On Thursday a senior NASA official told a packed Procrastinator Theater at Montana State University that the space agency is well on its way to sending humans to Mars.
 
“I think 2035 is reasonable,” said Paul McConnaughey, an associate director at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, about when people might first touch down on the red planet.
 
In an hour-long presentation to MSU students, faculty and members of the public, McConnaughey outlined the progress NASA is making on a new generation of spacecraft designed to reach the moon, Mars and beyond.
 
“We’re actually to the point where we have the technology and the capability to put a system together for a human mission to Mars,” McConnaughey said.
 
McConnaughey’s team at Marshall Space Flight Center has played a key role in developing what NASA calls its new Space Launch System, which includes rockets significantly more powerful than those used for NASA’s space shuttles and for the much-celebrated launch earlier this year of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy.

 
The powerful rockets are now being integrated with a system of habitation pods and other units adapted from previous NASA missions with the new purpose of long-duration human space travel, McConnaughey said.
 
“We’re very close to the final assembly for this system,” he said.
 
Because so much infrastructure is required to support human life on the red planet, multiple units launched separately from Earth will be assembled in orbit around the moon before proceeding to Mars, McConnaughey explained.
 
Unmanned missions to Mars, including a 2020 launch of a rover similar to NASA’s legendary robot named Curiosity, will pave the way for the human missions. The Mars 2020 rover, for instance, will test ways of producing the oxygen that Mars-going astronauts will need.
 
Although Curiosity and other rovers have produced a wealth of knowledge about Mars, sending humans is the logical next step in expanding humanity’s scientific understanding of the planet, according to McConnaughey.
 
“Humans always find things that robots don’t,” he said. “When humans explore … we find out what we don’t know.”
 
McConnaughey, who earned his master's degree and doctorate from Cornell University and has worked at Marshall Space Flight Center since 1986, said that working with NASA’s talented workforce, which includes many MSU graduates, has been very rewarding.
 
At the event, which was hosted by MSU’s Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering as part of the university’s 125th anniversary celebration in 2018, McConnaughey encouraged MSU students to apply for NASA internships and to pursue careers with the space agency.
 
Planning and carrying out ambitious space exploration projects like sending humans to Mars is a decades-long process, he said. And because the next generation of Mars missions is now ramping up, it will today’s young people who see it through to completion.
 
“The future of getting to Mars isn’t me,” McConnaughey told the mostly student audience. “It’s you.”

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has closed the York’s Islands Fishing Access Site on the Missouri River southeast of Townsend with ice gorging on the river leading to extensive site flooding.

The site will remain closed to vehicles until conditions allow for safe travel.

Montana State University’s spring wheat breeding program is working to meet a warmer future.

Luther Talbert, spring wheat breeder in MSU’s Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology in the College of Agriculture, shared research highlights at a January lecture about Montana’s cornerstone cereal crop faring in a variable and warming climate.

The lecture, hosted by the Montana Institute on Ecosystems, a statewide institute on ecosystem sciences housed at MSU, focused on traditional wheat breeding techniques that can help Montana grain growers remain profitable despite increasing temperatures and the challenges that come with a longer growing season.

“The goal of the spring wheat breeding program is try to be steps ahead of what’s next,” Talbert said. “There are always pests and diseases, but climate and temperature changes are variable and hard to forecast. What we know for sure is that we need to breed for climate variability tolerance.”

In 2009, Talbert and Susan Lanning, former MSU research associate, analyzed weather data from seven  agricultural research centers in distinct locations across Montana. The research centers are part of the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station and are located strategically across Montana’s diverse climatological and agricultural environments.

Data points from the centers reached back to 1950, providing 58 consecutive years of detailed, monthly weather data across Montana. The centers each serve as authorized weather stations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and some have archived climate data that date back to the late 1800s.

According to Talbert, the collated data from the research centers showed that March temperatures in Montana have increased 7-degrees Fahrenheit since 1950.

“It’s was pretty remarkable to see that because we weren’t expecting that much of a change over the years,” Talbert said. “Most farmers know, at least informally, seasonal temperatures have changed over time, but here we had this verified climate data set for Montana and it was showing a consistent uptick in March temperatures each year.”

Warmer March temperatures, according to Talbert, mean an earlier planting season for spring wheat farmers because the ground thaws earlier. The earlier the planting season, the longer the growing season. However, Talbert and Lanning also found that July temperatures were increasing over the years, though not as significantly as March temperatures, based on the weather station data

 Talbert and Lanning tracked the yield of a spring wheat variety called Thatcher, which the research centers have been growing since the 1950s.

