Game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking information on several trumpeter swans that were shot on Central Park Pond on Heeb Road, east of Manhattan.  

Wardens and biologists were able to safely collect some of the dead swans off the ice. Initial analysis of the collected birds showed evidence that several of them had been shot illegally. The investigation is ongoing, and further testing on the dead birds is still pending.  Investigators believe the birds were likely shot sometime around Feb. 19. 

Trumpeter swans are protected by state and federal laws for migratory birds. Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call Montana’s poaching hotline, 1-800-TIP-MONT (847-6668). Informants can remain anonymous, and persons who provide information that leads to a successful prosecution in this case may be eligible for a monetary reward. 

Big Sky Resort announced today that its ski lift operations are now in alignment with The Big Picture, the ski area’s initiative to reduce operating impact and become carbon neutral by 2030. 


The resort recently purchased Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) equivalent to the annual electrical consumption of its 38 lifts. 


“Lifts are obviously essential to our business – and they are responsible for nearly a third of our total electrical consumption,” explained Kryn Dykema, the resort’s sustainability specialist. 


“Our 2025 Vision has us replacing more consumptive lifts with the most efficient available—like Ramcharger 8—but that takes time.  As we navigate both on-site reductions in energy use and cleaner sources, buying RECs is the best practice strategy in the near term.”


Buying RECs also has a broad impact, says Dykema, by creating a market demand for clean energy. “The money used to purchase these RECs is used to support renewable energy creation.” 


The resort has completed its carbon audit, and is coming close to publishing its roadmap to carbon neutrality in 2030.  “Our priority is to work quickly to meet our sustainability goals,” said Dykema.

Early bird wristbands are now available for the Sweet Pea Festival, A Festival of the Arts.

For the first time in the history of the festival, the Sweet Pea Festival is pleased to announce that early bird wristbands will be available for $20, until March 31st, 2020.

The early bird tickets will give you full access to the three-day festival of the arts happening this August 7th, 8th, and 9th.

Additionally, the Sweet Pea Festival welcomes kids 12 and under for free.

Please visit the Sweet Pea Festival’s website, sweetpeafestival.org, to purchase early bird wristbands and to secure your free kid’s wristbands.

For more information, please contact the Sweet Pea office at 406-586-4003 or visit their website at sweetpeafestival.org.

ABOUT SWEET PEA FESTIVAL:
The Sweet Pea Festival is a three-day festival of the arts held in Bozeman, Montana, since 1978. This year’s festival dates are August 7,8,9, with other events, such as Chalk on the Walk, starting off the festivities of Sweet Pea Week on August 4th.

The festival includes everything from music, theatre and dance, to children’s activities to adult painting workshops. Sweet Pea is committed to its mission statement of “promoting and cultivating the arts.”
Hundreds of volunteers run and organize this annual event, a testament to the community’s desire for its ongoing success. All the money raised above what is needed to operate the Festival is given back to the community in the form of grants for the arts, art education, and special projects in the Bozeman area. Where art and community meet.

Music on Main needs your help to sustain this free community event. Investing in owning our own stage will offset rising costs.

The Lowdown:
Help sustain Music on Main by donating toward a new stage

The Quick Facts:
Music on Main is Bozeman’s free community music series since 2001. This series is 100% funded by generous community sponsors. NO tax dollars are used for this event.

Music on Main has grown from 500 to 3,000+ attendees per night. Expenses have outpaced the sponsorship dollars by approximately 40%.

Owning a stage will reduce the weekly expense by a similar amount to the current fund shortage, thereby provide long-term sustainability. MOM needs your help to keep this family-friendly community event in Bozeman.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

A Bit More Detail:
We are (hopefully) headed into our 20th Season of Music on Main in Downtown Bozeman! This incredibly successful, free community event has grown contagiously for all 19 years, going from 500 people in a small downtown side-street to a full-blown concert series with over 20,000 people in attendance for the 8-week summer series.

