.

“Navigating a variety of information in the media was stressful to Montanans because it was unclear what was accurate,” Justin Shanks said. “The public needs to be equipped with tangible strategies to access, analyze and share media in the contemporary digital era that’s defined by an ever-increasing pace of access and quantity of information from multiple sources.”

But the news isn’t all bad, Byker Shanks said. A majority of respondents, 54%, also reported positive health behavior changes since the start of the pandemic, such as more exercise and greater connection with family and friends. At the community level, the survey highlighted a greater sharing of resources and more flexible federal food assistance for those in need.

Last August, with early results of the Montana survey in mind, Byker Shanks published an editorial in the American Journal of Public Health titled “The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Watershed Moment to Strengthen Food Security Across the U.S. Food System.” In it, Byker Shanks and her three co-authors from institutions in Arizona and Nebraska said the pandemic provides “an opportunity to develop policy, systems and environmental strategies to enhance food security, reduce inefficiencies and decrease inequities, now and into the future.”

Also prompted in part by the survey, Byker Shanks and her colleagues published a position paper in Translational Behavioral Medicine titled “Scaling Up Measurement to Confront Food Insecurity in the USA” that outlines strategies to bolster measurement of food security.

In their report on the Montana survey findings, Byker Shanks and her MSU co-investigators make similar recommendations for state and local policymakers. Those recommendations include leveraging policy and programmatic support to promote food security; reorienting food systems to ensure adequate food for all; formalizing strategies for resource sharing and the use of federal aid; making mental health resources more readily available; communicating to Montanans through a variety of methods; and creating support systems to encourage positive habits.

“This moment in time highlights a food insecurity crisis that’s existed for decades,” Byker Shanks said. “We have a responsibility to solve an inexcusable problem in a society where enough food and resources are available, but we don’t distribute them equally to everyone.”

To learn more about the survey, visit montana.edu/cairhe/projects/byker-shanks/COVID-19-food-security.html.

A hiker was injured during a surprise close encounter with a bull moose while hiking east of Ennis on Wednesday, Jan. 27.

Two men in their 70s were hiking on U.S. Forest Service Trail 6317, commonly called the Jack Creek Trail, about 10 miles east of Ennis. Two miles up the trail, the men encountered a bull moose standing about 10 yards off one side of the trail.

The moose charged at the hikers. One of the men stood behind a standing tree while the other took cover under a fallen tree. The moose continued its approach and kicked at the man under the fallen tree until the other hiker was successful in driving the moose away.

The man who was kicked while under the tree was treated at Madison Valley Medical Center for injuries that were not life threatening. The other man did not require medical treatment.

Moose can be defensive and dangerous in surprise close encounters with people. FWP staff have posted signs at the entrance to this trail advising recreationists of the encounter. No further management action is planned at this time.

Moose can be found throughout most of Montana. Keep these precautions in mind to avoid negative encounters with moose:

• Be aware of your surroundings and be especially careful around creeks and in areas with dense brush.
• Travel in groups whenever possible and make casual noise to alert animals to your presence.
• If you encounter a moose, give it lots of space and don’t approach it. Keep dogs under control at all times.
• If a moose charges or chases you, take cover behind something solid, such as a tree.

Montana State Parks recorded more than 3.4 million visitors in 2020, a 29.5 percent increase over 2019.

The Bozeman Symphony presents its first-ever Composer-in-Residence, Scott Lee, a dynamic composer who combines classical form with the more visceral rhythmic language of contemporary popular music. During his residency starting in May 2021, Lee has been commissioned by the Bozeman Symphony to write a piece inspired by the unique spirit and energy of Bozeman that will open the much-anticipated 2021 – 2022 concert season. In addition to this world premiere piece, Lee will engage with the community through multiple virtual events in February 2021.   

  
Never before, in the Bozeman Symphony’s 53-year-history, has the organization hosted a Composer-in-Residence to create a piece to premiere for the community. Music Director Norman Huynh is honored to introduce composer Scott Lee to the Bozeman community through a number of events during the remainder of the 2020 – 2021 concert season, including a virtual composers forum, an online composition masterclass, and a new contemporary music series, Current Commotion.  

