The Montana Conservationist, May 30

Greetings, Conservationist readers! I hope you all had a meaningful Memorial Day holiday. Ours here in Northwest Montana was spent on yard projects and picking morel mushrooms. Yes, we found a lot. No, I’m not going to tell you where. But here is what I can tell you:

• In Central Montana, can grassbanking help keep young farmers on the land? An group in Winnett is betting on the solution.
• WPIC voted unanimously last week to request a study of Montana’s stream gauges and the complex funding behind these important measuring tools, in the hopes that a solution for funding them into the future can be found.
• Despite concerns from Missoula County Commissioners, the EPA has inspected the Smurfit stone retaining berms in Missoula, which separate the industrial site from the Clark Fork River, and says they are not in danger of breaking.
• Senator Daines is working to shore up support (pun intended) for the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, which includes funding for the Blackfeet water rights settlement and AIS boat inspection stations, among other things.
• Governor Bullock recently gave the go-ahead on a plan to use Exxon settlement money from the 2011 Yellowstone spill to build trails and other recreation venues along the banks of the Yellowstone River.
• Disagreements over food stamps are once again holding up the Farm Bill, as they did in 2013, and Successful Farming reports that timeline for passing the “2018” bill could extend into 2019 in current forecasts.
• The Bee Informed Partnership (now there’s a name for an organization) is reporting today that annual losses of honey bee colonies increased again this year.

All of that conservation news and, like a field of mushrooms, more than initially meets the eye in this week’s The Montana Conservationist: TMC 2018-05-30