Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 260
Seeley Lake Fire Department at Cory’s June 3 SEELEY LAKE – Join the Seeley Lake Fire Chief Bob Vanden Heuvel and volunteer firefighters and medical personnel June 3 starting at 12 p.m. at Cory’s Valley Market. Check out the ambulance, fire engine and other equipment and have a chance to talk to local responders. They will also have goodies for the children who visit. Volunteers Needed for National Trails Day LINCOLN - Saturday, June 3 is National Trails Day. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation will be holding a volunteer workday event in co...
LINCOLN - Saturday, June 3 is National Trails Day. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation will be holding a volunteer workday event in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service. Volunteers will clear trails around the Indian Meadows trailhead near Lincoln. There will be a tailgate barbeque after the workday. Volunteers must be at least 12 and may be using pulaskis, loppers or cross cut saws to clear trees and do trail maintenance. The event starts at 8 a.m. at the Lincoln Ranger Station. There are limited spots available. To register, please...
As of July 19, 2017, anyone who runs a chain saw or crosscut saw as a US Forest Service (USFS) volunteer or member of a cooperating partner group is required to be certified through the USFS saw program. The intent of the new National Saw Policy is to standardize training, evaluation, certification and safety procedures for sawyers operating on lands managed by the USFS. It will also increase capacity over time as cooperating partners can start their own saw programs with the approval of the USFS and offer training and certification for their m...
Death Notice – Steven Johnstone SEELEY LAKE – Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Deputies responded to a call Saturday April 22 at the Wolf Ridge Apartments. Steven Johnstone was found dead in his apartment. Deputy Mike Sunderland said, “He died of natural causes. Nothing was deemed suspicious.” Movie Night at the Seeley Lake Fire Hall May 6 SEELEY LAKE – The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office and Seeley Lake Rural Fire District invite youth and families to the Seeley Lake Fire Hall May 6 starting at 6:30 p.m. Tacos will be served before the fe...
SEELEY LAKE – Seeley Lake residents Leland Bartlett and William (Bill) Bartlett pleaded guilty to several counts related to killing a trophy bull elk in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The hunt took place in 2015 while Leland's hunting privileges were suspended from a previous case. The unlawful possession of game felony charge was deferred for both contingent on compliance with all terms and conditions for the next five years. The Bartlett family faces more than $16,000 in fines and the two l...
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...
Amidst continued news coverage of the debate on public lands, Montana’s lone Democrat in Congress, Senator Jon Tester, has announced a bill to create two new Recreation Management Areas totaling almost 6,000 acres. Within the two new Otatsy and Spread Mountain Recreation Management Areas, timber harvest, permanent roads and mining are prohibited and motorized access is limited. The areas which remain open for snowmobiling are not areas of desired snowmobile use because of their low altitude and limited snowfall. Motorized recreationalists h...
KALISPELL - The public is invited to the annual Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex (BMWC) public meeting Saturday, March 18 starting at 10 a.m. at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. “This is a great annual opportunity to meet with the National Forest Wilderness Managers and Montana Fish and Wildlife staff,” said Deb Mucklow, Spotted Bear District Ranger. “This is an annual meeting to talk about managing wilderness. All of the participants will be encouraged to interact with the managers present and have time for one-on-one questions. In addit...
Connectivity-it's a hot buzzword when it comes to wildlife. But what does it really mean? At The Vital Ground Foundation, connectivity shapes our organizational vision. A dozen years ago, when the foundation moved from Utah to Montana and became a working land trust focused on grizzly bear recovery, it was connectivity that drew us quickly to the Swan Valley. "We don't need to save thousands and thousands of acres," explains biologist and Vital Ground trustee Douglas Chadwick. "We just need to...
SEELEY LAKE - U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Act (BCSA) at the Rich Ranch Feb. 22. While collaborators and supporters gathered to voice their support, not everyone believes the legislation goes far enough to protect motorized recreation opportunities. The BCSA designates more than 79,000 acres of additional wilderness to the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountains Wildernesses and establishes the 3,835-acre Spread Mountain Recreation Area and the...
GREENOUGH - In response to the Jan. 30, 2017 letter from the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation about the proposed Elbow Gravel Pit, I have several points to make and questions to ask. First of all, the location of this five-acre gravel pit is an offense to the wildness of the area. The extremely noisy and disruptive operation is proposed to be located in a major wildlife corridor between the Blackfoot-Clearwater Game Range and the Clearwater River and of course, on a larger scale, between the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Rattl...
The following post is dedicated to and written for the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. “The idea is not to live forever. It is to create something that will.” ~Andy Worhol As I was driving home yesterday, we passed our neighbor’s teams of black percherons standing together in the corral. It was said to me, “that is something I could never get into or find the fun in.” And I thought about that, and it hit me hard how much the world has changed into a fast and so-called improved pace of life. And I slowed down and I smiled to myself thinking,...
