News - The University of Montana

Oh the painfully pleasant pace of bikes rolling along the plains of Montana. My mind is engulfed with thoughts about the natural environment, current civilizations, and the future of the two. Alright, you caught me. I am of course singing Bob Marley hits, ignoring a squeaky wheel, and fantasizing about the pack of beef jerky strapped to my glorious steed. But hey, I’ve done enough of that for the both of us, so I’ll elaborate on more useful memories.

We set out from the town of Roundup by mid-day, unsure what this new phenomena called ‘sunshine’ really was. We reacted appropriately – by stashing our arsenal of rain-gear far away from the bodies they shielded while shouting WRFI tribal chants (a.k.a. Latino-Ariba-calls-mixed-with-your-local-football-fan’s-wooting). The ride was blessed with good roads, nice weather, friendly commuters, and student thighs evolving to mountain-goat strength. After several hours of beautiful rolling hills we arrived to the welcoming shelter of the Wallace’s (which we will be forever grateful for; thanks for the ridiculously amazing breakfast !). The humble abode of the Wallace’s presides near the town of Ryegate; but more interestingly it presides 21 feet below ground. Furthermore, they have powered the music and lights helping us cook our tasty enchiladas with completely renewable energy. In fact, the combination of a wind-powered generator (1,000 watts) and solar-panel collection (1,200 watts) brought the Wallace’s entire electric bill to the miniscule sum of $17 (mostly as a result of recent utility price increases). Impractical on a large-scale you say? Oh my friend, there has never been a time that is more practical.

World electricity generation reached 18.5 trillion kilowatt hours in 2006. Two-thirds of this came from fossil fuels (40% from coal / 6% from oil / 20% from natural gas respectively), another 15% from nuclear power, 16% from hydro-power and 2% from other renewables. This plethora of production not only perpetuates environmental degradation and increases CO2 emissions, it is the villain that is heavily taxing our wallet by depriving you of the many benefits of efficiency.

Lightbulbs. Replacing your old inefficient incandescent lightbulb with new compact fluorescents (CFLs) can reduce electricity use by 3/4ths. This is one of the central areas that hold great potential for improvement (640 million of the 650 million lightbulbs sold in the United States annually are the old inefficient incandescent type).

Appliances. Keep the fridge, but for heavens sake unplug the computer when not in use. Over 10% of the world’s electricity consumption occurs in such stand-by modes. Seeking out energy efficient appliencies will pay off, for every $1 you invest in more efficient appliances, around $4 is saved on your electricity and gas bill over time.

THUS, my friends, mis amigos, mes amis. Now is a time when we can implement tax incentives for reducied electricity use such as optional electricity use during peak hours. A good time to retrofit old buildings to utilize immense cost-saving green techologies (high as 50% improvement). A great time to justify electrifying railroads as climate change charges forth and oil prices soar. An even better time to abolish non-essential industries like bottled water that withdraws 50 billion barrels of oil a year. Fossil fuels can become a great alternative, one that can fill gaps only in the worst of times. Its not a leap back, but a step forward, and a simple one at that. As the poetic philosopher Avril Lavigne said “why’s it have to be so complicated?”

Cory Zyla, University of British Columbia

“Wake up everyone! It’s time for eggs and sausage with Roberta!” I smiled to myself. It was the best wake-up call yet this trip. Instead of remaining in my sleeping bag, gathering the courage to subject myself to the teeth-chattering, hair-raising morning cold as I had every other morning, I was up out of bed and dressed within minutes. Today was the day we would receive a home cooked meal from Roberta, a retired K-6 teacher who now works on grants for the school district, her husband Dave, a retired math teacher and football coach, and their two neighbors, Ron and Maria (who had to join in on the hospitality after hearing about our arrival).

When we arrived, Roberta was outside and waiting. Were we happy to see her! After seven days of camping, seventy miles of biking, three days without a shower, and daily breakfasts consisting of a mixture of dried fruits, powerbars and instant oatmeal, our group of thirteen was ready and salivating for the comforts of home that these kind people had to offer.

After being generously fed and bathed, we began probing our new friends. They regaled us with stories of their lives and spoke with nostalgia of the town that Roundup once was. “It wasn’t always like this,” Roberta commented shaking her head. “The town’s a little depressed, as you can see,” added Dave with a hint of sadness, “all the young people have moved out, the older folk are passing away and there aren’t jobs available for the people that remain.”