  
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to come be a part of a flourishing musical community, which includes the Bozeman Symphony musicians, audience members, and patrons as well as the students and faculty at Montana State University,” said Lee. “As a composer with an outsider’s perspective on Bozeman, I hope to write a piece that will bring some fresh energy and new ideas that will invigorate the orchestra.”  

  
Lee will first be introduced to the Bozeman community during one of two virtual events via Zoom on February 11 and 12, 2021. Huynh will moderate the first online event, “Composers Forum: Turning Ideas into Music,” featuring Scott Lee and local composer Eric Funk. Together, they will discuss how composers take people, places, and ideas, and represent them through music. The following day, Lee will host the Bozeman Symphony’s Composition Masterclass at Montana State University for student composers to hone their craft and showcase their pieces of written music.  

  
Following the virtual events, Lee will start his residency in Bozeman on May 24 through May 31, 2021. During this time, Scott will experience everything the community has to offer – from the spectacular landscape to the incredible live arts scene – where he will derive inspiration to write his commissioned piece presented during the first concert of the 2021 – 2022 season.  

  
“I enjoy the outdoors, and it seems to me that Bozeman offers unparalleled access to all of the kinds of activities I love, like hiking, skiing, and fishing,” said Lee. “At the same time, it appears that there’s quite a thriving arts and culture scene in Bozeman, which I’m very excited to engage with and participate in.”   

  
On May 27, 2021, Lee will participate in the arts scene first-hand during the Bozeman Symphony’s new contemporary music series, Current Commotion, for the orchestra’s inaugural performance at a downtown music venue. Music Director Huynh and Lee curated the program in a cabaret-style format featuring musicians of the Bozeman Symphony.   

Lee will return to Bozeman for the world premiere of his piece during the first concert of the 2021 – 2022 season. 
  
For more information about the Bozeman Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence Scott Lee, season updates and events, please visit bozemansymphony.org, or contact the symphony office at (406) 585-9774 or info@bozemansymphony.org. The Symphony wishes to thank David Ross and Risi for their season sponsorship and the season subscribers, donors, and patrons who have provided support this 2020 – 2021 concert season. 
  
Scott Lee, Composer: Praised as “colorful” and “engaging” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Scott Lee's music often takes inspiration from popular genres, exploring odd-meter grooves and interlocking hockets while featuring pointillistic orchestration and extended performance techniques. His music marries the traditional intricacy of classical form with the more body-centered and visceral language of contemporary popular music, creating complex music of the present with broad appeal. The Berkshire Edge described the world premiere of his Slack Tide at Tanglewood Music Center as having “moments both of calm and maximum tension...we’ve never heard anything like it.”  

 
Lee has worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C, the JACK Quartet, yMusic, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and pop artist Ben Folds. Recent commissioners include the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, loadbang, and the Raleigh Civic Symphony. Notable honors include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.  

 
Lee is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Florida School of Music. Lee earned a PhD in Composition at Duke University, and also holds degrees from the Peabody Institute and Vanderbilt University. Learn more at scottleemusic.net. 
 
  
Eric Funk, Composer: A former student of Tomas Svoboda, Sandor Veress, and Krzysztof Penderecki in the 1970s, Mr. Funk has composed numerous works, including nine symphonies, four operas, six ballet scores, three large works for chorus and orchestra, nineteen concertos, several orchestral tone poems, and numerous works for chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and vocal works. Eric Funk just completed a new solo violin work entitled "Melisma, Op 147," homage and farewell to our dear friend Andre Melief, the recording by Vilmos Olah can be heard on the works/recording page of this site.  Prominent premieres of his works include “From the Dreams of Montana Children” [Carnegie Hall, NY]; his one-act solo opera-ballet for contralto and ballet troupe, "Akhmatova," based on key texts from the Russian poet's life; his solo concerto "Vili: Concerto for the Violin Alone, Op 109" (now an award winning PBS-TV documentary "The Violin Alone,"  was awarded six 2018 Emmy Awards: "Music Composition," Best Documentary-Cultural, Director, Photography, Editing, Audio; "Best Documentary" 2017 Chicago Amarcord Arthouse Television Awards,) triple string quartet (The Old Masters,) commissioned by New Music USA for the Cassatt String Quartet, and "Variations on a Theme by Jan Hanus, Op. 127" for violin and string orchestra which was awarded The American Prize in Composition Special Judges' Citation as "Best Concerto of the Year" 2017.  His newest commissioned score, a piano trio "Les Soeurs, Op. 142" was written for the renowned Ahn Trio and the James Sewell Ballet Company and premiered in Minneapolis in 2017. Funk most recently created a transcription for piano trio for the Ahn Trio of his 3 BeBop tunes: Flyswatter, Raid, and Deet. Learn more at ericfunk.com 