“The value of Thatcher is that we had a common factor, so we could look at the impact on weather variation on a specific variety over the years,” he said.

By tracking the success and yield of Thatcher alongside climate data, Talbert and Lanning found that a warmer March was a positive element, while a hotter July was not.

“A longer growing season is good news for farmers, but it gets risky when the temperatures also get hotter in July,” Talbert said. “So, on one hand, farmers can get their spring wheat seed in the ground earlier, but on the later end of the growing season, the plant becomes stressed if gets too hot.”

During July and early August, a spring wheat plant is undergoing grain fill, about a four-week process when the wheat kernel increases in size and matures enough for adequate baking and milling. If the temperatures are too hot during this process, the plant can become too stressed to adequately complete its full potential in the growth cycle.

“Basically, if it gets too hot, the plant’s leaves turn brown, photosynthesis stops, the wheat kernel stops growing and you’re not going to have as big of a yield,” Talbert said.  “Unfortunately, hotter temperatures during grain fill often go hand-in-hand with drought conditions.”

Last summer, Montana farmers saw one of the worst droughts in recent history, resulting in an estimated reduction in grain yield by about 40 percent, according to the USDA. Wheat yields count for a lot, given that Montana is the nation’s second-highest producer of spring wheat, exporting 75 percent of its wheat to Asian markets, according to the USDA.

“Montana’s calling card in many ways is hard wheat with high protein and strong baking and milling qualities, which global markets want,” Talbert said. “So, essentially, warmer temperatures have the ability to cause an economic impact that will be felt at the farm level first.”

Talbert has worked in MAES and MSU’s College of Agriculture for 30 years. Thanks to funding originating from farmer check-off contributions to the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee, Talbert and his spring wheat breeding program have developed some of Montana’s top-planted wheat varieties, bred specifically for high yield in dry conditions.

One important genetic advancement has been the incorporation of genes that help the wheat plant stay-green longer during the grain fill process. These “stay-green” traits help the wheat plant fight back against July heat by continuing to fill seeds in hot conditions and result in high yields, according to Talbert.

One popular variety with the stay-green trait is named Vida. Vida also has genes that cause a semi-solid stem, incorporated from an earlier variety named Scholar. The semi-solid stem gives the plant some resistance to the Wheat Stem Sawfly, one of the most costly agricultural pests in Montana.

Montana producers planted 2.3 million acres of spring wheat for harvest in 2016, of which 18.8 percent was Vida. It was the sixth year in a row that Vida has been the state’s leading spring wheat variety planted, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. Planted acreage data was not available for the 2017 year.

Talbert says breeding for drought tolerance and hotter temperatures will continue to be a priority, as the program strives to insure continued profitability of spring wheat production in Montana.

“Spring wheat just doesn’t do well in hot climates,” he said. “We certainly can’t predict what the future holds for Montana, but we can be sure that we need to keep improving our varieties to remain sustainable in a warmer environment.” 

Bozeman Magazine relies on the hard work of creative local people to keep our flow of information going. All contributors are local volunteers! If you would like to become a contributing writer please get in touch with us by filling out this form.

We are currently seeking writers to submit the following:

What's Your Beef? our monthly Op/Ed from community members voicing their concerns about local issues. See examples here.

Montana Music • interview local and regional bands that play in Bozeman often, music features promote events before they happen. Bonus you'll get to go to shows!

Screen & Stage • a great fit for any thespian lover interested in digging deeper into the local theater scene. Meet actors, directors and others in theater and create editorial promoting events before they happen and telling their stories.

Recreation & Health • experiential writing about local opportunities to get outside!

If you love to write and are passionate about Bozeman we want to hear from you! Most articles are 1000-1500 words. Our editorial deadline is the 10th of the month for the following month. Our editorial calendar is set for 2018 so you can work ahead as much as you would like. Fill out the contributor form or send us an email with the Subject Line: Contributing Writer for our general guidelines.

As part of celebrations marking its 125th anniversary, Montana State University has created a free, public, outdoor skating rink on campus.
 
The rink, measuring 120 by 50 feet, opened this week and will remain open as long as the weather allows. It is located on the lawn immediately south of Hannon Hall, near the east end of the Centennial Mall. A campus map is available online at montana.edu/campus-map.

 

Students, staff, faculty and community members are welcome to use the rink during daylight hours. Skaters take to the ice at their own risk, and participants and spectators must abide by MSU policies. Alcohol, drugs and tobacco are prohibited.
 
