Gallatin Valley Land Trust conserves southwest Montana's heritage of open landscapes, working farms and ranches, healthy rivers, and wildlife habitat;
and creates trails to connect people, communities and the land.
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| monthly news January / 2012 |
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EVENTS
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Mark Your Calendars and Get Your Ski Legs Ready!
Make Tracks for Trails
Saturday, February 25, 2012 - at the Lindley Center Gallatin Valley Land Trust, in conjunction with partners Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF), and the City of Bozeman invites the public to our Nordic skiing fundraiser - Make Tracks for Trails (MT4T). Please join us on Saturday, February 25 at the Lindley Center, starting at 8:30am and concluding at 4pm. Come ski on groomed in-town trails!
Skiers raising pledges of support ($50+) for GVLT receive a $15 gift certificate to Montana Ale Works, a Sauce headband, snacks through out the day, and qualify for great raffle prizes donated by local businesses. The day features ski related activities for all ages and ability levels, and concludes with a party with food, beer and a raffle. We will provide breakfast and lunch items to keep you full of fuel for a great day of skiing. There will be BSF coaches on hand for basic and intermediate skate and classic skiing clinics.
For the younger side (5 - 12 year olds, 3 to 4 year olds may participate with a parent) BSF and GVLT will keep the kids entertained and having fun in the snow with the return of the Kids Carnival! There will be games, an obstacle course, kid friendly biathlon and snacks. The kids activities will go from 10 to 11:30am.
Interested in a little competition?... the Golden Ski Team Competition is back! Form a team of four and compete to win the prestigious Golden Ski traveling trophy. The winning team (which is the team with the highest combined score based on kilometers skied, dollars raised, and number of pledges) takes home the Golden Ski and wins dinner for 8 from Montana Ale Works; a five courses of gourmet small plates paired with fine wines. It is never too soon to begin thinking about forming your team and unseating last year's champions, the BWAGS.  | |
Photo by Moe Witschard
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Our events would not be possible without the amazing support from our sponsors. If you would like to sponsor the event or donate to the raffle please contact Anne Tyler at annetyler@gvlt.org or 406.587.8404 ext 6. |
LANDS
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Brooks Conservation Easement Closes in Late DecemberGVLT is honored to celebrate our newest conservation easement, donated by John and Carol Brooks in December on their 1,240-acre ranch in Madison County. This easement is the 88th conservation easement project for GVLT in our 20 year history, and we now hold 38,295 acres of permanently conserved land. In conjunction with several other adjacent conservation easement properties, the Brooks property secures permanent protection on over 8,000 acres of prime winter range for wildlife including a wide swath of classic southwest Montana foothills country. The Brooks Ranch is prime habitat for deer, elk, moose, antelope, bear and mountain lion with abundant scenic, open space, and agricultural values making it a wonderful addition to our other conservation easement properties throughout southwest Montana. We are enormously grateful to the Brooks family for their generosity, conservation ethic and commitment to maintaining the rural feel and high wildlife value of southwest Montana.
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TRAILS
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Where is your favorite trail to watch birds or other wildlife? This month, we are excited to share a poem by Anne Millbrooke, President of the Sacajawea Audubon Society. Her poem won a prize in the Close Encounters of the Bird Kind contest sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Anne was watching magpies in the cottonwoods on a trail at Frances Senska's conservation easement (along Sourdough Creek at southwest corner of Kagy and Church) when she got the idea and began writing this poem.
THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A MAGPIE By Anne Millbrooke
In demonstration of the superiority of Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" and in demonstration of the joy of bird watching.
 I
Animalia
Chordata
Aves, Passeriformes
Corvidae
Pica hudsonia
II
Common and conspicuous
In fact, ubiquitous
III
Black-billed like the relatives
Crows, jays, and ravens
Yes, a big family.
IV
Wock wock-a-wock weer weer.
My ear not tuned for the noisemaker,
I cannot translate.
V
Tail raised for walking
Straight for flying,
And dropped, descending.
Am I as obvious?
VI
Black hat, coat, and tie, white vest
Iridescent and flashy and formal
VII
The magpie is a scavenger
by occupation, but why, what
do we scavenge each day?
VIII
Following people through centuries
along paths, dirt roads, and pavement
Finding carrion for carrying on
IX
Dine on ticks and mice,
fruit or seeds, or roadkill,
Just as omnivorous as
the literary magpie.
X
Flight. Flying.
Take me.
XI
As spring snow covers blooming flowers,
go easy, go to the feeder, take the handout.
XII
Build a nest for speckled eggs
But winter roost among the trees
XIII
Birds, branches, snow:
piebald bird in piebald scene.
Where's Waldo?
