Earth Day 2020

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EARTH DAY 2019

Sunday, April 21

TABLE OF

CONTENTS Gallatin Valley Earth Day ready for online and post-COVID 50th anniversary celebrations .03 What you can and can’t recycle in the Gallatin Valley ...............................................05 Gallatin Valley Sunrise Movement’s focus on justice extends beyond climate justice .06 MSU professor explores symbiotic relationships that could help protect Montana trees ..................08 Bozeman-grown community coalition takes a look at local food systems .................................... 11

EDITOR/ WRITER Melissa Loveridge Reagan Colyter DESIGN Matthew Gasbarre

EARTH DAY 2019

Gallatin Valley Earth Day ready for online and post-COVID 50th anniversary celebrations

By Melissa Loveridge

In

2019, an Earth Day celebration at the city library organized by a small group of passionate Gallatin Valley Earth Day volunteers grew into a gathering of over 500 people. For 2020’s 50th anniversary celebration, Gallatin Valley Earth Day was preparing a two-day festival with dozens of events and even more sponsors at the Emerson Center. Those events are being pushed back or put online because of COVID-19 -- but that doesn’t mean volunteers are any less excited to share Gallatin Valley Earth Day with the world “It just kept growing organically and it was so exciting,” said Anne Ready, the organization’s chairperson. The celebration has been rescheduled for October 16 and 17, the 50-and-a-half year anniversary of the first Earth Day. Some of the events will still happen, but will be virtual events, like the sustainable architecture speech-turned-webinar held on March 30. Ready said roughly 50 people watched the webinar live, and more have watched it online after the video was posted on the organization’s website.

“That was our first webinar, and that was a success,” Ready said. “Now we’re working for Earth Day itself to do more online activities.” continued on pg. 4

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continued from pg. 3

The organization has also partnered with BZN International Film Festival for an online film showing on Thursday, April 23 at 7 p.m. on BozemanArts-Live.com.

The event will stream two short films -- “Letter to Congress,” a film about wilderness preservation and how it relates to human sanity, and “A Place in the Garden,” a short film about hummingbirds and the people working to educate the public about how important the tiny birds are. After the films, Ready said, a representative from the Sacajawea Audubon will talk about landscaping for Montana birds.

A silver lining to the event’s postponement is that it gives Ready and the rest of the board six more months to plan the festival. One of the many events postponed until October is Arts for the Earth, which Ready said will have poetry, music, short films and dance. That event is also scheduled to have a silent auction to raise money for solar panels at Bozeman high schools.

Ready said last year’s inaugural Arts for the Earth included a local dance instructor teaching kids about bees with a bumble bee dance, musicians volunteering their talents and even a puppet show. The 2019 “test run” was so successful that Ready had no shortage of volunteers who wanted to help organize the 2020 festival.

“We’ll still do it. It’ll be a cool evening,” she said. “This is a fantastic community, there’s so many dynamic, wonderful people who have so many great ideas … if someone had a really good idea, I just wanted to make room for them and make it happen for them.”

More information on Gallatin Valley Earth Day and the organization’s webinars and fall events can be found on the organization’s website, GallatinValleyEarthDay.org.

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bozeman Our Mission Statement: Welcome Diversity Act for Justice Foster Spiritual Growth Inspire Compassion Nurture Community Sustain Our Living Planet

EARTH DAY 2019

Sunday, April 21

What you can and can’t recycle in the Gallatin Valley

By Melissa Loveridge

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t’s easy to toss anything plastic into a recycling bin, pat yourself on the back, and go on your way knowing you kept something else out of the landfill. But, unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Only some plastics and cardboards can be recycled here in the Gallatin Valley, and glass needs to be taken to a different facility altogether.

It’s easy to toss anything plastic into a recycling bin, pat yourself on the back, and go on your way knowing you kept something else out of the landfill. But, unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Only some plastics and cardboards can be recycled here in the Gallatin Valley, and glass needs to be taken to a different facility altogether.

Here’s a breakdown of what you should and shouldn’t put in your green bin before wheeling it out to the curb. Keep in mind that what is and isn’t recyclable can depend on what service is picking it up or where you’re taking it and can change over time.

