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Wild trout management is a cornerstone of fisheries management in Montana. Here in the Blackfoot, a primary focus of our river and stream management program is native, wild trout. The Blackfoot has a long history of habitat restoration with an emphasis on native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Actions that benefit these species also improve habitat conditions for nonnative trout that represent an extremely popular and important component of sport fishing opportunity. Several key elements of our management portfolio in these popular...
Energy Partners Propane Solutions and the Seeley Lake Community Foundation invite everyone to our Community Appreciation Day and Change Your Pace Challenge Kickoff Party on Friday, June 2. Fill your 20 pound BBQ propane bottle for $10 and 50% of the proceeds will be donated to the Change Your Pace Challenge Match Fund. Come join us for an opportunity to mingle with local non-profits and enjoy lunch, sponsored by Energy Partners! The event runs from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Foundation Building... Full story
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...
SEELEY LAKE - During the Change Your Pace Challenge (CYP), the Seeley Lake Community Foundation raised $103,591.61 for 17 local organizations, including $26,633 for the CYP Match Fund. This was 28% higher than the $80,818 total raised through CYP in 2021. The highest number of individual donors gave since the program started in 2016 with 209 households making a gift. The match percentage ended at $0.40 on the dollar for eligible donations. SLCF Executive Director Claire Muller said, "This was...
SEELEY LAKE - The seventh annual Change Your Pace Challenge (CYP) kicks off next week! The Seeley Lake Community Foundation's (SLCF) CYP is a campaign for community-wide giving, motivating community members to give to their favorite participating local nonprofits, knowing the impact of their gift will multiply, thanks to the CYP Match Fund. Seventeen local organizations are participating this year, raising money for important projects benefitting the greater Seeley Lake area. CYP runs from June...
Springtime in Montana has arrived and even though it’s been a cold start, the building snowpack is a positive outcome. Hoping our rivers and streams hold up well this summer! Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited is gearing up for another busy season working on projects that create colder, cleaner and more connected habitat for trout populations throughout the Blackfoot River watershed. Working in collaboration with our many partners, we have several projects planned and ready to go for 2022. Since 2009, our restoration team has teamed up w...
5 in the Blackfoot River Valley proved to be another busy and productive project season collaborating with our many state, federal and private partners. This year we focused in the upper Blackfoot watershed near Lincoln on an important native trout stream-Poorman Creek. This high priority stream supports westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout and has strong potential to support spawning which will in turn provide more recruitment of trout to the upper Blackfoot River. We implemented two...
SEELEY LAKE – Into its sixth year of the Change Your Pace Challenge, the Seeley Lake Community Foundation raised over $80,800 for 14 local organizations, including over $23,000 for the CYP Match Fund. The match fund was up $9,000 up from last year and had the highest number of individual donors that the program has seen since it started in 2016 with 192 families giving. "Not only did we have one of the highest match percentages [$0.49 per dollar raised], more people are getting into this," Commu...
SEELEY LAKE - The sixth annual Change Your Pace Challenge kicks off next week! The Seeley Lake Community Foundation's Change Your Pace Challenge is a campaign for community-wide giving, celebrating the people and organizations that make our community great. During this month-long fundraising period (June 1-30, 2021), the "CYP" motivates community members to give to their favorite participating local nonprofits and community groups, knowing the impact of their gift will grow thanks to the CYP...
SWAN VALLEY – Swan Valley Connections (SVC) received a $1 million North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant to fund a wetland restoration project on the Swan River National Wildlife Refuge in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). NAWCA is the federal grant program dedicated to funding the conservation of wetland habitats for migratory birds. This was the only project funded in Montana by the NAWCA this grant period. The goal of the project is to restore the n...
Ballots will be mailed Oct. 9. Return ballots by mail, vote in person Oct. 20 at the Missoula County Satellite Office or drop off ballots at various drop off locations including Seeley Lake Elementary on Election Day, Nov. 3. For more information visit https://www.missoulacounty.us/government/administration/elections-office Juanita Vero (D) - Incumbent Biography • Where do you live? Greenough, Montana • How long have you lived in Montana? 39 years • Education: Lewis and Clark College; BA, Engli...
As we head into fall, it’s a time of reflection on this past year and all that was accomplished on numerous projects with our strong group of partners. As spring arrived, we had many questions as to how our field season would unfold with COVID restrictions. As it turns out it was one of our most productive years to date thanks in large part to the network of partnerships working together on these important projects. Project season began in April up in Lincoln with work on a spring creek tributary to the upper Blackfoot. We restored over 2...
MISSOULA - Members of the Missoula Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) voted to recommend proposed fee installations and increases at Missoula County sites within Lolo National Forest during their Sept. 8 virtual meeting. Later they allocated more than $150,000 for project proposals including $30,000 to projects on the Seeley Lake Ranger District. RAC members included Chair Ben Horan, Zachary Bashoor, Mike McGrew, Kristen Baker-Dickinson, Scott Kuehn, Jack Rich, Dr. Seth Wilson, Dr. Steven...
