BOZEMAN – The Bozeman Symphony Orchestra’s thrilling 2022/23 concert season kicks off on September 24 and 25 for Opening Weekend: Beethoven’s 5th Symphony & Andy Akiho. Come celebrate the start of the season with the most iconic four notes in music history during Beethoven’s awe-inspiring Symphony No. 5. Music Director Norman Huynh invites all to attend this unforgettable performance that will be the perfect start to the Bozeman Symphony’s 55th anniversary season.  

‘“Beethoven’s 5th Symphony contains arguably the most famous opening in music history, ‘Da Da Da DUMMM.’ Hearing the symphony in its entirety, the journey from dark to light, can be a transformative experience for the listener. It is a piece of music that will inspire a lifelong curiosity and passion for classical music,”’ says Huynh.  

In addition to Beethoven’s iconic master work, the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra will welcome Grammy-nominated composer Andy Akiho to the stage for his piece, Concerto for Steel Pans and Orchestra. Rarely do you find a steel pan featured with the symphony, but Akiho does it with expert precision and mesmerizing intensity. This performance will mark the Montana premiere of this dynamic and eclectic piece.  

“Andy Akiho is currently one of the world’s most in demand composers. He is a force of nature and has an incredible sense of rhythm and sound. He is equally at home as a performer and on the steel pan as his instrument of choice,” says Huynh. “The sounds created by the steel pan, along with the orchestra, is unique and our community has the opportunity to experience this rare treat.”  

Opening this performance is Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia, a triumphant chorale celebrating Finland’s independence from almost a century of heavy-handed rule by Russia. This hymn-like melody, inspired by folk tunes but invented by Sibelius, sounds quietly in the winds, and eventually becomes an impassioned cry of freedom as Finlandia comes to its triumphal conclusion.  

Join the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Huynh for an unforgettable start to a momentous 55thanniversary season.   

Performances will be held in person on Saturday, September 24 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, September 25 at 2:30 PM, at the Willson Auditorium (404 West Main Street), downtown Bozeman. These performances would not be possible without strong community support and sponsorship. The Symphony wishes to thank Stephen Schachman & Ritva Porter for their season sponsorship, David Ross & Risi for their Bozeman Symphony Orchestra sponsorship, and Kimberlie & Bruce Jodar, Skye Raiser & David Perlin, and Robert & Donna Ritchie for supporting this performance.  

Ticketing: Individual tickets are available for purchase online at bozemansymphony.org or by phone at 406-585-9774. Tickets at the door based on availability. Adult tickets range from $29.00-$79.00.  Student discounted tickets are available.   Please contact the Bozeman Symphony with questions you have regarding performance, ticket sales, venue, seating information, and COVID-19 safety protocols.  

Andy Akiho, steel pan – Andy Akiho is a “trailblazing” (Los Angeles Times) GRAMMY nominated composer whose bold works unravel intricate and unexpected patterns while surpassing preconceived boundaries of classical music. Known as “an increasingly in-demand composer” (The New York Times), Akiho has earned international acclaim for his large-scale works that emphasize the natural theatricality of live performance.

The 2021-2022 season features the NYC premiere of Akiho’s double GRAMMY nominated work Seven Pillars for Sandbox Percussion and the world-premiere of a new commission for Imani Winds. Equally at home writing chamber music and symphonies, Akiho is the Oregon Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-2023 composer-in-residence.

Bear confirmed to have killed livestock

GREAT FALLS – After confirming that a collared grizzly bear killed livestock along the Rocky Mountain Front north of Choteau, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks assisted the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services in euthanizing the bear after obtaining the necessary approval from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS). 

The bear had first been captured and collared in 2021 in a trap set due to cattle depredation. It was unknown at the time if the trapped bear had killed the calf or was scavenging the carcass, so it was collared and released on-site. Later in 2021, the bear was documented to have visited two other livestock conflict sites (one calf and one sheep), confirmed by trail camera and collar data, but it evaded attempts to capture it at that time.