CARDBOARD: Flattened corrugated cardboard and other paperboard boxes (like cereal or pasta boxes) are usually recyclable. However, if the cardboard is contaminated with food, like pizza grease on a pizza box or used paper plates, it should go in the trash. Waxed cardboard, like the kind commonly used for milk, aren’t able to be recycled.

PLASTIC: We Recycle and Bozeman municipal bins are only able to accept empty plastics labeled 1 and 2. When plastics 3 through 7 get mixed up in recycling bins, it brings down the quality of the recycling, meaning it will cost more to recycle and ultimately could end up in a landfill.

That doesn’t mean plastics 3 through 7 are useless. Some can be reused to store leftovers or, with a drainage hole drilled in the bottom, an impromptu plant pot. Just make sure to thoroughly wash any container before putting food in it.

CANS: Municipal recycling and We Recycle accept aluminum, tin and steel cans. Give cans a quick rinse to get rid of any stray food stuck to the ridges before you recycle it. Don’t worry about peeling off labels - if you can, that’s fine, but they’re also removed in the recycling process.

PAPER: Newspapers are recyclable, so if you end up with a Chronicle you don’t want to keep forever, you can stick it in the recycling. Also recyclable in city and WeRecycle bins are catalogs, magazines and most kinds of printer paper and writing paper. Paper bags and phone books are, too.

GLASS: Keep your glass bottles out of the recycling bin, whether it’s a city bin or a We Recycle one! We Recycle accepts glass only at its facility at 257 Recycle Way. It’s $7 to recycle glass unless you have more than 50 pounds it goes up by 10c a pound from there up.

You can also save up brown glass beer or kombucha bottles without embossing. We Recycle will get the bottles to Bayern Brewery in Missoula, where they’ll be recycled.

MORE: Styrofoam containers and packing peanuts, batteries, aerosol cans and plastic bags are just a few things that you shouldn’t put in your recycling bin.

Plastic bags can be brought to a large selection of grocery stores in the Bozeman area to be recycled. They can also be reused in your household; line small garbage cans with them, use them to collect plant or animal waste from your yard, or bring them back to the store and use them again. An easy way to store plastic bags for future use is to roll them up and stick them in a tote bag or another plastic bag hanging on a hook or doorknob.

A FEW OTHER THINGS YOU CAN DO TO REDUCE WASTE: Use a reusable water bottle instead of buying plastic ones. This can also help save some money!

See if your bank or credit card can send you an online statement instead of a paper one.

Take the Streamline bus, ride a bike, walk or carpool to work or school.

Clean plastic containers can be turned into tupperware, planters, or containers for things like craft supplies or stray screws and washers.

Bring a tote bag or upcycle a plastic bag for another trip to the grocery store.

For more questions on recycling services: the City of Bozeman’s recycling department can be reached at (406) 582 - 2300 and more information can be found on the city website, bozeman.net/government/garbage-recycling.

Information on We Recycle can be found at WeRecycleMt.com and by calling (406) 220 - 6701. Information on Republic recycling services can be found at RepublicServices. com.

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Sunday, April 21

Gallatin Valley Sunrise Movement’s focus on justice extends beyond climate justice

By Melissa Loveridge

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or Sara Blessing, it’s not just about climate change.

“We can’t get where we need to go if we’re not taking care of our people

along the way,” said Blessing, the founder

of the Gallatin Valley branch of the Sunrise Movement.

The Sunrise Movement is a national network of locally-organized volunteers advocating

for justice in all forms -- including racial, economic, and climate. “(The Sunrise Movement) understands that the climate crisis is demanding that we remake everything about society to save the future for our species and many other species,” Blessing said. “Sunrise and its focus on the Green New Deal brings together all pieces of the picture for what’s wrong and the problems that we’re creating.”

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Blessing said one of the big things that drew her to the Sunrise Movement instead of other organizations was its steadfast mission and its refusal to bend to the will of potential donors or sponsors.

“We’re not confined like a lot of nonprofits by the idea of having to compromise what needs to be done for where we’re getting our profits from,” she said. “We need to do what needs to be done to save the future for ourselves and future generations.”

