Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • S U M M E R 2 0 1 6 12 CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS Valerie Harms has edited this magazine since 2005 and says it is like throwing a party every season. A writer as well as editor, she is the author of 10 books and numerous articles. A graduate of Smith College, for seven years she was an editor at the National Audubon Society in New York City. She has taught writing and given workshops around the country, plus in Greece and Canada. In 1995 she moved to Montana to see wild animals in their habitats and explore the mountains and rivers. For more info see her Web site at www. valerieharms.com. Email queries to valerie@distinctlymontana.com. Robert Rath collects hyphens. Currently, he's an illustrator-designer-author-art director-dog walker living in Bozeman. He's illustrated many children's books, including the award-winning First Dog: Unleashed in the Montana Capitol, and Yellowstone's Hot Legends and Cool Myths. His clients include Lucasfilm, The History Channel, Scholastic Books, Farcountry Press and many others. He isn't allergic to anything, can't remember the names of housing subdivisions, likes to cook, can wiggle his ears, and hates writing bios. EXPLORING THE NORTHERN BITTERROOTS PAGE 14 AARON THEISEN is a Spokane-based outdoors and travel writer. He is working on a book, Day Hiking Western Montana's Glacier Country. Closer to home, he and his wife enjoy getting dirty in the outdoors with their young son. His Web site is www.aarontheisen.com. DO FISH FEEL PAIN PAGE 22 CARL SAFINA csafina@safinacenter.org is the inaugural endowed professor for nature and humanity at Stony Brook University, where he co-chairs the Alan Alda Center for Com- municating Science and is founding president of the non profit Safina Center. Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel is Carl's seventh book. www.safinacenter.org/about-carl-safina/ NATIONAL BISON RANGE PAGE 30 STEVE AKRE is a freelance outdoor photographer based in Missoula. His business, Outwest Photo, is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of our natural resources. Albums of his images can be seen at Facebook.com/outwestphoto. ANYTHING GOES PAGE 47 RICHARD WHEELER is the author of more than 50 novels of the American West. He holds six Spur Awards and the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to the literature of the West. He dwells at the hub of the literary community in Livingston, MT. PAINTED PONIES PAGE 62 SUZANNE MILLER, a native of Butte, owns Dunrovin Research, a full-service guest ranch and equestrian club offering unique backcountry adventures on Tennessee Walking Horses. The installation of a web camera led SuzAnne to establish a cyber ranch. www.DaysAtDunrovin.com. KITCHEN GUY: SALAD DAYS OF SUMMER PAGE 66 CHEF JIM GRAY is a Missoula-based culinary instructor and food writer. He also teaches for the kitchen store chain Sur La Table in Scottsdale, Arizona. THE NEAR-GRAZING OF GLACIER PAGE 71 JOHN CLAYTON'S books include The Cowboy Girl and Stories from Montana's Enduring Frontier. He is at work on a new cultural history of Yellowstone National Park. MIRACLE BIRD RESCUE PAGE 76 BARBARA ULRICH is a geologist and naturalist who lives on the edge of Yellowstone National Park. She owns Wild Bear Adventures, a guide service specializing in providing visitors an in-depth, educational experience in the unique geo-ecosystem that is Yellowstone. When not in the park, she can be found in the paleoecology lab at MSU in Bozeman, where she is pursuing a second Masters degree in geobiology. THREE RINGLINGS IN MONTANA PAGE 81 LEE ROSTAD is a graduate of UM and a former Fulbright Scholar. Her book, Grace Stone Coates: Her Life in Letters received a WILLA Literary Award. She moved to White Sulphur Springs as a bride. MONTANA'S WILD AND WOOLY STAGECOACH DAYS PAGE 85 As a blacksmith and historian, LYNDEL MEIKLE has hammered out several stories for Distinctly Montana, on topics as wide-ranging as the best way to steal a cow, vinegar pie, and gambling in Montana in the 1850s. She is coauthor of the Speaking Ill of the Dead books and editor of Very Close to Trouble, the memoir of Montana's color- ful trader, Johnny Grant. WILD WEST WORDS PAGE 98 Raised on a farm in northeastern Montana, CHRYSTI M. SMITH now wrangles words for her daily radio series, "Chrysti the Wordsmith," produced at KGLT-FM in Bozeman; it can be heard on public radio stations throughout Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and worldwide on Armed Forces Radio. www.wordsmithradio.org PERSPECTIVES ON GREEN HOME BUILDING PAGE 106 BARBARA BRYAN left an engineering career more than 30 years ago for the more creative life of a freelance marketing, public relations, and general-interest writer and editor. She has written for businesses, nonprofits, and magazines across the country. She especially enjoys writing about gardening, sustain- ability, architecture, and the creative arts. OUR ALEXIS PIKE

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