Two young men from the area, Seth Warren from Missoula and Tyler Bradt from Stevensville, are about to take what many people would consider the trip of a lifetime. They are setting out from the northern tip of Alaska and traveling by motor vehicle to the southern tip of Chile. The motor vehicle they are traveling in, however, is not your ordinary SUV. It's a vehicle built to demonstrate that the use of alternative sources of fuel is not only a "good idea," but one that works.

In this case, it is providing the energy to transport Warren and Bradt along a 16,000-mile route across two continents and through 16 different countries to get the message out about the use and benefits of biodiesel fuels.

The two men are now part of the Biofuels Education Coalition (BEC), a non-profit organization which they helped form, and are undertaking the trip as part of the group's Oil and Water Project, a project aimed at drawing public attention to the need for, and educating people about the use of, alternative fuels.

The truck being used was converted to be powered by 100 percent biofuel. The vehicle is an example of how ordinary diesel vehicles can be easily and inexpensively modified to operate effectively on biofuel. It carries with it equipment for processing locally grown crops into vegetable oil and biodiesel fuel, including a tank for collecting used cooking oil. The truck serves as a demonstration of how it is feasible to produce biofuels at the local level using locally grown crops or used cooking oil and simple equipment.

The men will stop at over 20 selected locations along their route where they will utilize local educational institutions, industries and media to set up a variety of meetings and demonstrations. It is part of an educational effort to bring alternative fuel awareness to some of the poorest local communities in the world which are often the hardest hit by traditional fuel consumption. They will also be conducting youth workshops focusing on finding alternative solutions to issues that many young people face. The local presentations will focus on educating school students and the general public about biofuels, renewable resources, and a sustainable future in regard to the consumption of energy. The project will also portray how the use of biofuels can reduce reliance on the international oil market and assist local environmental and conservation efforts.

In addition to making presentations directly to school children about biofuel issues such as crop production, manufacturing, distribution, technological ability, and economic and environmental advantages, BEC intends to work with educators to develop a variety of curricula and educational materials involving biofuels which it will make available to educators at local, regional and national levels in the United States and other countries around the world.

One reason for using biofuel as opposed to petroleum is the significant reduction in emissions related to global warming, acid rain, and cancer. The use of biofuel is called a "carbon neutral cycle" because a crop of oil-producing plants will absorb exactly the same amount of carbon dioxide in order to produce a gallon of vegetable oil as a gallon of vegetable oil emits when it is burned as fuel. It is estimated that carbon dioxide emissions, a major factor in global warming, and sulfur dioxide emissions, a contributor to acid rain, can be reduced 100 percent by the use of biofuels. Cancer causing compounds in biofuel emissions are reduced by 80 to 90 percent. Soot emissions are reduced by 40 to 60 percent. And carbon monoxide emissions are reduced by 10 to 50 percent.

Interestingly enough, biodiesel use has a long and distinguished history. The first diesel engine premiered by Rudolph Diesel at the World's Exhibition in Paris in 1898 was designed to run on peanut oil.

Henry Ford produced a 1908 Model T engine that ran on ethanol and by the 1920s had established a partnership with Standard Oil in which 25 percent of oil sales were non-petroleum related.

But the biofuel market soon collapsed after the petroleum industry developed a petro-diesel engine and undercut the biofuels market. By 1940, any kind of biofuel in the United States was virtually non-existent.

In the past nine years, however, as petroleum prices continue to climb skyward, the popularity of biofuel has grown rapidly on a global scale. Biodiesel has been researched in 28 countries, and there is currently large scale production in 21 of these countries. There are 74 biodiesel production plants in Europe, and in Germany alone there are over 1,500 outlets to buy it. In Brazil and Argentina, where the majority of the population lives in metropolitan areas along the coast, biofuels were introduced in the early 1980s.

Warren and Bradt are not the first two people to take off on an incredible journey to highlight the use and benefits of alternative fuels. In 1996 the "Sunrider" boat circumnavigated the globe using 100 percent biodiesel. In 1997 Joshua Tickell became the first individual to drive his "veggie van" 10,000 miles around the United States using nothing but waste vegetable oil from fast food restaurants. David Modersbach and his family were the first group to partially complete a pan-American journey from Oakland, California to Argentina in 2003 using biofuels. Since then, the Sustainable Solutions Caravan has become an annual pilgrimage to Costa Rica and back promoting renewable energies, organic farming and sustainable lifestyles in their veggie oil buses.