Along with the event growth has come increased expenses: from no security to over a dozen donated and paid on-site security staff.  What started with low-level sound systems has evolved into a high-level sound and production system.  Along with better sound have come bigger and better musical acts. Bozeman’s favorite summer event has truly developed with our community and continues to create a safe and fun environment for attendees.

Those increased expenses have outpaced sponsorship dollars, so this event is at the point of no longer being sustainable. As we look into the future, we see that our greatest hope for sustaining Music on Main is the purchase of our own stage.

History of Music on Main:
Music on Main began in the summer of 2001 and featured only one concert by local bluegrass favorite Kane’s River, on the side-street of South Bozeman Avenue. In the early years, the event evolved into a series of concerts, and benefited from additions such as an array of children’s activities, various food vendors with top-notch cuisine, sponsored activities, and non-profit information booths.

In 2007, Music on Main moved onto Main Street proper, and continued to feature eight concerts per season with local and touring bands such as Tony
Furtado and Cure for the Common.

Children’s Activities are at every Music on Main, sponsored by Lehrkind’s Coca Cola, Venture Church, and the Bozeman Amateur Hockey Association

Every week, the City of Bozeman sets up an environmentally friendly water- station. Several area non-profits are set-up each week to gain exposure and inform the public. Food vendors and food trucks serve unique and flavorful items from wood-fired pizzas to local handmade ice cream and everything in between.

Music on Main received a 2003 Community Cultural Contribution Award and was named “Best Local Event” by the Best of Bozeman in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

We want to take this opportunity to once again thank the generous community sponsors for all their support of Music on Main over the years. Its growth and improvement is a testament to your community spirit!

If you want to be sustainable, you have to think about the seasons. For Patrick Burr of Roots Kitchen & Cannery, this is a rule to live by. Located in Montana, where the growing season is short and winters can last up to eight months long, the team at Roots has learned how to take advantage of crops while they are available, and preserve them for the entire year.

Burr taught himself how to preserve fruits and vegetables in what he described as a “DIY fashion” — he bought a book. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he had a knack for canning. He started playing with flavors and soon enough, Roots’ first recipe was born: plum-sage jam.

“Before commercial canning came around, every family knew how to do it. That’s no longer the case,” Burr said. “I feel it’s an opportunity to share what I’ve learned. I think it’s just important that we all remember how to do these things that we survived on for generations.”

In the second season of tasteMAKERS, which airs on public television stations nationwide, Emmy-winning producer and host Cat Neville travels to Bozeman, MT, to learn what it takes to preserve the crops of Montana’s short growing season for the entire year. The episode dives into the many varieties of preserves that Roots produces, including their curried carrots, garlic pickles, raspberry-vanilla jam, apple butter and more.

The episode features a number of local food folks, including Natalie Van Dusen of Treeline Coffee, who uses Roots’ lavender syrup in her coffee and various Roots jams to accompany her delicious waffles. Cat also had the opportunity to speak to two of the region’s top organic farmers, Matt Rothschiller of Gallatin Botanical at Rocky Creek Farm and Nate Brown of Amalthea Farms. Mac Burgess of Montana State University’s Towne’s Harvest Garden was also included in the episode, discussing the student-run teaching farm he runs at the university and their partnership with Roots. And at the end of the episode, Cat got in the kitchen at Hail Hary’s to make Southern-style fried pickles — her favorite bar snack — from with chef Justin Banis.

“The culinary community in and around Bozeman is thriving,” Cat says, “and Roots plays an integral role in preserving the Montana harvest so it can be enjoyed year-round. When we can get asparagus in December, it’s easy to forget that produce has a season. As we look to reduce the carbon footprint of our food, eating close to home is an important step to take. Patrick Burr’s pickles and preserves make it easy and delicious for consumers to buy local any time of year.”

tasteMAKERS airs nationally, reaching over 94% of American television households on public television stations as well as the Create channel. Visit https://www.watchtastemakers.com/208- roots-kitchen-cannery to stream the episode. You’ll also find photos, recipes and additional information about Roots Kitchen & Cannery. Search pbs.org/stations for local air dates.

tasteMAKERS is accompanied by a nine-part event series, Meet the Makers. The event begins with a live program featuring interviews and demos with the makers, followed by a pop-up Makers Market with food and drink from a variety of makers. For more information about dates, specific vendors and location details and to learn more about the makers featured in the series, visit watchtastemakers.com.

