Butte Montana: Spring Hiking & Trout Fishing

For an outdoors people, Butte Montana is at the hub of choices. Jan Munday, RTD, and I wanted to get out for a hike. The Moulton ski trails were still covered with 6 inches of snow from last week's storm, so we drove down to the hills of the lower Big Hole River, to one of my favorite rocky ridges:

We hiked up a coulee that goes up to a grassy saddle on the ridge. We saw some big horned sheep ewes (too far for my little camera) and jumped several mule deer does that have their young fawns hidden among the shade of junipers and mountain mahogany:

Though close to the river, this is desert country, with lots of prickly pear and some kind of little barrel-shaped cacti:

And other signs of dry country, such as buffalo plum locoweed (Astralagus crassicarpus):

But there are some lush swales, too, with grasses and wildflowers such as larkspur:

Lots of lichens grow on the rocky outcrops and boulders. They produce infinitely varied and beautiful patterns:

And a wide range of colors:

Looks (and smells!) like a mountain lion stashed a deer carcass or two under this small rock overhang:

RTD high-graded a choice bone out of it, and cracked it open to enjoy the very ripe marrow:

Enough of hiking in dry country, RTD & I headed to the upper Big Hole River to fish a favorite mountain creek:

The water has been high, and it must have been terribly -- indeed, impossibly -- difficult for this young antelope fawn to swim the creek:

Death comes in many forms: the talons of an eagle, the crunch of a wolf or coyote, a hunter's bullet, or an angler's fly:

RTD and I enjoyed the warm afternoon sun, ate our lunch alongside a snowbank near a patch of Douglass fir, cleaned & packed our fresh trout in snow, and headed home for supper.

The Butte Commute

Gas prices have not had much of an effect on my daily commute to work here in Butte, Montana. Oh, maybe I walk to and from work a few more days per month than usual, but generally driving is not a factor. There are other considerations, however. Some days, you need to watch out for horse traffic:

Or crossing herds of deer. Though unlike Helena or Missoula, Butte mule deer tend to be nocturnal. Probably has something to do with our urban cowboy poachers:

Or heavy morning snow (this storm came Tuesday night, 10 June):

We seem to be moving out of the wet, cold June weather. Even on cloudy mornings, the skies clear quickly. Here, the clouds rising over the Highland Mountains south of town:

Recently, my two mile walk to the office has been extended with an additional half-mile walk to the Butte-Silver Bow Library, where I am scanning newspapers from the 1980s for articles about the beginnings of Superfund in Butte.

Butte is America's largest National Hisotric Landmark District (in addition to being at the headwaters of our nation's largest Superfund site--the tow go hand-in-hand). I like to walk Broadway Street, with its nice classic houses like these:

And this one:

And of course, Butte being Butte, some real "fixer-uppers" crammed in-between:

At the library each day, I'm greeted by Max, of Where the Wild Things Are fame:

The highlight of my day is lunch break at the Venus, an expresso house ran by the Butte-Silver Bow Arts Foundation:

Where one can find the finest cinnamon rolls on the planet (they remind me of those my old neighbor, Helen Larson, baked: yeasty, chewy bread, lots of cinnamon, not overly sweet). Here, served by Jennifer:

Jennifer also makes a great cup of Chai:

And here's Glenn Bodish, the Arts Foundation director (facing the camera, gesticulating):

Walkerville and Butte America: a great place to commute!

Life in Recovery: German Gulch Restoration, part 2

Last summer, I wrote about the David & Lois Layton family's dedication of their historic family property for the German Gulch restoration project, headed up by the George Grant Chapter of Trout Unlimited. A lot has happened since then, thanks mainly to the good oversight by George Grant TU's dedicated project manager, Josh Vincent.

Last weekend, Josh arranged for a willow planting party along a newly reconstructed reach of the creek. More than a century ago, the entire watershed was clearcut and placer mined--the creek's floodplain extensively terraformed by hydraulic and dredge mining for gold. A whole series of French, German, Chinese, and out-of-work Great Depression era miners worked the creek over from the 1870s to the 1930s. A stream assessment by Confluence Consulting concluded that this particular reach was especially in need of restoration to improve fish passage, spawning, and habitat.

