Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 27
SEELEY LAKE – In 2014 Clearwater Resource Council (CRC) launched an examination into trail usage in the Seeley Lake area with a view toward developing a comprehensive trails plan. Last year, the CRC Trails Advisory Council designed a survey to better understand the trail-related needs of Seeley Lake residents, visitors and businesses. The results of those surveys were presented March 7 at a public meeting. Part I presents the results of the resident and visitor surveys. Part II, to be p...
SEELEY LAKE – Dressed in ties and skirts, students walked the halls of Seeley-Swan High School Wednesday, March 7. This was a different Discovery Day – it was a Career Fair. Instead of taking students outside the classroom, the community came to them. Students were offered a wide variety of presentations during the morning sessions to learn about different careers options. In the afternoon, they had the opportunity to learn about career readiness and practice job seeking skills. Seeley Lake Ele...
The snowpack across Montana remains in good shape starting the month of March with all basins in the state at near to above normal for the date. In fact, Montana is the only state in the 12 western U.S. states where the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service measures snowpack in which all basins in the state have at least normal snowpack conditions. Precipitation thus far in the water year (beginning October 2017) has been well below normal in much of the West except for northern areas in W...
When we think of floods, we have an image in our heads of cars being swept down the road or boats navigating through neighborhoods rescuing families who are seeking refuge on their rooftops. Because of these images, many people feel like they don't need flood insurance. They think that won't happen in Montana. While you may not have to wait on your roof for a boat to rescue you, floods can affect you and damage your home. Nearly 20 percent of all flood insurance claims come from moderate to low...
SWAN VALLEY – Swan Valley students shared many valuable life lessons as they followed Gulliver's travels through space, March 10. Nearly the entire student body was involved in the Missoula Children's Theatre production of Gulliver's Travels that filled the Swan Valley School gym with applause and laughter. In the opening scene Gulliver, played by Rilyn Richardson and Connor Matthew, crashed in space finding only the Invisible Force, played by tour director Christopher Martin, to guide him. W...
SEELEY LAKE – We take our seat and flip on our recorder. Often the only "public" in the room, we represent more than 1,000 readers. Many of the local boards welcome us because our articles provides the public information about what they are doing while others would rather conduct their business without the publicity. But it's not about publicity, it's about sunshine. The week of March 11-17 is the 17th annual Sunshine Week. News outlets nationwide will promote the idea that democracy works only...
MISSOULA - I am beyond excited to endorse Josh Slotnick for County Commissioner and hope you will take the time to learn about - and vote - for him. We both moved here to go to college in the early ‘80s from our respective Dakota’s and immediately became fast friends. After college, he moved to Thailand for the Peace Corp; we reunited back in Missoula eight years later with kids and spouses in tow (at Farmer’s Market). By then he’d studied permaculture and started a small family farm growing organic veggies. My friend was now a farmer, an entr...
POTOMAC - I would like to apologize publicly for my comments regarding the “sub-par” education at Potomac School. I did say that, but in reflection it was a very poor word choice and was not meant to reflect on the teachers at the school. They are all amazing, give 110 percent, care about our kids and may be counted among the best of the best. My intent was more to point out that in the absence of the Explorer’s program I personally feel that the school isn’t really all that different from the average school. In many ways the opportu...
Hello! I am a third-grade student in Northern Virginia. In third grade we do state reports and I have chosen your state! I am very excited to learn more about the great state of Montana as I work on my report. Information that I gather for my report will mainly be from books and websites but I would also like to get information from the people who live in the state. This is why I am writing to you. I was hoping that you would be willing to send me some items to help me learn more about the best things in your state. It could be things like...
MISSOULA - Following the historic 2017 fire season, the Missoula County Office of Emergency Management has worked with dozens of local, state and federal partners to update its Community Wildfire Protection Plan. The public is invited to provide feedback on it over the next several weeks. The revised plan and related materials are available for the public to view online at http://bit.ly/MissoulaCoCWPP. The plan incorporates several important updates, including: • Refined definition and detailed mapping of the wildland-urban interface for M...
WOODWORTH - The Woodworth schoolhouse located near Kozy Korner, succumbed to the heavy snowloads this winter. The schoolhouse, operational from the late 1920's through the 1950's, was an intricate part of the rural Woodworth Meadows as it transitioned from a viable logging community to more agricultural-based area. Seeley Lake resident Denny Dreyer recalls riding his horse to school here....
SEELEY LAKE - Amy Pearson, writer, teacher, photographer, poet, student of Buddhism and wilderness advocate will be reading from and discussing her recent book of poetry and photographs, "100 Days of Solitude" Saturday, March 17 at 7 p.m. at the Grizzly Claw Trading Company. Pearson will include a power point presentation of her photographs taken from a lookout in the Bob Marshall Wilderness where she spent one summer as a fire lookout. Alpine Artisans Open Book Club sponsors this event. There...
