Community Briefs

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 http://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 exist for a community when air quality reaches hazardous or very unhealthy conditions. They are especially interested for those that are vulnerable to smoke effects such as children, infant and persons with heart or lung conditions.

The study will take place Wednesday, Sept. 20 that the Seeley Lake Community Hall (3248 Highway 83) from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. Participants will fill out a questionnaire and have a minimal health screening (blood pressure, pulse oximetry readings and lung function). These research items are all voluntary and will take about 30 minutes of time to complete.

Free food will be provided.

Anyone with questions is encouraged to contact the Health Department at 406-258-4755.

Western Montana Lands Closed to Recreation

Due to extreme fire conditions, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) lands in western Montana are temporarily closed to all public access beginning Sept. 6.

TNC joined private timber companies, Weyerhaeuser and Stimson Lumber Company in closing their western Montana lands to all public recreation. Effective Sept. 5, all Weyerhaeuser Company lands in Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Missoula, Sanders and Ravalli counties in western Montana closed to public access due to the extreme forest fire danger. Stimson Lumber Company closed their lands to all public entry Aug. 3 in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks fall hunting seasons and districts are all open as planned but many areas have wildfire-related land closures. Fire danger remains extreme region-wide, so recreationists and hunters should use extra caution.

For up-to-date information on the above closures and others on Block Management Areas and FWP lands, visit fwp.mt.gov, or call the FWP office in Missoula at 406-542-5500.

For current fire closures and maps that include Forest Service and BLM public lands, visit InciWeb online at inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/27/.

All closures remain in effect until conditions improve.

Swan Valley Community Library Highlights

Swan Valley - The renovations at the Swan Valley Library are now complete. There is new carpet, lighting, shelving, tables and comfortable chairs with attached tabletops. The outside of the library building also received a facelift. It has a new roof along with newly sanded logs, new caulking between the logs and log oil was applied.

There is a large selection of DVDs, books on CD and magazines to check out along with new books that come in regularly. We also have a few family board games and card games to check out. Patrons can use the four public computers anytime or connect to the WIFI with their own devices. If you don’t see what you are looking for among the fiction and nonfiction in the collection, a request for the title can be submitted to our partner libraries and it will be sent to the Swan Valley Library for the patron to pick up.

Story time for preschool youngsters has been held during the summer months. We hope to see more children during the fall and winter. It is held every Friday morning at 11 a.m.

Book chat has also continued through the summer months. The readers are looking forward to our chat Wednesday, Sept. 20 at 1 p.m. We will be discussing “The Last Good Kiss” by the late Missoula-born James Crumley. It follows a tough hard-boiled Montana detective C.W. Sughrue hired to find a girl missing for a decade in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. The story has been described as witty, funny, gritty and suspenseful with a surprise ending.

It has been said that Crumley’s work is among the most-respected private eye novels of the turn of the millennium. Crumley has earned a reputation as one of that era’s foremost writers of private-eye fiction. “The Last Good Kiss” published in 1978 is generally considered a “stone-cold classic of the genre.”

Swan Valley Library is open Mondays and Fridays 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Wednesdays 10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.

FWP Seeks Early Input on Hunting Regulations

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is looking for early public input and ideas for the 2018-2019 Montana hunting regulations.

FWP’s Region 2 Wildlife Manager, Mike Thompson, explains that every two years FWP reviews the hunting regulations and proposes changes as needed.

“Early public scoping, which is what we are doing right now, is one of the first phases of this process,” Thompson said. “We don’t have proposals to react to and that’s what scoping is all about.  What we hear now helps us to direct our proposals toward issues that matter to the public and to avoid tinkering with the things that are already working really well for people.”

 FWP will present tentative hunting regulations to the Fish and Wildlife Commission in December, which will incorporate input provided by the public during this scoping period.  The “tentatives,” as they’re called, are then taken out to local communities for comment in January 2018 and finalized by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in February.

 To weigh in on the hunting regulations, complete a short survey and provide your ideas now through Sept. 24 at 5 p.m. online at fwp.mt.gov by following the link to “2018-19 Hunting Seasons-Public Scoping.”