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SEELEY LAKE– University of Montana graduate student Kristen Cram spent several weeks this spring semester diligently hunting for strong internet connections in Seeley Lake, Montana. Her search for a robust link had nothing to do with taking an online class or watching a favored social media channel, but was needed for a capstone project she is conducting, which will help the Missoula City-County Health Department study air quality in the resort community 52 miles northeast of Missoula. The W...
HELENA -- The House State Administration Committee voted unanimously to advance a bill Thursday designed to address mental health in Montana’s prisons by expanding a program that teaches inmates to train dogs. Rep. Gregory Frazer, R-Deer Lodge, is the sponsor of House Bill 941. “I think that’s a great program. Especially due the fact that there is a lot of therapeutic value in having the inmates work with animals. Teaches them compassion, patience, a little bit of respect. Those are all positive benefits that these individuals can apply to th...
HELENA -- A program run through Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks compensates landowners in Montana for opening their land for public hunting access. Now, a bill that could double the amount of money they get is just a few steps away from reaching the governor’s desk. In 2020, there were 7.1 million acres of private land open for public hunting in Montana because of the block grant management program. Current law caps payments to landowners who allow hunting on their property at up to $25,000. Sen. Steve Heinbauch is the sponsor of Senate Bill 5...
Dear Editor, Montana’s state Legislature is proposing a host of extreme anti-wildlife bills despite widespread, diverse, strong, and credible opposition to these unnecessary measures. The onslaught on wildlife by locally elected officials began in 2021 and continues in this legislative session with the introduction of bills that go from bad to worse. Snaring and night shooting wolves, placing bounties on a hunt, loosening stipulations for killing grizzly bears, hounding black bears - the list goes on. Proposed laws spread misinformation a...
HELENA -- A bill that would bar children under 18 experiencing gender dysphoria from getting gender-affirming care in the state of Montana or with Montana Medicaid cleared a final vote 65-to-34 in the House Friday, after an emotional debate the day before. Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 99, but Rep.Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, carried it in the House. She said the bill would stop children from making life-long decisions about their health at a young age to protect them from the potential side effects of...
Sarah and Joshua Christenson pride themselves on being part of the local food economy. As co-owners of a 117-year-old ranch in western Montana, their days are spent mending fence poles, herding cattle and, increasingly, driving trailers of cows across the state to available butchers. Ranchers across the West, including the Christensons, often truck their cows hundreds of miles to meatpacking facilities that slaughter, butcher and package the meat for sale. The highway miles add carbon emissions and financial burden to an industry that already...
Sean Mercado of the Seeley-Swan Blackhawks basketball team has signed an agreement to attend and play for the University of Providence in Great Falls next year. Mercado has been interested in many sports and athletics since he was a child and has played varsity football and basketball for Seeley Lake. This move to the Argos will be his first time playing in any colors other than black and gold. "I'm just looking forward to meeting the basketball team and putting on a new jersey," Mercado said....
By: Sen. Jen Gross (D-Billings) and Sen. Susan Webber (D-Browning) For over an hour and a half, over forty Montanans – overwhelmingly young Montanans – showed up to the Capitol to express in detail the suffering and pain that SB 458 will cause them. Instead of taking seriously the trauma and damage inflicted on so many Montanans, Republicans chose to proceed with this bill that targets one community, making them less before the law. Introduced by Republican Sen. Carl Glimm, SB 458 is a 61-page-bill that creates an impossibly narrow and emb...
Pathfinder Archives March 23 Issue Drug Bust Nets $60,000 Worth of Marijuana Missoula County law enforcement officers confiscated 44 mature marijuana plants from a Lindbergh Lake residence Tuesday. Captain Larry Weatherman, Missoula County Sheriff's Department, said that the marijuana plants, along with "six or eight" pounds of dried marijuana, has an estimated street value of about $60,000. A Swan Valley man was arrested and taken into custody Tuesday in connection with the case. Weatherman...
The Montana Legislature is back in the Capitol after a mid-session break and the talk is all about the state budget. The House Appropriations Committee has started chipping away at the more than 50-page bill that will decide the state budget for the next two years. Thursday, lawmakers debated the cost and budget of Montana’s Medicaid program and the services provided through it. Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, is the sponsor of HB 2. The way he puts it, the committee will have to eat the elephant one bite at a time to hear, debate and amend all s...
Montana's 2021-2023 Poet Laureate Mark Gibbons spoke and read from, "In The Weeds," his latest anthology of poems, Saturday, February 25 at Alpine Artisans Open Book Club. The Poet Laureate is an honorary post that comes with responsibilities to promote the appreciation of poetry as an ancient and ongoing form of expression, said the Montana Arts Council, sponsor of the Poet Laureate program. "I say everyone is a poet," said Gibbons. "What's a poet? Someone who writes down the things that come t...
Lawmakers have advanced several bills aimed at making at least a dent in the challenges facing renters and aspiring homebuyers. Here’s where things stand as of early March There’s broad bipartisan agreement in the Montana Capitol that rising housing costs, driven by the state’s finite supply of homes and rapid in-migration from other states, rank among the most pressing issues facing Montana residents. According to real estate website Zillow, the typical home price in Montana was $430,000 in January, a slight dip from last summer, but an incre...
Megan Zawacki started working at St. Peter's Health in Helena, Montana, in 2020 as a physician assistant trained in treating addiction. She had gone through specialized training that allowed her to prescribe Suboxone, a medication to fight opioid addiction, but she couldn't do so for six months. That's because Zawacki was hired to work with a doctor who specialized in addiction medicine, but that doctor did not join St. Peter's until three months after Zawacki was hired, and it was another...