The City of Bozeman City Commission is expected to review $2,145,167 dollars in total grant awards to Bozeman non-profits on Tuesday, February 2nd at their regular meeting. If approved, the recommended grant awards would distribute Coronavirus Relief funding to 48 different grants.  Of the grant dollars being allocated more than three-quarters of the total funds are expected to be allocated toward housing, medical/basic needs, and behavioral health service providers and programs.

 
In November 2020 the City Commission approved Resolution 5230 which allowed for the funding of grants to non-profit entities. The funds used for the grants are from the State of Montana’s reimbursement program from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. Currently, the $2,145,167 recommended grant amount will distribute the entire amount of funding made available to the City by the State. 

 
City Manager Jeff Mihelich says, “The Bozeman community is still hurting from the effects of this pandemic. We know that it’s critical to get money to those needing it most. Our choice as a City is to get support directly to those folks most impacted by intentionally and strategically getting money to our non-profits.”

 
Assistant City Manager Anna Rosenberry adds, “We are proud to recommend grant distributions in support some of our most critical sectors like housing and health care. Funding grants that provide things like new behavioral health emergency rooms, assistance for those experiencing housing challenges, and even supporting additional affordable housing projects – these dollars will go a long way.”

Applications for the grant dollars were accepted in December and were open-ended for non-profits impacted by the pandemic. Grant applicants were evaluated primarily on how their services impact Bozeman residents. Application materials can be found online. A full breakdown of the primary categories receiving funding is below.
 
If approved the City will move forward to engage all applicants in a grant agreement. Applicants will be required to adhere to non-discrimination in service delivery under the City’s non-discrimination code, acknowledge equal pay requirements, commit to operate within accordance with local, state and federal health rules for COVID-19, and report back to the City on use of funds.

Need a COVID-19 test for travel? If you must travel, we encourage you to TRAVEL SAFE, TRAVEL SMART. Call the Bozeman Health COVID-19 Hotline at 406-414-2619 to get an order for a travel test. Travel testing is available at the efficient and convenient Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital drive-thru testing site from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday - Friday. For the most up-to-date information CLICK HERE.

Montana State University physicist Dana Longcope was awarded the National Academy of Science’s Arctowski Medal on Thursday. The medal, given every other year, is a recognition of significant contributions to the study of solar physics. Awardees are nominated by peers in the field.

“What I really love is doing the work,” Longcope said. “But to know my colleagues all around the world, all around the country find it worthwhile, it’s very humbling that they found my work to be of that caliber,” Longcope said.

Longcope, who is the head of the Department of Physics in the College of Letters and Science, conducts theoretical research into the storage and release of magnetic energy around the sun. It is same the type of energy that leads to solar flares and the solar winds that cause the northern lights.

A nomination letter from Department of Physics colleagues Charles Kankelborg, Jiong Qiu and Neil Cornish describes Longcope as a “creative and prolific physicist” whose work has had widespread impact.

“It’s bringing order to the chaos,” Cornish said. “He is able to come up with these elegant models to describe the essential physics of the sun.”

Longcope helped define the nature of the sun’s magnetism by creating a framework for the rope-like bundles of magnetic field lines known as thin flux tubes that permeate the sun. By outlining the basic structure of the system and developing fundamental equations of motion for the flux tubes, Longcope’s work explained how the tubes move and store magnetic energy around the corona, the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere.

