Bozeman Build #67

Good morning, welcome back to the 67th edition of the Bozeman Build Report, and happy Fathers Day to any dads reading this! Today we have a June USDA Newsletter, see Montanans attitudes toward tourism, burying trees, BLM Livingston wild horse adoption, spreading firefighting costs to landowners, grasshoppers, Nelson Meadows, Hyalite mineral, line striping, soda ash plants get acquired, and Bentonite.

Enjoy - Daniel

_{When and what is the Bozeman Build? The BB is a 1x/week free email newsletter delivered Monday mornings focused on Montana trade content and news. We are not a financial or building advisors.}

Montana and Bozeman Trade Pulse

Montana trade pulse

June 2025 USDA Montana Newsletter (USDA)

Montana Residents' Attitudes Towards Tourism - 2024 (UM Scholar Works)

Jun 09, 2025 Gentry's family lost numerous Ponderosa pine trees during the Poverty Flats Fire that burned 75,000 acres in July of 2021. Now they're rehabilitating it, burying all the logs and other biomass. Gonzalez-Kramer said the sale of carbon credits will help pay for the project. (Mast Reforestation)

Jun 10, 2025 Successful adoptions and community engagement at Upper Yellowstone WHB Event Of the 56 animals offered, 40 wild horses and burros found new homes with private adopters. (BLM)

Jun 11, 2025 Bode Miller's most recent ski brand venture, Peak Skis, seems to have closed its doors for good. As of publishing, their website is no longer accessible, social media accounts have gone silent, and local reports indicate their Bozeman, Montana HQ is quiet. A recent post in the skitalk.com forums further backs this up. (Powder.com)

June 11 2025 Communities of Big Timber, Fort Benton, Wibaux and Winnett have been accepted as members of the Montana Main Street Program, which supports downtown revitalization efforts. (Commerce MT)

June 11, 2025 Landowners in Montana are not paying their fair share of wildfire costs to the tune of at least $30 million, according to a new report from the Legislative Audit Division. In 2023, for example, the state spent $41 million on fires — $4.5 million on attempts to mitigate risk and damage from fires, $13.5 million on capacity and ability to dispatch firefighters and then $23.1 million on actual suppression efforts. Landowners do not pay the state for suppression efforts. (Daily Montanan)

Jun 12, 2025 Montana producers in the Golden Triangle region are preparing for potential grasshopper population surges and sawfly outbreaks that could threaten crops. (Montana Ag Network)

June 12th 2025 Missoula community members are signing a petition over the decision to close the St. Patrick Hospital family maternity center. (NBC Montana)

June 12th 2025 Air Force 2 landed at Butte’s Bert Mooney Airport on June 10, with Vice President JD Vance aboard. (NBC MT)

June 13, 2025 The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) today announced the completion of a feasibility study on wintertime cloud seeding to enhance mountain snowpack in southwest Montana. The study highlights the potential for cloud seeding to increase water availability, which is crucial for agriculture, recreation and overall water security in the region. (DNRC)

MDT News

MDT News updates posted last week.

• Fairview West project to receive chip seal and final striping

• Open house scheduled for Walnut & Ash Improvements project

• Open house planned for 7th Avenue North in Bozeman

• I-15 Wolf Creek construction resumes

• Construction project to rehabilitate I-15 in Helena begins

Bozeman trade pulse

Bozeman Planning Projects published last week

25037 - Gran Cielo 2 Subdivision - Develop a Major Subdivision that includes water, sewer & storm utilities within a public ROW and roadway improvements. (South of Graf Street, West of South 27th Avenue, and North of Kurk Drive)

25067 - Velocity Car Wash SP - Carwash Site Plan (3100 W Main Street Bozeman MT)

Nelson Meadows

Nelson Meadows Business Park – new M-1 zoned, master planned commercial subdivision currently under construction in the Bozeman. (Nelson Meadows)

Hyalite

Hyalite is a transparent form of opal with a glassy lustre. It may exhibit an internal play of colors if natural inclusions are present. It is also called Muller's glass, water opal, and jalite. (Mindat.org)

Bozeman fresh paint

A crew has been working around town knocking out thermoplastic handwork updating crosswalks and other pedestrian road interfaces. Line strip contracts vary by city or county contract and budgets but are typically either thermoplastic, epoxy, or waterborne paints.

Northern Rockies

June 13, 2025 Utah Sen. Mike Lee is bringing back a proposal that would allow the federal government to sell off several million acres of public land in Utah and other Western states. Introduced Wednesday evening, Lee’s amendment to congressional Republicans’ budget bill, nicknamed the “big, beautiful bill,” renews an effort initially spearheaded by Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, and Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, that sought to dispose of 11,500 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in southwestern Utah and some 450,000 acres of federal land in Nevada. (Daily Montanan)

Friday and Saturday Night, Northern Lights dipped across the Montana/Canada boarder (NOAA)

June 12, 2025 WE Soda, the world's largest producer of natural soda ash, confirmed this week that it’s downsizing 26 positions following a $1.43 billion acquisition of Genesis Alkali's two Wyoming mines. (Cowboy State Daily) WE Soda Ltd is based in London, UK.

Bentonite

From Riverton you could either take Highway 20 through Grey Bull or Highway 120 through Cody returning to Southwest MT. Highway 20 goes through Big Horn County which is home to around 8 Bentonite mill or mining operations. There is also a cluster on the NE side of the State called Colony. According to the Wyoming Mining Association Bentonite is known as the clay of a thousand uses. Wyoming is the number 1 producer in the world accounting for 93% of the nations and 70% of the worlds bentonite producing ~5.2 million tons/year. Read also the Wyoming State Geological survey Bentonite Report covering more of the geology stuff. (WSGS)

Thanks for reading,

Daniel

bozemanbuild.com & blockbiome.com