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Last week, The Nature Conservancy staff from Washington state joined Montana staff to look at the forests burned this summer by the Liberty Fire, which affected roughly 7,000 acres of the land recently acquired by the Conservancy. Dozens of local contractors and crews from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and U.S. Forest Service have been working for weeks on rehabilitation efforts, including repair of roads and firelines. We are grateful for all of the good work and long days that have gone into this effort and...
SEELEY LAKE – Bull Creek Forestry's reputation of good forest stewardship, and respect for both the land and the people they work with is known in the area. Now Montana Wood Products Association recognized Owner Leelyn Cahoon as the "Logger of the Year." Leelyn was also named "Western Region Outstanding Logger" by the Forest Resources Association's Western Region and Stihl Incorporated. While Leelyn was surprised and honored by the recognition, he quickly pointed to his employees as the r...
Swan Valley AARP Meeting, Oct. 2 SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley AARP will meet at noon Monday, Oct. 2 at the Swan Valley Community Hall. A potluck lunch hosted by Russ and Larrine Abolt will begin at 12:30 p.m. At 1:30 p.m., Joe Pecora, a Cowboy Poet and former Condon resident, will read some poetry and tell some stories. The public is invited. New Date for “Be Our Guest” Event SEELEY LAKE - The date for the Sparrow’s Vine “Be Our Guest” Fundraising Banquet has been changed to Oct. 19 to accommodate the guest speaker. The event begins at 6 p.m....
Community Handbell Choir Fall Season Begins SEELEY LAKE - The Seeley-Swan Mountain Bells, a local community handbell choir, will kick-off the fall season Tuesday, Sept. 26. New members are welcome. Anyone who is curious is encouraged to give the group a try and see how you like it. Members are expected to be able to read music. The choir practices Tuesdays in the music room at Seeley Lake Elementary school. Set up begins at 3:15 p.m., practice is from 3:30 – 5 p.m. and then members should allow time to take down. Director Joann Wallenburn d...
Red Cross Blood Drive, Sept. 20 SEELEY LAKE – Mission Bible Fellowship will be hosting a Red Cross blood drive on Wednesday Sept. 20 from 11:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. People can register at www.redcrossblood.org or download the Red Cross app. Residents Asked to Help with Study on the Smoke Impacts, Sept. 20 SEELEY LAKE - The University of Montana, in conjunction with the Missoula County-City Health Department, is seeking help from Seeley Lake residents in learning how the smoke impacted their health and the barriers for finding clean air that e...
ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to extreme fire conditions, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) lands in western Montana are temporarily closed to all public access until conditions improve. TNC joins private timber companies, Weyerhaeuser and Stimson Lumber Company, in closing their western Montana lands to all public recreation, due to extreme fire danger. RICE RIDGE FIRE MORNING UPDATE: The Rice Ridge Fire grew to more than 109,000 acres and has merged with the 10,000 acre Reef Fire to the north east. The new...
Morning Update: The Rice Ridge Fire remains 122,843 acres because no infrared flight occurred over the fire last night. The fire is 5% contained and there are 801 fire personnel assigned to the fire. The cost is up to $35 million. Currently there are 1,719 structures threatened based on more accurate data from the Missoula and Powell County Sheriffs' offices. There is a RED FLAG WARNING TODAY FROM 2 pm TO 9 pm FOR WINDS 10-12 MPH, GUSTING OVER 20 MPH. YESTERDAY: A spot fire ½ mile from...
SWAN VALLEY - The Housing Element, the fourth of seven elements of the Swan Valley Growth Plan, was addressed and edited at the Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee meeting Aug. 16. The committee completed six sections of the element. The committee discussed the addition to the opening paragraph of the fourth element. The original wording said that the market price of housing has surpassed the ability of many residents to own or rent. Many communities have established programs to help close the gap which can be important to the economic deve...
A property that helped turn Montana's North Fork Flathead River Valley into a conservation stronghold is changing hands but remaining wild. The Vital Ground Foundation has teamed up with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and new landowners on a conservation easement protecting 142 acres of forestland and wildlife habitat known as Polebridge Palace. On the pine-strewn benches above the North Fork Flathead, the area will remain a haven for grizzly bears, Canada lynx and other sensitive wildlife, as wel...
In the past decade, we have made significant progress in making the Seeley/Swan more resilient to the effects of wildfire. This has been accomplished by conducting fuel reduction treatments on hundreds of acres of private land, where cost-share funding has helped landowners reduce the risk of wildfire on their forested lands. Adjacent to these treatments and often outside the Wildland Urban Interface at higher elevations, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the US...
SEELEY LAKE - More than 60 people came together for a volunteer work day at Fawn Pond on July 23. The Nature Conservancy hosted their sixth annual Revive and Thrive event to celebrate conservation and recreation efforts and create a new trail. Fawn Pond, a few miles west of Seeley Lake, now has a new mile-and-a-half nonmotorized trail around it. The trail includes a new bridge over Fawn Creek, which will replace a culvert downstream that has been impeding fish flow. This combination of...
SWAN VALLEY - Maria Mantas, the executive director of Swan Valley Connections for the last four years, will be retiring this fall. "A good executive director keeps the family together, keeps the team together," said Mantas. "I call myself the head cook and dishwasher." Before her stint with SVC, she worked for the Nature Conservancy as the Science and Stewardship Director, and was a plant ecologist for the Flathead National Forest prior to that. "I've spent about 30 years doing conservation...
