November Forum: Environmental Sustainability From An Institutional Perspective

In recent years, most people have heard the messages about how to make our homes greener and more sustainable: Change out your light bulbs. Drive less. Insulate. Buy appliances that use less energy.

But what about institutions? Those who lead them know that the challenges of decreasing our environmental impacts multiply when we’re talking about big buildings with many employees and pools of vehicles. Institutions face regulatory hurdles, large volumes of resources used, waste created and high levels of interaction with the public. How do we green up our institutions while we maintain the same levels of service to our customers? Are there costs savings that will provide added benefits? How can we change our thinking to see new ways of doing business? Institutions have the potential for creating change that matters for the environment and the people in it.

At City Club Missoula’s November public forum, four leaders of Missoula institutions will talk about what their organizations have done and where they are going. The four guest speakers will be: Jeff Fee, President and CEO, St. Patrick Hospital; John Engen, Mayor, City of Missoula; James Foley, Executive Vice President, The University of Montana; Jim Kenyon, Senior Manager, Missoula Federal Credit Union.. Have your Say

October Forum: Purchase of 312,000 Acres of Land in Western Montana

This summer, The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land announced an agreement with Plum Creek Timber Company to purchase approximately a quarter of its land holdings in western Montana. The goal of the project is to protect 312,000 acres of scattered forestland in western Montana from mounting development pressures, while maintaining forest management, public recreational access, and natural resource conservation. Almost 70 percent of these lands are within Missoula County. What kind of challenges will this ambitious project encounter? How will this vast area of land be used? Caroline Byrd and Chris Bryant of The Nature Conservancy, and Jerry Sorensen of Plum Creek Timber Company will be presenting this project and will be discussing its progress and possibilities.Have Your Say

The Rising Cost of Food

September 15 , 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

This summer, Americans have experienced sticker shock at the grocery store. Cereal, peanut butter, olive oil and other basics are going up in price much faster than the average Joe and Jane’s paychecks. What’s behind the rising cost of food? What factors affect locally grown food, and what affects the price of food transported across the country? Where will our food come from in the future? What are the roles of fuel costs and pressures for other uses for food crops, such as ethanol? What can people do to control the costs to their own households?

City Club Missoula’s September forum will look at these issues with a panel of experts. Panelists will be Josh Slotnick, co-owner of Clark Fork Organics in Missoula and an instructor in the University of Montana’s Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society (PEAS); Joel Clairmont, deputy director of the Montana Department of Agriculture and owner and operator of a family farm that raises hay, grain and beef cattle; Crissie McMullen of Grow Montana, a coalition of agencies and organizations promoting a more central role for community-based agriculture in Montana; and Vern House, an agricultural economist who has taught at the University of Wyoming, Clemson University and Texas A&M University and served as extension economist at Montana State University for 17 years. Have Your Say

The University of Montana Bee Project

July 21, 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

A presentation by a University of Montana Bee Project researcher, Scott Debnam, the   "Bee whisperer". Scott is responsible for the health and caretaking of up to 75 hives, or five million bees, as part of UM's 30-year-old bee research.  Debnam will discuss current projects including the use of bees to locate land mines, methamphetamine labs, as well as the study of bee communication and the intricacies of bees’ complex language. Join City Club Missoula to discover more of the complex life of bees including the mysteries surrounding the recent disappearance of bees, known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Recycling Wealth – Investing in Missoula

June 9 , 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

Speakers: Rosalie Sheehy Cates, Executive Director, Montana Community Development Corporation; Mary Stranahan, founder, High Stakes Foundation

Urban Fringe Development Area Project: How Will Missoula Grow?

Monday, May 19, 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

The next 20 years in Missoula will see the need to create places to live for 15,000 new households. The market is changing, and people are interested in smaller-scale neighborhoods with schools, shopping and restaurants nearby. Missoula can make room for these new places within the present-day urban area. But how will we choose to grow? At City Club Missoula’s next forum May 19, Roger Millar, director of the Missoula city-county Office of Planning and Grants, will talk about the Urban Fringe Development Area Project.

The UFDA looks at where growth has been going and where it might go: continue as the current trends show, focus growth into town centers or focus growth in the urban core. The UFDA Project takes a new and fascinating look at how Missoula grows. Millar and his staff are leading public discussion to help develop a framework plan that incorporates what the community wants in its Growth Policy.

Protecting Waterways, People and Natural Resources

April 21, 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

Speaker: Chris Brick, Clark Fork Coalition staff scientist

Ethical Implications of the Presidential Candidates' Health Care Policies

April 15, 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

Speakers: Dr. John R. Stone, Center for Health Policy and Ethics, Creighton University School of Medicine; Dr. Tom Roberts, Western Montana Clinic; Dr. Joe Knapp, private practice in Missoula and Helena

Academic and Development Plans for the University of Montana

March 21 , 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

University of Montana’s Vice President, Jim Foley, will discuss the financial health of the academic and development fronts including the completion of the South Campus and the challenges higher education faces in Montana in upcoming years. He will also discuss the university’s relations with the Missoula community and present ads the university runs statewide and around the country to market UM and the Missoula community together.

A Community Project: Missoula Reveals its Newest Riverfront Park and Its Oldest Hand-Crafted Traditions

February 15 , 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

Donna Gaukler, Director, City of Missoula Parks & Recreation Department, and Kari Nelson of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, present Silver Park, Missoula’s newest riverfront park. The 14.5 acre park will border the Clark Fork River and will complete the Ron MacDonald Riverfront Trail system linking the Ogren Ballpark to the California Street Bridge.

Jennifer Anthony of Fearless Engineers, will present a power point about the log and timber frame shelters planned for the park. The Timber Framers Guild will host a workshop in Missoula to teach volunteers the traditional art of timber frame construction and joinery using recycled materials from the old Champion Millsite building, sinker logs from the Bonner Dam and other local sources. “Re-used materials are being recognized more and more as a valuable construction material. They are also a part of our community’s history”, said Home Resources President, Matt Hisel, one of the project’s sponsors.

Global Climate Change: The Science is In – Now What?

January 18, 2008 - 11:30a.m. – 1:00p.m. The Doubletree Hotel, 100 Madison St.

The path we are on is unsustainable, Steve Running has said repeatedly, and people now have the chance to change the course of the whole world. But it will require a big transition for society during the next 50 years. Running has worked nearly 30 years as a University of Montana ecologist and as a member of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, which was formed in 1988.

The panel of scientists and researchers provided nearly all the information for former Vice President Al Gore’s film on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth” and, in October, shared the Nobel with Gore. Running is known for his compelling, understandable talks in which he shows data that predict snow receding from Montana ski areas and summer wildfires increasing in length and intensity. A bicycle commuter, he also has a knack for showing people how they can make a difference in the future of the planet.