Hemp building materials will take a prominent place at the Rocky Mountain Natural Building Conference Bozeman Sept. 18-20. Hemp will take the podium along with cob, straw bale, passive house, natural plaster and other natural building technologies, at the Colorado-based Natural Building Alliance's biennial conference held since 2003.

In Bozeman, Mont., where winter often lasts into late spring, homeowners Mary and Richard Elston chose two off-the-shelf hemp building materials to create 12-inch highly insulated walls in their new 2,900 sq. foot home outside of town.