Explore Big Sky - October 6 to 19, 2022

PUBLISHER

Eric Ladd | eric@theoutlawpartners.com

EDITORIAL

MANAGING

Jason Bacaj | jason@theoutlawpartners.com

DIGITAL PRODUCER

Julia Barton | julia@theoutlawpartners.com

STAFF WRITER

Jack Reaney | jack@theoutlawpartners.com

EDITORIAL CONSULTANT

Leslie Kilgore | media@theoutlawpartners.com

CREATIVE

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

ME Brown | maryelizabeth@theoutlawpartners.com

SALES AND OPERATIONS

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Megan Paulson | megan@theoutlawpartners.com

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Treston Wold | treston@theoutlawpartners.com

VP OF SALES

EJ Daws | ej@theoutlawpartners.com

MEDIA AND EVENTS DIRECTOR

Ersin Ozer | ersin@theoutlawpartners.com

MARKETING MANAGER

Sophia Breyfogle | sophia@theoutlawpartners.com

CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIST

Mira Brody | mira@theoutlawpartners.com

EVENTS AND MARKETING COORDINATOR

Tucker Harris | tucker@theoutlawpartners.com

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT

Sara Sipe | sara@theoutlawpartners.com

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LEAD

Patrick Mahoney | patrick@theoutlawpartners.com

Mac Chapin, Mark Gocke, Rachel Hergett, Brigid Mander, Colter Nuanez, Shannon Steele, Paul Swenson, Kelsey Wellington, Cy Whitling, and Todd Wilkinson.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

6

FUTURE OF BIG SKY POST OFFICE IN JEOPARDY

ENVIRONMENT SPORTS A&E BUSINESS

The Big Sky Post Office will close on Feb. 28, 2023, without “serious involvement” from the U.S. Postal Service, officials said on Oct. 5 at the biannual joint meeting between the Big Sky Resort Area District and the Gallatin and Madison county commissions.

Golden-yellow leaves on aspen trees frame Lone Mountain from the Hummocks and Uplands trailhead, signaling the cool breath of Autumn.

quaking aspen—the most common deciduous tree in Big Sky—gets its name from how the delicate leaves rustle in response to even the slightest wind.

7 12 14 21

COMMUNITY WEEK FOSTERS DISCUSSION BETWEEN RESIDENTS AND LOCAL OFFICIALS

A virtual town hall panel discussion was held Oct. 4 to inform the community of the planning around Big Sky’s limited local water supply. The discussion was part of Community Week, an event series hosted by the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce and the Big Sky Resort Area District aimed at fostering community engagement.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN BIG SKY FACES CONTINUED CHALLENGES

Community powers are collaborating to create a feasible path from entry-level employment to middle management, property ownership and community leadership. According to leadership, these are the factors of building a life and supporting a family in Big Sky.

LPHS BIG HORNS SOCCER TEAMS CELEBRATE SENIOR NIGHT

The Lone Peak High School boys and girls soccer teams faced the Laurel High School Locomotives on Sept. 29 at home to celebrate LPHS’s graduating seniors. Hungry for a chance to make the playoffs, the boys pulled out a 4-1 victory while the girls suffered a 6-0 loss against one of the state’s best strikers.

PLUS: TGR’S ‘MAGIC HOUR’ PREMIERS IN BOZEMAN

Teton Gravity Research’s latest ski film focuses on the special moments on the mountain when everything comes together just right. Alongside more than 20 big-name skiers, Montana-based athletes Parkin Costain and Jake Hopfinger explored local terrain while filming for the movie that premiered in Bozeman on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

EDITORIAL POLICY

Outlaw Partners, LLC is the sole owner of Explore Big Sky. EBS reserves the right to edit all submitted material. Printed material reflects the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the opinion of Outlaw Partners or its editors. EBS will not publish anything discriminatory or in bad taste.

EBS welcomes obituaries written by family members or from funeral homes. To place an obituary, please submit 500 words or less to media@theoutlawpartners.com.

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On the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 22 thunderstorms from the northwest carried cold air into Big Sky over the Madison Range. Snow began coating Lone Peak around 1:00 pm and accumulated overnight at high altitudes, evidently higher than Andesite Mountain’s northeast face, still bare on Friday morning. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

KATHLYNE MARGARET HAKE OBITUARY

Our beloved Crazy Granny Kathlyne Margaret Hake joined Our Lord and Savior in heaven suddenly on Sunday evening Sept 18, 2022. As always by her side was her love and partner in life of 41 years, Ed Hake.

Kathy was born to Harry Russell and Elenor Margaret Miller in Powell, Wyoming. She was the youngest of seven siblings.

You can take the girl out of Wyoming but not the Wyoming out of the girl. She spent a wild childhood and teenage years growing up in Powell and Sheridan, Wyoming dreaming of chasing horses, cowboys, and mountains farther west. On her way to California to be a hippie she landed at the Covered Wagon Ranch in the Gallatin Canyon and met her forever cowboy, Ed Hake. Lucky for us the rest is history and she never did make it to California.

She spent the last 42 years in the Gallatin Canyon taking care of all of us. Whether it was hauling smelly river rats to and from kayak take outs, teaching every wanna be cowgirl how to properly saddle a horse, or anyone who was interested in being a rock hound, Kathy was doing it. Of course, how many thousands of pounds of cookie salad and apple pie cocktail has she fed to any guide to

have walked through Canyon Adventures’ door, or anyone else who could not go home to their own momma for Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Kathy passionately listened to countless soldiers’ stories that needed a shoulder, welcomed cancer fighters on her trail rides, made us all listen to

“real country” music and loved nothing more than lighting off fireworks for the most epic 4th of July fireworks show.

Although she loved and cared unselfishly and compassionately for everyone who she took under her wing over the years, Granny’s pride and joy were her 4 beautiful grandsons, Cameron and Dane Ueland and Edward J and Emmett Hake.

Kathy is survived by her husband, Ed Hake; two children, April (Jeremy) Ueland, and Edward G (Jenny) Hake; her 4 grandsons; and a large boisterous family of 3 sisters, sisters-in-law, a brother, brothers-in- law, and numerous nieces and nephews and their children, all whom Kathy treasured and made memories that will last on.

Kathy left us here heart broken and bewildered but she has joined a special band of angels to watch over us, probably mess with us, and to be remembered and cherished as Crazy Granny should be.

Kathy has become very involved in the Big Sky Bravery foundation. She has been one of their biggest fans and supporters. In lieu of flowers please consider making donations to them at bigskybravery.org/donate

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LOCAL

IN BRIEF

FEDS, ARCO ANNOUNCE SETTLEMENT OVER ANACONDA SMELTER CLEANUP

EBS STAFF

The Anaconda Smelter Superfund Site, plagued by arsenic and other pollutants resulting from decades of copper mining, will receive a final cleanup following an agreement between the Atlantic Richfield Company, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Toxic pollutants spewed from a 585-foot-tall smokestack in Anaconda for nearly a century, settling into the soil of the surrounding area.

In addition to the cleanup efforts, Atlantic Richfield, or ARCO, agreed to reimburse the EPA and DOJ $48 million for prior cleaning work.

ARCO reports having already spent $470 million to clean the site under federal orders; remaining work is estimated at $83.1 million.

HUNTER WHO MISTOOK DOG FOR A WOLF IS UNDER INVESTIGATION

EBS STAFF

Montana authorities announced Sept. 27 an investigation surrounding the shooting of a 6-month-old dog by a woman who skinned the animal and shared pictures of herself with the pelt online, believing she had killed a young wolf.

The animal was among more than a dozen dogs reported abandoned last on national forest land in northwestern Montana, according to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.

The hunter posted images of herself smiling on social media in front of the animal’s head and hide. A state biologist determined the remains belonged to a domestic dog, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesperson Greg Lemon. Officials are investigating the woman’s license to hunt wolves and the abandonment of the other dogs.

Lemon said accurately identifying animals before they are shot is a core tenet of hunting.

MONTANA JUDGE STRIKES DOWN REPUBLICANS’ STRICT VOTING LAWS

A Montana judge during a Sept. 15 hearing deemed unconstitutional three Republican-sponsored voting laws that aimed to restrict voting in the state.

The laws targeted unsubstantiated claims of 2020 voter fraud and would end same-day voter registration, impose new identification requirements on students and restrict third-party ballot collections. An audit by a previous Republican secretary of state found no problems in Montana during the 2020 election, according to court filings.

If the laws were to stand, Native Americans in particular would face increased difficulties voting, argued Jacqueline De Leon with the Native American Rights Fund.

TWO GRIZZLIES KILLED AFTER RECENT CONFLICTS IN THE PARADISE VALLEY

EBS STAFF

Two grizzlies were killed in Paradise Valley on Tuesday, Sept. 20 in separate incidents, according to a press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on Friday, Sept. 23.

A female grizzly with a cub had broken into a fenced compound, regularly visited a home with no readily available food sources and killed chickens that had been secured by electric fencing. The bear had been captured and relocated twice because of similar conflicts.

The bear’s cub will be sent to a zoo, according to FWP.

Near Emigrant, a group of hunters on private land shot and killed an adult male grizzly in self-defense, FWP reports.

As expected in late summer into fall, bear activity is increasing as they seek food to prepare for hibernation.

FUTURE OF BIG SKY POST OFFICE IN JEOPARDY

EBS STAFF

The Big Sky Post Office, which has been operated locally for 21 years on a contract basis, will close on Feb. 28, 2023, without “serious involvement” from the U.S. Postal Service, officials said on Oct. 5 at the biannual joint meeting between the Big Sky Resort Area District and the Gallatin and Madison county commissions.

Gallatin Partners, Inc. has contracted with the USPS to operate the Big Sky Post Office for years, said Al Malinowski, president of Gallatin Partners. Among the reasons why the organization is terminating its contract with USPS, he said, is that the current post office location is too small and Big Sky should provide postal service to the community in Gallatin Canyon, which is currently served by a post office in Gallatin Gateway.

“We’re unwilling to continue to operate in the existing facility in the way we have,” Malinowski said. “Now a solution is necessary. There has to be a new location.”

Check out the Explore Big Sky website for further coverage.