Warren and Bradt plan on starting their trip in Alaska on July 1. They hope to arrive at the bottom of Chile in January, 2007. Anyone interested in following an account of their journey can find it on the internet at www.podbiodiesel.com.

And in case you are wondering, after looking at the photo, what the kayaks are for that are strapped on top of the biodiesel truck, Warren and Bradt plan on combining their passion for alternative fuels with their passion for kayaking and hope to hit the best whitewater they can find along their 16,000-mile route.

They are both world class kayakers and plan on offering clinics and demonstrations in kayaking along the way. They will give advice on how to maintain a healthy physical and mental lifestyle in an age where kids are often up against numerous obstacles to attain either.

Warren, who is a graduate of the World Class Kayak Academy, said, "I've probably been kayaking about 26,000 times." He said that he and Bradt had gone over 70-foot water falls in their kayaks.

"But it takes a lot of practice to do things like that," he cautioned. Having kayaked all around the world he said that his favorite trip was in Uganda, Africa on the Nile River.

True to form, following an educational presentation at the Stevensville High School recently on the virtue of using alternative fuels, Warren and Bradt could be seen about fifteen minutes later cascading in their kayaks down Kootenai Creek, an extremely fast flowing creek just minutes from town.

State denies wildlife developmental malformations a problem

By Michael Howell

Local wildlife rehabilitator Judy Hoy is growing increasingly frustrated by the state's refusal to recognize what she calls an "alarmingly high" rate of incidence of developmental malformations in the wildlife in the Bitterroot Valley, including white-tailed deer.

But officials at the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) stick by their previous assessments of Hoy's complaints and deny that there is any problem with developmental abnormalities in the state's deer population.

FWP Wildlife Biologist Niel Anderson said that if Hoy's claims about the incidence of sexual malformations in white-tailed deer were true then we should be seeing a decline in the deer population.

"We are seeing the opposite," said Anderson. "To our knowledge there is no problem."

The disagreement between Hoy and the state goes back a number of years.

Hoy, who established the Bitterroot Wildlife Rehabilitation Center southeast of Stevensville in 1979, began to notice in the mid-1990's an increase in incidence of developmental malformations in animals in the county, both mammals and birds. The birds showed bone and bill malformations and the mammals showed malformations of the skull, teeth, jaw and sexual organs. Beginning in 1996, Hoy began keeping records of four different kinds of malformations being discovered in mammals, including misplacement, misalignment and other malformations of the sexual organs, overbite and underbite as well as malformed teeth.

Within a few years she notified FWP about her findings and sent six deer with abnormalities to the state lab in Bozeman for examination.

In 1998 Neil Anderson and Keith Aune, who examined the deer for FWP, issued a statement denying that the samples showed signs of developmental malformation and attributed most of the observed abnormalities to trauma from being hit by a car.

Hoy continued to document what she saw as obvious abnormalities in the wildlife and in 2000 a study group was formed, with aid from US Fish & Wildlife Service officials at the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, to evaluate the claims about wildlife abnormalities and determine whether the available information justifies follow-up investigation. The study group included William Hadlow, D.V.M., veterinary pathology; Donald Maclean, M.D., Ravalli County Board of Health; Linda Dworak, D.V.M., Ph.D., place-based medicine; Ira Holt, Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife Association; Judy Smith, Ph.D., molecular biology and community health; and Ted Kerstetter, Ph.D., animal physiology.

After five months of reviewing the data, the study group concluded that "obviously Judy Hoy's observations are real, but what it all means is hard to tell."

Hoy said the group may not have validated her concerns about what was causing the deformities, that is, possibly pesticide exposure, but the bottom line is that the group did validate her observations.

"They concluded that there is a high incidence rate of abnormalities, they just couldn't say what was causing it," said Hoy.

Hoy does have her own theories about how pesticides could be at the root of the developmental abnormalities she is observing. She has written an article on the "Cyanide Connection", arguing that it is possible that pesticide residue that has settled on the forest after being burned in a hot forest fire may release cyanide into the atmosphere. And cyanide, says Hoy, is proven to produce the kinds of malformations she is documenting.

Not giving up, Hoy continued her efforts at documenting the malformations and in 2002 co-authored a peer-reviewed study with D. Seba and T. Kerstetter on genital abnormalities in white-tailed deer in west-central Montana with pesticide exposure as a possible cause, that was published in the Journal of Environmental Biology.

