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Biological control with specialist, nonindigenous, herbivorous insects is an important option for controlling invasive exotic plants in wildlands and nature reserves. It is assumed that biological control agents will reduce the dominance of the target weed, thereby increasing the native diversity of the associated plant community. However, this hypothesis has rarely been tested. We introduced Aphthona nigriscutis into grassland sites infested with the invasive exotic species Euphorbia esula L. on a nature reserve in Montana (U.S.A.). Two sites with better soil had been treated previously with herbicide, whereas two other sites had not. We measured the density and biomass of Euphorbia vegetative and flowering stems and number of native and exotic shrubs, grass-like plants, and forbs in 48 microplots in Aphthona release and control macroplots at each site. After 5 years, Aphthona release was associated with a 33–39% decline in Euphorbia aboveground biomass compared with controls at all sites. Other effects of the biocontrol depended on the site. Biocontrol slowed the recovery of species diversity at the sites previously treated with herbicide but slowed the loss of diversity at sites without a history of herbicide. Biocontrol introduction was not associated with a disproportionate increase in nontarget exotic species. Release of Aphthona caused a decline in the biomass of flowering stems relative to controls at good-soil, previous-herbicide sites but was associated with a relative increase in flower stem mass at poor-soil, no-herbicide sites. Our results suggest that biocontrol reductions in weed dominance will not always be associated with increased species diversity. More emphasis should be placed on conserving desirable communities and less on simple weed control. Monitoring of community-level effects should accompany biocontrol introductions on nature reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features systemic grant opportunities in Montana, which allow science teachers to participate in programs. How the programs are designed to function; Results of professional development projects.

A SETAC Technical Workshop titled ''The Nexus Between Ecological Risk Assessment and Natural Resource Damage Assessment Under CERCLA: Understanding and Improving the Common Scientific Underpinnings,'' was held 18-22 August 2008 in Gregson, Montana, USA, to examine the linkage, nexus, and overlap between ecological risk assessment (ERA) and natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Experts from a broad range of relevant scientific, legal, and policy disciplines convened to 1) ascertain the potential for improved scientific harmonization of the processes of ERA and NRDA; 2) identify where statutory, regulatory, or scientific constraints might exist that would constrain or preclude the harmonization of the 2 processes; 3) determine approaches that might overcome these constraints; and 4) recommend research or potential changes in regulatory policies that might serve to improve both processes. This is the introduction to a series of 3 papers that describe the findings and conclusions of this workshop. Although unanimity was not achieved on all technical, legal, or policy questions posed to the participants, some consensus areas did arise. First, there appear to be few if any legal constraints to using the environmental data collected for ERA or NRDA for both processes. Second, although it is important to recognize and preserve the distinctions between ERA and NRDA, opportunities for data sharing exist, particularly for the characterization of environmental exposures and derivation of ecotoxicological information. Thus, effective coordination is not precluded by the underlying science. Where a cooperative, interactive process is involved among the response agencies, the natural resource trustees, and the responsible party(s), technical, legal or regulatory constraints can be minimized. Finally, one approach that might enhance the potential applicability of data collected for the ERA is to consider ecosystem services in the development of assessment endpoints. These points are explained in greater detail in the series of papers published herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines return migrants and new migrants to Montana: Who are they? Why do they move? Do return migrants move for different reasons than new migrants? Data from the 1994–1997 Montana Poll, a representative survey of Montana households, are used. A comparison of socio-economic differences of return and new migrants shows that the two migrant types are very similar in terms of education, income, and age. This stands in contrast to the findings of others who maintain that return migrants are negatively selected with respect to education. Logistic regressions were employed to identify the effect of age and place ties on reasons for moving. Return migrants and new migrants move to Montana for very similar reasons, with family being the most important primary reason for moving. Moving for lifestyle reasons, such as environmental quality and urban amenities, were found to systematically change with age. This could explain why people return to a place they left earlier in life. While other research on return migration compared return migrants and other migrants who left the same place of origin, this paper offers a comparison of return migrants and other migrants who seek out the same destination. Results from the Montana Poll suggest that the same destination attracts return migrants and new migrants with similar socio-economic characteristics who move there for very similar reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water laws and drought plans are used to prioritize and allocate scarce water resources. Both have historically been human-centric, failing to account for non-human water needs. In this paper, we examine the development of instream flow legislation and the evolution of drought planning to highlight the growing concern for the non-human impacts of water scarcity. Utilizing a new framework for ecological drought, we analyzed five watershed-scale drought plans in southwestern Montana, USA to understand if, and how, the ecological impacts of drought are currently being assessed. We found that while these plans do account for some ecological impacts, it is primarily through the narrow lens of impacts to fish as measured by water temperature and streamflow. The latter is typically based on the same ecological principles used to determine instream flow requirements. We also found that other resource plans in the same watersheds (e.g., Watershed Restoration Plans, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Watershed Assessments or United States Forest Service (USFS) Forest Plans) identify a broader range of ecological drought risks. Given limited resources and the potential for mutual benefits and synergies, we suggest greater integration between various planning processes could result in a more holistic consideration of water needs and uses across the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explore immigrants' perceptions of their daily lives in a state with anti-immigrant policies in the United States. Using snowball sampling, researchers recruited a sample of 30 Latino immigrants in southwest Montana. The research team conducted semi-structured interviews in Spanish and analyzed the data using thematic analysis. We identified four themes: difficulty accessing healthcare, frustration over the inability to obtain driver's licenses, challenges related to employment, and desire to make a life in Montana. Fear permeated all topics. Lack of documentation presents complex economic, health, and social challenges that prevent immigrants from fully integrating into their communities. These are exacerbated in states that employ anti-immigrant policies. As Western states continue to experience growth in immigrant populations, it is critical to develop policies to support integration and equitable access to health and social services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although ecological risk assessments (ERAs) and natural resource damage assessments (NRDAs) are performed under different statutory and regulatory authorities, primarily the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), as currently practiced, the activities typically overlap. ERAs performed as part of the response process (typically by the US Environmental Protection Agency [USEPA]) should be closely coordinated with the natural resource trustees' (trustees') NRDAs. Trustees should actively participate in the early stages of the remedial investigation (RI) and work with USEPA, including the potentially responsible parties (PRPs), when appropriate, to coordinate NRDA data needs with those of the RI. Close coordination can present opportunities to avoid inefficiencies, such as unnecessary resampling or duplicate data gathering, and provide the opportunity to fulfill both process requirements with a few well-designed investigations. Early identification of opportunities for practical combined assessment can save money and time as the restoration process proceeds and facilitate a cooperative resolution of the entire site's CERCLA liability. The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) convened an invited workshop (August 2008) to address coordination between ERA and NRDA efforts. This paper presents the findings and conclusions of the Framework Work Group, which considered technical issues common to each process, while mindful of the current legal and policy landscape, and developed recommendations for future practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper valued the quantity of child, sick, and elderly care provided by households using anew, direct measure. Such measures add to the literature that estimates the size of the contribution of non-market work by household members, particularly women, and to literature about valuation of childcare. This production remains unvalued in standard national income accounts. Traditional attempts to quantify this care multiplied care-giver hours by a wage rate, a method that suffers from several drawbacks, including omitting the contributions of anything but labor, the inability to handle joint production, and the use of an arbitrary wage rate. This study avoided these problems by valuing the amount of care with its market price based on data from a small urban area. The mean value was $3,547 annually (97 percent of it childcare) for all sample households and $9,610 for those providing care. The results afforded evidence of scale economics in parental childcare and quantified care furnished by different kinds of providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the issues of the historic reception of `The American Stranger', a news documentary on socioeconomic and political conditions of Native Americans in Montana. Influence of regional cultural, political and economic issues on national network television program; Implication of the show on the regional politics and culture; Impact on the audience.

There are two hypotheses concerning how rapid growth affects women in rural communities: (1) women are more adversely affected than men, and (2) growth liberates women from their traditional sex roles. We used a specific subgroup of the female population-single, never- married females of marriageable age-to examine these two hypotheses. This paper focuses on how a male marriage-market squeeze caused by the influx of a large number of single, never-married males of marriageable age affects these females. The hypotheses, combined with proposals drawn from the demographic literature on marriage markets, are tested using data from counties in Montana and Utah impacted by energy development in the mid- and late 1970s. The measures used are changes in nuptiality rates and age patterns of first marriages. Our results do not allow us to fully accept or reject either hypothesis. Rather, changes in age patterns of marriage indicate that sorting out the local effects from the more pervasive social effects is problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural youth suicide represents a major source of mental health inequity in the United States (US). School-based suicide prevention programs may provide an effective avenue to address this mental health crisis among rural youth. This study's primary goal is to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of a novel implementation approach (utilizing teachers from a neighboring school) for delivering the Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) program, an evidence-based, universal youth suicide prevention curriculum, to high school students in rural Montana. We will recruit approximately 1300 9th grade student in four Montana schools. Using a non-inferiority design, we will randomize classrooms in each school to be instructed by a teacher from another school (YAM-TE; experimental) or a traditional external instructor (YAM-EXT; control). We will assess program fidelity of both YAM training and implementation via independent observer and instructor-reporter ratings. Youth will complete measures of acceptability at post-YAM and outcome measures at pre-YAM, post-YAM, and 12 month follow-up. Standard and mixed linear and logistic regression models will be used to test the main hypothesis that the YAM-TE does not differ from YAM-EXT regarding fidelity (teachers) and acceptability (teachers and youth). Exploratory analyses will test moderation of the intervention