Last 2 days in Missoula..

Thursday, July 28:  Field Trip to Milltown Dam

in the morning, we had a dialogue about The Nation’s Largest Superfund Complex: The Upper Clark Fork River and Milltown Dam. In 1983, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) designated 120 miles of the Upper Clark Fork Basin as a Superfund site. Milltown Dam, a 100‐year‐old landmark on that river just outside Missoula, came to symbolize the economic prosperity and environmental  destruction of Montana’s mining industry. The 180-acre reservoir behind Milltown Dam had been full of contaminated sediment containing arsenic, poisoned local wells  and killed fish and other aquatic life during high flows and ice jams.

Moved to another subject, that is about “Collaborative Effort: Public and Private Partnerships Toward Remediation” with Mr. Mike Kustudia from Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Service . We talked about the 2005 agreement between officials from four federal and state agencies, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, ARCO, and Northwest Energy to remove Milltown Dam and the most contaminated  sediments piled up behind it, which took more than 20 years of policy  discussion, scientific research, and public debate.

Mr. Kustudia then brought us to a restored area that he and his colleagues are working on, and at that time they had a big trouble with invasive plant species. SUSI participants helped him and his team to remove the invasive species, so that the native species could grow again and restore the natural balance.

at Milltown Dam

That afternoon we had another panel discussion, the topic is Natural  Resources Policy and Administration . Mr. Bob Harrington (Montana State Forester), Mr. Gordy Sanders (Resource Manager at Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc.) and Dr.  Len  Broberg (Chairman of UM Environmental Studies Program) lead the discussion . These expert panelists shared their view and experience regarding the policy formation in the context of community forestry and conservation, including agro-forestry, community forestry, and opportunities and constraints to the use of trees in rural development and protected areas management.

At 4pm Mr. Paul  Hubbard from the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition (CFAC) gave an overview of CFAC and discuss the Community Food Assessment of  the local food system, including food production, processing, distribution, and consumption. CFAC is a coalition that addresses community needs related to food and agriculture in a comprehensive and creative way.

Friday, July 29:  Group Reports and Evaluation 

Finally, this is our last day in Montana. At 9am we had to give a final presentation of our country group project. The previous night we spent hours to revise and discuss it all over again, while we also practiced for the cultural performance. The project outline can be proposed as a real action in the future when we already in our home countries, and The Mansfield Center is willing to give small grants for the project if any of us would like to apply it. After each group presented their project, we discussed and reviewed every project, so everyone contribute suggestions or additional idea and make each project even better.

The whole afternoon was spent for packing. Everyone had bigger luggage than when we arrived, because we brought lot of souvenirs and from our trips we always get stuff to bring like books, brochures, magazines, CDs, and souvenirs.

Cultural Performance

after that..

For the final and farewell dinner, Katie and Gary Decker in a place called “The Shy Bear Farm” outside of Arlee, invited us, our host families, and their dance club members to participate in a community potluck dinner and Contra Dance event. Contra dancing is similar  to  square dancing in that there is a caller who calls out the dance move and a band that plays dance music. It was new to all of us, but the instructor was so good and the elders were familiar with the dance, so it was quite easy for us to follow the movement and music. 

After we had enough Contra dance, we had a merry dinner with various menu and we also played some games. Finally the time had come for us to perform our culture. We Indonesians decided to perform some traditional dances that we already arranged and mixed, from different parts of Indonesia. We performed traditional dances from Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, and Papua; though we only practiced for few times, we were glad to see that people there admired our dances, and they were amazed by how we had five dances in a row. The cultural event ended up in a woebegone atmosphere because that was our last day in Montana, we tried to cheer up ourselves because we still had another week in the US, and we hoped our last week would be as fun as we expected.