Kankelborg pictures this topology as a sort of wiring diagram, or “a map made out of spaghetti.”

“If you know where everything is connected and if you know whether this magnetic field wraps around that one on the way to the other pole where it’s anchored, then you know the overall configuration and it tells you something about the storage of energy,” he said.

This framework led to a three-dimensional, unified picture of a phenomenon called magnetic reconnection, wherein Longcope describes how the movement of these flux tubes — and breaking and rejoining of the magnetic fields inside — releases massive amounts of energy and predicts how energy could be released in a solar flare based on the magnetic fields on the surface.

“He brought the theory and the observations together, which is a tremendous achievement,” Kankelborg said. “Every theoretical physicist wants to not have just a pretty theory but to be able to make predictions about things you can actually measure.”

This research has research helped hone solar flare forecasting. Right now, scientists can calculate when high-energy particles from solar eruptions may reach Earth, but not their trajectory. While effects like the aurora are celebrated, these solar events may interfere with technology like wireless communication and GPS. Geomagnetic storms can also impact air travel and the electrical grid. In his former role as head of the American Academy of Sciences Solar Physics Division, Longcope briefed congressional offices on the importance of space weather.

Longcope, who has always loved puzzles, sees physics as the fundamental explanation for how the world works. Looking out the window of his office on campus, he can see the clouds moving over the Spanish Peaks and knows the various forces that control their movement. He contemplates the physics of the mundane – such as water flowing though a faucet – and keeps asking questions.

“It’s wonderful to be able to pose a question for yourself and then figure out the answer and realize you’re the first person to have ever answered that question,” Longcope said.

Longcope received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1986, where he started studying the physics of plasma, a fourth state of matter where gases become so hot their atoms are torn apart. He stayed at Cornell for graduate school, receiving a doctorate in applied physics in 1993 and parlaying an interest in plasma to researching its most dramatic example: the sun’s atmosphere. Aside from the inherent drama of solar flares, Longcope said he is drawn to the counter-intuitive nature of their energy release.

“You wouldn’t think that suddenly the sun would be producing 50 million Kelvin plasmas when the surface is only 5,700 Kelvin,” he said, referring to the unit of temperature measurement used by solar physicists.

After post-doctoral research at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University and the University of California, Berkeley, Longcope was recruited to MSU’s budding solar physics group by Loren Acton, who is now a professor emeritus. Longcope joined the faculty in 1996, drawn, he said, by a desire to pass on knowledge to younger scientists while conducting research amidst an esteemed group of colleagues.

Even now, a solar physics group is a rarity in American academia, Longcope said. In his time at MSU, Longcope has taught a wide variety of physics courses, from quantum and classical mechanics to mathematical physics and electricity and magnetism. He also currently co-leads NASA’s Heliophysics Summer School in Boulder, Colorado, and is helping the school go virtual for this year’s students.

“Dana is such a broad and profound physicist, but he’s motivational too,” said Qiu, who has been a member of the solar physics group since 2005. “He’s really very modest and always promoting others. I’m really impressed by that. It makes MSU such a good place.”

As a young professor and researcher, Longcope merited a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant in 1997. In 2000, it was the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and in 2003, he earned the Karen Harvey Prize from the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical. In contrast, the Arctowski Medal honors his body of work.

The Arctowski Medal was established in 1958 to honor Polish-American meteorologist and Antarctic explorer Henryk Arctowski and recognizes “outstanding contributions to the study of solar physics and solar terrestrial relationships,” according to the National Academy of Sciences. The medal is now given every two years, along with an award of $100,000 plus a $100,000 grant to support research.

Longcope and other award winners will be honored in a virtual ceremony during the National Academy of Sciences' 158th annual meeting April 24-26. The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and provides advice to the federal government and other organizations.

Montana State University political science professor Franke Wilmer had spent many years studying war and its effects on human rights until a chance meeting in Bozeman turned her research toward those who effectively work for peace.
 
Wilmer will speak about successful efforts to build peace in the West Bank, one of the planet’s most war-torn locations, during the next MSU Provost’s Distinguished Lecturer Series. Her free lecture, “Breaking Cycles of Violence in Israel and Palestine: Empathy and Peacemaking in the Middle East,” will be available online beginning at 7 p.m. Feb. 9.