effect (e.g., sex, poverty) and the mediating effect of mental health literacy, belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness on the intervention effect. Results of this pilot study will inform the development of subsequent, fully powered noninferiority trials. Our long-term goal is to scale YAM-TE for implementation across rural US communities or, if culturally appropriate, more globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Montana's craft brewing industry has grown astronomically in the last few decades and has spawned many breweries with local names and themes. Using Montana's craft breweries as a case study, this paper demonstrates that craft breweries play a significant role in contemporary place-making. First, brewery and beer names are analyzed to extract several place-based themes, and it is argued that these perpetuate a particular New West identity for the state. Then, through the lens of tourism and the quest for 'authenticity,' surveys of brewery visitors are used to identify the various attractions that drinking craft beer and visiting breweries offer their patrons. Besides the taste of the beer, the local nature of breweries and their community focus prove to be an important draw for brewery visitors and provide the chance to experience the community in a more authentic way, and thus, offer an opportunity to make a meaningful connection with place. This research proves that craft breweries have become an important venue for place-making, not only in Montana, but in other cities and states with a significant craft-brewing industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazardous site management in the United States includes remediation of contaminated environmental media and restoration of injured natural resources. Site remediation decisions are informed by ecological risk assessment (ERA), whereas restoration and compensation decisions are informed by the natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) process. Despite similarities in many of their data needs and the advantages of more closely linking their analyses, ERA and NRDA have been conducted largely independently of one another. This is the 4th in a series of papers reporting the results of a recent workshop that explored how ERA and NRDA data needs and assessment processes could be more closely linked. Our objective is to evaluate the technical underpinnings of recent methods used to translate natural resource injuries into ecological service losses and to propose ways to enhance the usefulness of data obtained in ERAs to the NRDA process. Three aspects are addressed: 1) improving the linkage among ERA assessment endpoints and ecological services evaluated in the NRDA process, 2) enhancing ERA data collection and interpretation approaches to improve translation of ERA measurements in damage assessments, and 3) highlighting methods that can be used to aggregate service losses across contaminants and across natural resources. We propose that ERA and NRDA both would benefit by focusing ecological assessment endpoints on the ecosystem services that correspond most directly to restoration and damage compensation decisions, and we encourage development of generic ecosystem service assessment endpoints for application in hazardous site investigations. To facilitate their use in NRDA, ERA measurements should focus on natural resource species that affect the flow of ecosystem services most directly, should encompass levels of biological organization above organisms, and should be made with the use of experimental designs that support description of responses to contaminants as continuous (as opposed to discrete) variables. Application of a data quality objective process, involving input from ERA and NRDA practitioners and site decision makers alike, can facilitate identification of data collection and analysis approaches that will benefit both assessment processes. Because of their demonstrated relationships to a number of important ecosystem services, we recommend that measures of biodiversity be targeted as key measurement endpoints in ERA to support the translation between risk and service losses. Building from case studies of recent successes, suggestions are offered for aggregating service losses at sites involving combinations of chemicals and multiple natural resource groups. Recognizing that ERA and NRDA are conducted for different purposes, we conclude that their values to environmental decision making can be enhanced by more closely linking their data collection and analysis activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) convened an invited workshop (August 2008) to address coordination between ecological risk assessment (ERA) and natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). Although ERA and NRDA activities are performed under a number of statutory and regulatory authorities, the primary focus of the workshop was on ERA and NRDA as currently practiced in the United States under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This paper presents the findings and conclusions of the Synthesis Work Group, 1 of 3 work groups convened at the workshop. The Synthesis Work Group concluded that the different programmatic objectives and legal requirements of the 2 processes preclude development of a single, integrated ERA/NRDA process. However, although institutional and programmatic impediments exist to integration of the 2 processes, parties are capitalizing on opportunities to coordinate technical and scientific elements of the assessments at a number of locations. Although it is important to recognize and preserve the distinctions between ERA and NRDA, opportunities for data sharing exist, particularly for the characterization of environmental exposures and derivation of ecotoxicological information. Thus, effective coordination is not precluded by the underlying science. Rather, willing participants, accommodating schedules, and recognition of potential efficiencies associated with shared data collection can lead to enhanced coordination and consistency between ERA and NRDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an effort by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to identify whether the arsenic soil concentrations in a public park in Montana were a health concern for park users. Concern was expressed especially for children in the nearby town of about 3,500 who may visit the park regularly. To address this concern, the ATSDR designed and conducted a soil sampling program of the park in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Montana state health and environmental agencies, and the local county government. The sampling design focused on taking composite samples from the most-used areas of the park, such as trails, benches, picnic