BCAG June Newsletter 🌱

We’ve got some important and great news to share with you this month:

A Montana Climate Lawsuit will be in National News June 12-23
Wildfire Season is Upon Us - 50 Hepa Filters are donated this year
Hamilton High School (HHS) Envirothon Team wins state competition and heads to the International Competition!

Montana Climate Lawsuit in the National News
June 12-23

Held v. State of Montana is a youth-led constitutional climate lawsuit

In 2020, 16 young people from across Montana filed their lawsuit against the state of Montana, asserting that, by supporting a fossil fuel-driven energy system, which is contributing to the climate crisis, Montana is violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment, to seek safety, health, and happiness, and to individual dignity and equal protection of the law. The trial will be held in Helena, June 12 - 23.

Gather your friends and family to show "Youth v Gov" on Netflix - then get up to speed re: Held v Mt via the website here.

The organization Our Children's Trust is leading these lawsuits. This is the first case of this kind to come to trial in the United States. National media will be here in June to cover this trial. BCAG is working to raise awareness in the valley and to organize a carpool to be present in Helena on Tuesday, June 13, during the trial.

Email our coordinator Jill Davies (or call or text at (406) 360-1751) if you want to go, or to organize carpools to Helena to show support for the young people on Tuesday, June 13 during the trial. As of publication 30 BCAG members are going!

Find more information on Montana — Our Children's Trust.

Join daily livestreams hosted on Our Children’s Trust’s Facebook page.

Wildfire Season is Upon Us

Wildfire smoke is expected to become an increasing and continuing hazard during the summers in the Bitterroot Valley.

Two major issues for Bitterroot residents are protecting the “Home Ignition Zones” (HIZ) around our homes and the health effects of wildfire smoke.

Protect Your Home

The Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) is the zone reaching out 100-200 feet around a home. There are three areas of priority:

Critical priority: 5 feet around your home
Intermediate: 5-30 feet
Extended: 30-100 feet (200 feet if there is a steep slope around the home)

Did you know that wind-borne embers igniting small things like doormats and brooms are the leading way that homes are damaged or lost to wildfires?

You can make your home ember-resistant, and reduce its ignition risk by limiting the amount of flammable vegetation and materials next to it. Clear pine needles, leaves, and all flammable items such as cardboard, firewood, and lawn furniture. These items can lead straight to the house, if an ember ignites into flame.

Prioritize 5 feet around all structures first. This is the area that causes most home loss.
Choose ignition-resistant construction materials when making changes to your home.

This video is a fantastic demonstration of what embers can do and how they move: Wildfire: Why Only ½ of this House Burned. There *are* homes that survive wildfire with no firefighter intervention.

This video is a striking example of a home that protected itself in a fire where 500 homes around it burned entirely to the ground: Jack Cohen: Your Home Can Survive a Wildfire

In the Bitterroot, we have access to free wildfire home assessments. To schedule, contact: fireintheroot@gmail.com. Fire in the Root is a great source of information.

Wildfire Smoke and Your Health

Everyone in the Bitterroot is subject to health issues from wildfire smoke exposure. Everyone. The risk and impact is not limited to people with respiratory conditions.

Local information on this subject can be found at Montana Wildfire Smoke here.

See the excerpt below written by journalist, David Wallace-Wells. He lays out facts and current research about the effects of wildfire smoke on health. It is an eye-opening article, even for those of us who live with regular smoke every year and have experienced the effects firsthand. There is more to it than just respiratory effects.

According to one large study published last year in The Lancet Planetary Health, anyone living within approximately 30 miles of just a single wildfire was, over the course of about 20 years, almost 5 percent more likely to develop lung cancer and 10 percent more likely to develop brain tumors.

And beyond cancer, the list of health impacts linked to particulate pollution grows seemingly by the day: respiratory disease and cardiac disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, dementia, mental illness and suicide, cognitive performance and memory issues, miscarriage and premature birth, and low birth weight.

Recent research suggests that, of all forms of particulate pollution, wildfire smoke may be the most toxic. And given the way it is discharged upward into the jet streams of the lower atmosphere, it may travel much further to find its way into your lungs, too.

Excerpted from The New York Times, There is No Escape from Wildfire Smoke

Our best defense in the Bitterroot is to have a Hepa filter inside our homes and follow the guidelines for activities based upon current air quality conditions.

BCAG’s Hepa Filter Distribution to Families Expands to Seniors and Medically Challenged

Last year, BCAG coordinated with the Bitterroot Women Infants & Children (WIC) Program to provide Hepa filters to low-income families.

This year, thanks to a collaboration with the Fire in the Root Council (FIRC), we have been able to offer five times as many HEPA Filtration Units. to qualifying seniors or medically challenged individuals and households.

The fifty Winix c545 Portable HEPA Filtration Units are available at no charge to the elderly, young mothers, and individuals with respiratory health conditions. Purchase of these units was made possible by private donations to BCAG and a grant to FIRC from the Fire Adapted Communities Learning Network and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Recipients must be residents of Ravalli County and complete an application. To apply for a unit by phone, contact our volunteer program coordinator, Sarah (406-381-6226), or through the link on BCAG’s homepage. The units may be picked up or delivered to applicants as needed.

Hamilton High School (HHS) Envirothon Team Heads to International Competition in Canada

After winning the state-wide competition in Montana, our Bitterroot Team is headed to the international competition in Canada!

Envirothon is a competition for high school students based on environmental education involving range, soils, aquatics, wildlife, and forestry. Students compete by taking tests about those topics and work toward solving current issues in the natural environment.

Hamilton students study all year to learn the details of their focus topic. They work with mentors, take field trips, and research to increase their knowledge. The HHS team has been successful through the years, thanks to dedicated professionals investing in youth.

The students learned from multiple experts for their project that focused on climate change:

a climatology expert from Montana
several hydrologists
retired Fisheries Biologist, Chris Clancy, talked about the data that shows the Bitterroot River changes and how it affects the fish population.

BCAG is proud to have supported the HHS Envirothon team with a contribution to help cover their travel expenses.

“The students were given a lot of scientific information and data — the results of scientific studies to show it is undeniable that our climate is changing,” said Marie Antonioli, HHS teacher. She described their challenge as: “How do we adapt our forestry practices to ensure the health of the forest but also to help people live near the forest?”

An article about the Envirothon team can be found here at Ravalli Republic.

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