EBS STAFF

BIG SKY COMMUNITY WEEK SPURS DISCUSSION WITH LOCAL OFFICIALS

AND IRRIGATION WERE

IDEAS”

BY JACK REANEY

BIG SKY – A virtual town hall panel discussion was held on Tuesday, Oct. 4 to inform the community of the planning around Big Sky’s limited local water supply. These discussions have gained attention as Big Sky’s population and water demand grows toward outpacing supply before 2050.

More than 50 people tuned into this discussion as part of Community Week, an event series hosted by the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce and the Big Sky Resort Area District. The week’s schedule is divided into three categories: government, boots on the ground, and big ideas. Other events include the Second Annual Community Expo, a panel discussion on the implementation of “Our Big Sky Community Vision and Strategy,” two mornings of Coffee with Community Leaders, and the Lone Peak High School Homecoming Parade. Scheduled during shoulder season, community week provides an opportunity for locals to learn more about important topics and meet others invested in further developing the unincorporated town of Big Sky.

Water access is a topic concerning the entire community.

The six panelists were hydrogeologist James Rose; Jim Muscat, Big Sky County Water and Sewer District water superintendent; Mace

Mangold, WGM Group senior project engineer; local developer Scott Altman; Rich Chandler, Yellowstone Club environmental manager; and Kristin Gardner, Gallatin River Task Force executive director.

Rose, who represents the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, began by presenting the findings of a groundwater study within the local water district. Data was sampled between 2013 and 2016. The study monitored 94 wells, revealing that seven separate aquifers are in use, separated by majority-shale bedrock. Only about 20% of local bedrock is sandstone, and thin sandstones contain the aquifers because they conduct groundwater better than shale, said Rose.

Big Sky relies completely on groundwater, Rose added.

Rose explained that because the aquifers are separate and fragmented, each aquifer is limited and responds differently to pumping activity. If one local aquifer is depleted, it cannot rely on a communal recharge source as if the entire aquifer were connected. Rose described that situation as “the biggest problem in Big Sky right now,” but added that snowmelt is a consistent source of aquifer recharge and that “the chemistry of the water is overall very good.”

District water superintendent Muscat then provided insight into the concern that water demand could outpace supply by 2032.

“Irrigation is the wild card of water use,” he said, later adding that Big Sky hopes to “[change] landscape to xeriscape.”

Muscat pointed out that for most of the year, Big Sky’s occupancy fluctuates at some margin below the recorded population. However, district water supply still needs to be ready to accommodate the day of maximum water usage, which should occur during times of peak visitation.

“How big can we grow?” asked Muscat. He said that water can only take you so far, and that Big Sky’s population will eventually reach a sort of carrying capacity.

“The true limiting factor is probably going to be Mother Nature, and how much [water] there is,” Muscat said.

Snowmaking will continue to impact the discussion of water. Yellowstone Club’s environmental manager Rich Chandler shared that increased snowmaking will help balance aquifer storage by drawing water to build an early-winter base on the mountain which will ultimately melt and return to the groundwater. The Yellowstone Club has an independent water and sewage treatment facility, but their sustainable snowmaking operation will launch in fall 2023 with similar goals to the Big Sky Water Sewer District.

With Big Sky’s updated water resource recovery facility that is currently under construction, reclaimed wastewater will be sufficient quality to recharge groundwater stores through snowmaking.

Mangold added the topic of septic adjustments along the Gallatin Canyon corridor to protect the river. Altman contributed to that topic, mentioning the possibility of taking wells offline from the riverside of U.S. Highway 191, and Gardner added that only 60% of the community is served by the Gallatin Canyon County Water and Sewer District. Partnerships will help get all septic systems on the same page, she said.

Mangold encouraged citizens to visit gallatincanyonwsd.com to find more detailed information on the septic project.

Water District officials plan to launch Big Sky’s new Water Resource Recovery Facility by May 2024. PHOTO BY JACK REANEY

BIG SKY HOUSING: CHALLENGE TO FILL “THE MISSING MIDDLE”

SKY’S LEADERSHIP GAP IS TIED TO ITS HOUSING GAP, WHICH RIVERVIEW

BRIDGE

BY JACK REANEY

BIG SKY – Community powers are collaborating to create a feasible path from entry-level employment to middle management, property ownership and community leadership. According to the Big Sky Community Housing Trust, these are the tenets of building a life and supporting a family in Big Sky.

“The problem we’ve gotten into as a community is we’ve closed off too many entry and exit points to the path,” said Dave O’Connor, executive director of the BSCHT.

O’Connor has lived in Big Sky ever since graduating college three decades ago and he understands the challenges and merits of building a life in Big Sky.

Deed-restricted housing has been available since 2017, when Big Sky’s MeadowView condominiums were constructed to offer an opportunity for practical workforce housing ownership. Deed restrictions work to exclude investors by limiting home equity appreciation to 2% per year and mandating that buyers work and live full-time in Big Sky. Eligible buyers also must earn less than 150% of the area median income.

“It’s not going to be your lifetime home because of the [deed] restrictions attached to it,” O’Connor said. “But it’s designed to get you started.”

MeadowView provides an affordable working-class living option, and hosts 105 members of the community.

“If you made a list of everyone who lives there and their employers, it would read like a chamber of commerce membership list,” O’Connor said. “It did what it was supposed to do.”

Creating continuity in Big Sky’s workforce

Without deed-restricted housing options, Big Sky workers would need to earn 200% of the area median income—which roughly amounts to $140,000—in order to afford market value real estate in Big Sky, O’Connor said.

That’s why Big Sky’s community needs to fill “the missing middle,” he said.

“Our community is missing middle price, our employers are missing middle management, our community is missing its middle leadership,” O’Connor explained. “It’s a nationwide phenomenon, and it’s affecting Big Sky just as much.”

The housing trust is focused on providing an entry point and a path of upward mobility to keep locals living and working in Big Sky. Powder Light is currently being constructed to accommodate seasonal employment. The next phase in building that path is to target low-income renters from the full-time workforce. That’s why RiverView—the newest workforce housing endeavor––matters to Big Sky’s future.

A home for essential, low-income workers

In partnership with the Lone Mountain Land Company, BSCHT is supporting the construction of 100 apartment units on a long and thin slice of land beside Lone Mountain Trail (U.S. Highway 64) across from the water reclamation facility ponds in the Meadow Village. Lone Mountain Land owns that strip of land and will operate 75 units, and BSCHT will operate the remaining 25 units on the westernmost portion.

Backed by a $6.49 million federal grant, the RiverView apartments will be structured through the federal government under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program and administered by the Montana State Board of Housing. The only other local LIHTC program is the Big Sky Apartments, built in the 1990s on Moose Ridge Road in the Mountain Village.

To gain eligibility, renters will need to earn less than 60% AMI, which equates to less than $40,000 annually, and work full-time in the resort tax district boundary. Rent is set at 30% of total income.

O’Connor pointed out that Big Sky School District teachers, county sheriff’s deputies, childcare professionals at Morningstar Learning Center,

and certain medical professionals fit into that 60% AMI bracket.

“Not just low-income workers,” he said, “but essential workers.”

A nonprofit, the BSCHT does not have the capital or for-profit leverage to compete with private developers such as the Lone Mountain Land Company. However, in the resort tax amendment, which is funding Big Sky’s new Water Resource Recovery Facility, 500 single family equivalents of water were dedicated to the BSCHT.

“Now, we have water to bring,” said O’Connor. “What this arrangement did is it took the Housing Trust—in a position of deficiency by definition––and gave us a resource to bring back to the table and allow us to participate as partners.”

He added that Big Sky is unique in requiring partnership from so many parties, which shows how the future of accessible housing is a communitybased solution.

A ticking clock Construction has yet to begin on RiverView, as a valid easement continues to restrict the land. Held since the mid 1990s by the Big Sky Owners Association, the easement secured the construction of the paved bike path to the school district.

“In the end, this is a kind of real estate negotiation,” said O’Connor, whose BSCHT does not own the land and is not involved with the process of removing the easement. “Coming to an agreement on the value of an asset, and then transferring the value of that asset so that we can build. And that’s kind of what we’re in the middle of right now.”

If Lone Mountain Land and the Housing Trust are unable to break ground and lay foundations before the ground freezes, they will lag behind the completion milestones during 2023 set by the federal LIHTC program.

“We were awarded federal funding in the form of tax credits,” O’Connor said. “And if we don’t use them, we lose them.”

An aerial view of the proposed RiverView Apartments. COURTESY OF BIG SKY COMMUNITY HOUSING TRUST

ENVIRONMENT

SPANISH PEAKS MOUNTAIN CLUB

COURSE IRRIGATION

BY JASON BACAJ

BIG SKY – Spanish Peaks Mountain Club settled this month with Cottonwood Environmental Law Center and Gallatin Wildlife Association, resolving a lawsuit the two groups brought against the club alleging that it violated the Clean Water Act.

The suit claimed Spanish Peaks illegally discharged nitrogen into the South Fork of the Gallatin River due to over-irrigating its golf course with reclaimed wastewater.

Spanish Peaks denied the allegations and the settlement “allows the parties to avoid a protracted dispute and costly legal fees,” according to a joint statement issued by the three organizations.

“Although the parties continue to disagree on the merits of the lawsuit, they have agreed to put aside their differences in favor of a resolution that everyone agrees will benefit water quality in the Gallatin River watershed,” the release states.

Under the terms of the settlement, the high-end club must install a new liner at the Hole 10 Pond on its golf course and limit reclaimed wastewater irrigation to 33.6 million gallons per year. The club must also submit an annual nutrient management plan for the golf course to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for five years, and monitor water quality levels above and below the golf course and submit the findings to both the DEQ and Cottonwood.

The club also agreed to pay $34,000 to the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology to study nutrient reduction and water conservation in the Big Sky area, documents show.

Nuisance algae blooms have hit the Gallatin River for five consecutive years and are likely caused by large amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen in the water, Scott Bosse, Northern Rockies Regional Director with American Rivers, told EBS in June.

The DEQ in June made a preliminary decision to classify the Gallatin River as impaired by algal blooms, following efforts from several conservation groups asking the state to declare the river impaired.