A major focus of the Sunrise Movement as a national entity is the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal isn’t one specific policy or bill but rather a collection of proposals with core principals almost exactly in line with the Sunrise Movement’s mission: clean and renewable energy, living wage jobs for everyone, and climate, racial and economic justice.

“It’s not necessarily a policy in itself,” Blessing said about the Green New Deal. “It’s a resolution that goes down into local governments and lets them create it for what makes sense in each different setting. How the Green New Deal will look in Bozeman will be different than how it looks in Detroit.”

A major pillar of the Green New Deal is that nobody is left behind -- including workers and communities that rely on creating nonrenewable energy.

Sunday, April 21

“I’m really enthralled with the part of it that’s centered around an equitable transition out of where we are now and making sure no one gets left behind,” Blessing said. “If we base our society around exploitation of environment and also workers, we can’t get where we need to go relying on that. We have to rework the fabric.”

Like everyone and everything else, the Sunrise Movement has been affected by the spread of COVID-19. Blessing said the organization was planning on canvassing for a big Earth Day strike, but called it off to preserve the health of Bozeman. Now, she and the organization are planning online activities, like reaching out to Montana’s lawmakers to talk about climate, rent and mortgage moratoriums and universal healthcare.

“We’re just trying to progress and figure out how we’re going to be continuing our work in the community and also how we’ll branch out after,” Blessing said. “We need to come together in community and make our voice heard.”

More information about the Gallatin Valley Sunrise Movement can be found on the national Sunrise Movement website, sunrisemovement.org, and by emailing gallatinvalleysunrise@gmail.com

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EARTH DAY 2019

Sunday, April 21

MSU professor explores symbiotic relationships that could help protect Montana trees

By Reagan Colyer, MSU News Service BOZEMAN — Sara Branco thinks fungi are more resilient than we give them credit for. They survive in environments that many organisms couldn’t, adapting to withstand stresses like extreme temperatures and exposure to heavy metals.

Branco, an assistant professor in Montana State

grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute is helping her do that.

To better understand these adaptations, Branco is collaborating with researchers in Belgium and Florida to investigate Suillus luteus, a mushroom that lives in symbiotic association with pine trees and also exhibits a tolerance to heavy metals.

ones from the non-contaminated sites,” Branco said. “The ones from the clean sites accumulate a lot of heavy metals, and they just sort of short circuit and die.”

Branco began her work with the project by examining multiple genomes of S. luteus from polluted and unpolluted sites. Her goal was to identify which specific genes were responsible for the tolerance they exhibit in the contaminated habitats. Postdoctoral researcher Anna Bazzicalupo joined her team to analyze that genetic data.

“The Belgian team found that if you get a mushroom from a site that is contaminated with heavy Immunology in the College of Agriculture, wants metals and a mushroom of the same species to figure out just how they do it. Her research from a nearby site that is not contaminated, then is part of the field of environmental adaptation, grow them in a lab in a medium that’s enriched examining specifically how fungi are able to with heavy metals, the mushrooms from the con- “What Anna found was fascinating,” said Branco. taminated sites are able to grow more than the “Looking at the genomes across isolates from conthrive in environments that should kill them. A

University’s Department of Microbiology and

EARTH DAY 2019

taminated and non-contaminated sites, most of the differences are in the areas that we know are related to dealing with heavy metals. We knew that these genes are present, but the next step was finding out how those genes were being expressed.”

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native to Montana, she hypothesizes that they could be a resource for protecting native plants from contamination.

Branco is also studying environmental adaptation in the thermal areas of Yellowstone National Park.

This branch of her research will focus on fungi able to live in areas with high temperatures and a wide range of acidity levels that present challenges for many other lifeforms.

