“Keeping the Grass in Grasslands”
By Scott McMillion
Montana Outdoors magazine
July–August, 2010
How Montanans are conserving the state’s remaining native prairie.
“The Reef Makers”
By Scott McMillion
Nature Conservancy Magazine
Summer, 2010
Also at stake in the Gulf of Mexico: Miles of restored oyster beds
Nature Conservancy Magazine online posted an update to this article:
In December 2009 Nature Conservancy magazine reported on a project to build 1.5 miles of oyster reefs on the Alabama coast. About 60 percent of the manmade reefs were installed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.
The oil spill now threatens the new reefs. The project, described below, is halted and the Conservancy and partners are helping with oil containment efforts when and where they can.
Excerpt from “The Reef Makers“:
Oysters don’t sing. But they do make music. Drag a set of long-handled oyster tongs across the muddy bottom of Alabama’s Fowl River Bay, and you might hear the melody. It’s something the old-time oystermen call chirping.
It’s an odd sound, this clinking of oyster shells on rusty steel rakes: Imagine a wind chime doing its job under a couple feet of water. While this is sweet music to an oysterman’s ears — it sounds like money, food, another day of keeping the wolf from the door — the tune rings hollow around here these days. In 2009, state officials closed Alabama’s shores to oyster harvest.
The oysters of Fowl River Bay, Heron Bay and Portersville Bay, all part of the vast Mississippi Sound/Mobile Bay ecosystem along the coast of Alabama, have been hammered over the past few years and many have died, leaving empty shells that make a flat song. They’ve suffered what the locals call a perfect storm of perils: major hurricanes, extensive drought and a proliferation of killer snails.
Click here to read the entire story.
“Ghost Cat”
By Scott McMillion
Nature Conservancy Magazine
Winter, 2009
Photography by Ted Wood
Scientists in the Northern Rockies labor hard to protect the increasingly rare Canada Lynx. But first, they have to find the elusive creature. And that means diving into the deadfall. There’s no guarantee of success.
Click here to read the entire story.
“A Fragile Coalition”
The Montana Quarterly
Winter, 2010
Photography by Thomas Lee
Is Montana ready for more wilderness? U.S. Senator Jon Tester says it’s time.
Becoming Aware of the Bear
By Scott McMillion
Montana Outdoors
November/December 2009
If you hunt in grizzly country, chances are you’re breaking the rules.
That’s because you creep around. You hunt during early morning and evening. You mask your scent and walk into the wind. You usually hunt solo. You stay intensely focused on your prey. This is what hunting requires.
But it’s also the opposite of what bear safety experts say you should do in grizzly country.
The (Surprisingly) Quiet Bison Hunt
By Scott McMillion
Montana Outdoors
November/December, 2009
Unlike 20 years ago, there has been little uproar over the recent hunting of wild buffalo emerging from Yellowstone National Park. Why?
“Elvis Has Left the Building”
By Scott McMillion
Bugle Magazine
November/December 2009
The biggest, surliest and most charismatically violent bull to ever gore an Aerostar, Number Six was the Elvis of elk, but he wasn’t singing “Love Me Tender.”
“Land Snorkeling with Clyde Aspevig”
By Scott McMillion
Montana Quarterly
Fall, 2009
Go outside. Walk Slowly. Pay attention. Listen. Smell the air. Taste it. Look at the soil and see how it responds to your step. Notice which grasses shine brightest in the morning dew. Compare birds, the differences in wing and shape and flight pattern. Maybe kick over a rock, see what’s under there.
This is land snorkeling. Doing it could take you almost anywhere, even if you never leave your own neighborhood.
Think of it like snorkeling a reef. You drift over mysterious turf. You keep your head down, mostly. Everything is cool, so you look it all over, and you wonder. You come back smiling.
“Swimming with Giants”
By Scott McMillion
Western Art & Architecture
Winter/Spring 09
Every afternoon for 10 days, John Banovich went to the banks of Botswana’s Khwai River, where families of elephants gathered to eat and drink and bathe. With 25 trips to Africa under his belt, he’d seen a lot of elephants, but he wanted to see more, to learn more.
Then, on the eleventh day, he decided to join a group of 12 bulls in the river, slipping into the chest-deep water, among the hippos and crocodiles, trying not to think about mysterious bugs and parasites.
“Under the Red Hat”
By Scott McMillion
Montana Quarterly
Spring, 2009
Photography by Thomas Lee
Montana State University researcher Gary Strobel’s newest discovery, “myco-diesel,” just might change the world.
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