SEELEY LAKE - Air Quality in Seeley Lake will kick off the meeting of the Seeley Lake Community Council next Monday. Ben Schmidt, Missoula County Air Quality Specialist, wants to start a general conversation on wood stoves and air quality with a focus on the neighborhood immediately south of the elementary school (see the Place for All column on page 4 for more information). Rachel Feigley, USFS District Ranger, will follow with a discussion of the Center-Horse project, an extensive forestry project along the southern boundary of the Bob...
SEELEY LAKE - The Lolo National Forest is proposing the North Fork Blackfoot Trail Bridges Project located in the Scapegoat Wilderness on the Hobnail Tom Trail #32 on the Seeley Lake Ranger District, Lolo National Forest. The project area is situated within the upper reaches of the North Fork Blackfoot River watershed and is located entirely on National Forest System Lands. The Hobnail Tom Trail #32, located on the Seeley Lake Ranger District, is a highly developed mainline trail (Trail Class 4), approximately 27 miles in length, which provides...
SWAN VALLEY – Neil and Dixie Meyer of Salmon Prairie celebrated 60 years in marriage Dec. 14. They continue to live on their 160-acre property that they purchased when they were engaged, raising cattle and horses. Similar interests, a love for the outdoors and willingness to live a simplistic lifestyle are the reasons they credit for a successful marriage. While attending high school, Neil helped his father E.I. log. They supplied logs to several small sawmills in the area. Neil also drove loggi...
National media outlets have reported in the last few years a "volunteer crisis" where the perfect storm of circumstances has left entire communities with no emergency medical technicians (EMT) or firefighters. The Montana State Fire Chiefs Association (MSFCA) says there is an extreme shortage of volunteer firefighters across the state. With 400 of Montana's 435 fire departments relying solely on volunteers, the response time varies significantly and the call could go unanswered if no one is...
In 1897, President Grover Cleveland established the Lewis and Clark Forest Reserve under the provisions of the Forest Reserve Act. At that time, the reserves were administered by the Department of the Interior. In 1905, the Forest Service was created along with the Department of Agriculture and in 1907 the Forest Reserves became known as National Forests. Until 1910, Glacier National Park was part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest Reserve; then the area was given national park status. On Au...
MISSOULA - Recently representatives from the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), Montana Mountain Bike Alliance and MTB Missoula signed on as supporters of the collaborative landscape proposal the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project (BCSP). There have been numerous stories from across the country of mountain bike advocates butting heads with wilderness and conservation groups over the past year. Mountain bikers across the west are concerned about a potential loss of riding opportunities and finding permanency for our...
OVANDO – Danny Lapka of Ovando pled guilty to three misdemeanors for shooting a bull elk with a rifle during archery season this fall. He was fined $2,205 and lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for two years. Federal Officer Tyler Robinson noticed a vehicle parked at a gate in the North Fork of the Blackfoot Road in Powell County. He ran the plates and the owner did not have a bear tag or archery stamp. Since the vehicle was parked in an archery only area, Robinson decided to hike in to do a routine camp inspection and called M...
SEELEY LAKE – The Bob Marshall Music Festival announced seven of the confirmed bands at their Launch Party Dec. 2. While the festival, now dubbed "Montana's Music Festival," isn't until the middle of July, more than 50 people gathered to find out what bands are confirmed for 2017, socialize and dance to the music of Good Old Fashioned. The second annual festival will be July 13-16, 2017 on the vacant land owned by Kevin Wetherell south of the Wilderness Gateway Inn. On-site camping will be a...
As District Ranger for the Seeley Lake Ranger District, I’ve been sharing with you, through the Pathfinder, some of the details of the project work that the Seeley Lake Ranger District (RD) is involved with and what that provides to the community of Seeley Lake and the American public. In this edition, I wanted to share some information about one of the things that makes the Seeley Lake RD unique and successful in its ability to get work done on the ground: its designation as a Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) l...
SEELEY LAKE - Pete Fromm makes another appearance at Alpine Artisan’s Open Book Club Saturday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. at the Grizzly Claw Trading Company. He will be presenting his new book, “The Names of the Stars: A Life in the Wilds.” This is a memoir and exploration of the seemingly small decisions that shaped his life and his love for adventure in the wilderness. This event is open to the public at no charge and all are welcome. When Fromm was 20 years old, he took a job babysitting salmon eggs, spending seven months living in a tent in the S...
As a past legislator for Northeastern Missoula County I have been extremely impressed with Addrien Marx and her energy, enthusiasm, dedication and genuine concern for the people of Montana. Marx has a history of community involvement and service. She is seen at meetings, workshops and events. HD 92 includes the Clark Fork, Blackfoot, Clearwater and Swan Rivers!!! It includes the Bob Marshall Wilderness and 1,000’s of acres of National and State Forest lands. Marx has been an active proponent in making sure the citizens of Missoula County and a...
SWAN VALLEY - I would like to offer a response to a letter written in the Pathfinder’s Sept. 15, 2016 opinion section. First off, I would like to commend and thank Jim Boyd for his time, thoughts and voice concerning the Flathead National Forest Draft Revision. He has offered many ideas and thoughts that more accurately address the needs and concerns of this community. The Forest Service has failed to offer a plan that considers the Swan Valley community and its fire safety, economic hardships, cultural and historical use of the land and recrea...
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...
