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From the prairie potholes of northeastern North Dakota to the Blackfoot Valley, new Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife biologist Lee Tafelmeyer has already had a varied career in wildlife biology. "I grew on a cattle ranch, hunting and trapping and developing a passion for the outdoors, wildlife and ecosystems," Tafelmeyer said. "A family vacation trip to Yellowstone as a youngster played into my interest in the Rocky Mountains and wildlife." When college entrance forced the beginning of...
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been acquiring land in the Blackfoot Valley from the Nature Conservancy (TNC) since the early 1990s, when it owned 40 acres in the Blackfoot Valley. Today it manages nearly 44,000 acres, with more to come. Currently, the BLM is developing a Travel Management Plan (TMP) for managing access on the bureau's land in the Blackfoot watershed in order to develop a recreational use plan, manage the forest resources and restore Reserved Tribal Treaty Rights on fede...
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been doing forest conservation in the Blackfoot and Seeley-Swan Valleys since the mid-1970s and when we heard the announcement of the Pyramid Mountain Lumber mill closure this spring, like for so many in the community, it was a gut punch. Local Montana mills and all the contractors they support are a vital part of reaching our collective forest restoration and conservation goals, and we recognize that the economics of running a mill in Montana have gotten harder and harder. There has been nearly no change in...
Summer brings the field season for Blackfoot Challenge program staff - teaming up with landowners, state and federal partners and fellow conservation organizations to make hay while the sun shines. From new electric fences to piles of biochar, here are a few updates on Blackfoot community stewardship work happening around the watershed. Education In spring and fall, school-based education events are in full swing. In May, Challenge staff took part in an all-day bear-aware event for Seeley Lake...
While researching the history of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area (Game Range), local nonprofit Protect the Clearwater (PTC) found an article written by Jay Kolbe in 2007. Kolbe was the Wildlife Management Area Manager and Wildlife Biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) for the area at that time. PTC feels this article highlights the critical role the Game Range plays and is worth reprinting. When the Clearwater Resource Council met this summer to identify some of...
The winter of 2023/2024 brought a ton of sunshine and blue skies to Seeley Lake, and it also brought a ton of challenges for the ROCKS team as we struggled to keep our winter recreational areas functional and fun. No strangers to adversity, we who rely so heavily on the weather, everyone persevered. While our winter activities looked a wee bit different from normal years, we skated and we skied whenever we could. As we maintained the yurt with the Nordic Ski Club, we marveled at the ingenuity with which they forged ahead with a paltry amount...
Meeting under the Boot Tree outside of Ovando, tour participants looked through a forest managed for health and wildlife habitat on the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area. Abundant grass grew amongst trees with up to six foot diameter trunks and visibility up to 100 yards. Soon the tour caravaned to the perimeter of the Type One treatment unit. Visibility through the forest was limited at the edge of the road as the sunlight was strangled by a dense screen of ladder fuels. As part of the...
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...
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...
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...
The public now has access to more high-quality hunting and hiking in western Montana, as the Bureau of Land Management has just acquired more than 6,500 acres along the Blackfoot River. These 6,576 acres mark the second and final phase in the Ninemile-Woodchuck parcel acquisition that began earlier this year. The BLM’s Missoula Field Office has now added a total of 37,000 acres of former private timber land in the Blackfoot Watershed in a years-long project working with The Nature Conservancy and using $9,863,000 of funding from the Land and W...
By Bebe Crouse The Nature Convervancy You may have seen a strange piece of machinery being towed through the area recently. It looks like a rail car-size dumpster mounted on tank treads. It's called a Tigercat Carbonator. It has nothing to do with producing fizzy beverages, but it will turn the woody slash piles left after forest thinning into a charcoal-like amendment that helps soil hold onto moisture and nutrients. The Nature Conservancy, public agencies and private landowners have experiment...
By Jean Pocha, Pathfinder Correspondent GOLD CREEK Emerging technology and forest product utilization was the focus of the forest tour in the Gold Creek area Oct. 25. More than two dozen people observed the Tigercat Carbonator 6050 make biochar out of slash piles as part of forest thinning and fuels reduction work done on land managed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Forest Service and private landowners. Land managers discussed biochar production in the...
As passersby take in the Blackfoot watershed's forests, waterways and wildlife, many have no idea that a unique concept to benefit all community members came to life in the heart of the watershed – with the creation of a community forest known as the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (BCCA). Back in 2003, recognizing the increasing potential for habitat fragmentation, the Blackfoot Challenge and The Nature Conservancy initiated a large-scale land acquisition effort known as the Blackfoot C...
