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.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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