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About tasteMAKERS: On the heels of a successful debut that saw carriage by stations reaching more than 94 percent of American television households, 13 all-new episodes of tasteMAKERS released to public television stations nationwide in January 2020. tasteMAKERS puts a spotlight on culinary industry professionals whose work is defining the flavor of American food today. tasteMAKERS is brought to you with generous support from Edward Jones and is presented by the Nine Network of Public Media and distributed by American Public Television. Check your local listings for air dates and times. About Meet the Makers: Meet the Makers is a companion to tasteMAKERS, a national public television series that celebrates the makers who are defining the flavor of American food and drink. The 3-hour events include live interviews and demonstrations, a tasting experience and the option to shop in the Makers Market. For information about specific event locations, please visit watchtastemakers.com. Meet the Makers is made possible with the support of our lead sponsor, Edward Jones.

Ben Phinney, Executive and Personal Coach - Since moving to Bozeman from Boston about five years ago, Ben has been an avid supporter of the classical music scene here.  He is currently President of the Board of Baroque Music Montana and, together with his wife, Barbara, has volunteered for the BSO in several capacities.  Ben was educated at Harvard and the University of Chicago.  After twenty years working in Chicago, Asia, and Boston for large banks, Ben transitioned to fundraising for Brown University and several independent schools in New England.  He has also worked as a life and professional coach.  Like many in Bozeman, he is an enthusiastic skier, hiker, biker, and fisherman.  The Phinney’s have a daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren here in Bozeman in addition to family in Denver and Washington DC.  Ben is very excited about the future prospects for the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra as it embarks on a new chapter with a new music director.  He believes that “Bozeman is an exciting and growing cultural town with a great future!”

Charles Rinker, Surgeon, Retired - Charles arrived in Bozeman in 1976 to join Dr. Richard Sabo in the practice of general surgery. Friends quickly introduced us to the symphony, which at that time was led by Creech Reynolds. For many years I sang in the choir, first under Lowell Hickman and then Marco Ferro. I served on the Board in the early 1980s. My wife Kathy and I have been subscribers and supporters as long as we have lived in Bozeman. Currently, I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the Music Director search committee. The quality of the candidates has been amazing, and it bodes well for the future of the orchestra. The opportunity to re-join the Board at this time is both exciting and daunting, since it appears that big plans are afoot not only to continue the maturation of the orchestra but also to spread the word to all in Southwest Montana of the rare gem we have in our community.

Megan McFadden, Orchestra Representative- Megan is a violinist in the Bozeman Symphony and is excited to join the Orchestra Committee and represent the Orchestra on the Symphony Board. This is her third year playing violin (again) in the Bozeman Symphony. Megan grew up in Bozeman, played in the Symphony in High School, and studied Violin Performance and English Literature at the University of Montana. She also earned a Masters degree in Historical Musicology from Northwestern University. For the past ten years, Megan has been working in the digital technology industry as a testing manager in Chicago, and now an account manager here in Bozeman. Megan moved home to Bozeman with her husband, JJ, 3 1/2 years ago and is grateful to be raising her children Hanna (8) and Jacob (4) here in the Gallatin Valley.

More than 1,500 donors raised $320,118 for Montana State University programs, causes and groups during MSU Giving Day, a new 29-hour online crowd-fundraising event held Feb. 13-14.

MSU Giving Day, which was designed to raise support and awareness in addition to funds, shined a light on 48 projects at MSU. Organizers of the event said they were deeply grateful to the 1,537 donors who participated.

