Lowbagger.org

                                                "Environmental News, Opinion, and Arts"                                         February 2005      
Editor's Desk

What is Lowbagger, What is a Lowbagger?
By Josh Mahan
The cold snap has released its grip on western Montana, but it still seems far from the arid, white-sand beaches of the Main Salmon, where Lowbagger.org was conceived last August. Mike, Floyd, and I spent the better part of five days breathing wilderness, running green-watered rapids, and reliving the “old days” of Northern Rockies conservation efforts.

Roselle and I would awake before the rest of our party, watching the sun creep down the canyon walls, finally warming the river. Somewhere between sips of coffee and rigging rafts one morning Mike decided he wanted to “get the band back together.”

Two months later, we met up at the Old Post Pub in Missoula, Montana for a three-beer power lunch. The result was a Big Sky Brewery coaster covered in scribbles of minutia, tales of David Brower’s own cocktail napkin brainstorming sessions, and the official birth of Lowbagger.org. Mike would be our publisher and staff philosophizer. I would edit and design the publication. The shoe fit. After three years of kicking around western-Montana newspapers covering the environment, high-school wrestling, and everything in between, I was ready to shed the pretentious skin of objectivity.

Lowbagger is the site where the community can come together in cyberspace to share information about one another’s issues, laugh together, and ramble at length about the quirks of life. Essentially, we’re a fourth-dimensional cocktail party. A Lowbagger cocktail party, that is.

Now, what exactly is a Lowbagger? The definition varies, and has yet to be specifically pinned down. Some people contend a lowbagger belongs to a loosely-knit alternative community that shares resources when living/traveling. Ah, so these lowbaggers are modern-day gypsies, bucking capitalism and living light on the land. Well, no, others say, a Lowbagger is more like a monk, in so much as he or she performs civic duty without pay and needs only food and shelter to maintain this work. Yet, others will proclaim that Lowbaggers live only to ski, float, and play in the out-of-doors, and cluster together in this pursuit, for safety and to save gas money.

Lowbagger.org is named as a tribute to all of these people. A tribute to the overworked and underpaid activist. A tribute to the backcountry ski bum. A tribute to the underdog. These Lowbaggers come in different sizes, genders, colors, ages, occupations, and political parties. There’s a little Lowbagger in everyone.

So, please enjoy our first issue. Tim Sandlin’s column will bring a smile to anybody’s day. Greg Keeler’s poetry will leave the political right reeling. Howie Wolke’s column harbors no fuzzy bunnies in the dark forest of Bush’s environmental policy. Mike Roselle’s piece proves that adventures on the road are still afoot and gonzo journalism is still alive. Louisa Willcox’s article breaks down the Bush administration’s push to delist the grizzly from the Endangered Species Act in Yellowstone and its disastrous implications. Don’t stop there, though. There are several other fine articles to keep you reading for hours.  

We’d appreciate any feedback on the articles. We want to create a dialogue and keep it flowing. We’re also seeking contributors. Check out our writer’s guidelines or the current issue to get a sense of the different departments.

I won’t hold you up any longer, go turn through the pages of Lowbagger.org, fresh as a February snow glade.

Contact Josh Mahan at editor@lowbagger.org with environmental news and tales of life in the Red States. 		Lowbagger Home