The chief of the willow planting party was plant ecologist and revegetation guru Rich Prodgers. He gave us a quick demo on hoedad use/willow plug planting, and is shown here explaining how to set some of the larger container plants. In photo from left to right are Paul Olson (GGTU volunteer), Rich Prodgers (plant ecologist with Bighorn Environmental Sciences), Greg Mullen (restoration scientist and manager with Montana's Natural Resource Damage Program), Josh Vincent (GGTU/Water & Environmental Technologies), and Andrea Stierle (biochemist and volunteer). Note the fence in the background, to keep cattle out of the restored area:

Dig a hole deep enough to get the roots to water and to bury the seedling (a water birch, in this case) up to its collar, set the seedling in, fill hole halfway, tamp and add fertilizer "tea bags," fill the rest of the way and tamp:

"Little Brother" AJ and I were a willow planting machine. I had to be in Missoula for a wedding that afternoon and wanted to do my share before leaving at 1 p.m. AJ rose to the occasion and then some, working me really hard. He did all the hoedad work--very tough in this heavily cobbled creek bottom, with jarring pain felt from your finger tips to your spine each time the blade slams into a rock. Here is mighty tree planter AJ, hoedad (the tree planters tool of choice) in hand:

At lunch time, Josh's wife Janelle joined us with their kids. I managed to catch them for a quick family portrait:

The older girls couldn't get to that creek quick enough. Here's big sister explaining the proper technique for selecting and throwing a stone:

Meanwhile, the planters took a break and had a quick lunch:

With lots more willow sprigs to go, here's Paul and Greg:

And Alex Macgregor and Andrea:

We put in a pretty good morning, a second-shift crew began showing up around lunch-time, and so I didn't feel too bad about having to bail out early. Thankfully there were enough volunteers, many of whom were not even members of GGTU.

The science-professionals deserve a few special words of praise. In my rather simple view of the universe, there are three kinds of environmental scientists and engineers.

The first kind are evil. They work as hired guns for companies like Arco-BP, and essentially produce whatever results the client pays them for.

The second kind are OK. They put in their time for whomever pays them -- whether Arco-BP or the Sierra Club -- and they do sound work. As a friend of mine puts it, "We deliver science like a pizza--it's up to the client to decide what to do with it."

The third kind are the environmental hero-scientists. They put in their time on the clock and deliver good work, but they go a giant step beyond. They give unselfishly of their time because they believe in what they do and they know they are investing in a better world to come. Remember, this German Gulch planting project took place on a Saturday. And yet there they were, these hero-scientists that do this stuff all week long for a living, leading and setting an example for the volunteers: Greg Mullen, Rich Prodgers, and Josh Vincent. Thank you.

Finding the Sun Hole

Southwest Montana has had, in 100-year average terms, a very normal spring. That means it rains or snows everyday, creeks and rivers are overflowing their banks, meadows are like shallow swamps, and the hills look like the Emerald Isle. Beautiful, if a bit soggy.

Howard Smith and I found a break in the weather yesterday for a hike and troutfishing. He dreams of training his horse for packing in an elk camp, and he's got a few years on me and not a lot of years left to realize that dream. I wanted to show him a place that is both relatively easy to pack into and almost devoid of hunters. The latter is strange, since there are popular hunting spots on each side. Ah, but you can drive close to those places. While hiking and skiing, I've several times jumped good bulls out of this honey hole. Here's Howard taking a rest on our hike up the steep valley:

Wet feet and all, it was good to get out and see what's blooming this week. As we started out in several inches of fresh snow, the glacier lillies (Erythronium grandiflorum) was living up to its name:

The wet meadows were dotted with white globeflowers (Trollius laxus):

The dry ridges were lit up with creeping Oregon-grape (Mahonia repens):

And Nutthall's rockcress (Arabis nuttalli):

And wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana):

Oh yes, the wolves had also been out and about that morning, perhaps looking for an easy moose or elk calf. Big doggie. The tracks are six inches long from rear pad to toe nail:

Interestingly enough, wildlife biologists tell us that antelope populations increase with wolves in the 'hood. Wolves eliminate coyote predators, an important antelope predator. Coyotes systematically hunt antelope fawns, and antelope does have evolved to birth two fawns, one of which is usually sacrificed to the coyotes. This mama (the larger animal on the left-center)might keep her two fawns (they are at her heels--you might have to click on and enlarge this photo to see them):


After hiking, we hit some local beaver ponds for a mess of brook trout. I popped a beer for the ride home, settled into Howard's little Toyota with Roly-The-Dog snuggled up for the ride home, and appreciated one more great day under Montana's big (wet) sky.

Environmental Communiation Postion: VISTA in Montana

This is an excellent opportunity for recent graduates from undergraduate or MS-level programs in environmental communication, environmental studies, or related fields. The last two VISTA interns have been hired for full time positions at CFWEP. Please forward to others that might be interested. – Pat Munday

Job Opening On Montana Tech Campus in Butte, in the heart of the Northern Rockies

AmeriCorps VISTA Position with Clark Fork Watershed Education Program

The Clark Fork Watershed Education Program (CFWEP) fosters environmental stewardship and scientific decision making through place-based learning. For more information visit CFWEP online.

Duties Help to build our high school level programming (the Upper Clark Fork Science League (UCFSL)) through: securing funding, developing UCFSL program services, engaging participation of target schools. Conduct CFWEP target area need assessment. Create and implement student service learning projects. And more! This is an excellent opportunity to accelerate your career! Based on the Montana Tech Campus, Butte, Montana.