Alan Olson, a proud resident of Roundup and a 12-year employee of Halliburton, who serves in the state legislature, currently is running for public service commissioner, and who has worked in the coal industry for most of his adult life, explained to us later that day that “Roundup is a city that has been burned.” It has been burned by the coal and oil industries that moved in and out of Roundup causing great economic boom upon entering and devastation and depression upon exiting. Alan, a proponent of the coal mines, however, wouldn’t blame the coal industry, but instead wants to do everything in his power to get them back and return the town to the economic and financial prosperity it once had. When asked about other forms of alternative energy that wouldn’t produce CO2 emissions and release other toxic chemicals into the air, Alan replied, “There are economics to everything and it drives the bus.” He believes the only way to financial prosperity in the immediate future is to rely on fossil fuels to provide the energy that the world is currently demanding. He adds, “How much are you willing to pay in order to bet something [global warming] might not happen?”

Wilber Wood, also a resident of Roundup and one of the founders of AERO (Alternative Energy Resources Organization) sees the issues differently. He asks, “How willing are we to bet on our health, livelihood and future as a species if we don’t act now to use clean energy?” Not unlike Alan, Wilber is concerned about his town of Roundup, the state of Montana, and the financial obstacles that lie ahead for these residents. However, he believes, as he outlines in Repowering Montana: A Blueprint for Home Grown Energy Self-Reliance, “an orderly transition to clean, renewable, sustainable energy economy ultimately will be less expensive for Montana consumers and will ultimately create more jobs.” He adds, “The barriers are not technological. The barriers are not institutional. The barriers are old fashioned economics and old fashioned politics.” “We have to stop looking for some big thing [coal mine, the oil industry] to save us, we need to save ourselves.”

That got me thinking. Wilber cares greatly for the town of Roundup, so much so that he has been fighting to save it for thirty plus years. Alan is no different. I will never forget the look on his face as he said, “This community deserves something… just look at it.” I think Roberta, Dave, Ron and Maria would agree. All these people just want to do the best they know how in order to save and protect the things they love. What we need to do now is find a way we can all get there together.

Lauren Green, graduate of the University of San Diego

Today was a sad day and an exciting day. It was sad because we said goodbye to the Charter Ranch and Ed Gulick; it was an exciting day because a kind woman invited us to a breakfast of eggs and sausage at her private home in Roundup. After having oatmeal for six mornings this invitation was like music to my ears. I immediately thought about how much sausage I was going to eat.

As we rose at 7:30 AM to a cloudy sky, high winds and low temps people started packing up their belongings. Amidst a frenzy of packing and cleaning we all tried to have a few last words with the three generations of Charters that had welcomed us for two nights. Bikes were packed and the house clean and it seemed the time to leave had come all too quickly. Ressa Charter read a farewell passage taken from Out of Africa: No One Can Leave Without a Blessing. This passage exemplified the Charters sentiment: We feel blessed to have you at our home; we hope you feel blessed and we would like you to bless our land. The Charters and our group shared some emotions, the instructors bid farewell until next year, and the students said goodbye hoping to see the wonderful Charter family again.

As we started pedaling Ed Gulick went south in style and we headed north to Roundup. It was very sad to see one of the peas of our pod leave, however I feel confident many of us will cross paths with Ed Gulick in the future. After several miles of riding I noticed the group had stopped ahead. As I approached I realized Phil had a flat tire on his trailer. I could not help but laugh at this situation, a Burley flat. Burley being the brand of trailer Phil was pulling. In addition to the Burley flat oxymoron I found it funny that Phil was the first student to get a flat because he had so much pride in his trailer he sported a ‘I love my Burley’ flag, which did serve as a visual aid for cars as well. It turns out this was not the only humorous situation on our bike trip.

After lunch we had a mostly downhill ride. Once we got out of the Bull Mountains and back onto 87 North we passed a road called Johnny Coal Road. Johnny Appleseed quickly popped in my head. I had a good laugh at the disparity between Johnny Appleseed as a conservationist spreading apple trees across the Midwest and the fictional Johnny Coal spreading coal around the country.

Thirty miles from the Charter Ranch we arrived in Roundup, Montana; we were hungry, cold and a little wet. After a hasty camp setup we sat down for a class discussion about the environmental, economical and ethical aspects of carbon sequestration.

The class discussion was winding down and Roberta arrived at the picnic table carrying the Billings Gazette. She had read about us in the Billings newspaper (the Gazette) and had come to offer us showers and a hot breakfast and we gladly accepted the invite.

I cannot express the feeling when a stranger extends themselves to such a unique group that is studying issues that are so controversial, especially in Central Montana, a region so rich in coal.

As I prepare for bed on a chilly Tuesday evening I cannot help but anticipate what adventures lie on the road ahead.

Stephen Brown, University of Montana

Home of the prairie dog in the Northern Plains of Montana, we awoke on the ranch of Steve and Jeanne Charter this morning. I scampered up atop a grassy knoll to get a proper view of this Big Sky I’ve heard so much about. It indeed is a large sky, and a vast stretch of plains laid out all around, interrupted only by the underground home of the Charter’s and our bike and tent village.