With mounting documentation, a study group assessment backing her up, and a peer-reviewed published study, Hoy persisted in trying to get FWP to accept that there was a problem.

In 2004, Anderson replied to Hoy's concerns again in a document entitled "Comments on Observed Variation in Male Genitalia and Cryptorchidism of Deer in the Bitterroot Valley of Western Montana."

In that document Anderson states that cryptorchidism, defined as the failure of one or both testicles to descend into the scrotum, occurs naturally, to some degree, in both deer and humans and can even be the result of trauma like being struck by a vehicle. He again affirms that "the majority of abnormalities reported in the Bitterroot Valley have not been confirmed or agreed upon..." He states that the lack of measurable declines in productivity and fawn recruitment suggests reproductive disorders within the deer population are limited and most may be a natural abnormality. What bothers Hoy about Anderson's 2004 report is that he is still denying that any significant number of deformities has been confirmed.

In a recent telephone interview, Anderson stuck by his 2004 report and said it was still the best answer to date for anyone concerned about Judy Hoy's claims. He called her unprofessional in her methodology, he questioned her and her associates' credentials, and suggested that "studies that are not scientific have a tendency to find what they are looking for."

"Bias is a real problem," said Anderson. "We need to look at the facts and only the facts."

He said that the state's pathologists had good credentials and would know if there was a significant problem with Montana's wildlife.

"We haven't seen anything out of the ordinary in the deer," said Anderson.

According to Hoy, it's Anderson who lacks credentials compared to the number of outstanding scientists that have worked on this problem in the Bitterroot Valley over the years and confirmed her findings. She said that the malformations she has documented have been confirmed by several reputable veterinarians and wildlife specialists. She has signed, notarized statements to that effect.

Local taxidermist Gary Haas, who is also a trained wildlife biologist, has occasion to see a lot of wildlife close up as part of his business. He agrees with Hoy and claims that he, too, is seeing a significant percentage of animals with malformations. He said that he has been keeping records of what he has seen for Hoy and provides the information to Hoy. He has examined 18 adult male elk that were harvested by hunters in the fall of 2005 in Montana and found that 8 out of 18, or 44 percent, had moderate to severe prognathism, or jaw malformations.

Hoy reports that the average incidence rate of prognathism in 642 white-tailed deer of all ages and sexes examined between spring 1999 through 2005 was 37 percent. It escalated significantly from an average of 7 percent for 1995 through 1998, to a high of 50 percent in 2001. For the last three years, from 2002 to 2005, the average rate was 40 percent. Hoy notes that a normal or natural rate of prognathism would be about 2 percent.

Hoy said that other wildlife biologists have found that only 7 out of 18 pronghorn antelope harvested from 2003 and 2005, or 39 percent, were normal, with 10 out of 18, or 56 percent, showing some signs of prognathism, and one with brachynathism. Statistics on other malformations, such as ectopic testes, or undescended testes, are also alarming, according to Hoy. She said that malformations are occurring in many species of mammals and birds in the area and probably humans too, although she said it is difficult to get statistics about human malformations, or birth defects.

Hoy believes that, for whatever reason, the state is turning a blind eye to some very alarming facts. She hopes that appeals to the Environmental Protection Agency, which she is currently pursuing, may finally bring some official recognition to a problem that she believes urgently needs to be addressed.

Officials at EPA did not return phone calls in time for publication.

Stevi PUD gets tentative approval of change in conditions

By Michael Howell

The Stevensville Town Council gave tentative approval at its last meeting to a change in the conditions of approval for a Planned Unit Development proposed by former mayor Pat Groninger. The tentative approval was granted pending the procurement of a letter granting an easement through neighboring property for an emergency access and pedestrian/bike path and the outcome of a public hearing about the change.

Groninger asked the Council to amend a condition of approval for his subdivision that would have required an easement on neighboring property to make a path that would connect with 10th Street. That condition was proposed by his neighbor at the time, Debbie Thrall. But after approval of the subdivision with that condition, Thrall changed her mind and refused to grant the easement. She subsequently sold the property and the new owners also refused to grant an easement.

Groninger then came before the Town Council and asked them to amend the condition or drop it. The Council asked Groninger to come back with a specific proposal of how to meet their concerns about emergency access if the conditional easement was not involved. Groninger returned with an option that would involve procuring an easement through another neighboring property. But he was not able to get a letter granting an easement from the current property owner, who is out of town. Instead he presented a letter from the owner of the Apple Blossom Trailer Court, who is planning a development on the neighboring property.

