All my friends in Bozeman get the Patagonia catalogue and I love their products. For when it comes to design, quality, and satisfaction guaranteed, Patagonia sets the standard. Patagonia displays a strong environmental commitment. Since 1985, it has donated 10 percent of annual profits (or 1 percent of sales, whichever is greater) to hundreds of […]
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Since 9/11 there has been an understandable resurgence in support for government. While there are good security reasons for this, there is also a huge potential for damage. Both the steel tariff and the farm bill are excellent examples of the dangers and injustice inherent to activist government. Nearly all environmentalists, conservatives, and libertarians are […]
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I have the great good fortune of living and working on a ranch near Bozeman. I write this while looking out a south window at 30 horses. They’ve come down from our hills to drink at a spring. Although much of the ground is bare, one of the streams which cuts through our place is […]
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There’s a vacant, unambiguously positive niche for environmental entrepreneurs. It’s modeled upon the hundreds of “study abroad” programs run by colleges and universities. This program would give students hands-on experience working with nature while providing farmers and ranchers a larger supply of responsible, seasonal labor. Concurrently, the program will contribute to the public goal of […]
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“How were your holidays?” Just wonderful, I reply. I learned a lot about our community and I’d like to share because stories influence behavior. Just before Christmas, Ramona and I returned from a 10-day business trip to New York City. When we got home it was minus 13 degrees and huge drifts blocked our lower […]
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Planning for an unknown future, the only kind we have, is indeed difficult. For many of us westerners, it’s also vexing. The past we knew and loved is rapidly eroding and what lies ahead is ever more amorphous. The world’s economic integration profoundly effects even the most remote and traditional ranching valleys. Throughout the Rockies […]
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My wife Ramona and I just returned from a mini-vacation on a ranch in the foothills of the Beartooth Range. It reminded us of the remarkably hard work accomplished by the homesteaders, of their poverty, and today’s easy living. Consider our history and try to imagine how pleased and excited we were when several of […]
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Those of us working to preserve wildlife habitat and open space will be more successful when we grasp a key principle; all resources, including land, gravitate toward highest valued uses. With agricultural prices nearing historical lows, the pressures forcing farmers and ranchers out of agriculture are increasing. Although some people may object to this claim, […]
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My physician recently told me; “You have really big hands”. He may be right for his data comes from observing academics, computer people, accountants, and lawyers. But compared with those with whom I worked a generation ago, he’s flat wrong. However, his observation is a useful benchmark of our changing West. We used to move […]
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Gallatin County is in the midst of growth as dramatic as the original settlement. Land prices have increased rapidly and the value of house lots near Bozeman now trumps that of hayfields by a factor of ten. This, coupled with the general weakening of the agricultural economy, is responsible for the rapid subdivision of ag-lands […]
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