ALIVE WinteR

At Yellowstone, hibernation

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for the bears.

snowmobile

SPORTS

BIG HORN SOCCER PUSHES FOR PLAYOFFS, CELEBRATE SENIOR NIGHT WITH A VICTORY OVER LAUREL BECKETT JOHNSON NETS A HAT TRICK

“Usually if I’m within 20 yards out of the goal, and I have a shot, I’m gonna take it. Unless someone’s screaming at me,” Johnson said after the game. “I took the same shot last time and figured I could try again and put a bit less on it.”

Less than two minutes after tying the score, the Big Horns quickly set Johnson up in the middle of the pitch for a bouncing shot to the right of the goalkeeper’s dive.

“When we were coming back [after my first goal], I was yelling to everybody that it’s not over, we gotta get more. We had to win that game,” Johnson said. “If we lost this game, we probably wouldn’t have made it to the state playoffs.”

Before the Big Horns’ second half scoring barrage, the Locomotives grabbed an early lead, when Brayden Bennington ripped a free kick from 40 yards into the top left corner. Throughout the first half, their defense was strong, often closing in three-on-one against threatening Big Horns. They also ran an effective offside trap during the first half, drawing three early calls to stop the Big Horns’ momentum.

Soccer taught Rager to be a selfless part of a team and communicate wants and needs. Being a Big Horns soccer player brings this feeling locally and solidifies his roots, said Hannahs. He plans to study mechanical engineering in college.

Finally, coaches Coppola and Hyder wrote a statement of gratitude to the seniors, read by Hannahs: “All three of you in one way or another embody our three tenants of the 2022 season of commitment, respect and brotherhood… For many on the team, you have been a brother to look up to, lean on, and at times poke fun at,” Hannahs read. “You have all been an integral part of building the program, and we want you to know that you have created a positive and remarkable example to follow.”

After the Senior Night ceremony, the second half began. With wind from the west on the Big Horns back, the game quickly changed in favor of Johnson and the Big Horns.

The student section was boisterous and engaged throughout the evening of Big Horn soccer.

BY JASON BACAJ

BY JACK REANEY

BIG SKY – Lone Peak High School boys soccer took control in a key matchup against Laurel High School on September 29, both teams vying for a Class-C playoff berth.

After trailing 1-0 to the Laurel Locomotives at halftime, the Big Horns charged back in the second half for a 4-1 victory that would elevate them over Laurel in the standings in the unlikely case of a tie. Two scores by Beckett Johnson characterized the first four minutes of the second half. Johnson finished with a hat trick, the second of his life and his first for Lone Peak.

The first goal looked nearly identical to a shot he doinked off the corner crossbar last game—from about 20 yards away near the left corner of the box, he bent a left-footed shot into the top-right corner.

Laurel’s keeper made a jumping punch-save to keep senior Alex Rager from scoring early in the contest, junior Trygve Wikan couldn’t catch up to a through-ball on a breakaway, junior Cash Beattie took two closerange free kicks to no avail, and Beckett Johnson and Alex Rager both missed shots wide left during stoppage time.

Perhaps the halftime ceremony served as a reset for Lone Peak, as athletics director John Hannahs recognized graduating seniors Colter Marino, Max Romney and Alex Rager.

Marino was thrilled to have had the opportunity play on this team since the beginning, Hannahs announced over the loudspeaker. He plans to attend college and study computer science or finance.

Romney’s favorite memory was last year’s play-in game against Billings Central when a season of hard work came together in a big win, Hannahs said. He plans to attend college, find something he loves doing and make a career out of it.

“Beckett, throw it in the goal,” shouted a member of the Lone Peak student section as Johnson grabbed the ball for a throw-in after his second score.

Freshman Ian Pecunies attempted a bicycle kick on a ball gently floating in front of the goal, but his bold effort missed just right of the net.

With 18 minutes remaining, Beckett Johnson lined up for a penalty kick and a chance to score his third goal.

“I was watching Brazil versus Tunisia yesterday, and I saw Neymar take a penalty,” Johnson said after the game. “I kind of just did what he did: a little stutter, a big pause, then a little jump to see where his feet were looking. And then I just put [my shot] the opposite way.”

Wikan scored during stoppage time, contributing the 4-1 Big Horn victory over the Locomotives.

“We’re really in control of our own destiny now,” said Coppola, adding that something crazy would need to happen now to keep the Big Horns out of the playoffs.

Big Horn Ian Pecunies advances on the Locomotive goal during a second half that saw the freshman make multiple runs at the goal, including a bicycle attemt that narrowly missed the net. PHOTO

Max

Soccer

LPHS GIRLS SOCCER FALLS TO LOCOMOTIVES ON SENIOR NIGHT IN AN INTENSELY PHYSICAL GAME

BY JACK REANEY

BIG SKY – Lone Peak High School senior keeper Josie Wilcynski stopped most of Laurel High School’s shots on goal Thursday night, but the visiting Locomotives’ offensive talent was overpowering in a 6-0 win over the Big Horns.

“We played Laurel before, they are the best team in the state,” Wilcynski said. “I am a little frustrated with how tonight’s game went, but I know that everyone put all their effort out there, and I’m not disappointed with how I played at all. I owe it all to my teammates, they are so encouraging and I’m so lucky to be on the team with them.”

Wilcynski faced roughly 30 shots during the game. Although she allowed six goals, Wilcynski was tasked with containing the power and finesse of Mya Maack, one of the most accomplished high school soccer players in state history. Wilcynski dove all over the goal line, stuffed a handful of shots from close range, punched numerous loft shots over the goal and was a vocal leader on the field.

“I was so fortunate to train with Michael Romney this summer,” Wilcynski said. “He is such an amazing goalie, and I gained so much knowledge from him. Everything from diving to punching over the net, to short saves and how to position myself.”

Romney, who graduated in 2021, was a first-team all-state goalkeeper in his time at Lone Peak High School.

“Talking helps me too; I’ve been a very emotional player in the past,” she said. “When I get to my teammates and pick them up, it helps me pick myself up as well. I just have to keep everyone filled in on what’s going on, because I’m the only

person on the field who can see everything that’s happening.”

Wilcynski was one of four seniors celebrated before the game as part of the senior night celebration. Athletic Director John Hannahs announced each player and told their stories:

Wilcynski started playing goalie as a sophomore and has enjoyed learning a new position, said Hannahs. Also a basketball player and golfer, she wants her teammate to enjoy the time they have together and make the most of the opportunity to

play high school sports. She plans to study business or kinesiology in college.

Avery Dickerson is proud to bring a program to Big Sky that little kids can be excited about. She remembers her early soccer days in Charlotte, NC, playing for the Bumble Bees coached by her mother, Kim Dickerson, now the Big Horns head coach. She is grateful for the 12 amazing, strong women on her team, and is thankful for her father, who drives near and far to support her, Hannahs said. Avery plans to study speech pathology in college on the East or West Coast.

Soccer has made an impact on Myla Hoover that she will carry throughout her life, Hannahs said. Her highlight is the team bonding from her three years starting the Lone Peak soccer program, and recognized Doug Hare for being an inspiring coach. She plans to attend college, although her area of study is yet undecided.

Skylar Manka’s high school highlight came when she scored two half-field goals in one game, said Hannahs. She has been proud to start the Lone Peak soccer program and looks forward to seeing it grow and improve. She plans to attend college next fall, playing club soccer and majoring in engineering.

Dickerson and Manka anchored a defensive stand against the aggressive and physical Laurel offense. Manka’s size and strength were a close match for Maack, Laurel’s star attacker.

“Mya is a player we’ve been playing against since the first year of our program. She’s always been a very physical player,” said Manka. “It’s definitely an aggressive game, and I could have cut in more and pushed back more, because I fell down a lot. I don’t hold hard feelings, [both teams] played physical.”

Junior Astrid McGuire fights through contact after taking possession from the Laurel Locomotives.

PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

On top of soccer, Senior goalkeeper Josie Wilcynski also plays basketball and golf for the Big Horns.

PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

Senior Myla Hoover appreciates the team bonding from her three playing soccer at Lone Peak.

PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

Senior Avery Dickerson is proud to work with her mom, head coach Kim Dickerson, to help bring a soccer team to LPHS.

PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

Senior Skylar Manka's high school highlight came when she scored two half-field goals in one game.

PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

S U M M E R A T T A R G H E E

Grand Targhee Resort is a year-round mountain resort situated in the Western slope of the Tetons in Alta, Wyoming. Located in the CaribouTarghee National Forest it’s a mountain biker and adventure-lovers paradise. The mountain serves up over 70 miles of multi-use trails for hiking and biking, including 18+ miles of liftserved downhill trails and 50+ miles flowing cross-country trails. Plan your next adventure and escape to the Tetons this summer.

RIDE THE TETONS

BY JACK REANEY

BOZEMAN––In 2021, weeks before setting off to make history as the first adaptive athletes to climb and ski from North America’s highest point, right-leg amputees Pete McAfee and Vasu Sojitra first met and prepared by attempting to climb Mt. Rainer.

It was a rehearsal-trip with the full team of six, and they nearly reached the 14,410-foot summit before changing conditions turned them around.

“It was the safe call,” they told a crowd gathered at Montana State University on Sept. 26. They applauded as they watched a follow-cam shot of Sojitra skiing a 50-degree slope to descend Mt. Rainer, making jumpturns on one leg and using specialized sled-poles.

Still, despite technically not completing the full trial mission, the team felt ready to climb Denali, an imposing 20,310-foot Alaskan mountain.

In the Strand Union Ballroom, a few hundred students, outdoorspeople, and interested Bozemanites gathered on Monday night for a presentation and a Q&A on accessibility and inclusion.

Lights dimmed in the almost-full ballroom, and student facilitator Madi Weber from MSU’s Leadership Institute introduced Vasu Sojitra, an eight-year Bozeman resident, who walked casually on one leg with support from specialized crutches.

Before inviting Pete McAfee on stage to discuss the expedition, Sojitra challenged the audience to recognize factors of diversity––ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and class––and the true meaning of disability. Throughout the event, Sojitra emphasized the need for empathy and sincere effort with regards to these topics.

“I’m a skier, but I don’t like ski culture,” Sojitra said later during the Q&A, when asked if he felt supported by his mountaineering and skiing communities. “There’s a lot that could be worked on, with access and inclusion. There’s always an opportunity for growth there.” “Treat others how THEY want to be treated,” urged Sojitra.