Provost Bob Mokwa said Wilmer was invited to deliver the lecture because her work is emblematic of the tripartite principles of the university’s land-grant mission.
 
“She brings to the classroom the same attributes that have made her an internationally recognized scholar,” Mokwa said. “Dr. Wilmer emboldens our students to think critically, to be inquisitive and to consider local impacts of global issues and what it means to be an engaged, informed citizen.”
 
Wilmer, a professor in the Department of Political Science in the College of Letters and Science, has long studied war criminals in Bosnia as well as women’s and Indigenous rights around the globe, writing several books on those topics. However, a reception at her rabbi’s Bozeman home in 2016 for Israeli peace negotiator Gershon Baskin led Wilmer to turn from the study of the causes of violence to think about the causes of peacemaking. Baskin is a mediator and the founder of the Institute for Education for Jewish Arab Coexistence. He was a key negotiator between Hamas and the Israeli government for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by Palestinians for five years.

 
Meeting Baskin prompted Wilmer to wonder: If some people were drawn to violence, why are others drawn to peace, even in the most complex situations? And how do they achieve it?
 
“I had been interested in why people do bad things, but these people made me think about people who resist violence and political conflict,” she said. “It got me curious.”
 
That question led Wilmer to make five research trips to Israel in four years where she spent considerable time in the West Bank. During one of those visits to Tel Aviv, machine gun fire rang out as she was having dinner at a nearby restaurant. Yet, despite the strife, she found the people there to be universally generous, kind and caring and hospitable.

Baskin suggested that Wilmer contact the Parents Circle Family Forum, a group of parents and families of both Israeli and Palestinian children killed in the conflict who work for peace rather than revenge. Despite their extreme personal loss, group members were willing to work together across ethnic groups to work for a lasting peace.

 
Wilmer’s book on the topic, “Breaking Cycles of Violence in Israel and Palestine: Empathy and Peacemaking in the Middle East,” was published this month by Lexington, Rowman and Littlefield. Wilmer said her work has made her believe that empathy and moderation on both sides is one of the keys to solving the conflict.

“I don’t think people know how empathic these peace activists on both sides are,” Wilmer said. She said three chapters of her book are their personal stories. “Their stories can bring tears to your eyes.”
 
She said that in talking to the peace activists, who have all experienced great loss, she realized that nonviolent solutions really can work.
 
“Empathy is central to this work,” she said. She said that even though we live in a society of insults and injuries, for peace to be made, both sides must be empathetic to the lives of those on the other side.
“You have to realize you can never really walk in someone else’s shoes, but …making the effort is what touches another person.”
 
Wilmer said that while the book is an academic resource, she also hopes that it inspires students, scholars and activists working for peace. And while the work is based in the war-torn Middle East, Wilmer said she thinks it has universal application, including to the divisions in contemporary American society. She hopes that it may provide guidance for people who are identified with a group ethnically and culturally to overcome victimization and transform their thinking about themselves, as the nonviolent peace activists from the Middle East have done.

 
To that end, last fall Wilmer worked to bring her work to MSU when she partnered with the MSU Leadership Institute to livestream from the West Bank the webinar Enemies to Allies: A Rabbi and a Palestinian Activist.”
“Breaking Cycles of Violence in Israel and Palestine” is Wilmer’s fourth book. Her previous books are: “The Indigenous Voice in World Politics,” “The Social Construction of Man, the State and War: Identity, Conflict and Violence in Former Yugoslavia” and “Human Rights in International Politics.”
 
In addition to her academic work, Wilmer previously served in the Montana House of Representatives, and she is a past chair of the Montana Human Rights Commission. She also was a co-founder of the Gallatin Valley Human Rights Task Force.
 
A graduate of the University of Maryland, where she received her doctorate in political science, Wilmer has taught at MSU since 1991 and travels extensively internationally speaking about human rights.
 
For more information about Wilmer’s upcoming lecture or the Provost Distinguished Lecture Series, go to: montana.edu/pdl/.