Asphalt Millings Pile Continues to Grow – No Current Legal Issues SEELEY LAKE - The millings pile south of Seeley Lake has grown considerably over the course of the Highway 83 construction. There are currently no violations with the site. The contractor is required to find a place for millings. Frank Tabish, project manager for the construction, said that LHC contracted with John Richards Construction to dump the millings on the site. The site is located on private property. The property is located near Morrell Creek which raised some c...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee voted to add appendices to the draft growth plan at their meeting June 14. The committee also discussed and edited three sections of the Land Use Element. Despite Chair Ken Donovan’s objection to including appendices in the draft plan, he and the rest of the committee voted to include appendices. Donovan was concerned it would make the document redundant. Committee member Diann Ericson compiled the additions to the appendices from text the committee eliminated from the draft plan. E...
The Nature Conservancy (TNC), along with our partners at the Blackfoot Challenge and Five Valleys Land Trust, invite members of the community to celebrate restoration and land protection with our third-annual "Revive and Thrive" event on Sunday, July 23. It's a chance for people to lend a hand sprucing up a favorite, or even not so well known, spot on TNC's Clearwater Blackfoot Project land. This year we'll be working on a new loop trail at the headwaters of Fawn Creek, not far from Seeley...
SEELEY LAKE – The reality of wildfires burning more frequently with higher intensity and across larger areas was the hot topic Thursday, April 27 during the Era of Megafires event in Seeley Lake. Guest speaker Dr. Paul Hessburg shared the story about why he feels megafires (fires larger than 100,000 acres) are happening. Instead of fear, his mission was to incite a call to action and a feeling of power to change the way wildfires affect people's homes, neighborhoods, towns and the landscapes tha...
GREENOUGH – It is calving season in the Blackfoot. Sunset School students had the opportunity to learn about the calving and ranch operations at the Paws Up Ranch from Ranch Manager Kyle Kelley and his wife Leigh on April 26. Students took a hay ride through the 'fresh' calving area where the calves are less than one week old, toured the calving barn and bottle fed a calf and lamb. This is the second year Sunset School has visited the Kelleys whose daughter Claire attends Sunset School. Leigh o...
SEELEY LAKE - Timber companies and conservationists may seem like unlikely partners—for those who don’t know the Blackfoot, that is. For years, Seeley Lake’s Pyramid Mountain Lumber has partnered with many groups on conservation initiatives around watersheds to protect clean water for fish, wildlife and people. For more than a decade, Pyramid and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), along with other groups including the Blackfoot Challenge, have been working together to find sustainable solutions for the region’s forests. Over the last twenty years,...
LINCOLN – Trails connecting communities to each other, people to the community and dollars to the local economy were the main discussion points at the day-long Southwest Crown Regional Trails Check-in Feb. 28 in Lincoln. The check-in was a continuation of the conversation that was started at the initial Southwest Crown Regional Trails Summit May 2015. It allowed groups to reconnect and share information about what projects are being worked on, learn from one another and to be more efficient i...
SEELEY LAKE - For the past two-and-a-half years Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) has been laying the foundation to allow the Seeley Lake community to plan a comprehensive trails system. To begin building on that foundation, CRC formally kicked off the public input phase of the Seeley Lake Trails Project Feb. 25. CRC Executive Director Cathy Kahnle said during those two-and-a-half years the organization gathered information from Missoula County, other counties, other trails-planning groups, surv...
SEELEY LAKE – Missoula County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Sunderland said antler thefts around Seeley Lake are again on the rise. Another issue is people cutting firewood out of season on state and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) land and are blocking the road. Sunderland said antlers that are outside and visible are being stolen at night. “People need to understand that antlers are worth money, actually good money. If they leave them outside where people can see them, the odds are somebody is going to come along and steal them,” said Sunderland. Anyone...
SWAN VALLEY - The Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee (SVRPC) discussed and edited seven paragraphs in the Regional Draft Plan at their monthly meeting Jan. 11. The paragraphs were part of the Economic Development Element under the section entitled Future Potential of Past and Current Economic Activity. The SVRPC addressed five of the paragraphs: Residential Construction, Guiding/outfitting, Resource-based recreation, Eco-tourism and Accommodations. This portion of the draft plan deals with promoting the recreation possibilities the valley...
Recreational public access and wildlife habitat have been protected on nearly 5,500 acres of former industrial timberland in the Blackfoot Valley. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) transferred the land to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) using an award from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This was the first transfer in TNC's Clearwater-Blackfoot Project in which the organization acquired more than 117,000 acres of large forest land tracts. The aim of the Clearwater-Blackfoot Project is...
As snow finally blankets the valley, the quiet and cold gives us time to reflect on the last year. 2016 has been an incredibly busy year for The Nature Conservancy in Montana, including for those of us who work on the Clearwater-Blackfoot Project. In almost two years since acquiring the 117,152 acres that comprise the Clearwater-Blackfoot Project, the Conservancy has been working hard to address urgent conservation needs and to understand the landscape as a whole. Projects of this scale always have an element of uncertainty but our work with...
