Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 25
First, I thank Andi and Nathan Bourne for making the Pathfinder an award winning newspaper that in a sense belonged to all of us. And I thank Andi and Nathan for inviting me several years ago to be a contributor to the Place For All column. My latest submission to that column in the 14 December issue was more an introduction to who and what I am, and it may be my last contribution. Most of my previous submissions dealt with our public lands and wildlife, and for my latest I had intended to write about our federal lands, my first and foremost...
My earliest memories I liked being alone in the barn. Well, not alone but the only human, an introvert even as a child. I remember the tall Ponderosa Pine near the barn's west end. I felt a presence in that tree. I played alone, preferred to be alone, playing near that Ponderosa Pine next to the barn. For most of my young childhood I lived with an aunt and uncle on a ranch. It was difficult not being with my parents. My solace was my personal space ~ in the barn or next to the Ponderosa Pine. I...
Acceptance of diversity, and isolationism: two concepts that have been at the forefront of my mind, given the current situation in our state, our country and the world. I’ll not discuss world history or politics, but rather look at those concepts as they relate to my own past experiences and my current concerns. The first half of my life, as a child and young adult, I did not have much experience outside my immediate environment. I was isolated from diversity, had little exposure to people who weren’t like me. That changed in 1984 when I mad...
An October day several years ago next to a lake where I was working for the government on a grizzly project… The first lavender light of day is a time when the softness of shapes can barely be seen through the mist rising from the lake… The early morning fog slowly begins to clear, revealing pastel-hued forms that seem to float on the autumn air… I’m sitting on a dock at the edge of the lake. The day promises to be clear, sunny and calm. There is no breeze so the lake’s surface is a mauve mirror. Scattered throughout the fir and pine forest ar...
Excellent article on pet care (“Plan ahead for your pet” March 4 issue of the Pathfinder) if the owner dies or is otherwise incapacitated. The article should apply to all pet owners, not just the elderly. Additional considerations: • I always carry a small laminated card on me and will permanently attach one to my canine kid’s halter that gives the name and phone number of where she is to go if something happens to me. Plus I’ll update that card with contact information of the person who will be responsible for getting her there. One is on my p...
"Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals. ... The circuit is not closed; ... but it is a sustained circuit, like a slowly augmented revolving fund of life." – Aldo Leopold, from "The Land Pyramid" in "A Sand County Almanac" And I add humans to that circuit... Folks who know me know I hike every day with my dog Arrow. We have to. And trailing behind her makes every foray an immersion – in that open and sustained cir...
Protests are legal and at times necessary. Rioting and looting are not. But we do need to understand the pent up hurt that can often drive extreme behavior. The Preamble to our Constitution: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. So who are the beneficiaries...
I want to better articulate what I was trying to express at the Community Meeting last week. I am a candidate for a position on the sewer board. I had never considered running or becoming a part of the process but I was asked to run. So reluctantly, I filed. I don’t know how comfortable I’d be on the board but this is a serious issue for me personally, as well as for other residents in my area, and that is why I wish to be involved with the process. Follows are points from part of a letter I wrote last September both to the Pathfinder and to th...
I want to express my gratitude for the many decades of service of retiring Game Warden Bill Koppen and what his career represents. More broadly, I want to acknowledge the many thousands involved in natural resource law enforcement: state and tribal game wardens and officers, US Forest Service Law Enforcement Officers, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers, US Fish and Wildlife Service Federal Wildlife Officers, and the Criminal Investigators and Special Agen...
SEELEY LAKE - The so-called “worst case scenario” monthly estimate for the sewer project? Yes, that is the worst case scenario for me, a resident in Phase 1. The following is part of a letter I sent to the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board Sept. 22, 2019. My comments for the Phase 1 sewer proposal: 1. I am not opposed to a sewer system for the business areas. I am opposed to making it mandatory for residences in Phase 1. 2. There must be an equitable way to address residences in Phase 1. 3. I am a single, 73-year-old woman living in a 500 squ...
As I further advance into elder years, I have more appreciation for this poem by Mary Oliver. "The Summer Day" Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean-- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her...
I didn't write this as an expert on land management and wildlife issues, or as a representative of any organization. I did write it as someone with strong concerns about where society as it relates to those issues is headed, and as an area resident who would like to meet others for informal discussions about the issues presented. As I was growing up I always thought it to be pockets of humans surrounded by wild.Now I sadly see it's pockets of wild surrounded by humans. In the 1960's when I major...
I didn’t write this as an expert on societal, cultural and political issues or as a representative of any organization. I did write it as someone with strong concerns about where our country as it relates to those issues is headed. A Place for All… There couldn’t be a more appropriate title for this Pathfinder column. Thank you Andi and Nathan Bourne for your inclusiveness. The past two weeks have brought reflection. Listening to and reading the tributes given to Senator John McCain, I clearly hear their common theme: civility. And if I may a...