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MAKING IT HAPPEN
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Our Sponsors
Each month we will spotlight a partnering business so our readers can learn how different businesses help us achieve our goals.
One of our wonderful partners, that helps to make it happen, is the Montana Import Group (MIG). Their commitment to conservation extends beyond the Subaru dealership. They are dedicated to providing lasting support for  the greater Gallatin community through partners that share a common stewardship goal. They generously support GVLT, as well as four other conservation groups working in Bozeman, and their environmental policy is "to promote environmental awareness and responsibility through our operations, the products we control, our communications and our relationships towards protecting our future."
Support from MIG in 2011 was instrumental in helping us to restore the Sourdough Canyon trailhead. They were also generous Event Partners of our very successful Evening on the Land, and our new Trail Map, which will be available this spring, was made possible in part because of MIG's generosity to GVLT. We are very pleased that Columbine Culberg serves on our Board of Directors and we are very grateful for this partnership and for all that MIG is doing for GVLT and for our community.
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GIVING
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Ways to Give
Thank you to everyone who made the holidays merry and bright for us with generous year end gifts. We are grateful. Our funding needs don't end when the year does so we hope you will continue to support us throughout this new year. We have lots of great land and trail projects, but need your help to make them realities. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Please visit our website www.gvlt.org or call the office for more details.
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SPECIAL THANKS :: VOLUNTEERS
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Each month we will spotlight a volunteer so our readers can learn about different individuals who help us reach our goals and complete our projects. This month we are highlighting GVLT 2011 Board President, Mike Wheat.
 Mike is a native Montanan. He is married to Debby (Craig), a Helena native, and has three sons and a daughter. Mike and Debby have lived in Bozeman since 1981.
Mike received a law degree from the University of Montana School of Law in 1978. After graduation, he worked as a Deputy County Attorney in Butte, Montana until 1981, at which time he moved to Bozeman and established a private law practice where he worked until 2009. Mike was appointed to the Montana Supreme Court by Governor Brian Schweitzer and took office on January 5, 2010. He was elected for another term on November 2nd, 2010.
Mike has served on the Board of Directors of Child Care Connections (a local non-profit), the Bozeman Public Library, and the Montana Trial Lawyers Association.
He was elected to the Montana State Senate in 2002 and served through the 2003 and 2005 legislative sessions. During that time, he served on the Judiciary Committee (Chairman, 2005), as well as Local Government, State Administration & Veteran Affairs, and Natural Resources Committees. He also served on the Environmental Quality Counsel.
Mike and his family are avid outdoor people who love hiking, skiing, fishing and spending time at the family cabin in the Tobacco Root Mountains.
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STAFF
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Dan Center - GVLT's new Office and Systems Manager Dan grew up in the suburbs of New York City and moved to Bozeman eight years ago. He worked at Montana Outdoor Science School, Bohart Ranch XC Ski Center, and managed Refuge Sustainable Building Center for five years. Dan enjoys long hikes in the woods with his wife, daughter, and dogs. He also looks forward to skiing, trail running, and backpacking during the appropriate seasons. Dan holds a B.A. in History from Williams College. He once hiked home from college, 170 miles along the Appalachian Trail, instead of spending three hours in the car. Dan is excited to be joining Gallatin Valley Land Trust (on Monday, January 9th) and looks forward to working with all of our GVLT members. You can reach Dan at dan@gvlt.org or 406-587-8404 extension 9. We are all pleased to welcome Dan the newest member of the GVLT team.
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BOARD
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Bidding Board Members a Fond FarewellThis month we bid a fond farewell to two of our wonderful board members, Dotty Ballantyne and Micheline Bisaillon. They each served on our board for six years and during that time added so much to GVLT with their generosity, leadership, ideas, wisdom, creativity and good humor. They will be missed on the board, but Micheline has agreed to remain on our Trails Committee and Dotty on our Finance Committee so they are still very much a part of the GVLT team. We thank them for their remarkable support and service. GVLT Welcomes New Board Member
GVLT is delighted to announce the addition of a new member to our Board Directors, Marty Ostermiller. Marty was born and raised in Bozeman and is a Director of Finance RightNow Technologies (soon to be Oracle). Prior to RightNow, Marty created a start-up payment card company, consulted for software companies, and worked in the travel industry from Europe. Additionally, Marty has taught two courses in international business at MSU and is now in the second year of growing "The Gift of Food" annual food drive event on behalf of the Gallatin Valley Food Bank. Marty is crazy about his wife and two young sons, and is an avid whitewater kayaker, skier, climber, trail runner and traveler.
We are very lucky to have Marty's talent, energy, ideas, commitment and passion!
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Gallatin Valley Land Trust
25 North Willson Ave, Ste E - Bozeman, MT 59715
406.587.8404 p.
406.582.1136 f.
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