On Sept. 5, landowners reported another sheep had been killed, and FWP and Wildlife Services technicians responded and confirmed the sheep was killed by a bear. Collar data from the bear showed it was present at the kill site at the time of the conflict, and after obtaining USFWS approval to lethally remove the bear, the 4-year-old male bear weighing 386 pounds was shot and killed on Friday afternoon. 

The hide and head from the bear were salvaged and will be used for educational purposes.

Grizzly bears are protected under the Endangered Species Act, and final authority regarding management actions are up to the USFWS.

If you see a bear near your residence or need to report a conflict, please call your local bear specialist at the contact number found at FWP’s website: https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/bear/contact.

For more information on living, working, and recreating in Montana’s bear country, visit the FWP Bear Aware webpage at https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/bear/be-bear-aware.

Due to short staffing, the Gallatin County Clerk of District Court’s Office is temporarily reducing its office hours to enable staff to maintain current caseload.
Beginning Monday, Sept. 19, the office will be open to the public 8 AM to 3 PM, Monday through Friday. The office is located on the top floor of the Law and Justice Center at 615 S. 16th Ave. in Bozeman.

Duties of the Clerk of District Court’s Office include keeping records for District Court, providing marriage licenses, keeping minutes for court proceedings, filing all actions for every case filed in District Court, and more.

While the office will be closed to the public in the afternoons, staff will be on hand through 5 PM each day.

“Our staff will use that time at the end of the day to get caught up and ensure we are maintaining the caseload in our office,” said Gallatin County Clerk of District Court Sandy Erhardt.

Like many employers across the county, the Clerk of Court’s Office is short staffed. The office has a total of 14 positions, but is currently down four people and will be losing two more employees by the end of the month.

“We are heading toward a crisis situation with low staffing,” Erhardt said.
A drop-box will be outside the office for filing. You may also email documents for filing to GallatinCountyDCFilings@mt.gov.

For emergency situations, please call 406-582-2171 or 406-582-2169.
The reduced public office hours will remain in place until more staff are hired in the office. We will keep the public updated.

For information on job openings within the Clerk of District Court’s Office, and all other county departments, please visit www.governmentjobs.com/careers/gallatinmt.

NORRIS – A daily fishing restriction on the lower Madison River will be lifted Saturday as peak water temperatures have dropped due to cooler weather.  
The hoot owl restriction prohibited fishing each day from 2 p.m. to midnight downstream of Ennis Reservoir. That restriction will no longer be in effect starting Saturday, Sept. 10.  

Restrictions are still in place for other waterbodies. Anglers can find a statewide list of current angling restrictions at fwp.mt.gov/news/current-closures-restrictions. 
Fishing restrictions, such as hoot owl restrictions and full closures, are designed to protect fish that become more susceptible to disease and mortality when conditions, such as low flows and high water temperatures, combine with other stressors, including catch-and-release fishing.  

All stress to fish during the hottest times of the year is cumulative, and anglers should consider fishing in cooler waters during times of low flows and high water temperatures in rivers. Anglers can help reduce stress for fish by following these practices when catching and releasing fish, though fish mortality may still occur:  

• Fish during the coolest times of day, where permitted. 
• Land the fish quickly.  
• Wet your hands before handling the fish.  
• Keep the fish in water as much as possible.  
• Remove the hook gently. Using artificial lures with single and barbless hooks can make hook removal faster and easier.  
• If the fish is hooked deeply, you may have to cut the line at the fish’s mouth or consider keeping it if regulations allow.  
• Let the fish recover before releasing it.  

DILLON – Fishing restrictions have been lifted on the Ruby River and a section of the Beaverhead River.  

A hoot owl restriction, which prohibits fishing each day between 2 p.m. and midnight, was in place for the Ruby River from the confluence with the Beaverhead River up to Duncan District Road crossing. That restriction has been lifted.  