Sojitra then introduced McAfee, who strode on stage on his prosthetic leg and shared photographs of his custom ski mountaineering gear. After moving to Oregon in 2009 and picking up skiing at Mt. Ashland in 2010, McAfee said he didn’t have access to an adaptive skiing program.

“I didn’t really know it existed,” he said, so he started on two skis with the prosthetic leg until he fell and suffered an open fracture of his tibia. After surgery, he realized it was a lot easier to control one ski than two, and the West Texas native fell in love with skiing around 2015.

“You know what?” McAfee told Explore Big Sky after the presentation, “I think I have an advantage, because I never have to think about crossin’ tips.”

‘We had made history’

In early June of 2021, their journey began in southern Alaska.

The six-person team packed five-hundred-thousand calories, including 50 pounds of condiments like an

industrial-sized bottle of Franks Red Hot sauce. They joked that the sauces were worth it, adding flavor to repetitive, high-calorie meals at elevation. And they almost used all 50 pounds.

Each climber carried over 170 pounds of gear, with Pete and Vasu pulling 105-pound sleds up steep and precarious terrain, avoiding crevasses deep enough to fit the Empire State Building.

More than halfway into the record-breaking sufferfest, they had an unexpected encounter at 14,000 feet. McAfee recalled the story, bringing laughter from the crowd.

“You know, if we summit this mountain, nobody is gonna remember us,” McAfee recalled hearing from a Colorado crew who had carried hot dogs and a charcoal grill to the camp. “But they will remember hot dogs.”

At this 14,000-foot camp, they spent a few days acclimating and having some fun by climbing 3,000 feet and skiing back.

When the team finally made the steep, technical hike along the West Buttress to camp at 17,000 feet, they slept only a few hours before recognizing their weather window was closing. As they closed in on the summit without any restful darkness during the Alaskan summer solstice, they knew they had to make the final push.

“Let’s make a move, right now,” said McAfee. “By the time we got to about 18,000 feet, you could see the clouds rolling in and snow coming.”

Twenty below, in a whiteout with gusting wind, each mountaineer took their turn posing for a video shot at 20,310 feet above sea-level holding a Jolly Roger flag attached to a ski pole.

“In that moment, we realized we had made history which was super cool,” said Sojitra over the calming music of the video they compiled, “and became the first people with disabilities to ski off the summit of Denali.”

‘Realizing what I was capable of doing’ Dr. Flynn Murray, MSU civil engineering professor who suffered a broken neck in a car accident driving back from Big Sky as an MSU undergrad, joined the panel to help answer questions about living life with a disability to the fullest. She praised the university for commitment to accessibility, telling a story of the time when she requested a button on her door which could help her get Red Bull more easily.

“There was a button on the door very promptly,” she said, met by laughter.

A higher-than-typical contingence of Monday’s crowd at Montana State shared disabilities with the keynote speakers, a testament to the importance of the work they’re doing to open doors to others in an oftenmarginalized community.

“It’s more about proving yourself right than proving others wrong,” McAfee said.

The two speakers didn’t talk much about the descent off Denali’s summit. . It was only after the formal Q&A had ended that they explained the descent wasn’t a three-hour ski run to base camp along dreamy powder spines.

“The snow was sunbaked, sun-hit, with pockets of powder, pockets of wind-buff––literally every possible snow condition you can think of,” Sojitra said. “All of the ski lines of Denali itself were bulletproof ice, like, three inches of blue ice.”

They camped and slept for around five hours at 17,000 feet, before descending directly to the airstrip.

McAfee said he felt stronger as he descended from high-altitude, despite the fatigue building from the long trek.

“It was almost a 36-hour push from when we went from 17,000 to summit and back to true base camp,” McAfee said. “We only stopped maybe twice––you’re just going, redlining, running and trying to beat the storm. I guess, just being able to raise the bar for me physically, realizing what I was capable of doing.”

PHOTO BY TED HESSER / COURTESY OF MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY

MONTANA STATE HOSTS THE FIRST ADAPTIVE MOUNTAINEERS TO CLIMB AND DESCEND DENALI BOTH RIGHT-LEG AMPUTEES SINCE CHILDHOOD, VASU AND PETE HAVE BECOME LEADERS IN THE WORLD OF ACCESS AND INCLUSION FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH DISABILITIES.

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SPORTS

CHAMBERS PROVES UNSTOPPABLE AS ‘CATS ROLL OVER UC DAVIS

BY COLTER NUANEZ SKYLINE SPORTS

BOZEMAN—As Brent Vigen stood outside the locker room at Providence Park in downtown Portland, a look of disdain was written on his face.

No, Montana State would take no silver lining from a 40-point loss, even if the Oregon State Beavers would almost beat Top-10 ranked Southern Cal the following week.

Instead, Vigen vowed his Montana State squad would collectively own the 68-28 thrashing, put it behind them and move into Big Sky Conference play with renewed focus.

Such words, said in moments of emotion, can sometimes come back to haunt a man.

But not Vigen and the Bobcats, at least not 20 games until the tenure of the stoic, towering head coach.

On Sept. 24, Montana State gutted out a 38-35 win against Eastern Washington in Cheney, becoming the first team to win on Eastern’s disdained red field two years in a row, ever. Following that win, Vigen stated that it was the type of win that could propel a team forward.

These Bobcats have become very good at making their head coach’s words come to fruition. And Saturday night, Montana State did it for the second week in a row, defeating a playoff team for the second consecutive week, this time under the lights at Bobcat Stadium and in front of a national television audience on ESPNU.

The fourth-ranked Bobcats moved to 2-0 in Big Sky Conference play and 4-1 overall with a resounding 41-24 win over UC Davis in front of 21,637 during a Saturday night game that almost turned into Sunday morning at Bobcat Stadium on Oct. 1. And they did it without their golden boy quarterback, instead turning to a former transfer who once didn’t know where he might write the final chapters of his football story.

“We fought that day (against Oregon State) but we weren’t able to change momentum. You look at these

last two weeks and we were able to take some blows and whether it’s offense, defense, special teams, tilt it back in our favor,” said Vigen, who moved to 16-4 as MSU’s head coach.

“That’s what we need to do. This is a good league and you are going to get tested week in and week out.”

The loss dropped Davis, the preseason No. 25 team in the country and one of five playoff teams from the Big Sky last season, to 1-4. The Aggies have played one of the toughest schedules in the country. Before Saturday’s loss, Davis also fell at Cal (34-13), at No. 2 South Dakota State (24-22) and at home to No. 10 Weber State (17-12).

The news coming out of last week (other than MSU’s historic triumph at the Inferno) was the head injury suffered by star sophomore quarterback Tommy Mellott. Sean Chambers came off the bench to will Montana State to victory.

With a full week to prepare as the starter, Chambers transformed from multi-use offensive tool into a shooting star. And he shined as bright as he ever has during a career with highlights and low lights mostly stemming from a series of serious injuries that ultimately led him to transfer from Wyoming to Montana State.

On Saturday, Oct. 1 against a struggling yet skilled, talented UC Davis team, Chambers was unstoppable. The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder scored a 78-yard touchdown on the second play of the game and never stopped charging.

His 29-yard touchdown strike to Clevan Thomas six minutes into the second half helped Montana State keep the momentum. His 65-yard rushing touchdown late in the third quarter gave MSU a full two-score lead. And his ability to engineer a punishing, victory-sealing drive that led to a Blake Glessner field goal put the game on ice.

“Tonight felt different,” said Chambers, who threw two touchdowns, rushed for three and finished with 430 yards of total offense. “Tonight felt like I was in complete control. It felt like the game was moving slow and quite frankly, that’s never happened for me in my career. It felt like everything was happening exactly how we wanted.”

Chambers is the second quarterback in Big Sky Conference history to rush and throw for more than 200 yards each in a single game, joining former Montana quarterback Dalton Sneed, who did it in a 41-34 UM win over Sacramento State in September of 2018.

Many questioned why Vigen would bring in Chambers after Mellott took the country by storm with an unforgettable three-game run through the FCS playoffs in his first three career starts. Chambers pushed Mellott all off-season, then shined when he got his chance.

“He did not want to get to the situation he got to, he did not want to go to another school and it’s just the way it worked out,” Vigen said. “To be fully invested now as a Bobcat and for our team to fully believe in him and for him to make the most of his opportunity, that’s complicated. We are there. We will get Tommy back and we will be able to utilize them both again. But he answered the call today. I knew he could.

“That’s what transferring should be about. It’s about getting a chance to go some place and continuing to write your story. He didn’t need his story to end at Wyoming so to have his story continue on here is a pretty neat deal.”

Senior wide receiver Willie Patterson hauls in a second-half pass against UC Davis. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

Junior quarterback Sean Chambers breaks free for a 78-yard touchdown run in the first quarter against UC Davis. PHOTO BY JASON BACAJ

BY JULIA BARTON

BOZEMAN – The conditions are good, any challenges have sorted themselves out and the stars are aligned. It’s not something you can schedule, nor a specific time of the day—magic hour happens when all the pieces just come together naturally.

Teton Gravity Research’s latest ski film focuses on these special moments on the mountain— including several around Bozeman and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—and premiered in Bozeman at the Emerson Center for the Arts at the end of September.

Last year’s less-than-ideal snow conditions made so-called magic hours more difficult to come by. The proximity of town to the zones the crew was filming in ended up playing a key role in the segment’s completion.

The film, “Magic Hour,” is comprised of various segments featuring groups of two or three skiers and riders exploring a different location or objective. Skiers ride pillow lines near Jackson Hole, skin into remote regions of British Columbia and take helicopters to Alaskan peaks. And perhaps less well known, but just as dramatic, the film includes areas around the Beartooth Mountains, the Bridger Range and, of course, some “secret spots.”

Montana-based skiers Parkin Costain and Jake Hopfinger filmed with the TGR crew in those local stomping grounds for the film. More than 20 athletes make appearances in the movie, including longtime legends Ian McIntosh and Sage Cattabriga-Alosa.

When the Montana segment appeared about halfway through the film, the crowd at the Emerson erupted, shouting and clapping with pride.