The Seeley Swan Pathfinder has a new editor transitioning into the newspaper this winter. Asa Thomas Metcalfe, a recent graduate of the University of Montana School of Journalism, grew up in Proctor, Vt. - a town that is about the same size as Seeley Lake. Metcalfe said that while this gives him an understanding of rural communities, he appreciates that small-town life in Montana has a different feel than the population of 1,600 he grew up in, in Vermont. “My town is similar,” he explained. “There were 22 students in my graduating class...
UM Legislative News Service University of Montana School of Journalism HELENA – The laws that regulate water, arguably Montana’s most valuable natural resource, are complex and tied to nearly every industry in the state, so when lawmakers gather in Helena every two years for the legislative session, it’s often at the top of the agenda. In the 2023 Montana Legislature, the water debate is shaping up to focus on two pieces of legislation: One that would tackle the future of water courts and another that would update the water permitting proce...
UM Legislative News Service -University of Montana School of Journalism A bill tromping through the Montana Legislature would repeal a 2007 law that sought to protect the authenticity of the almighty Montana huckleberry by requiring that anyone labeling something as "huckleberry" register their berry patch with the state Department of Agriculture. "Not a single person ever told the government where their huckleberries were. Because, I believe the first rule of huckleberry club is: 'Do not tell...
Each year, the third Saturday in March is slated for Missoula Electric Cooperative’s (MEC’s) annual meeting. This year is no different when the Cooperative hosts their 87th annual meeting on Saturday, March 18. This meeting is not just important to the Cooperative’s Board of Trustees and employees, but it is also important to the Co-op’s owners, who are more commonly referred to as members. When a consumer signs up for electric service at MEC, they become a part-owner of the Cooperative –these consumers are known as members. Because MEC is a...
Graduating seniors played their last home basketball game against Charlo. The seniors were recognized with their families and friends, before playing in their game. The game was a perfect ending for their home court, with both the boys' and girls' teams taking the win, as well as both JV teams. The teams played their last regular game, including JV teams, against Thompson Falls on Saturday, and will go on to District tournaments on Thursday in Hamilton. First row, from left: Ben Haley Ben was...
The University of Montana and the Missoula City-County Health Department are conducting an air quality study in the Seeley Lake area and are looking for volunteers to host PurpleAir Sensors on their property. PurpleAir Sensors are secure low-impact devices that measure particulate matter suspended in the air and require outside power and a good WiFi connection. We are conducting this study to see how the air quality in the Seeley Lake area compares to before the implementation of the 2012-2014 Seeley Lake Wood Stove Change Out Program that...
There were several local students who were among University of Montana 800 graduates and 851 graduates from Montana State University for fall semester 2022. Many others made the Dean’s List from their respective universities and colleges. Local UM degree candidates were: • Helmville: Jordan Jarrell, Bachelor of Arts: Mathematics • Seeley Lake: Amaya Harman, Associate of Arts: General AA and Christopher Mood, Bachelor of Arts: Classics, CUM LAUDE (GPA of 3.40 to 3.69) The local MSU degree candidate was Ethan Town from Potomac. Town gradu...
26 Snowball Softball Tourney February 13th The 2nd Annual Snowball Softball Tournament sponsored by the Filling Station will be held Saturday, February 13th starting at 9 a.m. at the Seeley Lake Community Park. The number of tournament entries is expected to double from six last year to at least twelve due to an expanded mailing list which includes all 40 teams that played in the Missoula Snow Joke softball tournament. Vorhauer Gives $50,000 to U of M Library University of Montana Foundation...
On Saturday, Jan. 7, Seeley Lake Nordic skiers participated in their first race of the season - The Glacier Glide in Whitefish, Montana. After only one week of practice, the racers dove in, with two of them skiing a 3k pursuit (3 kilometers of classic style followed by 3 kilometers of skate style skiing), and two racing a 3k skate. Kieu Snow (11) and Kimber Hanson (11) both skied a 3k pursuit, while Land Neudecker (11) and his sister Loryn (10) Nuedecker both raced the 3K skate. All Seeley...
The Lolo National Forest and Plan Revision Team will start the new year by launching a series of public engagement opportunities to share information on the Revision process and to invite input on key topics. “We are looking forward to the next several months which include carefully planned informational webinars, workshops, and engagement opportunities,” stated Carolyn Upton, Lolo National Forest Supervisor. “The feedback we hear through these sessions will be crucial to informing the Draft Assessment, the first step toward a revised Plan...
Mary Holmes passed away peacefully on January 1st, 2023 at North Idaho Hospice with her daughter, Carolyn Holmes and husband, Ron Wooley, and eldest son Hank Holmes by her side. Mary graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in Economics. She was recruited to be a teacher at the Swan Valley Grade School in Condon, MT and taught for many years. Mary was predeceased by her husband Robert (Bob) Holmes and two of her sons, Robert Holmes and Dirk Holmes. Mary has 8 grandchildren and 10...
Joanna Beardsley Kreitzberg died in Salem, Oregon on December 31, 2022 after a short illness. She was born in Salem on March 7, 1939 to Andrew Beardsley and Mildred Weeks. She is descended from ancestors who crossed the plains in 1846-47 in the Applegate wagon train. Joanna had a strong interest in history. She was a 4-H Club member for ten years with diverse projects, many awards, including two national trips, one of which included meeting President Eisenhower in the Rose Garden at the White House. She attended Keiser Grade School, Monument...