“We’re very happy considering this is our first Giving Day event,” said Nick Lonardo, vice president of annual giving with the MSU Alumni Foundation. “It’s been gratifying to see so many donors come forward to support the wide variety of causes and projects. For many, it was their first gift to MSU. For some of these project teams, it’s a dream come true to have the resources they need to pursue their goals.”

Lonardo said that highlights of Giving Day included reaching two main goals: to reach $300,000 in gifts and to have 1,000 donors contribute. “We reached the donor goal early Friday, but the dollar goal kept us in suspense until the end,” Lonardo said. “It was a relief to finally see the counter hit $300,000.”

As part of Giving Day, all MSU alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff and friends were invited to participate by making a gift during the event through the event’s website at givingday.montana.edu. There, donors could view the groups and projects seeking funds and choose a group or groups to receive their gift. The website also provided up-to-the-minute progress, descriptions of all the projects in need of support, social media tracking, acknowledgment of donors and announcements of challenges and gift matches. Special challenges and gift matching opportunities were announced throughout the 29-hour event to allow donors to magnify the impact of their gifts. The minimum gift amount was $10.

Scott Smith, president of the Bridger Solar Club and a student in electrical engineering, said Giving Day was valuable to the club for several reasons.
“Giving Day is a great opportunity for us to not only receive support, but also to make connections within the community, as well as with members of MSU’s extensive alumni network,” Smith said. “Building and racing a solar car is a very large-scale project and could never be possible without opportunities like this. We are very thankful to the Alumni Foundation for putting this event together to allow MSU to grow in new and exciting ways.”

Jody Bartz, the Don and Sue Fisher Endowed Professor in the College of Education, Health and Human Development who sought funds through MSU Giving Day for a new Inclusive Community Camp, said the support generated through the event would ultimately make a difference to children in the community. The weeklong summer camp will serve 36 children, approximately half of whom will be children with disabilities.

“We appreciate Giving Day because it is providing the opportunity to raise funds to launch and sustain our Inclusive Community Camp,” she said. “Funds will help us provide activities and equipment needed to ensure that all campers have the best experience possible. We will be able to keep the cost of attending the camp down so that it can be a reality for more children in the future.”

The top two teams raising the most for their cause were:
    •    MSU Leadership Institute, which sought funds to bring world-class speakers to MSU and provide opportunities for students and the community to learn from these individuals. The MSU Leadership Institute met its goal of $10,000 within the first two hours of the event and went on to raise $13,455. For being the project to bring in the most dollars, the team received an additional $2,000 prize for their cause.

    •    Jabs Hands-On, which sought funds to support MSU business students through real-world, out-of-the-classroom educational opportunities. Jabs Hands-On raised $12,036. They were awarded $1,500 for their efforts.
In addition, the following two projects received support from the most donors:
    •    ASMSU Student Memorial Renovation, which sought support for redesigning and renovating a student memorial. The project raised funds from 157 donors.
    •    MSU Treasure State Poll, a project of the Department of Political Science in the College of Letters and Science to field a pre- and post-election poll in 2020, raised funds from 144 donors.

For having the most individual donors, the ASMSU Student Memorial Renovation project received a prize of $2,000, and, as runner-up, the MSU Treasure State Poll earned an additional $1,500.

Full results are available at the Giving Day website at givingday.montana.edu.
“We built this first MSU Giving Day on a theme of ‘Show Some Love’ for MSU because the event took place on Valentine’s Day,” Lonardo said. “The outpouring of love we have seen is truly humbling and inspiring. To all who gave and for all who participated, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

Game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking information on several elk and pronghorn that were killed illegally in Park County this week.
 
On Thursday wardens received reports of poached elk near the intersection of Trail Creek and Old Yellowstone roads, about 17 miles south of Livingston. After talking with landowners, wardens found that three cow elk had been shot from the road on private property, and the meat was wasted.
 
