Montana State University Extension recently published six new MontGuides covering a variety of topics to provide unbiased information for Montanans.

As part of their outreach efforts, MSU Extension specialists and agents write MontGuides with information gathered during their research and outreach work throughout the year. The fact sheets are designed for all Montanans, including agricultural producers, home gardeners, families, landowners and other groups.

New and existing MontGuides are located online at store.msuextension.org, where they can be downloaded for free or printed copies can be ordered. For more information, call the MSU Extension Distribution Center at 406-994-3273 or email orderpubs@montana.edu.

The new MontGuides include the following:
Growing Cold-Hardy Berries and Small Fruits in Montana
This eight-page MontGuide highlights currants, gooseberries, dwarf sour cherries, aronia and haskaps (or honeyberries), which are hardy fruits that can be grown almost anywhere in Montana. The MontGuide is available at store.msuextension.org/Products/Growing-Cold-Hardy-Berries-and-Small-Fruits-in-Montana-MT202101AG__MT202101AG.aspx.

Animal Unit Month (AUM) Lease Rates
This two-page MontGuide is intended for livestock producers and landowners who are interested in simple ways to determine rental rates for grazing lands, including rangelands, forest lands, and dryland and irrigated seeded pastures. The document provides an overview and examples of how to compute AUM rental rates for Montana grazing lands. The MontGuide is available at store.msuextension.org/Products/Animal-Unit-Month-(AUM)-Lease-Rates-MT202103AG__MT202103AG.aspx.

Stigma Free Addictions Terminology for Montanans
This four-page MontGuide addresses terms used surrounding addiction, which is an umbrella term for both substance use, such as alcohol use and drug use, and behavioral addictions, such as gambling or sex addiction. It gives an overview of substance use in Montana and identifies language that can cause stigmas toward people with substance use issues. The MontGuide is available at store.msuextension.org/Products/Stigma-Free-Addictions-Terminology-for-Montanans-MT202013HR__MT202013HR.aspx.

Transfer on Death Deeds in Montana
This eight-page MontGuide explains transfer on death deeds, which allow Montanans to leave real property to a designated beneficiary upon their death without going through a probate process. The MontGuide is available at store.msuextension.org/publications/FamilyFinancialManagement/MT202010HR.pdf.

Quitclaim Deeds in Montana
This four-page MontGuide explains quitclaim deeds, including what they are, when they are used, what the risks are and what some of the unintended tax consequences might be. The MontGuide is available at store.msuextension.org/Products/Quitclaim-Deeds-in-Montana-MT202102HR__MT202102HR.aspx.

Fire-Resistant Landscaping Considerations for Montana’s Wildland Urban Interface
This four-page MontGuide describes the wildland-urban interface and how many plants have developed fire-resilient adaptations. It also addresses how to create fire-resistant landscapes, which is an important component in reducing wildfire risk. The MontGuide is available at store.msuextension.org/Products/Fire-Resistant-Landscaping-Considerations-for-Montana’s-Wildland-Urban-Interface-(WUI)-MT202104AG__MT202104AG.aspx.

A new podcast series inspired by famed Montana author Ivan Doig and offered by the Montana State University Library is now available to the public.

The podcast series, called “The Wind from Eden: Montana Weather Stories,” explores how weather shaped the history, culture and literature of central Montana. The episodes include interviews with residents of Meagher and Pondera counties and use the writings of Doig as a literary lens through which to view these conditions.

The project was funded with a grant from Humanities Montana. MSU Library partnered with Jeff Rice, who edited, produced and hosted the series. Rice is an independent radio producer whose stories have appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “Here and Now” and “The Best of NPR.” He is also the program director at the library’s Acoustic Atlas, a collection of natural sound recordings from Montana and the western U.S.  

The episodes range from five to 15 minutes in length and explore the history of ranching in the region known informally as “Doig Country,” touching on the fierce weather conditions during the early to mid-20th century. The first five episodes address the weather-related themes of wind, extreme cold, isolation, spring rebirth and the celebration of summer.

“For Montanans along the Rocky Mountain Front, weather was a factor during every season,” said Rice. “The area’s brutal winters made travel difficult and often separated families. By contrast, warm or sweltering summers were a period of celebration but brought challenges such as thunderstorms, fire and hazards for livestock.”