SEELEY LAKE - The Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) and the US Forest Service joined the Southwestern Crown Collaborative (SWCC) for a Seeley Field Tour on July 20. The SWCC brings together citizens, businesses, government agencies and conservation organizations to consider creative solutions in the management of National Forests in the Blackfoot, Clearwater and Swan River valleys. SWCC began meeting regularly in July of 2009 in response to the creation of the Collaborative Forest Landscape...
Summer is upon us and that means Nature Conservancy crews are deep into their season of fieldwork but we haven't been idle over the winter and spring. We were excited to complete the first leg of a two-part sale of land in the Ninemile/Woodchuck area to the Bureau of Land Management. The first 4,600 acres were transferred in April and we expect to close soon on an additional 6,400 acres bringing the total to 11,000 acres permanently conserved for public use. Lots of numbers, but the bottom line...
SEELEY LAKE - "We are trying to clean up the school forest to protect it from future wildfires," Seeley-Swan High School senior Walker McDonald said. "We are looking to use this as an example for the community and a standard and try to get motivation throughout our community to clean up their property. We know how wildfires have been in the area and we know it is only going to get worse." McDonald along with six other students in Gretchen Watkins' chemistry class won the 2021-2022 RISE Challenge...
PLACID LAKE – Around 20 people gathered near Placid Lake April 28 to discuss recreational use and management in and around Placid Lake. This conversation between members of the public, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) initiated the conversation that FWP and TNC hopes will lead to a collaborative vision for the park and neighboring lands that meets current and future needs. The public is encouraged to provide their comments and feedback by May 31 via the project w...
BLACKFOOT VALLEY – Remnant populations of common camas (Camassia quamash) tell a story of bygone days. History tells that many of the seasonally wet meadows and forest edges in and around the Blackfoot Valley were once home to hundreds, if not thousands of acres of common camas plants. Due to the historical and cultural significance of the camas plant to the Salish, Pend O'reille and Kootenai tribes, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are working with the C...
SEELEY LAKE — Staff from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are working together to begin a recreation visioning process for Placid Lake State Park and adjacent TNC lands, located just southwest of the town of Seeley Lake. They are asking for public input early in the process to help understand current issues and priorities and to generate ideas for the future of the area. For decades, Placid Lake State Park has provided the only public access to the lake, a popular spot for camping, boating, swimming and f...
GREENOUGH – Last week the Bureau of Land Management purchased 4,600 acres in the Ninemile/Woodchuck area. This purchase is part of a years-long cooperative effort with The Nature Conservancy to secure public access on former industrial timber lands throughout the Blackfoot River watershed. "These lands will provide for opportunities for continued access for public recreation, access to sacred areas and other important areas for tribes and forest management for multiple benefits including r...
Editor's Note: Part I, run in the March 10 issue, highlighted the start of the Northern Pacific Railroad's influence on the Upper Swan Valley through the early 1900's. Although the upper Swan Valley was primarily settled by homesteaders staking claims on United States Forest Service (USFS) lands, some settlers purchased Northern Pacific (NP) lands for as low as $1.25 an acre, usually in 80- or 160-acre parcels. The Haasch family who homesteaded a USFS parcel later bought an additional 160 acres...
The New Year is a natural time for reflection and looking ahead. We hope you had a great holiday with your family and friends, and that you had time do just that. As I reflect on 2021, I am encouraged by the growing partnerships of people who share a common desire to live, work and play in the forested lands in our part of the world. Given some of the challenges we face, such as the rising numbers of people recreating in the woods, the intensity of wildfires across the West and the complexity of ecologically sound and economically realistic for...
The smell of freshly cut limbs and trees wafts through the air as I walk through the project area. The low hum of the harvester, a large and impressive piece of logging equipment, works right over the hill. This is the first of what I, and Swan Valley Connections (SVC), hope to be many forest stewardship and restoration projects on the Swan Legacy Forest that can be used to engage students and other landowners by demonstrating examples of stewardship and property management. Swan Legacy Forest...
PLACID LAKE – This past week, the Montana Conservation Corps and Seeley Lake ROCKS volunteers connected the Lake View Trail near the west end of Placid Lake to Tuppers Lake. This is another link in the Placid Lake Trails that ROCKS has been working on for the past several years. ROCKS worked in close coordination with The Nature Conservancy and MCC to build the connector trail. While it is less than a tenth of a mile, the entire connector was put in by hand which included digging a ditch. The p...
