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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”
‘The B Volume XXXV, Number 9
Inspiration
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County floodplain administrator fired following staff complaints By Michael Howell
Five of the participants in the Weissman retreat, left to right: Laughing Bear Torrez Dulgeroff (Stanford), Michal Caspi Tal (Stanford), Lara Myers (RML), Irving Weissman (Stanford) and Kim Hasenkrug (RML), outside Weissman’s ranch home. Photo courtesy of NIAID.
Montana setting sparks remarkable research for Stanford, RML scientists NIAID News Service NIAID immunologist Kim Hasenkrug says there’s more to being a productive scientist than being smart and having vast knowledge. “People don’t understand that a lot of creativity is needed to do great science,” he says. Hasenkrug’s research colleague, Irving Weissman of Stanford University, understands. For 27 consecutive years Weissman has used his Montana ranch and NIAID’s nearby Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) as an ideal setting to foster collaborations between Stanford research groups and NIAID scientists. The “Weissman Retreat” is a multi-day gathering where budding, mid-career and senior scientists share ideas and plan projects, sometimes while fishing on the Bitterroot River adjacent to Weissman’s ranch, sometimes while hiking the miles of nearby canyon trails, or sometimes during casual discussions at the laboratory campus or the ranch dinner table. Prior to starting the retreat, Weissman, who has been at Stanford since 1960, noticed that his lab group “wasn’t working together well enough. And they had no idea what Montana was like. So, I decided to bring them out” to try and spark their creativity. The setting makes a huge difference: “They hike together, they fish together … they talk all the afternoon, they plan experiments,” Weissman says. During the 2019 retreat at the end of August, 35 scientists representing 10 research groups discussed projects ranging from cancer therapies to brain regeneration. Hasenkrug, a senior investigator
at RML, adds, “We sit down, eat, drink – and talk science for hours. Some of those conversations have led to important experiments.” Hasenkrug said he has initiated four new translational research projects since the latest retreat ended. The seed for the retreat was planted in the mid-1980s during a meeting held at a guest ranch on the Sun River at the eastern edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. At the time, Hasenkrug worked for what now is the McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences in nearby Great Falls. Weissman had also worked there; both were raised in Great Falls, Montana. Weissman recalls Harold Varmus, a future Nobel laureate and National Institutes of Health director, and David Baltimore, also a Nobel laureate, being present at the Sun River meeting. Weissman felt that the relaxed outdoor setting fostered creativity and openness, and a decade later when Weissman and some of his research friends bought a ranch south of Hamilton, Montana – about a 15-minute drive from RML – he decided to try to rekindle that atmosphere with scientists at RML. Weissman knew of RML’s excellence from his interest in science in high school, and in the late 1980s he was invited to speak to RML staff about his research at Stanford. Weissman quickly realized the value his Stanford students would have by interacting with RML scientists and using the ranch as a home base. Part of Weissman’s research has focused on how the immune system develops and functions, and he saw that his work meshed well with RML scientists who specialize in infectious disease research – he
knew the two fields could greatly benefit through collaboration. NIH and NIAID leaders agreed to provide Weissman’s group access to RML, and in 1992, with the help of RML scientist Gerald Spangrude, the first retreat was held. Spangrude, a Montana native who had worked for Weissman at Stanford, left RML in 1994, and Hasenkrug – then an RML postdoctoral fellow – took over hosting the retreats. Since its start, Weissman has invited about 50 Stanford guests each year, at his expense, to stay at his ranch and meet with scientists from RML. Hasenkrug and his group coordinate the planning and participation by RML staff. Since the retreat began, collaborations between NIAID and the Weissman group have led to development of a new mouse model to study HIV that resulted in six peer-reviewed publications, as well as three published studies using the mice to study Ebola virus. Together, the Weissman and Hasenkrug labs now are investigating possible new therapeutics for infectious diseases based on CD47, an immune system protein that the Weissman group pioneered for cancer therapeutics that are in phase 1b and phase 2 clinical trials. Smiling over coffee at his dining table as the latest retreat wound down, recalling the people and projects the retreat has influenced, and his continued appreciation for NIH and NIAID support, Weissman simply said, “It worked out. “… it’s a good example of scientific collaboration and cooperation. We all have a will to talk to each other and over the years to develop relationships.”