Benefits A bi-monthly living allowance is provided for a total of $9,996/year. Choose between an education award of $4,725 that may be used to pay student loans or future tuition or a $1,200 cash award. Travel & moving expenses may be paid. Full health insurance is provided. Non-compete status for federal positions at the completion of service. Graduate credit available. Child care assistance upon eligibility.

Requirements

To be an AmeriCorps VISTA: Bachelor's degree preferred. Must not be an enrolled student. Travel required.

To be an AmeriCorps VISTA with CFWEP: Environmental science or related field knowledge beneficial. Experience with non-profits, fundraising, and educational program development a plus. Excellent written and oral communication skills required. Computer skills will include the use of Word, Excel, Access, and Outlook. The applicant should have a strong work ethic and desire to work within a non-profit organization to build its community based efforts. A positive attitude, self-motivation and creativity will be assets of this VISTA member.

How to Apply Visit Americorps and apply online to the Clark Fork Watershed VISTA. Follow by submitting a cover letter stating your interest by mail or e-mail by June 30, 2008:

Montana Campus Compact
c/o Cody Lillstrom
302 University Hall
Missoula, Montana 59812
lillstrom@mtcompact.org

Want to Know More? For more information about being an AmeriCorps VISTA with CFWEP, visit us in the Petroleum Building, room PET 003 (the basement), Montana Tech. Contact Justin Ringsak, 406-496-4897, jringsak@mtech.edu. For more information about CFWEP, visit www.cfwep.org.

For more information about being an AmeriCorps VISTA as part of the Montana Campus Compact, contact Cody Lillstrom, 406-243-5177x3 or lillstrom@mtcompact.org. Visit their website at www.mtcompact.org.

Dennis Washington: War Profiteer?

Geez, we all knew Dennis Washington of Missoula, Montana, made money coming and going from mining and minewaste in the Butte area. But looks like he's much more than that. This is quoted from A-Infos:

Iraq and Afghanistan

Washington Group International become one of five companies invited by the
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to participate in a
"secret bidding" process for contracts to help rebuild Iraq. In April 2003,
the secret bids made international news, with England's Sunday Herald
reporting, "All the American firms to get Iraqi reconstruction contracts
have bankrolled George Bush and the Republican Party, or have direct links
to USAID."

The Herald went on to note that Washington Group International "gave
$438,700 to the Republicans," placing it in the same select group as
Halliburton, the company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Halliburton, has attracted most of the press attention for its Iraq-related
contracts, it is hardly the whole story. All companies sharing Iraqi pie are
tightly connected, for example executive vice president and CFO of WGI,
George H. Juetten previously was senior vice president and CFO for Dresser
Industries, a subsidiary of Halliburton Inc.


On March 12, 2004, the Program Management Office awarded the company a
contract with a ceiling of $500,000,000 for "electrical power distribution
and transmission" in the northern region of Iraq. A joint venture with Black
& Veatch Joint Venture was awarded a contract with a maximum value of
$600,000,000 for work in the public works and water sector. The joint
venture also holds a contract worth $33 million for electrical work. In
Afghanistan, contracts won by Washington Group International, along with
Fluor Continental and Perini, will cover rebuilding damaged roads and
replacing a destroyed bridge in Afghanistan as part of their individual
contracts to support U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM). Those
contracts have a minimum value of $500,000 and a maximum of $500 million.
Whatever the final result of Dubya's adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq may
be, WGI has put itself firmly in the camp of the final winners.

Additional sources:

Iraq and Afghanistan:

Windfalls of War (by the Center for Public Integrity)
http://www.public-i.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=65

Dennis Washington, Missoula's Iraq connection (by Missoula Independent)
http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=3591

Townsendia vs. Erigeron, and Other Mysteries of Nature

Knowing nature, grasping the meaning of life, clinging to a few leaves as we hurtle past...

Before leaving the house for my trek down to the college this morning, I remembered to grab a couple of field guides to wildflowers. I was thinking about my identification of Townsend's daisies vs. the other possibilities in the daisy/aster/sunflower family.

It's a bit like that chilling passage (one of many) in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Judge Holden is obsessed with collecting specimens and cataloging all the new forms of life that the party encounters on their ride through the mountains bordering the Yaqui River. Quotation from pp. 198-199:

...he [the judge] would dress expertly the colorful birds he'd shot, rubbing the skins with gunpowder and stuffing them with balls of dried grass and packing them away in wallets.... Toadvine sat watching him...and he asked him what was his purpose in all this....
Whatever exists, he said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.... This is my claim.... In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation....
I dont see what that has to do with catchin birds.
The freedom of birds is an insult to me. I'd have them all in zoos.