“It definitely was slim pickings last winter,” Costain said. “We just never really had those good days—at least on the trip we were on—so we were just picking away at it every single day for a month straight.”

PREMIER TO BOZEMAN

Since both Hopfinger and Costain are based out of Gallatin County, they were able to film in some key areas close to home.

“One day that was pretty special for us, we were skiing super close to Bozeman, and we just woke up in the morning and it was 15 minutes to the hill,” Hopfinger said. “We had epic light and epic snow, everyone skied something that we’re really psyched on and we just had an epic morning.”

The skiers often rode in on snowmobiles to access local backcountry, allowing one rider to man the sled while the other, skis strapped to their backpack, would jump off near the top of a ridgeline. The snowmobiles also made it possible for the team to efficiently link high-elevation snowfields and steep couloirs to deep, powdery tree lines and man-made jumps—not to mention the additional fun factor.

For Hopfinger, the movie is a bit of a “dream come true.” He moved out to Bozeman from his home state of New York to attend Montana State University and found the skiable terrain nearby to inspire new backcountry and big mountain pursuits.

After a few years of putting in the work, showing up to events and working on small projects, Hopfinger made an in with the TGR crew. When I asked him if he ever thought he’d be in big ski films, he said: “Totally not. It’s been a lucky run for me and I’m just thankful that I have the opportunity to do it.”

Although it’s not immediately obvious how accessible most of the Montana ski terrain is, much of the filming for “Magic Hour” is in locations far more remote than the Bridgers. For one of the final segments of the film, Costain traveled to Alaska with fellow athletes Tim Durtschi, Nick McNutt and Kai Jones to ski some big lines via helicopter access.

“Last season was especially rad because I got the call to go up to Alaska, which is the prime spot for TGR movies and where I can showcase my skiing the best I think,” Costain said. “It was just an unreal experience.”

It took two trips to Alaska for all of the pieces to align for the segment they were aiming for. They waited, prepared, and when the moment was right, enjoyed the snow.

The theme of waiting is a connecting thread throughout the film, and something ever-present in skiing culture—we wait all summer for winter, we wait all winter for the perfect snowpack, and somewhere along the way, if we’re lucky, we are rewarded with an hour of magic.

Jake Hopfinger jumps a large gap on a bluebird day. PHOTO COURTESY OF TETON GRAVITY RESEARCH

BIG SKY EVENTS CALENDAR

THURSDAY, OCT. 6

Community Week: Coffee with Community Leaders

Big Sky Chamber of Commerce, 8 a.m.

Community Week: Discussion on transportation Zoom, 12 p.m.

Community Week: Discussion on housing Zoom, 2 p.m.

After School ARTventure BASE, 4:30 p.m.

Community Potluck BASE, 5 p.m.

5th Annual Community Builders Forum & Economic Outlook

Warren Miller Performing Arts Center, 5:30 p.m.

Screening: Thursday Night Football

The Independent, 6 p.m.

Live Music: Chandler Huntley Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY, OCT. 7

Community Week: Volunteer Event Len Hill Park, 9 a.m.

Live Music: Kailey Marie Tips Up, 9 p.m.

SATURDAY, OCT. 8

Bridger Raptor Festival Bridger Bowl Resort, 10 a.m.

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 5 p.m.

Live Music: Jacob Rountree – Duo Set The Independent, 8 p.m.

Live Music: DJ Mo Jazz Tips Up, 9 p.m.

SUNDAY, OCT. 9

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 8 a.m.

Bridger Raptor Festival Bridger Bowl Resort, 10 a.m.

All Saints Big Sky Service

Big Sky Chapel, 10 a.m.

Big Sky Christian Fellowship Service

Big Sky Chapel, 4:30 p.m.

Community Art Class: Lidded Geometric Ceramic Boxes BASE, 6 p.m.

Screening: Sunday Night Football

The Independent, 6:15 p.m.

Live Music: Tom Murphy & Kevin Fabozzi Live Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

MONDAY, OCT. 10 Watercolor Workshop BASE, 10 a.m.

Screening: Monday Night Football The Independent, 6 p.m.

Live Music: Amanda Stewart Live Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

Trivia Tips Up, 9 p.m.

TUESDAY, OCT. 11 The Studio Practice BASE, 1 p.m.

Big Sky School District Board Meeting

Big Sky School District, 3:45 p.m.

Bingo with Big Sky American Legion Post 99 The Riverhouse BBQ & Events, 5:30 p.m.

Film: Kendal Mountain Tour The Independent, 7 p.m.

Live Music: Kylie Spence Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 12

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 12 p.m.

Trivia

The Independent, 7 p.m.

Live Music: Amanda Stewart Duo Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, OCT. 13

After School ARTventure BASE, 4:30 p.m.

Open Pottery Studio BASE, 6 p.m.

Screening: Thursday Night Football

The Independent, 6 p.m.

Live Music: Chandler Huntley Live Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY, OCT. 14

Live Music: Kings Return Warren Miller Performing Arts Center, 6:30 p.m.

Live Music: Divide: The Montana Jazz Project The Independent, 8 p.m.

Live Music: Robby Hutto Tips Up, 9 p.m.

SATURDAY, OCT. 15

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 5 p.m.

Live Music: DJ B Minus Tips Up, 9 p.m.

SUNDAY, OCT. 16

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 8 p.m.

All Saints Big Sky Service Big Sky Chapel, 10 a.m.

Big Sky Christian Fellowship Service Big Sky Chapel, 4:30 p.m.

Screening: Sunday Night Football The Independent, 6:15 p.m.

Live Music: Tom Murphy & Kevin Fabozzi Live Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

MONDAY, OCT. 17

Screening: Monday Night Football The Independent, 6 p.m.

Lecture Series: Neurological & Behavioral Concerns in Children

Big Sky Library, 6:30 p.m.

Live Music: Amanda Stewart Live Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

Trivia

Tips Up, 9 p.m.

TUESDAY, OCT. 18

Big Sky County Water & Sewer Board Meeting Big Sky Water and Sewer District, 8 a.m.

Live Music: Kylie Spence Live Montage Big Sky Alpenglow Lounge, 7 p.m.

Film: Propeller The Independent, 8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 19

St. Joseph’s Mass Big Sky Chapel, 12 p.m.

ABC’s of Common Neurological & Behavioral Concerns in Children Big Sky Library, 6:30 p.m.

A more detailed version of this calendar is updated weekly on explorebigsky.com

FEATURED EVENT

The Board of Trustees for the Big Sky School District #72 will host a public meeting on 3:45 p.m. in the Ophir Elementary Conference Room on Tuesday, Oct. 11. The Board discusses school policies, budgets and plans, among other things, that shape the trajectory for Ophir Elementary School, Ophir Middle School and Lone Peak High School.

BUSINESS

MAKING IT IN BIG SKY: BIG SKY SNOWMAN

BY MIRA BRODY

BIG SKY – After landing in Big Sky with his wife, Carrie, and whitewater guiding for a summer, Mac Chapin pushed snow for a living for the first time. After that initial season, plowing and shoveling through southwest Montana’s harsh winter climate, the owner of the company asked Chapin if he wanted the business. And thus, in 2008, armed with one plow truck, two machines and a team of three employees, Big Sky Snowman began.

Explore Big Sky sat down with Chapin to talk about the years since that first winter, and how Big Sky Snowman has grown. The residential snow removal service has been going strong for 15 years and just as the winters don’t, they show no signs of stopping so that people can get to doing what they need to do when the snow piles up.

This series is part of a paid partnership with the Big Sky Chamber of Commerce. The following answers have been edited for brevity.

Explore Big Sky: Let’s start with some background information on you, when did you come to Big Sky and what brought you here?  Mac Chapin: My wife Carrie and I moved here in the summer of 2007 from northwestern Maine where we had been working as recreation guides. During the winter of 2006 we had decided that we wanted to have kids and where we were living was not the place we wanted to raise them. That spring we rented our house out, packed all of our outdoor gear along with our two dogs into our truck and hit the road! Roughly two months later we landed in Big Sky. I started working for Geyser Whitewater Expeditions and Carrie at Spanish Peaks [Mountain Club]. We never looked back and now we have two wonderful children—Marley is 12 and Grady is 9. As a family we are so fortunate to call Big Sky our home and the kids love growing up here!

EBS: Tell me about the history of Big Sky Snowman— when was the company formed and what initially inspired you to start it?

MC: At the end of our first summer here, Eric Becker (the owner of Geyser) asked if I wanted to move snow for his small snow maintenance business. After a long summer of guiding I hadn’t really put too much thought into what I was going to do for the winter, so I said yes. Eric had back surgery that winter, so along with another staff member we pretty much kept the business moving. At the end of that season Eric asked me if I wanted the business. After some back and forth discussions with Carrie, we decided to give it a try. In 2008 with one plow

The consistent growth of this community has obviously added to the need for our business over the years, but the reality is we are still just moving snow so folks can do what they need to do!

– Mac Chapin, owner, Big Sky Snowman

moving snow so folks can do what they need to do!

There is no doubt that this growth has created some additional challenges for us. When we started in 2008, we could pretty much drive our machines anywhere around Big Sky at any time of the day or night to get the job done. These days we have had to get creative as to where we stage our equipment, fuel and when we can physically send team members out to do their job. The amount of traffic and the sometimes lack of understanding by drivers on the road as to why one of our slow-moving machines is out there, has definitely created some safety issues for our drivers and the equipment they are operating. This season we have had to set a window of time for our clients as to when it is safe for us to be out there due to these traffic concerns.

EBS: What is the best part about working at Big Sky Snowman?

MC: There are many great things about working at Big Sky Snowman for me. There are two reasons that stick out the most. The first one is our team. We have been so fortunate over the past 15 years to have many of them with us for so long. Currently our average team member has been with us between four and 14 years. The support and commitment from these guys have been amazing, and I am so grateful for each and every one of them! My second favorite part of working this business is the time I get to spend with my kids in the summer. It is so fun to watch them grow up here and enjoy all the things Big Sky and Montana have to offer.

EBS: What is the best business advice you have ever received?

truck, two machines and a team of three, we started Big Sky Snowman. We immediately realized that there was a need for the service we provided and the way we provided it! Fifteen years later we are stronger than ever as a business and a team.

