Snow Ranger program returns to Seeley Lake Ranger District

SEELEY LAKE – Thanks to the rekindling of an old program, the Seeley Lake Ranger District now has two snow rangers in the field this winter. Seeley District Wilderness Ranger Abby Propsom and developed recreation technician Paige King have increased the District's presence this winter interacting with recreationists through patrols, helping maintain the services the Forest Service offers and working local events and teaching winter safety awareness in area schools.

According to Seeley Lake Ranger District Recreation Manager Matt Walter, it has been more than a decade since there were Snow Rangers on the District.

"The local clubs have done such a good job but we want to help them as much as we can," Walter said highlighting the Seeley Lake Driftriders and Seeley Lake Nordic Club. "We wanted to get something going since winter is a considerable amount of time up here."

Walter said with the modernization of the Forest Service budget, they have been able to beef up their trail crew and this year they had the available funds to keep on two seasonals and train them to be snow rangers.

"Having extra field positions in the winter will help us be more responsive to requests," Walter said. "We wanted to keep on a few exemplary temporary employees as long as we could and we knew it would be helpful for the community."

Propsom loves working outside in the summer as the District's Wilderness Ranger, hiking the trails, helping with the fire crew and anything else needed. Working in the winter has not only allowed her to get to know her co-workers better, it has also taught her a new appreciation for winter.

"In the past I've struggled to enjoy being outside in the winter," Propsom said. "Getting to snowmobile, snow shoe and cross country ski and just get involved in a bunch of different stuff outside has been really, really nice."

For King, she appreciates the ability to help out the law enforcement officers since no one is suppose to be out alone. She also said meeting the different types of recreationists, from snowshoers, skiers, mushers to snowmobilers, has been very interesting.

"It's been fun to see Seeley make the shift from summer recreationists to winter and see what winter is really like here," King said.

With very little experience snowmobiling, both Snow Rangers agreed that learning how to ride has been a steep learning curve. While they mostly stick to the trails, both enjoy riding and getting to know the snowmobiling community which has been really friendly.

"In the summer you can drive everywhere," Propsom said. "The change in the front country being only accessible by snowmobile is a big shift."

King and Propsom agree that making the rounds of the winter day-use areas, being out on the trails, attending local events and giving presentations in the schools has really helped the District reach out "and be more of a presence."

"We are trying to be more involved in the community," King said.

Propsom added, "Hopefully we can build the program moving forward."

Propsom and King were invited to present a class on winter safety and survival to schools in Helmville, Ovando, Potomac, Bonner and Seeley Lake last week. Based on their own experience, they developed the hour-long program discussing winter safety while recreating either on the ice, in the mountains or in general in the winter and then including the use of probe and beacon in an avalanche.

"We wanted to keep them engaged so we felt going outside would be good," King said.

Propsom added, "We wanted them to actually use equipment instead of just talking about how it works."

Their presentation included: sharing what items to bring when recreating in the winter; discussing the importance of layering with clothing made of synthetic materials; presenting a safety guide to ice thickness; talking about avalanche awareness and beacon use; and highlighting other key safety measures including telling someone where you are going, knowing the area, going with a partner and bringing at least two forms of communication in case there is no service or the cell phone dies.

They spoke to the Seeley-Swan High School Chemistry class Jan. 27. In addition to covering the basic winter safety and survival, most of which they assumed the students had been exposed to, they adapted their presentation to include reading an avalanche forecast, discussing the case study on the fatalities near Lake Dinah in January 2020 and practicing finding a beacon buried in the snow.

They both enjoyed sharing information about recreating in the winter and about their position with the students. They look forward to meeting more people on the trails and remind everyone to practice the key safety steps they shared with the students when recreating in the area.

"Carry your beacons, wear your helmets, know what terrain you are getting yourself into, know how to get yourself out if you get into a sticky situation and read that avalanche forecast," Propsom said. "A lot of people think that just going out on trails they are 100% safe and you never are."