interesting read regarding Bozeman growth

[handwerk]

Unnatural Disaster: Will America’s Most Iconic Wild Ecosystem Be Lost To A Tidal Wave Of People?.

So Bozeman friends....can it be saved?

 

[gelton]

he lost me at climate refugees...if he is worried about elk populations in Yellowstone then look no further than the wolf introduction, which isnt mentioned a single time while climate is mentioned 8 times. Makes sense only if you believe that humans are the enemy and not the protector. And to call Yellowstone a wild ecosystem is an oxymoron the animals there are more habitual to the presence of people than most anywhere else in the world...anything but wild.

 

[elkduds]

Unnatural Disaster: Will America’s Most Iconic Wild Ecosystem Be Lost To A Tidal Wave Of People?.

So Bozeman friends....can it be saved?

Sure. All it takes is for a large majority to value nature and rurality more than growth and consumption, and to vote thus.

I just spent 3 days in Cody and Yellowstone. Home for me is CO, currently CO Springs, w half a million of my neighbors, but my soul rambles the backwaters of the western slope.

Cody in September is relaxed, with enough retired tourists delivering the wealth of the lowlands upstream to keep the local economy lukewarm. The summer hordes have migrated, back to school. Still RVs abound, WY car tags are in the minority. Main street is catching its breath after the frantic haymaking, the economic hyperphagia of summer. Plainly the current edition of Cody has far more to do with customer service than with cattle or countryside.

On to Yellowstone, through the looking glass of the Rockies. Visits to Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park, accessed through the neon portal of Estes Park, offered a primer on Park Service versions of wild America. Yet Yellowstone astounds. So many visitor vehicles, crawling like lines of ants between the premier attractions. The geothermal ones are alien, and thus unavoidable. Faux mountain villages provide amenities of comfort and familiarity, right down to the 60s/70s classic rock on the gift shop sound systems, tailored to the target demographic taking a break from their grueling wait for the most famous eruption on the planet, conveniently performing every 90 minutes before the bleachered adventurers. The fauna, a few hundred bison in this instance, handily dispersed along a few miles of the Lamar valley to maximize face time w the bipedal masses.

Take Cooke City, add 20 years. You then have Cody. Give that a dozen years, it becomes Jackson. And so on. Reference the last century in the Centennial state, it predicts your future. We Greenies figure out what was lost and how we could have managed it differently, 20 years after the fact. And by then it is too late. Those of us unrooted enough just move to smaller, more remote communities; in search of what we lost. That exodus accelerates the same domino effect that took Telluride past Crested Butte and into Aspen's stratosphere.

There's your crystal ball.

 

[5MilesBack]

On the news the other night they did a piece on the Maroon Bells here in CO. They showed the parking lot at the trailhead AT 5AM jam packed and folks looking for parking spots before hiking in. There were well over 200 people standing around the lake with cameras and tripods everywhere, waiting for sunrise to take pics of it. It's like that all summer long, and it's in a friggun wilderness area.

Ya, people have ruined many a great place in this country.

 

[widnert]

It's irritating the mindset of the people moving here. It surely is. If they were coming here to assimilate and take-on the mindset of a Montanan, then great. However, they are mostly just bringing their mindset from whatever big city they last resided in with them. There are a few good results of the town becoming a larger population area. We are getting more of the stores/restaurants in town that we used to have to drive 2 to 3 hours to get to. The downside outweighs that though.

I get tired of meeting someone new and the first question they ask is "Where are you from?" I always seem to stump them when I say "Right here." I can't claim to be born a Montanan, (my Dad decided to join the Army and I was born overseas) but I got here as fast as I could, married a 5th-generation Montana gal and have her grandparents keep telling me I'm the most mis-placed Montanan they've ever met. I'm not living here to change anything because I think I know how to do it better. I'm living here because I like the way things are and plan to cultivate what was already happening here. Too many folks think they know how to do everything better. Well, those folks already here, that you think don't know how to take care of the environment or manage the animals (including getting rid of the wolves or cutting down the grizz numbers), have managed to make this place the beautiful place you're suddenly now learning about. I "think" they know what they are doing. Better to learn how its done here before proposing all the latest methods from where you came from. <End Rant>

Sorry for the speech. Sore topic around here.

 

[Violent Hippie]

The documentary "Rocky Mountain Heist" is a next level example of what widnert touched on. Interesting and grotesque IMO. One of the many great things about America is each state ( and city / town etc )has historically had its own known values and attitudes to some extent and the American citizenry could freely choose to live in an area that has the values that are similar to theirs. The wave of "change" has been flowing over many of the western mountain towns I have traveled to and I really began to notice this about 2 decades ago. I have recently heard multiple people romantically mention ( " did you hear so and so moved to blank. They love it " etc.)some places I felt were the last strongholds of traditional Western Mountain towns with old school values when these people do NOT share those values at all which leads me to believe even these places are on the radar of change. I've gotten this warm feeling on my neck when I heard this. Kinda like a rash type feeling if you know what I mean. Very arrogant to try to change a place when the locals there have been happy with the way it is for generations.