At last Monday's meeting Groninger was told that the Council would need a letter from the owner of the property granting an easement, whether or not the planned annexation of the property and expansion of Apple Blossom Trailer Court was ever approved or not. He was also told that the change he was requesting was significant enough that a public hearing would be required.

Councilor Tom Brown, following the advice of Town Attorney Art Graham, insisted that a change based upon new information that was not presented at the previous public hearing would require a new public hearing for approval.

Obviously frustrated, Groninger asked the Council to tell him all the facts and all the requirements he would have to meet right now tonight, "instead of weekly like the funny papers."

"I've lost my sense of humor and this isn't funny any more," said Groninger.

Mayor Bill Meisner then asked attorney Graham if the Council could tentatively approve the change in condition provided that the developer get an easement from the neighboring property owner regardless of whether the neighbor's pending development was approved or not, and pending the outcome of the required public hearing.

Graham said that such a thing was possible if the Council wished.

The Council voted unanimously to do so.

In other business the Council approved a proposal by Frank Piwarski to make a minor subdivision of his property near the school by creating two lots along 3rd Street leaving a larger third lot along Park Street. The Council considered placing a condition on the approval that the third remaining lot be cleaned up. Attorney for Piwarski, Ron Bissell, said that Piwarski intended to use some of the money generated by selling the two lots to finish his project on the remaining lot and that it would be cleaned up.

The Council also heard from the Creekside Meadows Homeowners Association. A representative told the Council that the association had not yet accepted the transfer of the common areas in Phase I. He said that the association was opposed to using city water to irrigate the common areas.

Developer Arlo Ellison had agreed to put wells in to water the common areas, but following a problem of staining on the sidewalks from using the wells, Ellison pulled the wells. But plagued by low water pressure, the homeowners are not able to use their own water to irrigate the common areas.

Ellison agreed to install a booster pump to increase water pressure in the subdivision at his own cost of about $50,000, and agreed to have it installed as soon as he got DEQ approval. In the meantime, however, the approval of the booster pump has been tied by the developer to the approval of Phase III of the subdivision, which has not yet gained DEQ approval.

The homeowners in Phase I do not see the need for such a connection and want the booster pump installed as soon as possible.

The town claims that it is a problem between the homeowners and the developer.

Consultant for the developer, Gilbert Larson of Professional Consultants Inc., said that the approval of the booster pump and the approval of Phase III had been tied together.

Further complicating an already complicated situation, Larson told the Council that he needed a letter from the town stating that they would guarantee a supply of water for Phase III of the subdivision before DEQ would approve the plan. The problem with that is that the town does not know if it can supply the water. A test was done on an old well to see if there was enough water to add a new and more powerful pump. Initial testing suggested that enough water was available but also produced evidence that questioned the integrity of the well casing. This raised a question as to whether the casing was seriously flawed. The town plans to do a television probe but the results will not be available for months.

The Town Council also received a recommendation from the Stevensville Quick Response Unit that members be allowed to respond to all ambulance calls in the Stevensville area. During the 90-day temporary contract with Missoula Emergency Medical Services, the 911 protocol was changed so that Stevi QRU was not called to ambulance responses until after ambulance responders decided there was a need. Now that the Town has decided to use Marcus Daly Ambulance, the Fire Department asked the Town to change the policy back so that QRU is called immediately by 911.

Council members and the mayor said that the protocol was changed due to concerns expressed by the town's insurer about the liability involved in QRU members riding on the ambulance.

Greg Trangmoe, speaking on behalf of the Fire Department and QRU, said that the Town is faced with the same quandary whether the 911 protocol is changed or not. He said that if an ambulance crew determines that QRU response is required, the QRU responder may still have to accompany the victim on the ambulance if the ambulance responders are only basic responders.

The mayor and councilors agreed, but said that it was still a problem and would best be resolved by establishing an inter local agreement between the City and Rural fire departments that would alleviate the town's concerns about liability. The matter was taken under advisement and no decision was made.

The Council also heard a complaint about the planned burning of a house on Mission Street. Dan Breneman, who lives next door, asked the council if a public hearing had been held to consider the effects on the environment and such things.

Mayor Meisner said that a public hearing was not required.

"So much for the constitutional guarantee for a clean and healthful environment," said Breneman.

The Council also approved an amended Swimming Pool Ordinance, set new fees and hired personnel for the coming year.

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