To enhance the interviews, Rice also spoke with meteorologists, historians and literary scholars. Doig’s widow, Carol Doig, was an adviser to the series.

“We’re pleased to work with Jeff on the podcast series,” said Kenning Arlitsch, dean of MSU Library. “By capturing these stories, we are able to preserve historic information about Montana’s rapidly changing ranching culture.”

The podcast is available at ivandoig.montana.edu/projects/sounds/, all major podcasting platforms and Public Radio Exchange (PRX), allowing for potential broadcast on radio programs throughout Montana and beyond. Audio from the podcasts is also included in MSU Library’s Ivan Doig Writer’s Quest Traveling Trunks, a learning experience designed to introduce students to the works of Doig and available for loan to 7th through 12th grade teachers throughout Montana.

Doig, who died in 2015, grew up in White Sulphur Springs and Dupuyer and set the majority of his 16 books in the Big Sky State. His first book, “This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind,” a poetic memoir published in 1979, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Doig then turned to writing fiction that perennially hit bestseller lists. Carol Doig donated his archive to MSU Library in 2015.

The Ivan Doig Archive can be accessed at ivandoig.montana.edu/.

In its essence, plagiarism is a form of theft. If you are adding someone’s ideas or words to your content pretending they are your own, it can be considered as stealing intellectual property. That’s why plagiarism is absolutely unethical.

Types of plagiarism
There are different types of plagiarism, some of which are listed below.

Direct
Direct deliberate plagiarism can be defined as the word-for-word transcription of someone else’s piece of writing without providing any attribution or quotation marks.

Self Plagiarism
Self-plagiarism occurs when an individual uses parts of his/her previous works. It also applies to publishing the same content on different platforms without pointing that out.

Mosaic
Mosaic plagiarism means borrowing someone else’s phrases without quotation marks. It also occurs when one uses the same structure and meaning of another person’s content.

Accidental
If one unintentionally paraphrases someone’s content without attribution, it’s called accidental plagiarism. It’s important to note that lack of intent does not free you from responsibility for plagiarism.

Plagiarism checker to ensure original content
Even if you are not going to use someone else’s ideas, chances are you will do it unintentionally. Even though accidental plagiarism is quite rare, it still may occur. Hence, you need to take care of checking your text for uniqueness. You can do it with the help of an online plagiarism checker for college students or some SEO tools for content writers. It’s very important not to use plagiarized content in your blog, so you shouldn’t neglect this step. Below you can read the five reasons why it’s vital to publish only unique posts.

1. Moral issues
As it was mentioned above, plagiarism literally means stealing someone else’s work. If you are using the content created by another person who was fully dedicated to its creation, you can not be viewed as a trustworthy writer. Such dishonest actions are a form of lying. By pretending that a piece was written by yourself, you are misleading your readers. They may mistakenly give you the recognition that was actually deserved by another person, which is completely unfair and unethical. So if you don’t want to act in an immoral way, publish the content created by yourself only.

2. Low ranking
SEO specialists argue that plagiarized content negatively affects the search engine ranking of your website. As Google is aimed at offering valuable top-quality content and avoiding spam, it tries to prevent information overload. Google tries not to show multiple or very similar versions of the same pages, so it simply hides content copies. As you see, using plagiarized content is pointless for your website because of Google policy. What’s more, search engines may even punish website owners who publish someone else’s pieces. This means that they may lower the ranking of your website if crawlers detect duplicate content there.

3. Destroyed reputation
Copying someone’s work can damage your reputation. In fact, plagiarizing makes an individual guilty of stealing content. This means that there is no reason for readers to trust the author. Blog visitors cannot view the source containing unoriginal content as credible. Naturally, it gets impossible for them to believe someone who steals intellectual property. So if you don’t want to disrupt your image, never use works created by others. Remember that it’s extremely difficult to recover a damaged reputation and make your readers come back.

4. Losing visitors
Website visitors appreciate original content. If you post the articles that were previously published by other bloggers, you will never have a loyal audience. Just think, why people should prefer your blog if there is nothing new for them. Users always seek innovative ideas and fresh thoughts, so they return to resources that can offer what they need. Hence, you should be creative to persuade your visitors to stay on your website for some time. If they find extraordinary materials on your pages, they will keep reading your blog with great interest.

