Alluvion Health Care has assumed a very important role in our community in the last year. Here to tell us about it next week will be Alluvion's Dr. Mark Miles. Join us on Zoom Tuesday at noon!
Last Week at Rotary
In a fascinating presentation last week, Steve Kloetzel told us about the work of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Steve is the Land Steward for the Western Montana component of TNC's mission in Montana.
TNC has programs in 70 countries and all 50 states of this country. Its mission since 1951 has been to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends through careful planning, science-based approaches, and collaborative partnerships. In Montana TNC is making concerted efforts in three areas - the Northern Great Plains, the High Divide Headwaters, and the Crown of the Continent. In the Northern Great Plains, TNC's main project is the Matador Ranch and Grassback Ranches, one-time hosts of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. In the Headwaters area, projects at the Missouri Rivers headwaters and the Centennial Valley and Sandhills Preserve are the focus.
Steve heads up the efforts in the Crown of the Continent on the Blackfeet Reservation, the Rocky Mountain Front and Pine Butte Preserve, and in the area's forests, many of which were disposed of in the past two decades by Plum Creek Lumber Company. When Plum Creek began disposing of its lands in 1987, TNC borrowed funds to acquire them and now partners with various groups to conserve them in the best way. "Plum Creek forests were rode hard and put away wet," Steve said. They had been extensively logged, crudely roaded, burned, re-logged, sprayed with herbicides .... Restoring them has required lots of TLC, lots of work (and money), and time to heal.
Steve's day-to-day job is to prevent misuse, such as vandalism and dumping, manage weeds, thin the forests, restore fisheries, and oversee prescribed burns in both forests and grasslands. "We know so much more about fire management than we did 30 years ago," Steve said. Although CO2 emissions from fire have actually fallen over the past 80 years, training firefighters and managing fires is as important as ever. The recent Liberty fire burned 30,000 acres and cost $30 million to put out.
Partnerships are what make TNC's efforts do-able and sustainable. The city of Ovando is an important partner in Steve's area, as are the USFS, BLM, and the Blackfeet Nation. Youth crews often volunteer in the summer, but the work always requires funding and that is the role of TNC. "It turns out you can buy the land cheaper than you can heal it," Steve noted.
It's encouraging to know that there is an organization dedicated to that healing. Another highly informative Zoom presentation brought to us by Kurt Baltrusch!
Partnering with Rotary Electric
When some Rotarians elected to start a new club in Great Falls last year, Rotary Electric, we wished them well in their endeavor and urged them to keep in touch. Last week we were invited to join them in a establishing a partnership project loosely described as "the outdoors initiative."
President Megan Connors joined the kick-off meeting last Thursday, where the discussion centered on ways that Rotarians could get outdoors more ourselves and create opportunities to get more folks in Great Falls engaged in outdoor activities. It can be hard for newcomers to Great Falls to know the ins and outs of enjoying all the outdoor activities Great Falls has to offer ... where do you go to hike/fish/float and what equipment do you need? Beyond that, it would be helpful to create a 3-month calendar of outdoor activities, from things as small as going on walks twice a month and relaxing afterwards at a local coffee shop to bigger events in partnership with Get Fit Great Falls.
The group also talked about getting local businesses involved in training folks on equipment like snowshoes, cross-country skis, kayaks, and paddleboards. Perhaps we could facilitate rentals and plan events to get people comfortable trying new activities. Geo-caching hunts, painting classes outdoors, barbecues ... the sky's the limit. Or, in the present instance, the Big Sky's the limit!
"The ideas coming out of the group are fantastic, and I enjoyed getting to know some of the other members," Megan commented. There's still conversation to be had, but this sounds like an exciting partnership!
A Rotary Conversation with a World Bank Leader
As Rotarians, we were treated to a special opportunity yesterday – a webinar conversation with Dr. David Wilson, Program Director in the Health Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank. Dr. Wilson provided a global perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 200 Rotarians from around the world participated in the call, including your eBulletin cub reporter.
New vaccines provide hope that the COVID-19 crisis will be managed, Dr. Wilson said, but access to the vaccines for developing countries remains a concern. The World Bank is providing up to $12 billion in financing to help low- and middle-income countries purchase and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments. A concern of some participants was that some countries – e.g., Peru and South Africa – are too poor to qualify for aid, but not wealthy enough to purchase vaccines for their entire populations. Wilson acknowledged the concern and noted that some high-income countries have purchased 6-12 times the amount of vaccine needed for their populations. The hope is that once their populations have been vaccinated, they will give the excess to these caught-in-the-middle countries.
What is needed to create an effective global scheme in response to a pandemic? Dr. Wilson explained the challenges identified so far. First, even though the development of the first vaccine, AstraZeneka, was achieved in 2-3 months, it still requires another 2 months or so to “tweak,” and that gives the virus more time to spread and delays production until the “tweaking” is complete. The mRNA vaccines, like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, are the first ever to be developed. Although it appears that they were developed in record time – and the process of their trial-to-production plan was indeed rapid – both reflect a level of scientific preparedness that occurred long before COVID-19 surfaced. Maintaining and improving up that level of preparedness is crucially important.
Dr. Wilson said that achieving herd immunity requires such a high percentage of the population to be vaccinated that it is more likely that we will focus on reducing deaths and hospitalizations as time goes on, “learning to live with the disease." Because COVID changes 4 times more slowly than the flu, the annual COVID vaccinations that some are anticipating may not come to pass. It is just too soon to say.
Will the pandemic cause permanent changes in human behavior – e.g., masking and social distancing? Dr. Wilson used what we learned from the AIDS epidemic as an example of what happens as we learn about a particular disease. At first, changes in behavior were all people could do to avoid AIDS. Over time, however, populations tire of behavior change as a solution. The effective treatments developed for HIV provided a viable alternative to behavior changes, but some behavioral practices remain changed even today.
The vaccine, as a preventative rather than a treatment, is even more attractive as an alternative to COVID, and many populations are tiring of the behavior changes remaining safe during a pandemic requires. Time will tell whether some of those behavior changes will remain standard.
Much is yet to be learned from the pandemic, Dr. Wilson concluded, but “We need to worry about cycling between panic and neglect.” We need to work globally on preparedness and have a permanent emergency response task force, he advised.
An information-packed hour! Worth every minute!
Milestones
Birthday greetings today (Saturday) to Chelle Fried, on Monday to David Thomas, and on Thursday to Sandi Filipowicz! Best wishes from all of your fellow Rotarians for a spectacular new year for the three of you.
This Week in American History
February 20, 1962 – John Glenn became the first American launched into orbit.
February 21, 1965 – Black Muslim leader Malcolm X was shot while giving a speech in a New York City ballroom.
February 22, 1732 – First President George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
February 23, 1942 – In the first WWII attack on the U.S. mainland, a Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing minor damage.
February 24, 1867 – Angry with his Reconstruction policies, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson.
February 26, 1846 – William Cody – later known as “Buffalo Bill” because he claimed to have killed 4,000 buffalo in 17 months -- was born in Scott County, Indiana.
