Category: Tracy Raich News

Raich Montana Properties LLC Named one of the Best Brokerages by the Land Report

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Raich Montana Properties LLC is proud to be among Land Report’s Best Brokerages for the ninth straight year. This recognition is a high honor for my company which specializes in quality ranch, recreational and residential Montana real estate. Without question, the spectacular public lands surrounding our community give the region a natural competitive advantage. Our mission is to conduct business that will not negatively impact our agricultural heritage, clean flowing waters, wildlife habitats, economy, and quality of life. Our economy continues to grow in sustainable, enduring ways, with many aspects of the economy tied to the high-quality area amenities, and proximity to Yellowstone National Park. We are truly grateful for our success.

If you are interested in Montana Real Estate, Montana Ranches for Sale, Montana Fly Fishing Properties for Sale, Paradise Valley Montana Real Estate, or Livingston Properties for Sale, please Contact Raich Montana Properties LLC Today.

Despite shutdown, Yellowstone National Park records High Visitation

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Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone National Park

Though all but a handful of Yellowstone National Park employees were furloughed for the last 10 days of 2018, the park’s December and yeartotal visitation was high.

According to an end-of-the-year count released Wednesday by the park, Yellowstone saw a total of 4,114,999 recreation visits in 2018, making it the third busiest year on record.

In December alone, the park counted 22,380 recreation visits — 2,700 more visits than it saw in December 2016, the park’s busiest year on record. In fact, this December was Yellowstone’s busiest since 2001 — the year the Park Service limited snowmobiles in the park.

Park entrance stations went unstaffed for much of the shutdown, so the Park Service used data collected by an automated counter that recorded vehicle traffic at the North Entrance and reports from oversnow concessioners to calculate visitation numbers, according to a park press release.

Unlike during some past shutdowns — notably the October, 2013 impasse, which lasted 16 days, and the December, 1995-January, 1996 shutdown that lasted 21 days — Yellowstone remained open to visitors during the recent funding lapse.

Under its shutdown contingency plan, Yellowstone allowed private concessioners to pick up the government’s tab for road maintenance.

“We’ve had very solid winter numbers,” Mike Keller, general manager of Xanterra, the concessioner that operates Yellowstone National Park Lodges, told The Enterprise. “We had great weather and snow conditions, which helped a bunch.”

After seeing more than 29,000 visits in December, 1994, Yellowstone recorded only 7,814 visits in December, 1995 — a drop Keller said was due to the park closing during the shutdown.

He is glad, he said, that rule changes made it possible for the park to stay open through this shutdown so visitors could come to the park.

Source: Livingston Enterprise, February 7, 2019 By: Joseph Bullington — Enterprise Staff Writer

HuffPost is hitting the road this fall to interview people about their hopes, dreams, fears ― and what it means to be American today. Livingston MT was on the list.

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THE YELLOWSTONE GATEWAY BUSINESS COALITION PROVES DEMOCRACY WORKS.

We aren’t anti-mining, but there are more appropriate places to mine.

Mlenny via Getty Images

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

Ten years ago, our coalition didn’t even talk to one another. A few of us were divided by politics and ideology. Some just never had a good enough reason to be in the same room together. It took a fundamental threat to our community and way of life to bring us together, and the results have been surprising. This is our story, and it’s not finished yet.

We live in the gateway of Yellowstone National Park in the southwest corner of Montana. Several years ago, two industrial-scale gold mines were proposed in the upper stretches of the Yellowstone River in areas that are more suited for elk, fly fishing and family vacations than industrial-sized mining.

A few of us reached out to these foreign-owned mining companies because it was the neighborly thing to do. We wrote a letter asking them to reconsider plans to build mines that would negatively impact so many people and so many livelihoods. We told them our economy and our small businesses don’t run on mines; they run on Yellowstone National Park and the free-flowing river. We explained that while we aren’t anti-mining, there are more appropriate places to mine.

We could all agree that Yellowstone is more valuable than gold.

These companies were not the least bit interested in what we had to say. They responded with empty promises, downplayed the impacts and tried to fast-track their applications.

We’ve seen the stories across America of powerful corporations running roughshod over local communities and local citizens. We weren’t going to let that happen in our backyard, so we united. We turned to our neighbors and the hundreds of small businesses who depend on clean water and unspoiled public lands around the gateway to Yellowstone National Park. We founded the Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition, which is now made up of nearly 400 local businesses. We didn’t line up along party lines. We simply came together and called a spade a spade ― industrial scale gold mining is not appropriate here. We could all agree that Yellowstone is more valuable than gold.

In a great show of democracy, our bipartisan voice filtered all the way to the highest levels of government. Our coalition scored our first major victory when former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell issued a timeout order that temporarily prohibited new mining claims on 30,000 acres of public lands surrounding the mining proposals. Jewell’s successor, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, doubled down on Jewell’s original order. Zinke is now working to finalize the mineral withdrawal that will halt mining leases on our public lands for as long as 20 years.