SEELEY LAKE – This past August the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project released an economic report highlighting how public lands and water sustain the economy of the Blackfoot and Clearwater Valleys and nearby communities. There has also been a recent ad campaign launched by the Montana Wilderness Association and Mountain Mamas calling on Senator Steve Daines, R – Montana, to give the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. While Daines is being pressured to support the...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Community Foundation presented more than $65,500 to the Change Your Pace Challenge's 15 participating organizations at an intimate ceremony July 8. The check presentation is usually done at the Seeley Lake Community Foundation's annual banquet in August, which was canceled this year due to coronavirus. The Change Your Pace (CYP) Challenge is a campaign for community-wide giving that was started five years ago by the Foundation. During the month-long fundraising p...
SEELEY LAKE - The Change Your Pace (CYP) Challenge runs through 5 p.m. June 30, leaving under a week to increase the power of a donation to your favorite local cause(s), with the help of the CYP Match Fund. The Seeley Lake Community Foundation's fifth-annual CYP Challenge is a campaign for community-wide giving, celebrating the people and organizations that make our community great. Fifteen local organizations are participating this year, raising money for local projects during this month-long f...
SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley Lake Community Foundation's Change Your Pace (CYP) Challenge is a campaign for community-wide giving, celebrating the people and organizations that make our community great. During this month-long fundraising period, June 1-30, the CYP motivates community members to give to their favorite participating local nonprofits and community groups, knowing the impact of their gift will grow thanks to the CYP Match Fund. Fifteen local organizations are participating this year,...
The Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited, in collaboration with many different private landowners, agencies and other non-profits, has been working over the past 30 years restoring habitat for trout populations across the Blackfoot and Clearwater watersheds. Trout that live in Montana's rivers and streams rely on cold, clean water with plenty of open miles to swim long distances and ample hiding spaces in deep pools full of wood, root systems and overhanging trees. We are proud to work on...
MISSOULA, Mont. – The Missoula Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) is now accepting new project proposals. The application deadline is Aug. 1. The committee has approximately $151,500 in project funding to award. Funding and administration for the RAC is provided under the authority of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self–Determination Act (Title II). Projects must benefit National Forest System lands and ecosystems in Missoula County. The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 was passed by Congress to restore s...
How many of you have enjoyed a concert on the banks of the Blackfoot River at the Kettlehouse Amphitheater? Did you know that every time you buy a ticket, a portion of those funds go directly to our efforts to restore the many tributaries-and ultimately trout populations, within the Blackfoot River watershed? Our partnership with the concert promoter tied with this venue--Logjam Presents, and their initiative called the Blackfoot River Fund, allowed us the opportunity to expand our efforts and...
MISSOULA - Fourth generation, lifelong resident of Missoula County and current County Commissioner Juanita Vero filed to run as the Democratic candidate in the 2020 election for Missoula County Commissioner on January 9, 2020. "I'm running to retain my seat because I believe in the Missoula County staff and citizens I work with daily," said Vero. I want citizens to know they've been heard by county leaders and empowered to create the community in which they want to live." Born and raised on the...
Native westslope cutthroat and bull trout come to the Copper Creek tributary of the Blackfoot River for the cold, clean water. Copper Creek is especially attractive to spawning trout because groundwater wells up into the stream through gravel beds in many places. This groundwater permeates trout spawning nests (redds) and keeps their incubating eggs well oxygenated and free of silt. The great trout habitat in Copper Creek is probably why a westslope cutthroat wearing a Montana Fish, Wildlife...
SEELEY LAKE - Contractors with the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited are working on the North Fork Cottonwood Reroute project that is tied to fisheries and preserving bull trout populations. The project on the #477 Cottonwood Lakes Road, approximately a quarter-mile east of the North Fork Cottonwood Creek, intends to move a segment of road from the banks of the creek and replace an existing culvert. This project is not expected to impact traffic. “The whole idea for the reroute, for instance, is to get the road away from the stream and k...
North Fork Cottonwood Reroute Project Begins SEELEY LAKE - Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited contractors started the north Fork Cottonwood Reroute project Monday, July 8. This project is on the #477, Cottonwood Lakes Road, 0.25-0.5 miles east of the North Fork Cottonwood Creek. The project intends to move a segment of road off the banks of the North Fork Cottonwood Creek and replace an existing culvert/fish barrier into a location of the stream that is more stable. This will require less maintenance while enhancing aquatic habitat and ac...
GREENOUGH – Relaxed on her front porch, the newest Missoula County Commissioner Juanita Vero watches intently as two wranglers head out to break in two horses. A fourth-generation partner of the E Bar L Ranch in Greenough, Vero is responsible for one of Montana's oldest family-owned and operated guest ranches. After her appointment June 13 to fill the remainder of Commissioner Nicole Rowley's term, Vero is excited to be part of the team leading the forward momentum of Missoula County. With t...