5. Ruined career
Plagiarism can harm your career. Professionals can’t completely rely on someone’s knowledge and skills. They need to use their own experience and share their own views on particular issues instead. People want to gather different opinions and then compare them. Most of them find it right to make judgments based on an analysis of a few controversial ideas. If someone reveals that you are giving someone else’s point of view pretending it’s yours, this will make you look untrustworthy in the eyes of your readers and eventually ruin your writing career.

Final thoughts
There are various negative consequences of using plagiarized content, some of which are mentioned above. Therefore, you should always check your content for uniqueness in order to avoid undesired outcomes.

Author’s BIO
Robert Everett is a content writer and academic tutor. Robert writes articles mainly for educational platforms and study blogs. He believes that content must be not only engaging but also 100% original to bring value to the readers. 


Invasive zebra mussels found another avenue for potential infestation of Montana waters. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks was notified Wednesday that zebra mussels were detected in aquarium moss balls sold at a pet store in Washington state. FWP immediately checked pet stores around Montana and found invasive mussels in moss balls at multiple locations.  

It appears these moss balls were imported from Ukraine to a distributor in California and were shipped to pet stores nationwide. The facility that imports the moss balls has been quarantined and all shipments of moss balls have been stopped.  

A moss ball is a species of green algae that is formed into a ball and is 2 to 5 inches in diameter. Moss balls are purchased for home aquariums to help absorb harmful nutrients in the water and limit the growth of undesirable algae. 

All of the mussels detected in Montana so far have been dead shells. However, live mussels were found on moss balls in Oregon and Idaho. 

FWP is working closely with other states and federal agencies to address this nation-wide issue.   

If you have recently purchased moss balls, remove them from the water, place them in a plastic bag, and put them in the freezer overnight. Additional guidance for addressing potential mussels in aquariums and how to treat tank water will be available soon. Please don’t dispose of your aquarium tank water in your household drain.  

This is another reminder to never dump aquarium tank pets, plants, or water into Montana’s waterways.  

• It is illegal to release fish and other aquarium pets into natural waterways. If you can’t keep your pet, find someone else who can adopt it, turn it in to a pet store or humane society, or euthanize it. 

• Aquarium plants can impact native aquatic plant and animal species. Let unwanted plants dry and then dispose in the garbage.  

• Aquarium water can harbor pathogens and diseases. Dispose of tank water on the ground away from waterways.  

Visit Don’t Let It Loose  https://www.dontletitloose.com/ 

If you have any questions call the Aquatic Invasive species hotline: 406-444-2440. 

There are now THREE Sweet Pea contests: T-Shirt, Poster AND the new Sweet Pea Coffee Mug Design. The deadline for all is Thursday, April 29 - so start creating! Winners of the T-Shirt contest will receive $1000 for adult category and $250 for children's category. The winner of the poster contest also receives $1000! The winner of the Coffee Mug contest will win $1000 AND an initial order of 50 mugs! Submit your entries digitally (Coffee Mug sample must also be delivered to Sweet Pea office.)

Sweet Pea's mission is to promote and cultivate the arts and the Festival not only brings Art to Bozeman but allows us to award grants and sponsorship to other arts organizations in town. Over the years we have given over $350,000 to support arts in our community. Sweet Pea - "Where Art & Community Meet."

Avalanche danger is high across Montana, with the addition of new snow and weather systems moving across the state. People recreating outdoors are advised to use caution and stay up to date on the avalanche dangers in their area.

There are three regional Avalanche Centers in Montana. Their work provides quality and timely forecasts, education and materials to meet a growing user base both of local recreationist and visitors from outside Montana.

For statewide and regional avalanche forecasts, please visit:

• Nationwide: Avalanche.org
• Southcentral Montana: Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center
• Northwest Montana: Flathead Avalanche Center
• Southwest Montana: Missoula National Forest Avalanche Center

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks provides funding for all three avalanche centers in Montana through Recreational Trails Program (RTP) funding. This can include supporting innovative approaches like the free community avalanche awareness and safety classes in Cooke City, Montana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ODQX3SusLk

Each year the Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) honors an individual, organization or agency that deserves recognition for improving or expanding access to trails for the community. GVLT is proud to give to the 2021 Trail Partner Award to Gallatin County. While GVLT has been working closely with Gallatin County on conservation easements through the Gallatin County Open Lands Program, the partnership to support trail development is more recent and worthy of celebration and praise.