S. luteus uses a multitude of tactics to protect itself from heavy metal contamination. It can prevent metals from entering its cells, immobilize the metals within its “Temperature disrupts the memcells, or use detoxification strategies branes of cells and disrupts the to avoid metal-induced damage. metabolism, which is why we cook These approaches can lead to a food,” said Branco. “High heat reduction of metal uptake by the should negatively affect fungi, but fungi’s plant partners — in the case some species are able to persist of S. luteus, the pine trees that it in thermal areas. My first quesshares the soil with. tion is, which fungi are there? Are “This fungus basically covers up all fungi able to withstand high the roots of the pine and mediates temperatures, or are there specific the nutrient transfers,” said Branco. groups that evolved to tolerate this “What we’re hypothesizing is that environment?” they protect the pine, and that’s Branco has collected soil samples what we’re trying to test. Because from Yellowstone, which will then S. luteus has the ability to filter out be analyzed on a molecular level to the metals, it can allow the pine to document the fungal communities grow in toxic soil where it shouldn’t present in thermal areas. From be growing.” there, the project will mirror the Now that they’ve identified which exploration of S. luteus, identifying genes underlie S. luteus’ heavy what makes these fungi different metal tolerance, Branco and Bazziand whether they can help their calupo will focus on pinpointing plant partners persist in hostile exactly how they work. With the conditions. grant from the Genome Institute, they will compare gene expression “The main idea is to understand how species tolerate hostile enviin S. luteus grown in high and low ronmental conditions and whether levels of cadmium and zinc, two this mutually beneficial association metals commonly found in associaassists in allowing other species to tion with mining. grow there,” Branco said.

All pine trees on Earth have this This story is available on the type of symbiotic relationship Web at: http://www.montana.edu/ with fungi, said Branco. If similar tolerances could be found in fungi news/19748

Life focused Lawn care Ford@OrganicLawnMT.com OrganicLawnMT.com

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Sunday, April 21

EARTH DAY 2019

Sunday, April 21

Bozeman-grown community coalition takes a look at local food systems A By: Melissa Loveridge

ny local food system, whether after Wright and other community it’s one in Bozeman or one members shared concerns over the far away, consists of a lot land surrounding Bozeman, which was of moving parts. Someone quickly developing and swallowing up needs to grow the food, process agricultural land, and how it may affect it, package, market and distribute the community’s food system in the long it; someone needs to buy it from the haul. grocery store shelf, eat it and toss “Open & Local is a sidebar, I think, or compost the scraps; those scraps to what our local farmers and need to be picked up by a waste entrepreneurs have done to create a management system, and a working local food resource guide and shift how sewer system needs to be in place to they’re delivering their products to the take care of the rest. people,” Wright said.

“There is no such thing as an isolated food system,” said Kate Wright, chair of Open & Local’s steering committee. “(Open & Local) started really with that question and gathering to celebrate the cross sector nature of food systems, which are much more complex than many people realize. They involve nutritionists and educators and all the people around the food system.”

Open & Local is a coalition of professionals and volunteers from the community, all with a list of common goals, including conserving agriculture land and strengthening food systems of Gallatin Valley and the neighboring communities. The group started

In addition to preserving high quality agricultural land for farmers and ranchers, Open & Local aims to help folks understand how the local food economy works, build relationships between consumers and food producers and increase the overall economic viability of the local food system.

Local foods can often have less of a carbon impact compared to foods that are mass-produced and then transported into Montana. A potato grown on a family farm in Manhattan, Montana travels a lot shorter distance to the grocery store shelves than one grown on a commercial farm in Colorado or Wisconsin.

Wright said keeping an eye out for locally produced foods while grocery shopping means that consumers will often end up with a better tasting and fresher piece of food, whether it’s a vegetable or Montana beef, as long as the food is in season. Wright said one of her favorite resources when shopping for local food is the Bozeman Winter Farmers Market’s local food resource guide, which can be found on the winter farmers market website, bozemanwintermarket.com.

“Food is a really essential part of our health,” Wright said. “It really is connected to everything we care about, “Supporting our neighbors, our whether it’s peoples’ health, food security, community members who are part of the the strength of our local economy, access food system is so huge,” Wright said. “It has such a big trickle down effect.” to fresh foods being equitable, the More information on Open & Local can conversation of open agricultural lands, be found on the coalition’s Facebook or fair pay for folks who are working on page, Open & Local. farms.”

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