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SEELEY LAKE - Tuesday, Aug. 29 Seeley Lake resident Stuart Stone, 73, was arrested for nearly hitting a National Guard Solider at the roadblock into an evacuated area for the Rice Ridge Fire. He was charged with assault with a weapon (his vehicle), resisting arrest and obstructing a governmental function. Tuesday, Aug. 29 around 4:15 p.m. Stuart Stone stopped at the roadblock on Whitetail Drive. Stuart had been previously evacuated and told officials he needed to get his mail. The National...
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...
SEELEY LAKE – Under Red Flag Conditions, the Rice Ridge Fire exploded this past weekend, adding 12,000 acres on Saturday and doubling the already 50,000 acres burned on Sunday. As of Tuesday, Sept. 5, the fire is more than 108,400 acres and only two percent contained. The only structure lost has been a portable outhouse. Over the past week more than 150 fire personnel have been added to the efforts. The team was spending $1 million per day to suppress the fire. The overall cost is more than $...
BARCELONA – Seeley Lake resident and Seeley Lake Elementary teacher Kelsi Luhnow didn't realize that her simple decision to stop at her hostel before going to the plaza at Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain may have saved her life. She was within a couple blocks of the terrorist rampage that reportedly killed 13 people and injured more than 100 Aug. 16. Luhnow, a world traveler, said her experience will not stop her from traveling but it does heighten her awareness. The past few years Luhnow has t...
SEELEY LAKE - With his letter in last week’s Pathfinder, Dennis Clark became a strong, though likely unwitting, ally to Citizens for Sensible Wastewater Solutions (CSWS) and the constituents of the Seeley Lake Sewer District. We at CSWS found most of what Clark said quite agreeable as he applied criteria and a level of critical thinking skills rare to the current support’s side of the debate about the proposed sewer project. Mr. Clark, while you and CSWS may seem to be on opposing sides of the issue, like England’s famed “Loyal opposit...
I am really getting tired of all the advertisements about all the good things our good old Montana boy Jon Tester is doing for Montana. Anytime I hear a politician continually blowing their horn I get suspicious. That`s certainly is the case with Mr. Tester. An example is his purported support for our veterans. I think we all support our veterans and would do anything for them. However, I have misgivings about Mr. Tester’s support of disabled veterans when I see him supporting the limiting of access to our public National Forest to special i...
SEELEY LAKE - I am writing to share my thoughts and voice my “Yes” for a community sewer system. The first reason is that I, along with all of you, like clean water. It is so refreshing to drink directly from a spring or mountain waterfall! I can’t say the same for drinking directly from the lake and this is the point. The second reason is stewardship and doing “my part” to protect my family, my community and my state. Through the efforts of the volunteer committee, and the process they followed, we have learned about several logical and well-...
Having a headache is no picnic, in fact, these things can be quite debilitating. People get headaches for all kinds of reasons. Sore muscles, a bad neck or just a stressful life often causes tension headaches. Another type of headache that frequents the unlucky person is a migraine. It's not unusual for a person to be entirely disabled with a migraine-and they can be tricky to get rid of. How do you know if your headache is a migraine? For people who suffer from them, it's probably a silly...
SEELEY LAKE – There were a few people in Seeley Lake that didn’t receive the Smart911 alert Monday, Aug. 28 when parts of Seeley Lake were evacuated. While the oversight was due to human error, Smart911 is still the preferred method to send emergency alerts to the Missoula County community. According to Office of Emergency Management Director Adriane Beck the evacuation Monday, Aug. 28 was very dynamic. The first area that received the evacuation order that went out just after 5:30 p.m. included: Morrell Creek Drive north of Cougar Court; the...
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) issued a temporary closure Aug. 31 for most of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area (WMA), due to extreme fire conditions and the surrounding pre-evacuation notices related to the Rice Ridge Fire. The closure applies to all public entry on the Blackfoot-Clearwater WMA in Missoula and Powell Counties, south and west of Woodworth Road and the portion west of Highway 83, as posted. Ovando Mountain is the only portion of the WMA that remains open....
SWAN VALLEY – Swan Valley School started Tuesday, Sept. 5 with three new teachers and a new secretary. Supervising Teacher Susan Bracha was the only returning faculty this year. The only teacher new to the area is music teacher Kristin Cottom. Cottom is a first-year teacher that will instruct music at Swan Valley School, Seeley Lake Elementary and teaching band, choir and the History of Rock n' Roll at Seeley-Swan High School. The rest of the new faculty and staff are Swan Valley residents. K...
First, as a representative from Missoula County Fire Protection Association, our thoughts and prayers go out to the communities of Seeley Lake, Kozy Korner and Ovando for the trying times people are going through with the Rice Ridge Fire. We as an agency realize that we are going to be in this extended fire season for a little bit longer than we thought. Conditions are to remain hot and dry and that only creates more of a possibility of more wildfire ignitions. We as communities CAN make a...