Gallatin County was chosen as the recipient of the award for their work on multiple trails related projects. During the public process to develop the Triangle Community Plan, led by the Planning Coordinating Committee including representatives from Gallatin County, Belgrade and Bozeman, the community shared that they wanted to see high quality, connected, accessible and safe trails in the Triangle Area as it develops. Because of available infrastructure and proximity to population centers, the Triangle Area between Bozeman, Belgrade and Four Corners is likely to see high density residential development in the coming years. After considerable public comment, the Triangle Community Plan identified a need for a Triangle Area Trail Plan, a vision that could ensure connectivity ahead of development. Gallatin County showed their commitment to this vision immediately and entered into an agreement with the Gallatin Valley Land Trust to financially support the creation of a trail plan for the area. The Triangle Trail Plan, still in progress, shows the community that Gallatin County shares the value of trails and is ensuring that a trail system grows alongside future development in the area.

Gallatin County has also shown leadership in their work at the Gallatin Regional Park, 100 acres on the west side of Bozeman. The park has seen significant improvements in recent months, most notably at the dog park at Ferguson and Oak. Their partnership with Run Dog Run has made that dog park one of the most widely used in town and a true community center for neighborhoods in the west side of Bozeman. The County also led efforts to create and groom cross country ski trails on the southwest corner of the Regional Park. These Nordic trails are the only groomed trails on the west side of town and a welcomed addition during a year where people are eager for outdoor physical activity near home. GVLT is additionally grateful for the partnership with the small yet mighty Gallatin County Parks Department to address missing wayfinding signage and safe connections across the park property. This partnership is part of a larger GVLT effort to move people by foot or bike from the farthest west subdivision in Bozeman and Gallatin High School, east toward downtown and the rest of the Main Street to the Mountains trail system.

Lastly, Gallatin County has prioritized public access by creating a grant funding program through the Gallatin County Open Lands Program, renewed by voters in 2018, to support projects county-wide that create and enhance public access to the outdoors. This special funding source will ensure that communities all over the county have resources to match state and federal funding sources to complete enduring, inclusive, outdoor experiences.

GVLT is grateful for the commitment of Gallatin County Commissioners, Planning Department, and Parks Department to the value of trails and public access in our growing community. Thank you Gallatin County!

                                                                                           Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash

There are few things more impressive in the world of foodies than being an expert on wine. Whether you prefer crisp whites or spicy reds, you can easily draw attention in your next gathering if you know how to pinpoint the unique flavors and notes in a glass of wine. Wine tasting is a popular hobby around the world, and one of the best ways to spend some time with like-minded people. However, it’s often difficult to refine your palette and explore the world of wine when you don’t have a lot of cash to spend. The good news? You can experiment with this new hobby without going broke. Here are some top tips to set you off on the right track.

Check Your Budget

One of the first things you’ll need to do when you’re planning on improving your wine skills, is figure out how much you actually have to spend on this new hobby. Look at your incoming cash and outgoing expenses. Can you reduce your costs somewhere, so you have more money to spend on the things that you enjoy? For instance, can you cut the costs of your student loan repayments by consolidating your debts into a cheaper monthly expense? A private lender can easily address some of the biggest loan issues and can avoid draining your disposable income. You could also think about compromising on other hobbies while you work on this one, like deciding to go to bars and restaurants less often.

Order Online

Buying wine online is often much cheaper than purchasing it from a fancy store in person. The great thing about shopping for wines online, is that you can easily compare the costs of different bottles from numerous websites at once. There are even apps available for your website browser that will automatically apply discount codes to your basket when you’re checking out. Shopping online makes it easier to take advantage of exclusive deals and discounts that you can’t find anywhere else. Plus, it’s a good way to experiment with a wide range of flavors and wine types, because there’s no limit to the collection of drinks available on the web.

Drink at Home

One of the best things about wine tasting is that you get a chance to socialize with people who are likely to be interested in the same things as you. However, it’s often quite expensive to sign up for events when you’re on a budget. During the initial stages of your new hobby, when you’re still learning the ropes, it might be worth testing your palette at home, and hosting your own wine and cheese parties for close friends. When you decide to branch out to social gatherings, having the extra experience you got at home will help you to choose what kind of events are most likely to appeal to you. The extra practice also means that you’re less likely to be nervous when sharing your thoughts and insights with other wine enthusiasts in a public setting.

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.