The ice schedule for the MSU’s 125th anniversary week is as follows:
 
    •    Feb. 12 – Open recreation
    •    Feb. 13 – Open recreation; open broomball, 6-8 p.m.
    •    Feb. 14 – Sweetheart Skate, 6-8 p.m. with prizes, music, food and more
    •    Feb. 15 – Open recreation; open broomball; 6-8 p.m.
    •    Feb. 16 – Open skate, 4-7 p.m.; open broomball, 7-9 p.m.
    •    Feb. 17 – Open curing, 10-10:45 a.m.; open human bowling, 10:45-11:30 a.m.; figure skating exhibition, 11:30-noon; hockey exhibition, noon-1 p.m.; open skate, 1-6 p.m.
 
The ASMSU Outdoor Recreation Program will provide skate rentals from the shed near the rink leading up to MSU’s Bobcat Birthday Bash on Feb. 16-17. Adult and youth skates will be available. Rentals are $2, cash only. The rink is operated by ASMSU Recreational Sports and Fitness. For more information, call 406-994-5000.

 
The ice rink is just one of many events scheduled to mark MSU’s 125th anniversary on Feb. 16. Other events that weekend will include awards, lectures, food, music, club sports demonstrations and a Ferris wheel. More information is online at www.montana.edu/125.

Abraham Lincoln has been an inspiration for artist Jim Dolan his entire life, and he hopes to share that positive influence with generations of Montana State University students in the best way he knows how – through his art.

Dolan’s gift of an 8-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture of Abraham Lincoln to his alma mater will be unveiled at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, which is the first day of the university’s 125th anniversary celebration, the Bobcat Birthday Bash. The statue, located on the north side of the Strand Union Building outside the Leigh Lounge windows, is the first piece of art to be installed on MSU’s Centennial Mall.

“If you walk by Lincoln every day for four or five years while you are at MSU, it cannot help to make a positive difference in your life,” said Dolan, who has created many well-known local pieces of art, including the elk at First Interstate Bank on West Main Street, the geese at the airport and Jeannette Rankin in downtown Bozeman.

The date of the Lincoln statue unveiling is not a coincidence. Dolan donated the sculpture to MSU two years ago with the university’s 125th anniversary in mind. President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862 creating the country’s land-grant colleges, of which MSU is one. Dolan pointed out that Lincoln also signed two other pieces of legislation in 1862 pivotal to his own personal history and perhaps the history of many Montanans: the Pacific Railway Act and the Homestead Act, which granted 160 acres of land in the West to settlers willing to live and work on the land for five years.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for those three pieces of legislation,” Dolan said. He said that his grandparents came to Sheridan, Wyoming, first on the train, and then up north to nearby Birney, Montana, where they homesteaded. “And I attended MSU, a land-grant institution. I think there are probably a lot of people in Montana who have stories like mine.”

Dolan said he’d heard MSU President Waded Cruzado speak eloquently about the Morrill Act and the impact of land-grant institutions on American culture, making education available to the sons and daughters of the working families of the nation. So, when he called her proposing donation of the statue to the university, they both thought the statue’s installation during MSU’s 125th anniversary would be fitting. In the meantime, Dolan kept the statue at his studio north of Bozeman.

Cruzado said that the Lincoln statue’s placement on MSU’s Centennial Mall is a stirring reminder of Lincoln’s signature on the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act on July 2, 1862 and, as he once wrote, “Upon the subject of education… I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”

“We thank Jim Dolan for his generosity and his inspirational gift of this beautiful piece of art that reminds us of our land-grant legacy,” Cruzado said. “The statue will be a reminder to current and future generations of Bobcats that Montana State University was established thanks to President Lincoln’s signature on the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862, which resulted in the creation of one public university in each state and territory of the Union for the purpose of educating the sons and daughters of the working families of America. This is our commitment: that people of the state of Montana benefit from their land-grant university every day.”

Dolan’s Lincoln statue is 8 feet tall and sits on a 5-foot-tall stand, making the installation 13 feet tall. Dolan said he crafted the sculpture out of stainless steel so that the light would reflect brightly off the statue. In his right hand, Lincoln holds his famous top hat. In his left he holds a sheaf of papers. Dolan said the papers were inspired by both Lincoln’s speeches and the legislation he signed.

