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In the fall people worry that their pine, spruce, cedar (conifer) trees are diseased or infested with insects. The symptoms that are described on their trees include yellowing and dropping of older needles. In fact, most callers stress that only the tips of branches are still green, while on the insides of branches, needles are browning and dropping to the ground. Fortunately, what they are seeing are not disease or insect pests. The good news is that fall drop of older needles is normal. Pines...
As summer begins to wrap up here in Western Montana, we are all doing what we can to soak up the warmer weather before fall sets in. Whether you’re fishing along the Blackfoot, hiking in the Mission Mountains, or just getting outdoors in general, Montana summers are a brief and coveted time of year for our part of the world. While the summer provides a lot of opportunities to experience all that the Seeley Swan has to offer, it usually brings one unpleasant, unavoidable experience: wildfire. This year, however, we seem to have gotten lucky. L...
One does not need to live in a bustling urban area like Los Angeles to experience disruptive traffic these days. The work on Highway 83 at Salmon Lake, while anticipated, is changing the way we drive. Having lived in Los Angeles for 43 years, I had forgotten what normal traffic was like when I left the Treasure State at 23. My return “home” and negotiating Reserve Street in Missoula made me experience “déjà vu” all over again. My lifeline was not living in Missoula but returning to the “traffic free” confines of Seeley Lake. But I must admit...
Community foundations are organizations that can help manage community-wide discussions and collect and distribute funds for local projects. A community foundation is a tax-exempt public charity created by and for the people in a defined geographic area. It enables people to easily and effectively support the issues they care about—immediately, or through their wills. They serve a vital role as facilitators of good works by bringing together people from across the different sectors of the community to address social and regional challenges. I...
During the 2017 legislative session, the Montana Wildlife Habitat Improvement Act (WHIP) was passed into law. The act made federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration funds available to restore priority wildlife habitats by managing noxious weeds. Priorities for funding include landscape-scale projects lands that are open to public hunting and involve priority wildlife habitats, noxious weed infestations that directly impact habitat functions, broad partnerships involving multiple...
Often, I get questions from landowners about managing their forests, and about forest stewardship. Typically, one of the most important concerns and values landowners have been wildlife. I am often asked what can I do to promote wildlife habitat, while at the same time managing other things such as wildfire? We wanted to share some things that you can do while managing your forest to promote a diversity of wildlife, while still managing your fire-adapted Swan Valley forest. Snags Snags are standing dead trees, either full height or broken off...
Smokey skies, scratchy throats and watery eyes are all too familiar to western Montanans during fire season. Although unwelcome, these inconveniences pale compared to the devastation wildfires can leave behind. Wildfire size, frequency and severity have risen year-over-year, prompting a critical response from electric utilities. Responsible for powering some of the nation’s most fire-prone, fuel-dense areas, MEC’s policies, programs and procedures must manage or reduce the risk of sys...
In community halls and school gyms across Montana, local conversations have given rise to many impactful grassroots, collaborative organizations. It's been 30 years since one such conversation in the Blackfoot watershed resulted in a caring resident's comment that taking on all the local issues would be a real "challenge." Since the moment it was established in 1993, the Blackfoot Challenge has pursued a model of bringing people together and finding common purpose in watershed stewardship and...
With school finally out for the summer, let the fun and games begin! The Seeley Lake area offers amazing winter activities, and we promote those outdoor activities like crazy for more than half the year. And then spring and summer – those glorious, long-awaited, priceless Montana blue sky days – descend, and we turn our full attention to the warmer weather outdoor activities that ROCKS serves and supports. The jewel of the ROCKS summer activities is the Placid Lake Trails system – Lakev...
Recycling in Montana faces barriers not found in most other states. Due to Montana’s low population and large geographical area, it is very difficult to find markets for recycled materials that are both economical and environmentally sustainable. Currently, Montanans recycle only about 19% of the waste generated in the state, according to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Fortunately, Seeley Lake has two very popular options for making a difference through recycling! First, there are several types of items you can recycle when y...
Whether by natural lightning or by human hands, the landscape in Swan Valley has been shaped by fire. Only in the past hundred years or so have there been organized, concentrated efforts to suppress forest fires. During the historic forest fire of 1910, over three million acres burned in the course of a few days, primarily in Washington, Idaho, and Montana, drastically changing the way the U. S. Forest Service dealt with wildfire. Pushed by strong winds, several small fires grew together,...
Search the internet for news on grizzly bears and you're likely to find plenty of articles detailing human-bear encounters that end in tragic fatalities. These gruesome headlines represent what are, in reality, incredibly rare incidents. According to data from Yellowstone National Park, which hosts the second largest grizzly population in the Lower 48, only eight people have been killed by bears in 150 years of the park's operation. That's an average of one fatality every 18.75 years. Just last...
“Celebrating our Lakes and Mountains!” is the theme of this year’s Fourth of July celebration in Seeley Lake. You can expect a full day of fun, starting with the Seeley Lake Fire Foundation’s Pancake Breakfast and Car Show, and ending with the most spectacular fireworks show ever on Seeley Lake. Mission Bible Fellowship and the Seeley Lake Baptist Church will be serving food. Our parade will kick off at 2 p.m. and we expect a military flyover as well. Of course there will be the Rubber Ducky race, a real Seeley Lake Fourth of July traditi...