EBS: How big is your team?

MC: For the 2022/23 season we will have 17 team members operating 14 pieces of equipment and four trucks.

EBS: Tell me about the different services offered by Big Sky Snowman. How have these services changed and grown as the community has?

MC: Primarily we offer residential services: clearing driveways with a machine that has a blower on the front and a drag plow system on the back. We also offer services for HOA roads and condominiums as well as commercial maintenance. The consistent growth of this community has obviously added to the need for our business over the years, but the reality is we are still just

MC: Years ago when I was guiding in Maine, my boss and the owner of that business told me never to call the people that came to us "customers," but that we should call them "clients." To him a customer was someone that came to your business, purchased something and left. A client is someone who comes to you for a service that requires you take time and procure a relationship with, earn their respect and do the best job you can to take care of their needs as it relates to your business. He felt this was the best way to keep people coming back for more and provide the prospect of earning that trust with more people in the future. In my eyes he was right and I will never forget the day he told me this. Thanks, Chris!

EBS: Is there anything else that you want to let the Big Sky community know?

MC: Well, as we go into our 15th year of business here in Big Sky, I would like to say thank you to all of our clients that have been with us for so long. I would also like to thank all of our many friends here that have supported us, the team and our family over the years. It takes a village, and what a great village it is to live in!

Mac Chapin and his wife Carrie have owned and operated Big Sky Snowman since purchasing it in 2008 and have been moving snow since. PHOTO COURTESY OF MAC CHAPIN

”

Making smarter decisions about renewable energy requires knowledge. NorthWestern Energy’s solar projects throughout the state of Montana provide clean energy to the power grid – and they’re shaping the future of renewable energy, too. We’re working with local universities to better understand where solar energy belongs alongside a balanced energy mix. And that research is helping us build a brighter future for the next generation of Montanans.

RISK STRATEGIES AIMS TO PROTECT BIG SKY’S ASSETS

COMMERCIAL AND PERSONAL INSURANCE FIRM ROOTED IN THE COMMUNITY

BY MIRA BRODY

BIG SKY – Tom Beattie says he has fly fished with many of his clients—it has become a comfortable way of doing business for him. In addition to targeting 100 days on the river per year and being a 10-year resident of Big Sky, Beattie helmed an insurance and employee benefits firm for 30 years. Today, he is the newest addition to the Risk Strategies team after the Boston, Massachusetts-based firm purchased Beattie and Associates in August.

Risk Strategies is one of the top 10 privately held insurance brokerage firms in the country and, with Beattie as well as Risk Advisor Yale Rosen here locally, they are proud to bring their expertise to Big Sky. Executive Chairman Mike Christian originally founded the company in 1997 as an insurance consultancy and that DNA still runs through the firm 25 years after its founding the firm has evolved into a specialty insurance broker with a team of experts across the country.

“Being a part of a larger group is important because of the experience and expertise,” says Rosen. “But you still have a local team with boots on the ground. We’re here to help and it doesn’t always have to be

in a phone call—we have the ability to be there in person.”

The firm covers personal and commercial insurance needs including development, construction, transportation and property management. Risk Strategies also has a private client group which is dedicated to the personal insurance needs of successful individuals and families. Acquiring Beattie’s St. Louis, Missouri-based firm will add strategic employee benefits coverage to this roster as well. Rosen has joined Risk Strategies with an education in economics, and background in baseball—he played professionally for the San Diego Padres organization for three years.

“I received four other offers to buy my business over the past three years,” says Beattie. “After learning about the business model and who they were doing business with both in the Midwest and Big Sky—I was confident they were the right fit. They must have felt the same way.”

While Big Sky is growing, its residents and business owners still hold a high value in relationships. That’s why, in an age where video and phone call meetings have taken up our daily lives, Beattie and Rosen will always meet with you in person.

“Locals help locals here in Montana, which is really important,” says Rosen. “While insurance can seem straightforward, it can get complicated very quickly. The relationships we have and the willingness to meet with people in Big Sky that is important to us. We can be on-site to get eyes on projects and understand the unique market we’re dealing with as well as the risks our clients face.

Just as many of us, both Rosen and Beattie and their families fell in love with the area soon after they arrived. Rosen lives in Bozeman, Montana with his wife and two kids. They enjoy camping, fishing and all that the Montana lifestyle has to offer. After acquiring a home in 2012, Beattie’s family made the move full time to Big Sky in 2015 so his two youngest sons could be raised here.

Beattie says those personal, locally-rooted relationships in business are of the utmost importance—you want to protect your assets with the same team who lives and works in your community, who patrons your local restaurants, hikes your local trails and fishes the local rivers. It’s what makes this place special and why we choose to live and do business here.

Visit risk-strategies.com/ for more information.

OPINION

HEALTH

BY SHANNON STEELE EBS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH COLUMNIST

“Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.” - Brené Brown

Even after more than two years, we can still say the COVID-19 pandemic has done a job on all of us. We have—and are still are—faced with very personal fears, losses and shared common anxieties and concerns that reach beyond the pandemic itself. We have all felt or witnessed the ripple effect of housing insecurity, workforce and childcare issues, and unsustainable over-productivity. Many in Big Sky continue to struggle with mental health and behavioral impacts, including unhealthy levels of drinking and substance abuse.

In key ways, the last two years in Big Sky have exposed unique challenges created by the isolation of vast open spaces and disrupted social and family networks. Many of us are separated from our core support systems and our social circles here are transitory and oftentimes shallow. It’s satisfying when we are relaxed, working and socializing together, but the pressures of the pandemic drove us all inward and inside, struggling with our own sense of self, safety and risk that is still present.

Studies of previous disease outbreaks showed that impacted populations experienced a sense of isolation arising from the loss of a usual routine and contact with others, along with elevated levels of stress, fear, low mood, irritability, frustration and boredom. Coupled with the unique nature of our community, the mental health risks to all of us here are high. The good news is that our community is mobilizing support.

Decades of research show that social ties and social support are positively related to mental health, physical health and longevity; both act as a buffer for the harmful physical and mental health impacts of stress. We are hardwired to crave oxytocin, the bonding hormone released when holding hands, hugging, during intimacy and even petting an animal. Connection is a basic human need for psychological growth and development.

Fortunately, in Big Sky, work to expand mental and behavioral health awareness, access, and availability was well underway before COVID-19 came along. Launched in 2020, Big Sky’s Behavioral Health Coalition was formed in response to research showing that community members were unaware of available resources and that resources—from social support to treatment—were, in fact, limited.

A few new resources are now in place, with more in the works, and the coalition is actively engaging community members to mobilize a network of volunteers, called the Navigator Network, to provide an entry-point for people to seek support. Navigators are trusted community members that have deep insight into the needs, strengths, culture, barriers and challenges of different groups within Big Sky (i.e. workforce, youth, ages 60-plus, Latino community, etc.).

The network acts as a resource navigator to ensure community members know about the local resources and how to access them. This means assisting individuals in accessing healthcare services, community wellness programs or social support services, pointing them in the right direction and providing them with enough information to ensure successful access.

If you are interested in learning more or want to become a navigator, email shannon. steele@yellowstoneclub.com.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

BY PAUL SWENSON EBS CONTRIBUTOR

Starting the walk down Ousel Falls trail is quite exciting. You never know what you might see, especially if it’s your first time. Even for us old timers who have been there many, many times, it's different every hike. There are birds, mammals, plants, fish, people and dogs, along with the ever-changing level of the creek that make each visit unique. But one thing remains constant: the story contained in the rocks. It’s a tale that took hundreds of millions of years to make.

Like any good book, let’s start at the beginning. Leaving the parking lot, you’ll notice along the sides of the trail rounded cobbles, boulders, and gravel. These weren’t put here during the trail’s construction, but rather came from the outwash from melting glaciers at the headwaters of the South Fork. The end of the last ice age was about 10,000 years ago, so we know that this unconsolidated collection of stream-rounded rocks is that old. Pondering that fact for a minute—the creek was level with the parking lot only 10,000 years ago; since then it has carved the canyon we’re about to enter.

As we round the first major corner there’s a small outcropping of light tan, fine-grained sediment just below the gravels. This displays the properties of a paleo-soil (ancient soil) from just before the melting of the glaciers, perhaps from a meadow sitting at that spot.

Continuing down the trail, one starts to notice the absence of the cobbles seen along the top section of the canyon, and the start of a fine-grained, thinly bedded rock called Thermopolis Shale. This shale got its name from where it was first measured, described and studied outside Thermopolis, Wyoming. The age of this shale is around 100 million years old. That means in a couple steps, we went back in time 100 million years. Cool.

This shale represents muddy, fine-grained sediment that was deposited in a shallow sea that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.

During this part of North America’s geologic history, major stress came from a newly formed subduction zone paralleling the continent’s West Coast, which caused the crust of the interior to warp downward, below sea level.

It’s this tectonic activity to the west that eventually led to the formation of the Rocky Mountains. During that time the crust of the interior warped up and down, causing the surface to rise above sea level, then fall below several times over the span of tens of millions of years. Evidence of this now presents itself at the first bridge, a sandstone.

This sandstone is called Muddy Sandstone and is an important reservoir rock for the oil industry in the West. It extends thousands of square miles and shows the telltale signs of being deposited in shallow water or tidally influenced bars, beaches, and dunes.

As you cross the first bridge, look down next to the South Fork and you’ll see ripple marks. They are symmetric in shape which indicates the water currents that formed them moved back and forth due to the action of waves in shallow water. There are others in this formation that display asymmetry indicating water moving in one direction only, like in a stream flowing through a salt marsh, but not here.

As can be seen in the photos, there are lots of modern-day examples of ripple marks in shallow bays in oceans and lakes, or even a river’s backwaters. If you’re careful and walk down to these ripple marks (the rocks are slimy and slippery!) you’ll be standing on a 100-million-year-old beach.

As we continue our hike, we notice that this sandstone is more resistant to erosion than the shales above it, and it’s this difference in hardness that leads us to the falls.

Now it’s time to return to the present and walk back up in time to our cars. Such a nice hike. Only took us 45 minutes, but hopefully you now appreciate it in a new light as it took nature 100 million years to create this natural spectacle.