Wardens also learned of nine pronghorn—three bucks and six does and fawns—that were poached on private property about 1 mile south of the three poached elk. The pronghorn were also shot from a roadway, and the meat was left to waste. Several houses and buildings were adjacent to where the pronghorn were shot.

 
Wardens have been gathering evidence from both areas. They found blood trails away from the carcasses, indicating other animals may have been wounded and ran away. One area landowner reported hearing multiple gun shots Thursday morning around 2 a.m.
 
Anyone with information on either of these incidents are asked to contact Livingston area Game Warden Drew Scott at 406-581-7613 or Gardiner area Game Warden Gregg Todd at 406-224-5207. Informants can also remain anonymous by calling Montana’s poaching hotline, 1-800-TIP-MONT (847-6668). Persons who provide information that leads to a successful prosecution in this case may be eligible for a monetary reward.

A project that retired Montana State University President Geoffrey Gamble launched nearly 50 years ago may help preserve the language of a California Indian tribe that has all but disappeared.
 
Gamble, a linguist who served as MSU’s 11th president from 2000 to 2009, has just published a dictionary of the language of the Wikchamni people of California’s southern San Joaquin Valley, a tribe with a declining population that has only one native speaker remaining. It is a 50-year labor of love for Gamble, who first began on the project in 1969 while he was working in a master’s program at Fresno State College. He worked on the dictionary in spare moments throughout a career that evolved from anthropology professor to college administrator to university president.

 
“I got a little sidetracked,” Gamble joked.
 
Gamble officially published the web-based Wikchamni dictionary this fall when he also presented his work at a linguistics conference at his alma mater, now called California State University, Fresno, which hosts the online dictionary. Gamble’s small library of field notebooks and file slips and his recordings have been digitized and may soon also be accessible in the special collections of the Fresno State Library.

 
Despite its name, the work is more than merely a dictionary. It is also an encyclopedia of the culture of the Wikchamni people, and it is a memoir of Gamble’s experience of learning firsthand a way of life that has all but died out.
 
That Gamble fell in love with linguistics and the culture of the small family of Central California Indians near his hometown might have seemed unlikely when he first enrolled in his local university to play football, among other things. He started at Fresno State College in 1960 and at first planned to study astrophysics — which is still one of his many passions. He shifted majors and received his bachelor’s degree in English in 1965 and then launched a successful insurance career. His love of teaching a night class for agents rekindled his passion for academia, and he returned to graduate school. A mentor professor attracted him to linguistics.

 
“I saw linguistics as half-way between physics and English,” Gamble said. “It gave me a chance to blend my scientific curiosity with my humanistic tendencies.”
 
Soon after beginning his master’s program in 1969, he met a Cecile Silva through a former colleague in the insurance business. Gamble needed a field project, and Silva, who was then in her 70s, asked Gamble to help her record her history and the language of the Wikchamni Tribe as she and her three sisters recalled it. The four Pohot sisters — which included Silva, Mary Friedrichs, Virginia Aguilar and Susie Metcalf — were among the last native speakers of Wikchamni, sometimes spelled Wukchumni, a tribe native to California’s Central Valley. The family feared that unless someone was willing to write down the oral language and traditions, they would be lost to time.

 
“The work selected me — I didn’t select it,” Gamble recalls. He would often bring his children as he visited Silva at her home on the Santa Rosa Rancheria, a small reservation near Hanford, California, and she patiently tutored him on the fine points of her people’s ancient ways.
 
Silvia taught Gamble a wide range of native skills, such as how to collect salt in many different variations from native salt grass and how to weave baskets from sawgrass roots and the bark from the redbud plant. Gamble also recorded the sisters telling Wikchamni stories they learned when they were young. Those ethnographic references are woven into clips and annotated entries that provide depth and breadth to the dictionary.

 
“The (document includes) cultural descriptions of how the Wikchamni folks, as seen through lives of these sisters, used the natural environment that surrounded them to live full, rich lives,” Gamble said.
 