As I write, loons are claiming their nesting territories and another loon year begins. Montana’s common loon population is currently “stable” chugging along as a relatively level line that may be slightly increasing. That was not the case when the Montana Loon Study began in 1982 to determine basic biological information about these birds, when they didn’t seem to be reproducing successfully. I joined the well-developed, albeit small, loon team in 1985. My research determined that human recreational activities (especially spring fishing...
INTEREST RATES, CASH AND BUYER CONFIDENCE Thirty-year mortgage rates have more than doubled this year, and after running up above 7%, now have settled out around 6.5%, and 15-year rates are currently at 5.95%. Compared to prior decades current mortgage rates are good, however over the past 8 years most homeowners have obtained new mortgages with 3 to 4% interest rates, and many have been unwilling to sell their current home and give up their 3% mortgage rate and move on to a new home with a 6.5% interest rate. This has resulted in less homes...
As winter stubbornly makes its exit, many of us are busy making plans for summer adventures. The wealth of public land that surrounds our community means we don’t have to go too far afield to enjoy the great outdoors and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is happy to have played a part in ensuring our access to some of those places. Most recently, we completed an exciting two-phase transfer of approximately 11,000 acres of land on Game Ridge, above Nine Mile Prairie - stretching from Dunnigan Gulch t...
Lakes are highly interconnected systems impacted by multiple environmental conditions and anthropogenic pressures. The Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) is committed to evaluating the health of our lakes in the Clearwater Valley by sampling lake waters and monitoring water quality. As we learn more about the health of the lakes, we want to share the results of lake monitoring with you. Beginning in 2021, CRC began monitoring nutrients as a metric of water quality in six lakes in the Clearwater...
The grass getting green, the sun parting the clouds, temperatures becoming comfortable, and pollen tickling noses can only mean one thing: spring burn season is upon us! Spring is not only one of Montana’s many wonders, but it is also the best time to collect and burn yard debris before summer takes us into fire season. Spring burn permits may seem like a hassle or headache, but they are required for the debris burn period of March 1st to August 31st. Let this be your guide to applying for, paying, and activating your permits while m...
For warm-blooded animals, the ability to maintain relatively constant body temperatures, called “homeothermy”, is critical to life. Regardless of outside temperatures, body temperatures must be maintained within a relatively narrow range. When outside temperatures drop below internal temperatures, body heat is lost. To counteract this heat loss, animals may increase heat production (increasing fuel), decrease heat loss (improving insulation), or lower internal temperature needs (adjusting the thermostat). Biologists refer to these res...
by Garry Swain President ROCKS While it may seem like winter is never going to end for us here in the snow belt of Seeley Lake, the ROCKS crew is looking ahead to the next set of springtime duties. With all the recreational opportunities available to us in this area, we are never at a loss for things to keep the team occupied. The warmer afternoons have made a puddle of the ice rink, so our tasks there are now about cleaning up the shed, organizing the skates and figuring out a good time to take down the boards for another season. This was the...
As I began to ponder what to write about, almost immediately my mind drifted toward springtime. Soon after, the song title “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies” by Gene Autry filled my mind. Most reading this article are probably too young to remember that song, including myself. So why would a song from 1937 come to my mind? My father often told me of his grandfather who was a cheesemaker in Wisconsin He would regularly sing this song while making cheese in his small cheese factory. I never met my great grandfather, but I enjoy imagi...
When John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson proposed this motto for the Great Seal of the United States it summed up the determination of the fledgling nation perfectly. It also set the stage for the United States becoming the great “Melting Pot”. In this age of “Diversity” it seems as if the idea of a “Melting Pot” has become a dirty word, yet it seems to me that it is our only hope. I’m sure many will disagree with that sentiment, so let me explain. When I was in college in the early 1980’s, the idea of the Melting Pot beg...
Back in 2015, Swan Valley Connections (SVC) had been contracted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to conduct vegetation surveys and create a map of vegetative communities across the entire 1,979-acre Swan River National Wildlife Refuge (refuge). The refuge is managed by the USFWS and was the first step to restore hundreds of acres of wetlands previously manipulated prior to the USFWS purchasing the property in 1973. The manipulations began in the 1920s when there was the nation’s largest muskrat fur farm on the property. The land w...
Each year, the third Saturday in March is slated for Missoula Electric Cooperative’s (MEC’s) annual meeting. This year is no different when the Cooperative hosts their 87th annual meeting on Saturday, March 18. This meeting is not just important to the Cooperative’s Board of Trustees and employees, but it is also important to the Co-op’s owners, who are more commonly referred to as members. When a consumer signs up for electric service at MEC, they become a part-owner of the Cooperative –these consumers are known as members. Because MEC is a...
By Elaine Caton, Blackfoot Challenge Education & Swan Program Coordinator The Blackfoot Challenge and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began working together in 2005 to restore trumpeter swans to the Blackfoot watershed. Thanks to the support and hard work of many partners, landowners, teachers, and schoolkids over the years, we met our project goal in 2022, and the swan population here is now considered officially restored! The goal was to have at least seven successful nests for at least...