Paul Swenson has been living in and around the Big Sky area since 1966. He is a retired science teacher, fishing guide, Yellowstone guide and naturalist. Also an artist and photographer, Swenson focuses on the intricacies found in nature.

The

PAUL SWENSON

Some of the Thermopolis shale visible along the trail. PHOTO BY PAUL SWENSON

Ripple marks are visible in the rock under the first bridge. PHOTO BY PAUL SWENSON

Ousel Falls. PHOTO BY PAUL SWENSON

WRITERS ON THE RANGE PLEASE DON’T PET THE WILDLIFE

BY KELSEY WELLINGTON WRITERS ON THE RANGE

“I can’t believe that person is getting that close.”

Just off the road stands a bull elk—a 700-pound animal with three-foot tall antlers—and a woman is standing not even four feet away from it. All it would take is for the elk to make one sudden swing of its head and the woman would be hospitalized.

“Here we go again,” I say, rolling my eyes. Then I hop out of the van, instructing my clients to wait here while I try to handle the situation.

I work as a privately contracted guide to lead visitors on wildlife and geology tours of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Leaning on my wildlife biology degree and six years of living in the Rocky Mountain West, I educate clients about the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. At 22 million acres, it’s the largest nearly intact temperate ecosystem on earth. Almost all plants and animals that existed prior to human presence in North America still exist here today. So, people flock here from all over the world to see wildlife as it is truly meant to be—wild.

“Excuse me!” I shout from the roadside, trying to get the woman’s attention. “Please back up!”

She doesn’t even flinch.

I try again. “Excuse me, woman in the white top and white hat! Please give this animal at least 75 feet of space!”

She still ignores me.

Although I do not have the authority that comes with being a park ranger, I do have George N. Wallace’s

advice in his paper, Authority of the Resource. He says the average person can claim the power to confront someone whose behavior harms the environment or the public’s ability to pursue recreational activities in that environment. If, for example, you see someone approaching wildlife too closely, you can speak up.

Far too many times this summer, I’ve had to speak up. In May, Grand Teton National Park recorded over 360,000 visitors, a 30 percent increase from May 2019. In July, Yellowstone had over a million visitors, a record. There’s a rule of thumb: more people mean more opportunities for them to get into trouble with wildlife.

Because some of these visitors were traveling to wild places for the first time, things sometimes went south quickly. Yet most rule-breakers were lucky enough to walk away unscathed; few even recognized the danger they were in.

But it’s heartbreaking to watch elk or bears become agitated by human ignorance. It is even more heartbreaking to know that these instances will only increase as more people visit these national parks. Wildlife may change their behavior, heading farther into the backcountry and therefore farther from view.

I love my job. I love driving around these two magnificent national parks and watching animals live their lives every day. Hearing the mating call of a bull elk echo through the valley at sunrise is nothing short of magical. Watching grizzly bears dig for food in preparation for hibernation never gets old.

Because these are experiences I want everyone to share, here are some tips for visitors:

Know the wildlife-viewing regulations of the area you visit.

National parks require you to stay 25 yards away from most wildlife and 100 yards away from predators. Check relevant websites before you travel.

Follow the instructions of authority figures.

Often, this will be a park or forest ranger stationed in wildlife hotspots.

Don’t block the road.

Please do not stop in the middle of the road! And turn your car off so everyone can enjoy the silence.

Book a wildlife-viewing tour.

While no wildlife guide will ever guarantee an animal sighting, experts know their stuff and will keep you—and the animals—safe.

Carry binoculars.

This is an incredible tool for viewing wildlife from a distance. I never leave home without my pair.

Become an authority for the resource.

Speak up if you see someone breaking the rules, and don’t be discouraged if you get a nasty response. You have the right to protect everyone’s access to nature.

When I return to the van after the woman finally returned to her car, my clients immediately begin expressing their disbelief.

“I’ve heard stories and seen videos of people acting like that,” one woman says, “but to see it first-hand is something else entirely.”

“You’d think people would know better,” says another.

You’d think.

Kelsey Wellington is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. She works as a private guide in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.

A version of this story first ran in an October 2021 issue of Explore Big Sky.

NEW

BY TODD WILKINSON EBS CONTRIBUTOR

For 30 years, Ray Rasker has been on the leading edge of thinking about this amorphous thing we call “the New West” which, in obvious ways, is very different from both the natural resource extraction-based “Old West” and certainly from the indigenous “Old Old West” whose presence remains after 12,000 years.

Early on, Rasker astutely identified that places like Bozeman, Jackson Hole, and more recently, Big Sky had economies driven not by how many board feet of trees were cut from national forests, cattle run on the range, or fossil fuels and minerals pulled out of the ground; instead, these New West centers benefitted from an increasingly mobile workforce, settling in such places based upon lifestyle considerations most enjoyed by the economic elite.

“Footloose” entrepreneurs, Rasker noted, were one subset of a still-ongoing economic boom.  Another was Baby Boomers and older (mostly white) folk able to exist on investment income. A third factor involved an emerging “service” sector not comprised solely of cheap minimum wage jobs in tourism but also health care providers, technology gurus and swelling non-profits.

A fourth, but not cited enough, is the construction and speculative real-estate industry which really functions no differently than mining boomtowns of old exhausting resources—in our case a finite amount of land and its correspondent aesthetic sense of place.

Some businesspeople, like K.C. Walsh of Simms fishing waders (founded by John Simms in Jackson Hole) pulled up stakes in distant cities, bought a company, and grew it in Greater Yellowstone. There are actually many similar manufacturers that attract quality employees who are drawn to living closer to public wildlands.

This factor has figured prominently in Rasker’s more recent research—analysis that has elevated the Bozeman-based firm he founded, Headwaters Economics, to a national stage. Headwaters is renowned for innovatively creating databases that allow, for example, residents of every county in the West to better understand the forces at work in their local economies.

Headwaters has been at the forefront of examining the rising costs of Forest Service firefighting efforts and the problem that half of the agency’s multi-billion budget is exhausted trying to save private homes unwisely built in the wildland-urban interface that has a higher probability of burning.

For journalists like me, Headwaters has been a valuable “go-to” resource. And recently, the outfit updated an earlier analysis showing that as people continue to pour into Bozeman/Gallatin Valley—the fastest growing micropolitan urban area in America— Southwest Montana is rapidly losing open space. But what are the non-economic consequences of that?

Here’s my criticism of Headwaters and it’s also aimed squarely at most conservation organizations, agencies like the Forest Service, every county, and all of the high-growth communities in Greater Yellowstone. As many tout the economic prosperity of inward population growth and continue to push outdoor recreation, none are seriously addressing the transformative ecological impacts of more people using the landscape.

All of us love to play in the outdoors. It’s why most of us live here. It’s why we are more physically fit and healthier than the national average of most Americans. It’s the foundation for many businesses and job creators. And it’s why the overwhelming whiteness of the region has made it a target for questioning the motives of the conservation movement.

What’s lost in the latter, however, is what makes Greater Yellowstone unparalleled and which is part of a legacy that belongs to all Americans—a healthy population of wildlife.

Amid all the cheerleading to create more access to the backcountry, more trails, filling the rivers with more floaters, and having state tourism bureaus spending many millions annually in advertising to promote our public lands, many of which are already crowded, no one is reflecting on the ecological toll being exacted.

How is the blind promotion of outdoor recreation any different from the colonizing forces of Manifest Destiny? I can provide readers with a list of prominent conservation funders that, for whatever reason, have been unwilling or resistant to discuss what many are calling the rise of “the outdoor recreation industrial complex”—a form of consumption that is as impactful as traditional resource extraction and likely more permanent.

COVID-19 is revealing many now-visible horrors of outdoor places becoming deluged with a flood of people on public lands that exceeds the carrying capacity of those places. No one is willing to discuss limits and the virtue of emphasizing quality experiences that protect wildlife and natural values against over-exploitation.

If conservation organizations, government agencies, elected community leaders, and philanthropic funders are truly interested in saving America’s last best and wildest ecosystem in the Lower 48—as gauged by healthy wildlife and its corresponding sense of place— they need to engage now.

The nature of Greater Yellowstone will not be saved based on the unchallenged conceit that the more people who use—or exploit—a resource the better. That’s not being elitist nor is it being exclusionary to people of color.

This, after all, is about understanding the destructive patterns of human population, of why and how most once-wilder places have been loved to death by mostly white people. Recreationists who reject wildlife conservation—and the environmental organizations enabling it to happen—need to acknowledge their role in creating a huge new New West problem.

A version of this story was originally published on Aug. 16, 2020

IS

BY RACHEL HERGETT EBS COLUMNIST

“Sandwiches are beautiful.

Sandwiches are fine.

I like sandwiches.

I eat them all the time.”

Don’t we all?

This is the opening of “Sandwiches,” a song by Fred Penner, another delightful Fred (a la Mr. Rogers) who entertained and educated children in the ’90s. My mom took me to see Penner at the Willson Auditorium in Bozeman, where the crowd hooted and hollered over his hit “The Cat Came Back.” This was my childhood.

Even if Penner’s song doesn’t play in your head every time you eat one, it’s a safe bet you’ve had some form of sandwich in recent memory. Defining that form can generate strong opinions, so I won’t step into the “Is a hotdog a sandwich?” debate. What comprises a sandwich is completely up to you. Like us, there is beauty in the variety.

I tend to make sandwiches of whatever is on my plate, provided the spread includes a bread—or roll-type thing. At my mom’s house outside of Bozeman, that’s Brazilian cheese puffs, little glorious balls of dough and cheese that she learned to make when she went gluten-free. Now she has to make a double batch any time she has people over for dinner. I’ve made cheese puff sandwiches with holiday turkey or prime rib, or at the last family dinner, simply mashed potatoes.

Cakes and cupcakes can also become sandwiches. Split the cake in half, or the cupcake between the base and the curved dome, and put the bottom on top if you don’t want frosting fingers. It also helps distribute the frosting between bites.

There are too many mouth-watering sandwiches to write about in one column. Instead, I’ll tell you about the sandwich I make for myself most often, which comes from the streets of southern Spain.