SEELEY LAKE - Please join Alpine Artisans' 2 Valleys Stage at the Seeley Lake Community Hall March 25, 3 p.m. for the rousing rhythms of John Roberts y Pan Blanco. The group is an ensemble of energetic musicians that inspires the audience to dance and enjoy life! You'll hear vocals in Spanish, English and Portuguese as the group melds high-energy Funk, African and Latin grooves with soulful instrumental solos aimed at sharing musical and cultural diversity with the audience. The family-friendly...
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...
In 2015, the Montana Legislature ratified the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) –Water Compact with Montana, which settled all water rights claimed by the CSKT under the 1855 Hellgate Treaty. This was the culmination of a multi-year negotiation process between Montana’s Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission and the CSKT. The final step in the implementation of the CSKT Compact is ratification by the United States Congress. The federal ratification debate has inevitably turned political and now many of the arguments over thi...
The Lolo National Forest is proposing to harvest trees burned by the Liberty fire and plant seedlings within the fire perimeter. The project is located on the Lolo National Forest Seeley Lake and Missoula Ranger Districts, 13 miles southwest of Seeley Lake. The Liberty Fire was ignited by lightning on July 15, 2017. The fire burned approximately 28,694 acres: 9,452 acres was National Forest System (NFS) land, 6,859 acres of private land and 12,378 acres of Flathead Agency land. About 61 percent of the Liberty fire burned areas the LNF...
Shelby Schools Superintendent Elliott Crump knows first-hand about the teacher shortage in Montana. The Montana Office of Public Instruction reported 638 full-time openings in the state's "difficult or hard to fill" teaching positions in 2016-17 and Crump's school district had four of them. When no qualified applicants from Montana–or anywhere else in the United States–applied for those jobs, he started looking outside the United States and ended up hiring four teachers from the Phi...
SEELEY LAKE – Purchasing a home in the Seeley-Swan area just got a little easier. John Homen, co-owner of Homen Hearth of Seeley Lake, recently passed his state and national home inspector certification. Homen's desire is to provide the safest environment for the homeowners and provide the best possible services so the potential home buyer has a good understanding of what they are purchasing. Homen and his wife Rachel started their chimney cleaning service Homen Hearth in June 2013. Homen has a...
SWAN VALLEY – Part-time Swan Valley resident Ryan Reschke has always enjoyed experimenting with abstract drawing, photography and painting techniques. Whether it is behind his camera, on canvas or digitally creating with his iPad, Reschke pulls the extraordinary out of the ordinary letting the art create its self. Reschke became interested in art at a young age. Even though he took an art class in elementary school, it wasn't until he was 16 that he started practicing abstract drawing. "Abstract...
One of the most beautiful effects of living your passion is that it inspires others to live theirs. I believe this wholeheartedly. It's catching. It isn't about wanting what others have and duplicating that. It's about you deciding to throw some skin in the game of your life and give your own dreams a shot. We get one life on this earth. It really is up to us to live it as beautifully and bravely as we can. And we're darn fools not to. We all get a little lost. We all go a little crazy....
SEELEY LAKE – Of the more than 100 attendees at the Rice Ridge Recap March 7, only nine filled out the US Forest Service’s survey requesting information relative to the management of the Rice Ridge fire. Only four addressed the fire, the others commented on the meeting. The survey consisted of three questions • What went well? • What didn’t go well? • What can we do differently next time? Two responses agreed that keeping residential areas safe and “no homes were lost” was commendable. The other two agreed that information to the public and See...
GREAT FALLS - Leon Palmer Bergan, 85, of Great Falls, passed away Saturday, March 10, 2018. Leon was born on Sept. 25, 1932 in Scobey, Mont. to Palmer and Lydia Bergan. He joined the United States Navy and served during the Korean War, he then served for 33 years in civil service. He was a member of the Elks, Eagles, VFW, Moose and Senior Citizens Center. Leon enjoyed fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, float trips, packing into the Bob Marshall Wilderness, pool, cards, camping, getting firewood and...
Today is my 25th anniversary! I can honestly say that it has been the best 25 years of my life and I thank God every day for giving me a godly, wonderful, intelligent, beautiful wife who loves and respects me, and sacrifices herself to take care of her family. Our oldest daughter got married just over a month ago, so between that and our 25th anniversary, it seemed fitting to write some brief thoughts about marriage. What is the purpose of marriage? God created marriage (see Genesis 2:18-25), and ultimately, everything God created is for the...
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary eighth grade students were included in the Seeley-Swan High School’s spring Discovery Day. The Career Fair held March 7 was a perfect project for the Jobs for Montana Graduates career development category. SLE Library Media Specialist Michele Holmes has been doing JMG for the past two years with the eighth graders. It falls under the national program Jobs for America Graduates run through the Department of Labor and Industry. SLE is one of eight middle schools in the country that participates in the pro...
Destinations for Education Dessert Night, March 16 SEELEY LAKE – Thirteen Seeley-Swan High School students along with Seeley Lake Elementary Spanish teacher Bridget Laird and SSHS Science teacher Tonya Smith will be traveling to Costa Rica April 4-14 with the Destinations for Education program. The community is invited to participate in their final fundraiser, a Dessert Night at Double Arrow Lodge March 16 at 7 p.m. Destinations for Education is an opportunity for SSHS students every other year. Students are expected to take turns in l...
