Keep Bozeman Wild

Why do people move to Bozeman? Those of us that live here know why. They come here because it’s clean, it’s beautiful, there’s wildlife everywhere and the wild is only minutes away. Scenic mountain views, clean air, nice people, clean rivers, great weather even in the winter. It’s just beautiful!! But as Bozeman continues to expand it’s becoming just another big city with all the big city problems (air pollution, river pollution, noise pollution, much reduced wildlife, etc.) that everyone moving here is trying to escape.

We’re already seeing some of this and it’s becoming distressing for those of us who remember what Bozeman was like before the expansion of 19th and the building of Oak and widening of Durston. With each of those came a lot of noise pollution. I live in the vicinity of those three streets and the noise has become incredibly loud not to mention that we no longer get wildlife in our neighborhood anymore. It is a constant barrage of traffic noise and I’m even a few blocks from each road. I cannot even fathom what it’ll be like for those who live quietly along Fowler to suddenly live directly on a street that is planned to go from a dead end with trees, birds, walking path all acting as a decent buffer to a five lane busy road. With the insane housing prices as of late there is absolutely no opportunity for the average Bozemanite to buy a house in a quieter area. It’s a feeding frenzy in the Bozeman housing market now making the ability to move around in your own home town near impossible.

We already have Ferguson and 19th as large thoroughfares. Why continue to build larger roads closer together?

Do the city planners have any kind of plan at preserving quiet neighborhoods, not just the east side of town, preserving/creating wildlife corridors, preserving the reasons why Bozeman is a great town and why Gallatin Valley is a place worth living?

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the city’s love of the dollar is far more important than their citizens or the wildlife with whom we share this valley. If the city planners keep removing quiet spaces and removing the large carbon soaking trees, they will erode all there is to love about Bozeman and it’ll be just another city that everyone wants to or financially has to escape.