May 30 2017
ORC, Places

Place As Text: Livingston, Montana

Our visit to Livingston began at around noon in The Sacajawea Park. It was a dreary, overcast day and the temperature was in the low forties. Other than three or four children at a far away playground, we were the parks only visitors. We picnicked around a run down picnic table next to some decently well-kept tennis courts. We noticed that a lot of the playground equipment was outdated and fairly spread apart, like some pieces had been damaged and never replaced. 

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After a quick lunch, we hopped in our car and parked on a side street off the edge of the town, and began walking towards S. Main St. During a quick stroll around town, we noticed that bars, bakeries & restaurants and art galleries make up a good amount of businesses. This suggests that the town is a place of recreation and leisure for the people who enjoy it. We then walked into a clothing boutique called “High Trash”. The boutique was trendy and had a mid-century modern feel. There were clothes, shoes and accessories scattered throughout the store. We talked to the owner, her name was Bethany and she and her husband just opened the store on May 13th. They have two kids, a daughter who’s 3 and an infant son who was about 18 months. They were originally from Bozeman but moved to Livingston because the houses were bigger and cheaper. She liked that the town of Livingston is getting younger and they have a lot of art galleries, coffee shops, and clothing stores. We asked her why the name “White Trash” because we thought it was kind of bizarre, and she said “it is the clothing style that my friends and I would wear while out partying in college” so they brought the high class and white trash theme to the young girls in Livingston. In the back, the work of a local artist was featured, her name is Tori Olsen. They are hoping to have art shows and walks in the back of the shop during the summer. 

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After leaving “High Trash” we went to a thrift store called “Curated Closet”. The shop owner greeted us warmly, he appeared to be in his twenties and wore round plastic frames and a plaid shirt. The store contained an variety of clothes and accessories from various decades. After leaving both stores, we noted that there were only one or two customers in each. We then went to Livingston Center for Arts and Culture and we were greeted by a lady in the front of the and her dog, a sweet-tempered border collie she had rescued. After leaving the gallery, we met the rest of our group at a trendy bakery. Some of our group enjoyed coffee and pastries while we watched locals dart in and out. 

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May 25 2017
Uncategorized

Place As Text: Gardiner, Montana

This morning we began our journey around Gardiner at 8:30am. It was partially cloudy and a chilly 40 degrees as we walked across the bridge over Yellowstone River. We ventured up Second St. and noticed some souvenir shops and tourist attractions on our left and some restaurants on our right. The shops did not have much of the “Old West” feel, yet were still cozy and quaint. We then turned right onto Park St. and walked by a few shops. We noticed businesses around here open earlier than in Jackson Hole, and they do not all necessarily cater to tourists. We stopped in to Elk Inc. shop and spoke with Don, the shop owner. He is a native of Montana and has been in Gardiner since 1965. After receiving a degree in business he had the opportunity to buy this property to begin his own economic venture His shop is small and mainly sells tourist items and outdoor gear. Don also told us that he is a Game Call manufacturer and owns several patents. They sell worldwide and are world champions for their Elk game call, which he demonstrated to us.  They also sell calls for wolves and other animals. When we asked Don about the town he told us, “People really need to come in here to see it” because Gardiner is more of a town that people pass through to get to the park. He also stated, “If we ever get a streetlight I would be pulling out”. We talked about the fire in 2008 that burned on the ridge above Gardiner. He told us everyone had to evacuate because it was covered in smoke and that you couldn’t see across the street because it was so heavy.

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After leaving his shop we went to a trendy outdoor clothing store and talked to an 18 year old from Mammoth. She has lived here her whole life and told us that they recently renovated the roads in the town. She is a huge wolf person and believes that there should be a balance in the ecosystem because the animals rely on each other for survival. She said “Don’t touch the wildlife because they depend on each other, and we cant mess with the ecosystem”. She told us that the elk were overpopulated so when the wolves were reintroduced in 1995 it helped with the population. We also asked her about her opinion of the wildfires, she said that wildfires happen and to let them just burn. She said that they shouldn’t be stopped unless they are going to harm someone.