A decade or so ago, my rafting buddy and dear friend Maxwell Dunn was living in Seville, teaching and continuing his architecture studies after graduating from Montana State University. In the week I took up residence in his living room, Max showed me the sights, sounds and tastes of one of his favorite cities. We ate lots of sandwiches.

In Spain, a small tapas-friendly sandwich on a little baguette-type roll is called a montadito. There’s even a chain called “100 Montaditos” with restaurants around the country. We ate there because we were broke and it was cheap (1 Euro sandwiches and beers or wine/soda drinks on Wednesdays). But it was also pretty great.

Better though, is the montadito ever-present in the hands of breakfast patrons in street-side cafes. It’s the Spanish version of a ham sandwich, with the sweetness of summer tomatoes cut with the tang of a good olive oil and salty cured ham.

Making one is simple:

The bread is best when it has a crispy crust and airy insides. No need to be precious with them in the cutting though, because you’re going to make those insides a gooey mess. Cut the bread and cut a tomato in half. With half the tomato in your hand, rub and squeeze those delicious guts into that bread. Do both sides. Use as much tomato as you want. Then drizzle the bread with olive oil. We’re near the Mediterranean, after all. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Now add some jamón… that’s cured ham. Serrano is my go-to, but the main difference between it, iberico and prosciutto is the breed of pig. Fold a couple thin slices over the bottom piece of the baguette. Close it up. Enjoy!

This sandwich is great for all meals of the day and can be modified to your liking. Change up the ham or add an egg. Do sandwiches your way.

I’ve got to go make myself a sandwich, so I’ll wrap this up with one more line from Penner’s ode: “I will not ask a favor and I will not ask a fee, but if you have yourself a sandwich, won’t you give a bite to me?”

Hergett is a foodie and cook from Montana. She is arts editor emeritus at

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BIG SKY BEATS

COZY AS

BY JULIA BARTON

BACK 40

REPORTS: FENCING IN THE MODERN WEST

BY BRIGID MANDER

The short, adventurous reality of the true American Wild West died a quick, ignominious death when barbed wire fencing was patented in 1874. Cattleman quickly unspooled countless miles of the cheap fencing across the landscape to contain herds, putting cowboys out of a job. Homestead Act recipients fenced others out, and barbed wire earned the nickname “the devil’s rope” as it ended tens of thousands of years of such romanticized open spaces.

Fences are now as ubiquitous and unremarkable as sagebrush on the landscape, but for wildlife, fencing has never been unremarkable. There are now millions of miles of barbed and woven wire fencing, and it has long had a deadly impact on cherished wildlife populations that need space to move across the landscape for survival. The more research is conducted, the more the sobering reality for wildlife is clear.

“It’s incredibly hard to inventory fence miles, but it is a huge problem,” said Kyle Kissock of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation in Wyoming, which has worked to remove or modify fences in western Wyoming since 1996.

At first glance, it seems like a low-impact issue: What’s the big deal over some thin metal wires? They just jump over, right? It is in fact a brutal, deadly hazard: elk, mule deer, pronghorn and other wildlife often become caught in wires, trapped by the leg as they jump over fences to get to food, water or find seasonal habitats. Mature males can become entrapped by their own antlers in wires, and new calves and young fawns die when they’re separated from their mothers by woven wire fences that don’t allow them to go under, over or through.

In western states, enough open space still exists for animals to complete traditional, long-range migrations. Recently, one collared doe in Wyoming (Deer 255) alerted researchers to a 242-mile route from southern Wyoming to near the IdahoMontana border. But the Wyoming Migration Initiative showed in 2013 that mule deer, on their 150-mile seasonal migration between Wyoming’s Red Desert and the Hoback Basin, had to navigate about 170 fence lines.

A landmark 2006 Utah State University study of 600 fence miles in Colorado and Utah showed that for every 2.5 miles of fencing, at least one ungulate (hooved animal) died. It showed woven wire fences topped with two strands of barbed wire are among the most lethal barriers. Other times, fences near water or sage grouse mating grounds called leks are fatal if birds in flight collide while swooping in for hunting or landings.

The problem is one long known to ranchers, game managers and wildlife biologists, but increasing public interest in conserving remaining wildlife habitat and migration corridors has begun to push fencing issues into the spotlight. It’s good news for wildlife, but fence removals and modification are slow, expensive and can be complex, said Kissock, noting it can take a half-day for volunteers to remove a mile of four-strand barbed-wire fence. “The statistics are staggering,” he said, “and there are very few people on the ground to fix it.”

Yet each mile in migration corridors can make a difference. With the help of organizations like JHWF, fence modifications or removals can be done at a significantly reduced cost to landowners like ranchers, and additional help comes from volunteer labor as well as grants and federal, state and local agencies.

JHWF mainly focuses on fences in the Teton region, partnering with landowners, national parks and the U.S. Forest Service, but the more local groups and fence days other regional groups undertake, the better for wildlife. Along with the JHWF, conservation organizations such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, western state game agencies and even transportation departments and the Bureau of Land Management have worked for

years to mitigate the worst fences, and to educate ranchers and landowners on wildlife-friendly fencing tactics. But as the reality of fencing impacts becomes more publicized, other groups dedicated solely to the task are popping up, including the newly formed Absaroka Fence Initiative based in Cody, Wyoming.

Retroactively, nonprofits help by organizing volunteers, making necessary outreach to landowners or land managers for removal or modification. Important changes are smooth (not barbed) top and bottom wires. The bottom wire should be 18 inches off the ground so young animals can follow their mothers, and the top wire 12 inches from the wire below it so legs don’t get tangled.

A comprehensive handbook for any size parcel landowner on wildlife-friendly fencing considerations, called "A Landowner’s Handbook to Fences and Wildlife" by Christine Paige, is available free of charge on the Western Landowners Alliance website.

“Anytime a fence needs to be replaced is an opportunity to make it wildlife friendly,” said Renee Seidler, wildlife biologist and executive director of JHWF. “There are a lot of resources for funding and these projects really make people feel good because you’re taking tangible action to help wildlife.”

Brigid Mander is a skier and writer based in Jackson, Wyoming. She writes about mountain sports, culture and conservation issues for publications ranging from Backcountry Magazine to the Wall Street Journal.

A version of this story first ran in the Summer 2021 edition of Mountain Outlaw magazine.

For Explore Big Sky, the Back 40 is a resource: a place where we can delve into subjects and ask experts to share their knowledge. Here, we highlight stories from our flagship sister publication Mountain Outlaw magazine.

Troy Fieseler, a Wyoming Game and Fish Pinedale Habitat biologist, helps wind up old barbed-wire fence that was being replaced with wildlife-friendly fencing on big game winter range south of Pinedale, Wyoming.

PHOTO BY MARK GOCKE, WGFD

Wyoming Game and Fish employees along with volunteers from the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation work to convert a traditional barbed-wire fence to a wildlife-friendly fence on a big-game winter range near Scab Creek south of Pinedale, Wyoming. PHOTO BY MARK GOCKE, WGFD

Protect

matters

Gallatin

Authentic Montana horse property on 24.37 acres with amazing views of the Bridger Mountains to the North and Ted Turner's Flying D Ranch to the West. There is a quaint home with excellent detached improvements including a 2 truck garage with bonus truss storage, a 1930s guest cabin from Karst MT, a wood stove sauna, 35x30 Hay & Tack Barn, round pen, multiple corrals & turn out sheds, plus a large post & beam storage lean to structure. Mature landscaping and trees including a wonderfully placed hedge. No known covenants or zoning. Excellent fencing, well maintained pastures including a partial weed free certified hay pasture. View spectacular sunsets on the Bridger Mountains with wildlife activity that abounds. Location is ideal with a quick drive to HWY 191, South to Big Sky in 35 min; or NE to Downtown Bozeman in 20 min. Very close to a Gallatin River fishing access and multiple National Forest/Wilderness accesses. Endless possibilities with this wonderful property!

Montana, Make it Home

97 Crail Creek Court

TBD Michener Ranch

Big Sky, MT

Listed at $4,250,000 | 65± Acres

This incredible 65 acre legacy estate has multiple, worldclass homesites to enjoy diverse wildlife, and captivating views of Lone Peak, Spanish Peaks, Beehive Basin, and the Gallatin Range Hyalite's. With minimal restrictions and no HOA, this parcel allows for creative use to build your dream home, guest house, barn, shop, and more all connected to nearby power and high-speed fiber internet. The beautiful stone accent entry leads to multiple roads for endless recreation including hiking, biking, horseback riding, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, 4 wheeling, and snowmobiling.

Listed by Ryan Kulesza and Michael Pitcairn

Big Sky, MT

Listed at $1,795,000 | 2 Beds | 2.5 Baths | 2,180± SQFT

Make the most of your time in Big Sky! Located in the Big Sky Meadow Village, this spacious 2-bedroom, 2.5 bath Crail Creek condominium is being offered fully furnished. This end unit has been recently updated with new flooring, granite countertops, kitchen appliances, and baseboards. With its welcoming entryway, open floor plan, wet bar, and wood-burning fireplace, this home is a great place to entertain! A two-car garage and a 300-plus square foot bonus room on the lower level provide ample storage space within the 2,180 square foot living space.

Listed by Carrie Bryan

Welcome to in-town Big Sky living at its best! This sunny end unit condominium has 3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms, ready for you to enjoy all Big Sky has to offer. The convenience cant be beat, with quick access to restaurants, shops, farmers markets, concerts, grocery store, and hospital. The Westfork park and playground is also just around the corner. With just a short ten-minute drive up to the Big Sky Resort, you will be skiing over 5,800 acres of incredible powder in no time.

Listed by Michael Pitcairn

Big Sky, MT

Enjoy Big Sky from this end-unit Firelight condo. Walk to Town Center to enjoy PBR, live music, shopping and dining! This 2 bedroom, 2 bath first floor Firelight Condo is right in the middle of it all. Surrounded by trails for biking and hiking, or enjoy your east-facing patio looking out towards the Gallatin Range and Levinsky Ridge. Make this your Big Sky getaway!

Listed by EJ Daws

Spruce Cone, #14 Big Sky, MT

Listed at $995,000 | 3 Beds | 2.5 Baths | 1,400± SQFT

120 Firelight Drive C-10

Listed at $820,000 | 2 Beds | 2 Baths | 1,092± SQFT