Initiative aims to help transition to renewable energy economy Ravalli County volunteers are coordinating with statewide grassroots teams gathering signatures to put Initiatve187 on the ballot in November of 2020. I-187 is a proposal to stimulate the transition to renewable energy sources while also addressing inevitable impacts on fossil fuel workers and on Montana’s energy economy. In October, public one-
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
hour information Q&A sessions on I-187 will be offered at the three Ravalli County public library conference rooms: Tuesday, October 15 at 12:30 p.m. in Hamilton or Stevensville at 5:30 p.m.; and Wednesday, October 16 at 5:30 p.m. in Darby. Author of I-187, attorney Russ Doty of the nonprofit MTCARES (Montana Community Affordable Renew-
able Energy Saves), will be present as part of his statewide tour for I-187. Doty states, “Initiative sponsor Rev. Ken Crouch of Billings trusts this comprehensive renewable energy policy act will enable Montanans to join with 196 nations and almost every religion See I-187, page 3
County Floodplain Administrator Brian Wilkinson was told to turn in his office keys last Friday after the County Commissioners voted unanimously to terminate his employment effective immediately. The decision came after a few hours of open discussion about a recent complaint lodged against Wilkinson by another employee and the subsequent investigation by the commissioners. Wilkinson waived his right to privacy and the discussion was held in public. Commissioner Jeff Burrows began by noting that the Commissioners had received a complaint from an employee that Wilkinson was angry, aggressive, interruptive, and was creating an “intolerably hostile” work environment. The complaint alleged instances of the use of vulgar
language by Wilkinson in the workplace when he interrupted two of them in the course of their work seeming angry and using expletives when referring to the commissioners and again in a conversation about wages and salaries. Burrows said that based on the people and departments mentioned in the original complaint, he interviewed five other employees, one of whom confirmed hearing the vulgar remarks. He said they all found Wilkinson’s behavior in the workplace “very unprofessional,” “rude,” “crude” and “aggressive.” According to Burrows, the commissioners sent Wilkinson a letter on August 28, enumerating the allegations against him and the potential violations of county policy that were being considered as well as the potential actions that could be taken if the allegations
were found to be credible and asked for a response to the claims by September 5. Not receiving a response, they sent out a notice on September 6 that they would be considering the issue on Friday, September 13.
At Friday’s meeting, Commissioner Greg Chilcott asked Wilkinson point blank if he wanted to respond to any of the claims. Wilkinson said it was hard to respond because they were just showing him some “cuss words without any context.” He said that the commissioners were looking for a specific answer to a general allegation. He said he didn’t recall any specific event but might if they would tell him who he was supposedly talking to at the time and the whole context of the conSee COUNTY, page 8
Stevi council approves grant for airport improvements
By Michael Howell
If no significant changes are made to the draft of an airport improvement grant, the mayor will be able to sign off on it and get moving on the project. The $1.56 million project grant requires a 10% match from the local government. The town plans on seeking half those matching funds through a separate grant from Montana Aeronautics. The project includes runway re-construction, and construction of two aprons and some taxiway. In related business, the
Council approved a contract with Morrison-Maierle for construction oversight and pre-construction management of the project. The contract for doing the runway re-construction was awarded to low bidder Knife River for $1.52 million. In other business, the council rescinded Mayor Brandon Dewey’s salary and then approved a slight raise for the new fiscal year. The Mayor was currently being paid a monthly stipend of $833.33 and $25 per hour for up to 20 hours of work each week. Councilor Robin Holcomb said
that she brought the issue up because the extra pay was granted back when “the mayor threatened to shut the town down.” She said the pay was to compensate him for doing the jobs of the Clerk and Finance Officer when those positions were vacant and to hire and train replacements and was only meant to last a couple of weeks. “We now have a full staff and don’t need the $25 per hour,” she said. “I move to rescind the mayor’s pay effective immediately.” The vote to rescind the pay See STEVI, page 9
Steve Brown to serve as Stevensville District Ranger Steve Brown, currently the Northern Region’s Geospatial Program Manager, has been named acting Stevensville District Ranger on the Bitterroot National Forest following Tami Sabol’s recent hiring as National Forest Service Liaison to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Prior to his current position as the Regional Program Manager, Steve served as the Remote Sensing Program Lead and as a geospatial analyst for the Northern Region’s Geospatial Group. Brown, who first moved to the Bitterroot in 1998 and has lived here continuously since 2003, has worked for the Forest Service for 16 years. His career has allowed him to work across Montana and Idaho conducting vegetation surveys in support of the Regional existing vegetation mapping program. He has worked extensively in support of project planning and analysis, helping resource specialists incorporate new data and technologies into their workflows. He also served as the Incident Commander for the 2017 Regional Post-Fire Incident Management Team charged with coordinating the Regional postfire response to the historic fire season of 2017. Steve graduated from the University of Montana with a Bachelor’s Degree in Resource
Steve Brown, Acting Stevensville District Ranger. Conservation and Master’s Degree in Forestry. He has already started the temporary position at the Stevensville Ranger District and is looking forward to the next four months. “I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of really beautiful country in my career,” said Brown, “but nowhere that I’ve been compares to the Bitterroot. I’m proud of the chance that I have to continue
in the long-standing heritage of the Bitterroot National Forest in wise stewardship of the land and service to the local community. I am looking forward to the next few months and the chance to get to know both the employees of the District and the members of the community, who are all passionate about our natural resources and the management of our public lands.”