The Lincoln statue is the fourth piece of art that Dolan has donated to the university he graduated from in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture education and in 1971 with a master’s degree in agriculture. Other Dolan pieces at MSU include a statue of Beethoven west of Howard Hall, home to the MSU School of Music. A modern interpretation of the Sioux holy man Black Elk looks out at the future home of the MSU Native American Student Center on the east end of campus. And a life-sized sculpture of Walt Whitman, also one of Dolan’s personal heroes, is installed in the courtyard of Wilson Hall.

Dolan said the proximity of the Lincoln and Whitman sculptures makes sense to him, historically and personally. Whitman lived in Washington, D.C., for a time and wrote that he watched Lincoln come and go from the White House during the Civil War. Lincoln’s death inspired two of Whitman’s most famous poems, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” and “O Captain! My Captain!”

“If students are inspired by the Walt Whitman statue to look up who he was and then maybe read ‘Leaves of Grass,’ then I’ve done my job,” Dolan said.

A time capsule designed and created by MSU students also will be presented during the unveiling ceremony. Bobcat Birthday Bash organizers said memorabilia from each of the colleges and major academic units will be collected throughout MSU’s 125th year. At the end of the year, the memorabilia will be sealed then stored in a climate controlled archive in the MSU Library.

The public is also invited to attend a reception in the Leigh Lounge following the unveiling. Food will be served, including a huge MSU birthday cake.

More information about MSU Bobcat Birthday Bash events on Feb. 16 and 17, which will include fireworks, a Ferris wheel and many other activities, can be found at: http://www.montana.edu/msu125/.

The City of Bozeman Historic Preservation Office and the Historic Preservation Advisory Board is pleased to announce the return of Bozeman’s Historic Preservation Awards.  This preservation awards program showcases and recognizes some of the exceptional public and private projects that preserve and protect Bozeman’s unique heritage.  These awards will recognize builders, architects, and owners for their efforts in each project.  City residents are invited to nominate any potential recipients for one of the following categories:

Achievement in Historic Preservation
Preservation Stewardship
Continued Maintenance
Restoration/Rehabilitation
Infill/New Addition; Adaptive Reuse

Through these awards we honor those who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to preserving our city’s historic character.

To qualify, a project must have been completed after January 1, 2015 and before submission of the nomination form.  The application can be found at: www.bozeman.net/preservationawards

For more information, contact Bozeman Historic Preservation Specialist, Phillipe Gonzales at 406-582-2940 or pgonzalez@bozeman.net.  The nomination deadline is March 16, 2018.

Montana State University will celebrate its 125th anniversary on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 16-17, with the MSU Bobcat Birthday Bash. The two-day public celebration will commemorate the Montana State Legislature’s establishment on Feb. 16, 1893, of what was then called the Agricultural College of the State of Montana, now MSU. The bash is part of a year-long celebration that will spotlight the accomplishments of each of the university’s colleges and divisions. These month-long celebrations will draw attention to each college’s impact on Montana and the broader world.

“One hundred twenty-five years ago, the citizens of the state of Montana joined the bold and auspicious project that transformed the nation when Congress endorsed the democratization of higher education by approving the Morrill Act. From that moment, the sons and daughters of the working families of the state positively changed their lives by having access to their own land-grant university,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado. “Since 1893, the university has educated thousands of students and helped improve the lives of many generations of Montanans.”

The celebrations will begin at noon Friday with food trucks, ice skating (weather permitting), photo booths, hospitality tents and more. The food trucks will include Fork in the Road, Chef’s Table, Sauce, Grill 406 and Thai Basil.

At 2 p.m., a new Abraham Lincoln sculpture will be unveiled and a time capsule dedicated, followed by a track and field event at 3:30 p.m. At 5 p.m., the annual Awards for Excellence dinner, an invitation-only event that honors the top MSU seniors and their mentors, will be held in the Strand Union Building.

The opening ceremony, hosted by the Associated Students of MSU, will begin at 7 p.m. at Spirit Plaza, followed by a fireworks display. There will be a Ferris wheel on the Centennial Mall from 7:30 to 10 p.m., and a D.J. will provide music from 8 to 10 p.m. south of Hamilton Hall.

The ASMSU-led festivities will continue at 10 a.m. Saturday with live music by student groups on the Hamilton Hall lawn, free bowling and billiards in the Strand Union Building’s rec center, wagon rides on the Centennial Mall, student scholars poster displays, food and refreshments and the Innovation Road Show, which will feature 10-minute faculty lectures.

There will also be various sports demonstrations and competitions throughout the day, including Nordic skiing, curling, figure skating, human bowling and fat tire bicycling. At noon there will be an MSU hockey club alumni game (weather permitting). And, at 2 p.m., the MSU women’s basketball team takes on Eastern Washington University in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. Ticket are available through Tickets West, at https://www.ticketswest.com/events/montana-state-bobcats-womens-basketball/13569/.