This timeout, which has now been by upheld by both the Obama and Trump administrations, will protect our businesses, our jobs and our healthy economy. But it’s only temporary. We still need a permanent solution for our children, our businesses and our way of life. We don’t want to kick the can down the road and force our kids to deal with something we couldn’t finish.

Montana’s senior Senator Jon Tester (D) has responded. He asked local businesses to help shape the bill that would permanently protect approximately 30,000 acres of public lands on Yellowstone National Park’s doorstep. The bill he introduced, the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act, is the solution for the concern voiced by the business coalition members who worry how acid mine drainage, loss of public lands and other impacts from large-scale mining could affect our community. The Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act honors the commitment of the business coalition to protect private property rights, including protecting valid existing mineral rights on public lands.

Protecting our economy and our community takes precedence over party lines, which is why we are also encouraged that Montana Senator Steve Daines (R) and Congressman Greg Gianforte (R) have also agreed that Yellowstone is more valuable than gold. The next step is for our entire Montana delegation to permanently protect our community from the threat of industrial-scale gold mining by passing our made-in-Montana legislation.

Two years ago, nobody could have guessed our coalition would have made such a difference and come this far. We have demonstrated that we can accomplish big things when we put aside assumptions about what is politically possible. If our Montana delegation works together on this with as much unity as our community has shown, we could have a real shot at passing legislation as soon as this year.

Our story isn’t finished yet, but we hope we can be a lesson for all Americans. Even in the most polarizing of political times, democracy can still function. We can do far more good for our country when we line up alongside communities, families, and local economies rather than either side of an aisle.

Bryan Wells, Tracy Raich and Colin Davis are the founding members of the Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition. 

SOURCE: Listen To American a Huff Post Road Trip is hitting the road this fall to interview people about their hopes, dreams, fears ― and what it means to be American today.

Raich Montana Properties LLC named one of America’s Top Brokerages by The Land Report.

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We are proud to be among Land Report’s Best Brokerages for the 7th straight year. This recognition is a high honor for our company, which specializes in quality ranch, recreational and residential Montana properties. Without question, the spectacular public lands surrounding our community give the region a natural competitive advantage. Our mission is to conduct business that will not negatively impact our agricultural heritage, clean flowing waters, wildlife habitats, economy, and quality of life. Our economy continues to grow in sustainable, enduring ways, with many aspects of the economy tied to the high-quality area amenities, and proximity to Yellowstone National Park. We are grateful for our success.

Yellowstone Visitation Tops 4 Million for the First Time

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In 2015, there were 4,097,710 “visits” to Yellowstone National Park, up 16.6% from 2014, making it the highest visitation year on record. The number of “visits” is always greater than the actual number of individuals who came to the park because people may enter and leave the park repeatedly during a stay in the area.
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42.5% of the total visitation came into Yellowstone through the park’s West Entrance in 2015, which also saw the greatest percentage increase in visits among the park’s five entrance gates, up more than 21.2% from 2014 levels.

The National Park Service’s “Find Your Park” public awareness campaign, marketing and tourism promotions by the states of Montana and Wyoming, and lower gas prices contributed to the record number of visits.

The increase in visitation to Yellowstone this year brought an increase in demands on park staff, facilities and resources. Long lines to enter the park, traffic jams, and the resultant frustration of visitors and staff undoubtedly affected the visitor experience.

“Last year’s visitation tested the capacity of Yellowstone National Park,” said Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk. “We are looking at ways to reprioritize in order to protect resources, to provide additional ranger programs, and to keep facilities clean.”

Congress just provided an increase in funding for national parks in 2016, and that is going to help meet some needs related to increased visitation. Congress is also considering separate Centennial legislation which could provide additional temporary increases and permanent authorities that will encourage philanthropy, volunteerism, and allow us to directly improve services.

“We will be asking park visitors to pack their patience for the upcoming summer season, as we expect more record breaking numbers in 2016, the National Park Service Centennial year,” said Superintendent Wenk.

Detailed park visitation information and additional information on how these statistics are calculated is available online at https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park.

SOURCE: http://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/16002.htm

Livingston makes the “10 Safest Cities in MT” List

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The SafeWise Report Announces the 10 Safest Cities in Montana and Livingston MT made the list!

The SafeWise Report recently released its “10 Safest Cities in Montana” report. To compile this report, SafeWise used the most recent FBI crime data from 2012 to analyze and rank these cities, which all have a minimum population of 5,000 people.

We look at crimes from part 1 of the FBI Unified Crime Report (UCR) reported crime data, which focuses on violent crimes (aggravated assault, forcible rape, murder, and robbery) as well as property crimes (arson, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft). From there, we calculate the chances of these crimes happening out of a thousand in order to level the playing field for cities of varying populations. From all the cities in Montana, we narrowed the list down to 10 and assigned rankings according to data provided by the FBI’s UCR report.

See the full Safest Cities in Montana list here: http://www.safewise.com/blog/10-safest-cities-montana
About SafeWise

SafeWise.com is a community-focused security organization that is the source for everything safety and security. The home security experts at SafeWise have over 75 years combined experience in the home security industry.

 

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