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We then decided to grab some food in Rosie’s Bistro. Since we were grabbing a quick bite we decided to sit at the bar. The restaurant was very small, like most that we had noticed. It was constructed entirely of wood, and gave us the cottage feel. While eating and working, we struck up a conversation with some park employees beside us. They were a young couple, appearing to be in their late 20’s. Than man said he was a sous chef at Old Faithful Resort and the woman wad a bar tender. Decked out in expensive outdoor gear, they asked us about where we were from and what we were doing in Gardiner. We discussed the recklessness of tourists and their interactions with wildlife and natural sites. They agreed with us that people will do anything for a photo, no matter how dangerous or disrespectful to environment and the wildlife.

May 19 2017
Stewardship

Forest Fires: Help or Harm?

Is it better to contain forest fires through man-made resources and human intervention, or allow nature to run its course on its own? #stopdropandroll

– To join the discussion, include #stopdropandroll in all your fire-management related posts!

Learn More About Fire-Management

Wildfires can be beneficial to the ecosystem and the environment, but it also can have negative effects including the safety of visitors, economic decline, and problems with policy. It is important to keep humans safe when they are in the park but it is also important to preserve the natural process that fires bring to the environment. For 14,000 years, fires have shaped the landscape of Yellowstone National Park. Different plant species and the ecosystem have adapted to survive the fires, while weaker species are killed off in the fires. A wildfire is defined as any fire that is burning in a natural environment. These fires provide nutrients released from the burning wood to help lower the decomposition rates in the more humid areas of the park.

The park staff intentionally ignite some of these fires as a vegetation management tool that reduce hazardous fuels in more developed areas, restore the natural landscape, and maintain the cultural landscapes as well. All of this must be strategically planned so that the people who come to the park will not be affected by these conditions. Though they ignite their own fires at times, the park staff also allows nature to run its course. They do not put out lightning-ignited fires out because they are not a threat to the property or the humans.

Wildfires have more benefits than negative factors, but we tend to think of fires as always a bad thing. Wildfires burn off plant species that can no longer compete to survive and it removes the tree branches that are blocking sunlight for the plants on the forest floor. The ashes provide nutrients to the soil and vegetation as well as when the when trees decay. Wildfires also kill off bug and insect species that have infected the trees and leaving the young healthier trees to grow more.

Although wildfires have many benefits, their effects may also cause great harm to the environment. Wildfires can be detrimental to soil, as they burn of a layer of organic material that provide nutrients to the ground below. Without this layer of organic matter, water runs off rather than being absorbed. This overall soil damage can also be attributed to soil erosion.

Another aspect of wildfire control pertains to the controversy surrounding the destruction of man- made buildings. According to the National Fire Protecting Agency, a total of 4,312 structures were destroyed by forest fires in 2016, including 3,000 homes and 70 residential buildings. Unfortunately, we are given the difficult choice of letting nature run its course or intervening to save residential and commercial properties.

What do you think? Should we continue burning our own fires, or solely depend on nature? Or, should we begin containing even naturally occurring fires?

Additional Resources

https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/upload/RI_2016_FINAL_Fire_web.pdf

This article discusses the use and impact of fire within Yellowstone National Park. It details the downfalls and benefits of igniting fires throughout the park.

 

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5323075.pdf

This resource covers the different types of forest fires, and defines the different kinds there may be. It explains how we manage and monitor fire conditions in our forests.

 

https://www.nps.gov/fire/wildland-fire/what-we-do/wildfires-prescribed-fires-and-fuels.cfm

This article also discusses the different types of forest fires and how we manage them differently.

 

http://www.pacificbio.org/initiatives/fire/fire_ecology.html

This resource details benefits and disadvantages to fire ecology. Fire ecology is focused on how fire relates to the environment surrounding it.

 

http://www.nfpa.org/public-education/by-topic/wildfire-and-seasonal-fires/wildland-fires

This resource is sponsored by the National Fire Protecting Agency and provides public education on wildfires.