At 7:30 p.m., the MSU School of Music, part of the MSU College of Arts and Architecture, will offer a concert at the Willson Auditorium in downtown Bozeman. The concert will feature MSU trumpet professor Sarah Stoneback and her sisters as the World Class Triumphant Trumpeting Triplets. (Stoneback and her sisters are identical triplets.) The concert will also feature performances by the MSU Wind Symphony, directed by Nathan Stark, MSU’s director of bands. Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults and will be available at www.ticketpeak.com/msumusic  or at the door.

Parking for the Birthday Bash will be available for free both days, Friday and Saturday, in campus lots labeled S/B, E, F. MSU recommends parking in the South Fieldhouse lot and parking garage. Those needing accessible parking, should use the Hamilton lot. No parking allowed in service drives or reserved spots. A parking map is available at http://www.montana.edu/parking/map.pdf.

For more information and to see the entire schedule of events, visit http://www.montana.edu/125/index.html.

After a successful first year, the Gallatin Valley craft beer community will once again come together to celebrate Bozeman Craft Beer Week May 5-12, 2018. Organized by Fermentana, a local events promotions company, the eight-day, multi-venue celebration will feature over 20 beer-centric events happening across Bozeman and Belgrade, Montana.

In its second year, Bozeman Craft Beer Week incorporates new features including the addition of an official beneficiary. For 2018, Fermentana will donate a portion of the proceeds from the event week to local nonprofit Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT). Through this partnership, the organizers aim to not only celebrate the Bozeman area’s robust and growing craft beer scene but harness the enthusiasm for this local fermented beverage as a tool to give back to the community.

“Bozeman Craft Beer Week is about more than just craft beer,” says event co-founder, Jesse Bussard. “It’s also about community and we felt it was important to incorporate that more deeply into the week going forward. By partnering with GVLT and making their mission part of our event’s theme, we not only celebrate local craft beer, but we’re able to use beer as a tool to support GVLT’s important work to preserve our quality of life, water quality and open lands for future generations.”

GVLT’s mission of protecting open space and creating trails will play a key part in the 2018 craft beer week theme, “Bold Beer. Big Sky. Beautiful Places.” Additionally, 10 participating local breweries will work together to brew a single collaboration beer for the week. This beer will be available on draft and cans around Bozeman in early May with proceeds from its sale donated to GVLT.

Currently, more than 30 businesses are slated to participate in the second annual event. Moreover, Fermentana welcomes Sidewinders American Grill as the 2018 Co-Presenting Sponsor. A recent addition to the Bozeman community, Sidewinders features classic American dishes with an international flare and over 75 different beers on tap, as well as wines and spirits. Additional sponsorship opportunities for businesses will remain open until February 28th.

While many events are still in the planning stages, craft beer enthusiasts can expect more of the fun and interactive events they experienced in Bozeman Craft Beer Week’s first year, as well as the addition of several new festivities. Once again, the Montana Brewers Association's Brewers Spring Rendezvous will culminate the eight days of events at week's end.

Fermentana plans to release the official event schedule in early April at a special event at Sidewinders. More details on the schedule release and collaboration beer will be made available in the coming months.

Local craft beer fans and tourists alike are invited to join the Bozeman area community in celebrating the best the region’s craft beer scene has to offer. For more information regarding events, sponsorship, or general participation, please contact Bozeman Craft Beer Week at info@bozemancraftbeerweek.com or visit the website, http://www.bozemancraftbeerweek.com/. 

                                                                               painting by Casey Norris

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ will be conducting research within the Custer Gallatin National Forest in the Madison and Gallatin Ranges to assess the health of bighorn sheep and mountain goat herds in the area.

The operation, set to occur between now and March 1, 2018, will involve the capture of 30 bighorns and 30 mountain goats using a specially trained helicopter crew and FWP staff.Once captured, staff will gather health information – checking for respiratory health, pregnancy, exposure to disease, and body condition. GPS collars will also be deployed to help get a better picture of herd health and movement throughout the year.Each capture operation will take two to five days and the timing depends greatly on weather conditions.

The US Forest Service and FWP urge the public not to approach the capture area, the helicopter, or wildlife, for individual safety, the safety of the capture crew, and the safety of the animals.

Further questions about the operation should be directed to the FWP Wildlife Lab at (406) 994-6357 or the FWP Region 3 Headquarters at 406-994-4042.