Smoke. More smoke. Ridiculous amounts of smoke. That has been what we in Seeley Lake have been breathing and looking through since July 24th. We know the smoke is impacting our health but how is it impacting the trees and plants? Plants breathe and photosynthesize through openings called stomata. When wildfire smoke fills the air, plants reduce the size of their stomata, which means that just like us, they can’t breath as well, and their ability to photosynthesize is reduced. So yes, they’re stressed. And yes, they want the smoke to go just as...
Hunters in western Montana should be aware of local fire restrictions and closures and take safety precautions. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks says hunting seasons will open as planned but some areas have wildfire-related closures that affect hunter access and travel including the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area and surrounding State Trust Lands. The Northwest Montana Zone of Fire Management Agencies is asking Montana hunters to help prevent additional fires during this extreme fire season. Montana’s upland game bird season o...
SWAN VALLEY - A 640-acre private parcel within a mile of Holland Lake is now federally owned thanks to a collaborative effort between the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a conservation-minded family and the U.S. Forest Service. The landowner had the acreage on the real estate market. A couple years ago they contacted the RMEF to see if they were interested in purchasing it. "We purchase and protect lands [like the Holland Lake Project] because they are so vital and the impacts from resident devel...
Due to the events of the Rice Ridge Fire, the Norman Maclean Festival is relocating the Seeley Lake events scheduled for the first two days of the Festival to Missoula’s First Presbyterian Church – Reverend Maclean’s historic church. Sunday’s films with the creative team from “A River Runs Through It” remain at the Roxy at 9:30 a.m. and The Wilma at 1 p.m. in Missoula as previously scheduled. The Festival’s Gala Dinner on Sept. 8 at the home of Big Blackfoot Riverkeeper Jerry O’Connell will continue as planned. “This was a painful and tough...
SEELEY LAKE – Have you been evacuated during the Rice Ridge Fire? Owner of Summit Insurance Agent Tom Monaghan said most homeowner policies have coverage that will pay additional living expenses in the event of a mandatory evacuation. The coverage that lends financial assistance to clients in causes such as the Rice Ridge Fire is called Additional Living Expense (ALE). Some companies may brand it with different names but in the industry it's referred to as Coverage D. If anyone affected calls th...
MISSOULA – Missoula County hosted a board member training session on Thursday, July 27. The county brought in Dan Clark of the Local Government Center to lead the training for anyone serving on a public board. Public boards, districts and commissions govern a vast number of public organizations and law-making bodies. Public boards control everything from public schools to county parks to the airport. Clark hosted two sessions, attended by nearly 100 county residents who serve on various boards and commissions of some sort. “What we do in the...
POTOMAC - On the morning of July 15, lightning struck near Liberty Creek, southeast of Arlee, Mont. and caused a wildfire which spread toward Placid Lake, the Rattlesnake Wilderness and the Gold Creek drainage on the north side of Potomac. The fire is west of the Belmont and north of Morrison Peak and Sunflower. As of Sept. 5, the Liberty Fire was 22,360 acres and was 17 percent contained. There were more than 375 personnel working it. On the Liberty Fire, safety and containment are the goals....
It took more than 60 years to create Glacier National Park, which is the foundation of the much larger natural system called the Crown of the Continent that we study and celebrate today. The events that led to the formation of the park and the surrounding ecosystem are regarded today as the bedrock of the conservation movement in America. What follows then is a timeline as we see it: 1849 – George Bird Grinnell born in Brooklyn, N.Y. – Sept. 20, 1849. George Bird Grinnell was the single mos...
While the Savior was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, some scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Him who was guilty of adultery: They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that...
HELMVILLE - The new grandstand was packed and it was standing room only at the 53rd annual Helmville Rodeo this past Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 3-4....
Space Available at Clearwater Alliance Church for Evacuees GREENOUGH - Clearwater Alliance Church, just east of Clearwater Junction, has offered space to park RV’s, camper trailers and set up tents for evacuees. Those camping can use the facility including three bathrooms, showers and a kitchen available. There is an RV dump across the road at the Rest Stop. For more information call Pastor Bruce Williams at 499-0345 or 499-0009 or Evelyn Holbrook at 529-3500. Blackfoot Challenge Swan Release Cancelled OVANDO - The Blackfoot Challenge Trumpeter...
OVANDO – The Community meeting started with an announcement that the evacuation order in parts of Seeley Lake was lifted. Greg Poncin's Type 1 Incident Management Team is happy with the progress they have made in the past couple of days due to the cooler temperatures and hope to continue progress through the rest of the week. Meeting Highlights: • Evacuation ORDERS were downgraded to evacuation WARNINGS in Zone 1 which affects approximately 429 homes. Zone 1 extends east from Highway 83 wit...
Rice Ridge Fire Morning Update: Community Meeting tonight, Sept. 7 at 6 pm at the Mission Bible Fellowship Church. There will be a meeting Friday Night, Sept. 8 at 6 pm at the Ovando Elementary School Gym. The Rice Ridge fire only added about 1,000 acres yesterday. It is now up to 120,759 acres, is 5% contained and has 725 fire personnel working the fire. YESTERDAY: The inversion did not lift over the fire area, so no aircraft could be used due to lack of visibility caused by the smoke....