A section of the Beaverhead River has also reopened to fishing after a full fishing closure was put in place earlier this month for the entire river. The fishing closure has been lifted from the river’s confluence with the Big Hole River upstream to Pipe Organ Bridge. A full fishing closure remains in effect from Pipe Organ Bridge upstream to the dam at Clark Canyon Reservoir.  

The closure began Sept. 1 to reduce stress for fish while flows from Clark Canyon Dam transitioned from typical irrigation releases of about 300 cubic feet per second (CFS) to the minimum overwinter release of 25 CFS. This flow change occurred several weeks earlier than normal due to severe drought projections. However, water managers extended the transition period to allow more time for fish to adapt. 

Now that the transition is complete and air and water temperatures have cooled in some areas, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has lifted the closure downstream of Pipe Organ Bridge. The closure remains in effect above the bridge due to a high density and susceptibility of spawning fish, low flows, and relatively warm water. 

Fishing restrictions, such as hoot owl restrictions and full closures, are designed to protect fish that become more susceptible to disease and mortality when conditions, such as low flows and high water temperatures, combine with other stressors, including catch-and-release fishing. Fishing restrictions are also still in place for the Jefferson and Big Hole rivers. Anglers can find a statewide list of current restrictions at fwp.mt.gov/news/current-closures-restrictions.  

All stress to fish at this time of year is cumulative, and anglers should consider fishing in cooler waters during times of low flows and high water temperatures in rivers. Anglers can help reduce stress for fish by following these practices when catching and releasing fish where fishing is allowed, though fish mortality may still occur:  

• Fish during the coolest times of day, where permitted. 
• Land the fish quickly.  
• Wet your hands before handling the fish.  
• Keep the fish in water as much as possible.  
• Remove the hook gently. Using artificial lures with single and barbless hooks can make hook removal faster and easier.  
• If the fish is hooked deeply, you may have to cut the line at the fish’s mouth or consider keeping it if regulations allow.  
• Let the fish recover before releasing it.  

BOZEMAN — On Sept. 30, residents will begin to see trucks, construction workers and building materials at the Bozeman Public Library. The project, which has been designed by MSR Design and SMA, starts to take shape this fall. Martel Construction has laid out two phases of work and the building is expected to be under construction from Sept. 30 through the fall of 2023.

 
“We’re excited to begin the Library’s renovation project,” says Library Director, Susan Gregory. “We appreciate the public’s understanding that construction in the building will bring some changes regarding which materials and spaces are available from time to time. Our primary goal over the next year will be to keep patrons and visitors safe in the construction zone while we work to build new opportunities to gather and learn.”

 
After a year and a half of talking to the public and working with architects, the Bozeman Public Library Foundation and Martel Construction, the Bozeman Public Library has envisioned innovative spaces that will offer new services, programming and places for social gatherings as well as quiet areas. The renovation is focused on better serving patrons in three key ways:

1 Community: a new hub will be an informal gathering spot to meet (and make) friends, work, or read.

2 Creativity: two new learning labs will greatly expand program possibilities. One is designed for interactive demos such as cooking or art classes; the other is a tech lab with computer equipment, 3D printers, a gaming zone, and a small recording studio.

3 Collaboration: a renovated community room and additional small meeting rooms provide much-needed space for events, community meetings, club gatherings, and more. 
 
In order to get to the finish line on this project, the Bozeman Public Library will be limited in its services, collections available and seating. However, some services will continue and may look different while construction is underway.
 
Key dates and closures for the first phase of construction are as follows: The second floor will be completely closed to the public from Sept. 30 through early January 2023. Holds can be placed on adult non-fiction books, biographies and world language books. The first floor will be closed to the public from Oct. 17th through early February 2023, with the exception of the Children’s Room and the lobby. The library will have some browsing collections in the Large Meeting Room and computer access in the Small Conference Room.

 
“Our thanks go to the many community donors whose generosity made this renewal possible,” Gregory stated.
 
More information on the renovation can be found at https://www.bozemanlibrary.org/about/library-news/the-library-during-renovation.
 

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.”