40% of your tap water starts up Sourdough

Morning. We are looking at a sunny 76 today and a summery 83 tomorrow, which is the valley's version of a going-away party for the season. Today's lead is the snow that turns into 40% of your tap water, and the fact that the city is finally going to count it. Then there is a mushroom farm run by a man who dislikes mushrooms, the bears in full eat-everything mode, and two local boards firing back up next week. Coffee up.

For years the city has watched conditions at Hyalite Reservoir and Lyman Spring, the two sources behind roughly 60% of its supply. The other 40% drains out of Sourdough south of town, and that watershed has been running without instruments of its own. So the city and Montana State are installing a monitoring station up Sourdough to close the gap.

The station will track snowpack and snow-water equivalent, the number that says how much water is actually locked in the snow, plus soil moisture, wind, and air temperature. Crews want it standing before the first flakes fly, sometime in late September or early October. In a valley that argues constantly about how many houses the water can carry, this is the city quietly admitting it wants better math before the next drought forces the question.

Jessica Ahlstrom, Bozeman's water conservation program manager, said the data will support drought management, drought response, and what she called "long range water resource planning." MSU Earth Sciences associate professor Eric Sproles said students will "get hands on experience" running it, which means the people measuring the valley's water future are the ones who will inherit it. Snow up Sourdough this winter is next summer's shower, and now somebody is counting it.

The Bozeman School District 7 trustees hold their regular board meeting Monday (Sept. 14) at 5:45 p.m. in the Willson School board room on West Main, their first full sit-down of the new school year. The next night the City Commission returns to City Hall Tuesday (Sept. 15) at 6 p.m., after a quiet stretch on the calendar.

Neither agenda is posted yet. The district says its packet goes up at least 48 hours ahead, and the commission's usually lands late the week before, so if you care about school budgets or anything with a zoning number attached, this is the window to see what is coming and sign up to comment. We will flag the headline items once the agendas drop.

• Bozeman has a mushroom farm cranking out about 1,000 pounds a week, and the guy running it is not a fan. Ben Deuling left a microbiology PhD to start SporeAttic at Three Hearts Farm, where 11 varieties of oyster, chestnut, and lion's mane now feed some 38 restaurants from Bozeman to Big Sky to Helena. He is blunt about his own product, saying, "I don't really like mushrooms that much."

• People were up in the high country a lot earlier than the textbooks say. Montana Free Press reports evidence of Clovis hunters living high in the Beartooths around 13,000 years ago, a find archaeologist Scott Dersam says pushes back against the old assumption that the ice made the Greater Yellowstone high country unlivable that far back. Your weekend hike, but make it Pleistocene.

• The bears are in their eat-everything era, so bring in the bird feeder. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is reminding the valley that fall has bears foraging longer into the day as they pack on weight before hibernation, after a run of close encounters from Manhattan to Glacier. "That's a time of year when bears are more active for longer periods of the day," said FWP Region 3's Morgan Jacobsen, who says to travel in groups, make noise, and keep bear spray where you can reach it.

Sunny and near 76 today, a summery 83 Thursday, then 71 Friday with a slim chance of a shower. Summer is not gone, but it is clearly packing. Go stand in it.

Last call to weigh in on MSU's next five years at the free Next Phase community forum, 5:30 to 7 p.m. at EngineWorks on Technology Boulevard, where you can mark up the university's draft plan in person before it heads to the regents.

Thursday (Sept. 10): Bobcat volleyball is listed at home against North Dakota State, 7 p.m. at Shroyer Gym, a cheap and loud weeknight out on campus.

Friday (Sept. 11): Pinky and the Floyd headline the Back 2 School Block Party at Bridger Brewing, listed 5:30 to 10 p.m. ($36), the valley's reliably good Pink Floyd tribute under the string lights.

Friday (Sept. 11): Hockey is back at the fairgrounds as the Bozeman Icedogs host the Gillette Wild, listed 7:35 p.m. at Haynes Pavilion, a fast and family-friendly way to spend a Friday.

Friday (Sept. 11): For a fancier night, Rosanne Cash plays the Tinworks Fall Fete with John Leventhal, listed from 6 p.m. at the Ida Avenue art space (tickets $100 and up), a genuine Grammy-winner-in-a-warehouse kind of evening.

The Gallatin is running low and clear the way it does in September, about 376 cfs near Gallatin Gateway as of Tuesday afternoon, with the Logan gauge near 401 and the East Gallatin around 49. That means a morning game. Fish early, go small, and let the afternoon sun win. Check FWP's live restrictions map for any lingering hoot-owl closures before you wade in.

North-side drivers, budget an extra minute. The city's street report lists N. 27th Avenue under reconstruction through October, so the lane shifts and detours up there are not going anywhere for a while. Nothing dramatic, just the sound of a growing town repaving itself one street at a time.