Well, it's a bit like that. I don't want all of "nature" in a zoo. Freedom is no insult. But to know the name of a thing is, in some sense, to capture it. Indeed all of science, in some sense, embodies the spirit of Judge Holden.

Well, back to the Townsendia vs. Erigeron mystery. Strangely enough, the usually reliable Audubon wildflower guide (Western Region) was not helpful at all, and does not even list the Townsendia clan. My answer came from Donald Anthony Schieman Wildflowers of Montana (2005), p. 246:

Some daisies and fleabanes resemble Townsendia species, but townsendias usually have larger flower heads, shorter flower stalks, and a scalelike pappus.
Cutleaf Daisy Erigeron compositus
...The distinctive leaves are divided two or three times into threes, ending in narrow, fingerlike segments.

Ah so easy when you know what you are looking for:

The red or sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella) also grows along Big Butte. Not a native, but it seems to fit in just fine. Herbalists like it for the vitamins and tart acidic taste. Pretty, too:

Granite Quarry near Butte, Montana

A few years ago, Dave Carter learned about the old granite quarry near Welch's Spur along the abandoned Northern Pacific railroad east of Butte. He's hiked in several times, and recently I was able to join him. We parked along I-90 on the east side of Homestake Pass, hiked north up to the rail bed, connecting with it near mile marker 56 (I think that designates 56 miles from Belgrade?) and continuing east:

Past an abandoned mine:

You know your getting close when the granite outcrops along the grade get slabby:

The loading spur comes in (it connected to a narrow gage track from the mine; its tracks have been torn up):

Lots of wildflowers along the way, including larkspur (Delphinium sp):

Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi):

Mountain bluebells (Mertensia ciliata):

Townsends daisies (Townsendia nuttalli spp):

This elegant, tiny wildflower on a tall stem:

And this cushion plant that I should remember but don't (I don't have a field guide handy at the moment):

As you turn north up the little valley to the quarry, there is a prominent landmark to the east:

And then you're there. Here's a big semi-dressed block left at a finishing/shipping area:

A foundation:

A standing building, with interesting hybrid stone/log construction:

And some sort of millrace or flume:

Though it looks as if there might have been a millpond and waterwheel to provide power, according to what little historical information I could locate, the quarry "used compressed air as the power...[supplied] by means of steam power..." About a dozen men worked at the site, tending the compressor and steam engine, dressing the stone, and handling it. The granite from the mine is a fairly nondescript, black and white, "does not polish well," and was "used extensively in the large buildings of Butte." Perhaps I'll see if I can identify some building around town with granite foundations, and make the connection.

PS: Welch's Spur on the railway was the site of a murder and attempted train robbery at 2:15 a.m., 7 May 1907. Two masked men killed the engineer and wounded the fireman when they refused to stop the train. A suspect was arrested near Woodville, just north of Butte. It was the third time this train had been held up in four years.

Additional information, see:

Jesse Perry Rowe, "Some Economic Geology of Montana" (University of Montana, Bulletin No. 50, Geological Series No. 3, 10 March 1908).

"Montana Train Held Up." The New York Times, 8 May 1907.

The Origins of Opportunity, Montana

In researching the role of citizens in shaping Superfund remedy here in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin of southwest Montana, as background I've been reading Fred Quivik's excellent doctoral dissertaion, "Smoke and Tailings" (University of Pennsylvania, 2000). [Thanks to PhD candidate Stacie Barry for making me a copy of Quivik's dissertation.]

Among other things, Fred provides an excellent glimpse into the creation of Opportunity, Montana. ACM wanted to "demonstrate that families of smelter workers could find healthy lifestyles by living on small plots of land out in the valley, even under the plume of the stack" (Quivik p. 417). ACM employee, H. C. Gardiner, planned it all.

ACM drained a swampy marsh, sold 5- and 10-acre parcels, set up the Mill Creek Irrigation Company to provide clean water, built the Beaver Creek School, established commuter service via the Anaconda Street Railway, and "prohibited establishing saloons or comparable nuisance businesses" (Quivik p. 419).

As an advertisement for parcels in The Butte Daily Post (11 June 1914, p. 13) put it:

"the people of Anaconda can enjoy the benefits of country life while sharing in the activites of the industries located here. [Opportunity] affords a real solution for the high cost of livng [sic]. Little farms, with cows, pigs and chickens; gardens with vegetables, apple trees and small fruits, will supplant the city street and the crowded city lot." [Quoted in Quivik p. 418]

Though we all knew the basic outline of this story, Fred provided and documented the historical details using letters from Gardiner and a wealth of other sources.

Cf. Mary Popovich Blaskovich, "History of Opportunity," In the Shadow of Mt. Haggin: The Story of Anaconda and Deer Lodge County from 1863 to 1976 (Anaconda, MT: Deer Lodge County History Group, 1975): 24-27.