 

[VernAK]

Bozeman hell!
Can Delta Junction be saved?

 

[ChrisS]

It's a combination of a lot of things. It's a helluva lot easier for people to move. Work (can be) is easier, too.

Then again, a 150-200 years ago, a lot of people lived in the west and had their ways changed when a whole slew of people showed up ...

People go to where the jobs are and, if they can, find a place that they find aesthetically pleasing. The development of said place is firmly the responsibility of the residents. If you don't like strip malls, traffic, and tract housing, I suggest showing up to a local planning board meeting or running for a board position. If you're not at the table, you're on the menu.

 

[xziang]

It's irritating the mindset of the people moving here. It surely is. If they were coming here to assimilate and take-on the mindset of a Montanan, then great. However, they are mostly just bringing their mindset from whatever big city they last resided in with them..... .

This sounds like CO back in the 90's. Friends move to CO in the 90's and they felt 'welcomed' being from the Midwest but could definitely tell/feel some of the hostility natives had towards people from west coast (CA) because of their views/ideas. *shrugs*

 

[maninthemaze]

Hell, Don Henley and Glen Frey nailed it in the song "The Last Resort" back in 1976.

She came from Providence, the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams like a refugee,
Just as her father came across the sea

She heard about a place people were smilin',
They spoke about the red man's way, how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand or a place to hide

Down in the crowded bars out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all what it's like up there
And they called it paradise, I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low while the town got high

Then the chilly winds blew down across the desert,
Through the canyons of the coast to the Malibu
Where the pretty people play hungry for power
To light their neon way and give them things to do

Some rich man came and raped the land, nobody caught 'em,
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes and, Jesus, people bought 'em
And they called it paradise, the place to be,
They watched the hazy sun sinking in the sea

You can leave it all behind and sail to Lahaina
Just like the missionaries did so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign 'Jesus is Coming',
Brought the white man's burden down, brought the white man's reign

Who will provide the grand design, what is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here
We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds
In the name of destiny and in the name of God

And you can see them there on Sunday morning
Stand up and sing about what it's like up there
They called it paradise, I don't know why
You call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye



Just my 2 cents and worth the price charged.

 

[Ntgm37]

The other issue is that these transplants vote for their last state, and not their new one. They roll their eyes at the way we do things, then try and change their new town to resemble the one they just left. It's beyond annoying. I live in Cody btw.

 

[maninthemaze]

The other issue is that these transplants vote for their last state, and not their new one. They roll their eyes at the way we do things, then try and change their new town to resemble the one they just left. It's beyond annoying. I live in Cody btw.

Funny you mention that. My dad's wife, who is from New Mexico, told me about how people moved into her area because the air was so much cleaner and there wasn't all these plants to spread allergies. After a few years, the people brought plants from their home state, along with the allergens.

Just my 2 cents and worth the price charged.

 

[mountaingoat6969]

I'm trying to transplant myself into a western state from SC eventually. There are way too many people here and the idea of being out there grows on me more and more by the day. Hardly any public land here and can't get away from the crowds enough. I'd enjoy being in a town where everybody knows everybody


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[Titan_Bow]

I plan on moving to Montana from Colorado as soon as I can firmly convince the wife!

 

[mtmuley]

Missoula is a great example of how a Western Montana town has been changed in the way being discussed here. mtmuley

 

[aggieland]

Population growth is going to cause every town and city to grow from here until the end unless some sort of plague, war, etc lowers the numbers. When people dream of leaving cities or when common country folk lose their home ranges the look for the places you currently live. I have considered some day moving out west and visited Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado this year. But I can see the writings on the wall, the invasion has already reached a tipping point. With the amount of public land like national parks you have it limits the areas people can live and those small areas are going to explode with growth in the near future. At least here where I live now in TX my neighbors and I own large enough tracks of land to keep some of the encroachment at bay. But where you live people with money will break the bank to own even a small parcel of land due to the views etc. I feel for you folks and can only hope small America stays small.

 

[Beendare]

I sense some bitterness in this thread- grin

All i can say from living many decades is everything changes. The area I live and grew up in has changed drastically...it happens. You can't buy a house for $100k anymore....... what good does it do to bitch about it?

Your mental well being is a function of your attitude...in other words, just roll with it.

 

[5MilesBack]

Your mental well being is a function of your attitude...in other words, just roll with it.

Not everybody is a type B.

Some of us CAN'T just roll with it.

 

[elkduds]

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead.

That is why I bombard my legislators, argue PLT opposition and conservation to anyone who will listen, post my views among others who share some of my values. I'm damn sure not rolling over on these issues. Watch oil, gas, big industry like a hawk, you could wind up w flammable tap water Extractive industry cares about the environment, exactly the amount that regulations force them to. Any advertisements you see to the contrary are propaganda from the industry. That is why we have EPA, and that is why the current administration is gutting the agency.