My experiences are from the coasts of this country. I have only known a lifestyle where people truly live in connection to the land and the sea through commercial fishing. How unique it is I’ve always thought to know people who understand these natural processes with a direct connection to their natural environment. But my first time on the ranch, I see that a rancher is a fisherman of the land. They understand this land, details us from away can only read or study in the name of science. This country seems so much more comprehensible all of a sudden, connecting such basic fundamentals as food and land and the people of these lands.

Today was well rounded, in an attempted partial return of the Charter’s awesome hospitality and generosity we painted and plumbed a bit for them around the ranch. The afternoon held a thoughtful discussion in dealings with coal, tar sands and our fossil fuel loving lifestyles. Steve and Jeanne filled us with personal insight into their fight against big coal development, and protection of their ranching way of life. It was the expertise of a guest lecturer from a university course, except we came to them, their home and their lives.

I got thinking about my current life, living in a college town where people’s jobs, lives and daily interactions are not ruled by the land or environment, but instead by the inside of buildings or industry or academia. Is this not how workers can intertwine their values with the cause of the corporation, and disregard community’s people and environments they effect with their of their actions. The Charter’s issues effect all of us, we are all facing these issues of coal and fossil fuel development. Is the difference that they see the upfront damage and effects first only so we can see the full extent of the externalities from pollution and climate change later on in the limitless future.

Devin Trainor, Humboldt State University

I slowly opened up my eyes and lay quietly in my sleeping bag, staring at the gray ceiling of my tent. Puzzled and a little displeased at my newly awakened state, I rolled over, prepared to go back to sleep. Then, I remembered that today was a special day. Today was the day that the Cycle the Rockies students had all been waiting for. D-day, and a day of reckoning. Today, I thought, a smile spreading across my face, we ride.

Our third and final morning staying at the KOA in Billings was filled with excited and frenzied packing. Putting clothes and food into my bags I felt overwhelmed by the amount of gear I would need to sustain me and my bicycle for the next month. Every item weighed heavy in my hands. I eyed the Tom Robbins book I had decided to bring with acute suspicion. After we finished breaking camp, and had a thorough bike safety talk from Dave and Nicky, we practiced riding with all of our gear, getting a feel for pulling pounds of extra weight by bike. Weaving in and out of camp-sites, our trailers and rear panniers wobbling in our wakes, we made our final adjustments and headed out.

We road the short distance from the KOA into Billings to gorge ourselves on our recently acquired bounty from the the Good Earth Market (Billings’ food co-op) in the sunny side-yard of Ed Gulick. After lunch, we followed Ed on our way out of the city, and to our first riding challenge of the trip; cycling up a long and steep incline toward the Rimrocks and the bike path that would lead us to the ranch of Jeanne and Steve Charter, our final destination for the day. As cycled up the hill, I quickly found the need to down shift into my lowest gear. My thighs skipped the burn and went straight to cramping with the the effort of pushing myself up the steep incline. What am I getting myself into? I moaned to myself as the handful of M & Ms that I had eaten at lunch threatened to make a reappearance.

But my fears of inadequate physical conditioning soon abated, as I was entranced by the view of the city from the Rimrocks. Amid merrily waving grasses and prickly pear cactus, Billings lay spread before me like a visual capstone of the activities from the past few days. Picking out the sites we had visited during our stay, I tried to wrap my head around the whirlwind of coal, oil and green-building issues that I had discovered in my short stay here. Soon, it was time to get on the road again. We officially said farewell to Billings and headed north.

Highway 87, our path to the Charter ranch, gave us our first taste for the open road. Riding in two groups paced a couple minutes apart so that the over-sized rigs and semi-trucks whipping past at 80 miles a hour could pass us with relative safety, we cycled through grassy plains; the sun breaking through the gray cloud-cover made the landscape glow and shimmer.

Twenty-five (surprisingly) quick miles later, we took a left off of the highway into the Charter driveway. After setting up our tents in a pasture behind the Charter house and a delicious dinner, we basked in the warm red glow of the Charter’s living room and chatted with Steve, Jeanne, and Anne (or Grandma Green, as she introduced herself as), Steve’s mother. Our topics ranged far and wide, covering time-controlled grazing, fighting coal mining in Eastern Montana, the creation of the Northern Plains Resource Council, and the relocalization of energy production and food systems.

As the hour got later the conversation slowed everyone headed off for bed. My muscles were a little sore, my mind a little tired, but I was beginning to figure out what I was getting myself into, and I was happy about it too.

Leora Stein, Whitman College