Gamble interviewed Silva from 1969 to 1974 and maintained a friendship with her for 11 years before she died in her 80s. Gamble’s work was featured in a 1994 Chronicle of Higher Education story about the death by attrition of American indigenous languages.
 
Gamble received a master's degree in 1971, graduating with honors. He earned a Ph.D., also in linguistics, from the University of California, Berkeley in 1975 and then took a fellowship with the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. He became a linguistics professor of anthropology at Washington State University in 1976 and taught there for 12 years before moving into academic administration at WSU, the University of Vermont and then MSU — a career turn that benefitted from Gamble’s analytical and curious mind and even demeanor, qualities that are also reflected in the dictionary.

 
Gamble said that when he retired as MSU’s president in 2009 he was able to spend more time on the project, although he is kept busy with a constellation of interests that range from teaching classes to playing and singing in a ukulele cabaret group.
 
While Gamble regrets that the Wikchamni language has nearly died out, he is grateful to have a part in preserving it in some form. He points out that this is an unfortunate, but not uncommon problem among tribes, particularly small tribes, even in Montana.
 
“Languages have natural processes,” Gamble said. “They die out through the world. Languages change and evolve.”
 
He said there is still a great deal missing from the dictionary; including some material originally omitted for religious reasons and out of respect for the sisters. However, a member of the Pohot family recently asked Gamble to add sacred material that he originally omitted. He also continues to translate the many hours of recordings with Silva and her sisters.

 
“This is slow work, but very interesting work because I run into words and forms I have never heard before,” Gamble said. “It’s still fascinating. And I’m not done yet.”
 
To learn more about the Wikchamni project go to http://wikchamnidictionary.library.fresnostate.edu/.

Are you ready for a change? This calls for something loud and interesting to do. So where have you planned to go? If Bozeman encapsulates what you’re looking for, like it does for a lot of people, you better pack your bags and set off. You must have seen Bozeman on television with your family, but now it is time for you to register for a visit over there. Apart from its scenic beauty, Bozeman has some of the most breathtaking locations in the world that must be visited at least once in a lifetime. It is tough to define Bozeman in words, therefore we suggest you visit it yourself. To enjoy your stay in the elegant city, here are a few things you must know:

1.      The Dining is Unique
Unlike other mainstream restaurants and cuisines in the world, Bozeman has unique dining. This intriguing fact is also one of the main reasons why foodies flock this city every year. There is a lot for you to choose from. Once you visit, you will be surprised to come across a vast array of Indian food, delicious BBQ, enticing Thai dishes, outstanding Sushi and classy Montana steak gourmets. However, you must keep in mind, Bozeman doesn’t have restaurants in abundance so you better stick to a few places.

2.      Natural Beauty Speaks for Itself
As discussed, the mind-boggling beauty of this city is not hidden from the eyes of the world. Although changing to a new location is scary but moving to Bozeman is surely going to be the best experience of your life. We’re sure you’ll come across amazing people and make new friends instantly when you move there. The people of Bozeman are forthcoming and cosmopolitan, which is why a lot of new residents don’t feel alienated. There’s something magnetic about the city, which is why people visit it every year.

3.      The Snow is Not as Beautiful as It Looks
You probably would have visited the Bozeman in summer, but it is essential to test the winters before you decide to move. The heavy amounts of snow look beautiful in pictures but are very deadly during the winter season. After Christmas, days are short. Therefore you need to be prepared for everything. Everything in the city freezes in the early months of the year. Install spy in your kid's phones to keep track of them in winter because heavy snowfalls often cause an emergency.

4.      Shopping is Unique Too
Just like food, shopping from Bozeman is unique as well. However, don’t forget that this city is not rich when it comes to shopping brands. You can only get a handful of shopping brands in Bozeman to buy basics from. So just before you move, don’t forget to pack everything you need over there. Apart from unique clothing, Bozeman is also rich in beautiful home décor. You can also find multiple book stores in the area that are seldom found in many cities today.