When I wrote my letter last week stating my support of the US Forest Service, the Seeley Lake Ranger District and the District Ranger, I intended it to be on the more general level in an attempt to offer a perspective of what government is, or rather isn’t, by stating it is not a business and should never be operated as a business, and the difficulties our land management agencies are facing now with severe budget cuts. With this much shorter letter I bring it to the local level. We are incredibly fortunate to have Rachel Feigley as the D...
I feel it important to state that I support the US Forest Service (USFS) and specifically, the Seeley Lake Ranger District and its District Ranger. Briefly, my background: From 1975 to 1985 I was a wildland firefighter and conducted industrial fire inspections, all on the Lolo National Forest (USFS), on three different Ranger Districts. I was a Federal Wildlife Officer on several National Wildlife Refuges (US Fish and Wildlife Service). And I was a law enforcement ranger for the National Park Service in Yellowstone NP and bear management...
Andi and Nathan Bourne, excellent editorial in the 15 March Pathfinder. You’re both doing outstanding work as journalists. As noted on the front page of a national newspaper (The Washington Post):“Democracy dies in darkness”....
I didn’t write this as an expert or as a representative of any organization. I did write it as an area resident who would like to meet others for informal discussions about what is wild. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what I perceive as wild and where humans fit in that concept. When asked what “wild” means to her, Carol Havlik, retired game warden and law enforcement coordinator for Wyoming Game and Fish noted, “Wildness evokes the feeling I have when I’m in a place or see something that makes me comprehend how insignificant I am and ye...
SEELEY LAKE - To the cross country skier who allowed his dog to jump all over mine as my dog and I were trying to walk to the start of the Morrell Falls USFS road: As your dog continued to jump on and at mine, you watched but did nothing. I asked you several times to please call your dog back, since it was making it difficult for me to walk. You repeatedly ignored me and stood silently watching. Finally you yelled that it is a “dog-off-leash” area. True. But, that does not mean that dogs off-leash should not be under voice control and all...
More than a few people have asked me if I am the one with a Karelian Bear Dog (KBD) who, for a fee, can push bears off their property. No, I am not. Though my KBD came from Wind River Bear Institute, she is specifically trained to find dead animal parts, not to push bears. Plus I had her trained to stay focused when firearms are discharged. Though I did work as a bear management specialist in Glacier NP and road patrol law enforcement in Yellowstone as a seasonal, and a full-time year-round federal law enforcement officer for US Fish and...
I didn’t write this as an expert on physiological or social processes, or as a representative of any organization. I did write it as an area resident who would like to meet others for informal discussions about the topics presented. Death. Is it the end? Or the beginning? Birth…death…rebirth This past summer I was particularly interested in the new growth that appears on dead and dying trees. This was fed by my many years’ fascinatation with a certain western larch snag, the top laying in decay on the forest floor. All along that crumbli...
Andi Bourne wrote an excellent but incredibly sad Editor’s Note on behalf of the young firefighter that we lost. I, too, have several years of fire experience, all on the Lolo National Forest: my first three as one of the first women in Helitack, then a fourth as engine crew foreman until a nearly fatal accident ended my career as an active firefighter and for five more seasons in fire related work – conducting industrial fire inspections on logging and mining operations (1975-spring of 1985). The year of my near fatal accident (1979) the...
I didn’t write this as an expert on land management and wildlife issues, or as a representative of any organization. I did write it as someone with strong concerns about where society as it relates to those issues is headed, and as an area resident who would like to meet others for informal discussions about the issues presented. Maintaining Balance Many years ago I was a pre-law student at the University of Nevada. One of the requirements was a course in economics. During the first few days of the class, the professor and text tried to p...
Ovando, Mont. rancher Jim Stone said it best when he mentioned “neighbors working together” to craft the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project which has resulted in introduction of the bill to create the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA). And he’s referred to “conservation and community.” To me, that is the essence of the BCSA: a community of diverse interests coming together to negotiate a conservation effort. That truly is “conservation and community.” Is the BCSA perfect? No. But if it were, then negotiation would not have been...
I didn’t write this as an expert on land management and wildlife issue, or as a representative of any organization. I did write it as someone with strong concerns about where society as it relates to those issues is headed, and as an area resident who would like to meet others for informal discussions about the issues presented. Gentrification of the West I’m from Nevada. My Dad was born and raised on a ranch in the Smith Valley area of Nevada that my grandparents owned. When Dad came back from World War II, he wanted nothing to do with the ran...
SEELEY LAKE - No, I do not have or ride a snowmobile but I take great advantage of the Seeley Lake Driftriders snowmobile club’s excellent trail and road grooming. I have a highly energetic dog named Arrow and we walk or hike the groomed roads almost daily. I have, but do not use, snowshoes and skiing behind Arrow is not possible. So we are confined to areas with well packed out snow, primarily the West Side By-Pass Road and upper Monture Road north of Ovando. In all my years enjoying these winter walks with Arrow, I have never experienced a r...