tables, and other areas where exposure to soil was more likely. Standard EPA methods were used for sampling and laboratory analysis. Results were compared to a risk-based concentration (RBC) of 684 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) which was based on the exposure of a child to park soil 48 times a year. This RBC was developed by the EPA with the concurrence of the other agencies involved. The results indicate that general recreational use of the park is safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho (WAMI) Program is a four-state decentralized medical education program initiated at the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSM) in 1972 with the goals of: (1) admitting more students to medical school from all states, (2) training more primary care physicians, (3) bringing the UWSM's resources to needy communities, (4) redressing the maldistribution of physicians by placing more MDs in predominantly rural states and (5) avoiding new construction costs. The program consists of a University Phase and a Community Phase, the latter extending to residency/postgraduate medical training. Thirty-three years on, and now renamed WWAMI (with the inclusion of the State of Wyoming), nearly 1200 students have been admitted to the program, with 5947 clerkship experiences and 2282 resident rotations, and the original goals of this experiment in decentralized medical education have been largely met. Almost half of all residents supported by the program return home to practice, and of graduates who underwent a part of their training in Alaska, Montana and Idaho, 64.7% returned home to practice. This paper reports on some lessons learned and speculates whether the WAMI program can keep pace with the rapid changes in medical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the evaluation efforts of the Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD) Council in the state of Montana are discussed. The Montana CSPD Councils, at state and regional levels, attempt to ensure an adequate supply of fully qualified educators and related service providers to meet the needs of all school children in the state, including students with disabilities. In earlier work, the five regional councils developed to plan and implement professional development programs and activities have been presented (Fishbaugh, Christensen, & Bailey, 1995), as has the needs assessment process employed in each region to identify and prioritize needs and activity to address needs (Fishbaugh, Rude, & Bailey-Anderson, 1998). This paper provides information with regard to evaluation of these efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increases in oil and gas prices and the decline of nuclear power have led to an increase in the competitiveness of coal. This change in relative economics has been particularly great for the six western coal-producing states where large low cost deposits of environmentally acceptable low-sulfur coal are found. Montana and Wyoming have responded to this situation by raising severance taxes substantially, and other states are considering similar actions. This has led to congressional attempts to limit state coal taxes. Using an integrated model of the U.S. coal and electric utility industries, this paper estimates how high coal severance taxes might rise with and without such legislation. Competition and incentives for cooperation between Montana, Wyoming, and other western states arc examined. Efficiency and distributional implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Douglas-fir or Pseudotsuga menziesii in western Montana, were seriously damaged by sulphur-dioxide (SO[sub2]) emissions from a nearby Kraft pulp mill. Foliage loss, needle symptoms, total sulphur of needles, and airborne reactive sulphur were greatest near the Kraft mill. Needle autopsies confirmed the diagnosis. Although the pulp mill has been in operation since 1957, several expansions and modifications have taken place. The latest, installation of a low-odor recovery process late in 1972, resulted in increased SO[sub2] emissions. This study describes the association of damaged Douglas-fir to gaseous sulphur emitted by the Kraft mill.

To inform conservation policy, we solicited scientist perspectives on a controversial conservation issue—the US Fish and Wildlife Service status review to relist gray wolves in the western United States on the Endangered Species Act. Our survey of authors of recent scientific publications on US wolves (n = 84; 26% response rate) indicated that about two‐thirds of respondents supported relisting. About 80% disapproved of Idaho and Montana wolf management plans and believed that they pose a threat to wolf populations in the western United States. Nearly half of respondents were unsure if population estimates of wolves in Idaho and Montana were accurate and reliable and about a fifth believed they were not. Both proponents and opponents of relisting primarily offered policy‐based arguments about state versus federal management, followed by biological arguments about threats to wolves, and social and ethical arguments about wolves and their management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tree rings have frequently been used to identify the effects of earthquakes on forests, but little is known about spatial variation in the response of trees to intraplate normal faulting. This paper documents and describes the effects of tree location (distance from and position above or below the fault scarp), size and age on the response of tree rings to the 1959 magnitude 7.5 Hebgen Lake earthquake, which occurred along a normal fault in the Gallatin National Forest in southwestern Montana. Core samples from 88 trees were collected along nine 100-m transects straddling the Hebgen scarp, and from 28 additional large-diameter trees near the scarp. The most common tree-ring response to the earthquake was a suppression in growth, usually lasting for several years. Among samples from the transects, suppressions were significantly more common below vs. above the scarp, but this pattern was not found among the large tree samples. Distance of trees (within 58m) from the fault scarp had little effect on tree-ring responses. These results illustrate the importance of interactions between tree location and tree size/age in identifying tree-ring responses to earthquakes. Smaller, younger trees required the direct movement of the downthrown block below the scarp to incur sufficient damage to record a suppression, whereas larger, older trees were damaged even on the stationary slope above the scarp. The small effect of distance from the scarp on suppressions suggests that event-response trees may be found further from a fault than previously thought. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]