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Twenty Years Ago Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003 Elk on public land merit special attention By Mike Thompson Upon entering Trixi's Antler Saloon, in Ovando, Montana, you stand at a crossroads between elk populations and in the eye of a storm in elk management. No one knows for sure how elk sort themselves into "herd units," as wildlife biologists refer to them. They are defined by distinct winter ranges, in this case the Blackfoot-Clearwater Game Range to the northwest and the eastern slopes of the...
The Forest Service plans to use prescribed burns on a couple units across the district, with one coming as soon as Sept. 17. Seeley Lake District Ranger Quinn Carver said in an email that the district is looking to burn about 135 acres in the Horseshoe Hills area north of Big Sky Lake. Carver said smoke will be visible from the site and likely pass through Ovando before dispersing in the Upper Blackfoot Valley. "I don't want folks to be alarmed when they see smoke," Carver said. "The stuff in...
Meeting under the Boot Tree outside of Ovando, tour participants looked through a forest managed for health and wildlife habitat on the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area. Abundant grass grew amongst trees with up to six foot diameter trunks and visibility up to 100 yards. Soon the tour caravaned to the perimeter of the Type One treatment unit. Visibility through the forest was limited at the edge of the road as the sunlight was strangled by a dense screen of ladder fuels. As part of the...
Some of the only known Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep in Montana live in Potomac on the ranch of Marin and Brad Hall. "I was taken with the breed when a coworker showed me their picture," Marin said. "Then my cousin and I were daydreaming about the sheep and the idea got born to develop a small flock." Margie Chritton from Seeley Lake, Marin's cousin and business partner, thought learning about the sheep business would help her transition from New York City life to rural Montana. Two foundation...
Parents across the Seeley-Swan and Blackfoot Valleys got a sigh of relief last week as the 2023-2024 school year officially kicked off. With more than 250 students in Seeley, Condon, Potomac and Ovando, some new faces and projects will mark what educators hope will be a successful semester. Seeley Swan High School, Swan Valley School and the Helmville School were too busy teaching to comment for this story by press time. Seeley Lake Elementary Students are returning back to Seeley Lake Elementary with a big list of items for the fall,...
It was a cold, rainy June back in the 70s when I and other members of the Rustics log home company assembled the logs for what would become the Hungry Bear Restaurant in Condon. Many fond memories since—I brought my now wife Pam there in 1982 to show the city girl Montana, only to have my Rustics coworker Tuffy Anderson say “I like her better than the last one you dragged in here.” The Hungry Bear has endured the many decades with different owners, a significant expansion, and evolving gastronomic emphases. Current owners Rick Medeiros and Deb...
Twenty Years Ago Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 Theatre camp tucked away on other side of Salmon Lake offers fun time Tucked away on the other side of Salmon Lake, there's a camp that allows kids to laugh, play, learn and be creative - It's called Aunt Kat's Theatre Camp. Kathleen Vosburgh (Aunt Kat) and her husband, bought the cabins and 10 acres on Salmon that fulfilled Aunt Kat's dream to provide kids with a safe, natural outdoor setting to write, create backdrops and act in their own play. This...
The Missoula City-County Health Board is hoping to reduce bears' access to garbage in Potomac by requiring bear-proof trash cans after multiple years of food conditioned bears visiting the area. The City-County Health Board approved a bear mitigation zone in the Potomac Valley at its Aug. 17 meeting, along with expanding the Bear Buffer Zone and related trash requirements across the Missoula Valley. "The Potomac Valley, especially in the Union Creek area, is one of the worst 'bear behavior... Full story
Ten years ago, Renee Kay dreamed about working with her family in Seeley Lake, often eyeing The BBQ Pit as she drove through town to her family's land in Condon. This summer that dream has come true: Kay and her family reopened The BBQ Pit this August, and plan to usher in a new era by staying open later into the year and offering community events like a family movie night. "If you showed me what we were doing back (10 years ago), I would have renewed hope on a lot of aspects about myself," Kay...
The Seeley Lake Community Council approved sending a letter to survey traffic speed by the Double Arrow Ranch, discussed potentially holding a special meeting on water quality and heard from area experts during its monthly meeting on Aug. 14. The council heard from leaders on the Salmon Lake construction project, who informed the room that there will likely be more construction along Highway 83 next summer, and the manager of the sewer board reported an unhealthy amount of nitrate in the Seeley area. There was also a brief update on the...
There’s no question that Big Pharma needs to be exposed and taken down—even if it must be done one small step at a time. This is why I am urging our Senators in D.C. to pass the bipartisan Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2023. This bill does incredible work to expose Big Pharma tactics that manipulate consumers and have led to skyrocketing prices. Big Pharma has continuously spent more on fancy, targeted advertising campaigns on already available medication and prescriptions than they have on research and development. The lack of...
A French family of five pedaled into Ovando on Monday, Aug. 14 during their bicycle tour from Calgary to the Grand Tetons along the Great Divide bike route. Only three of them pedaled, as one rode in a special seat on the front of dad's bike and the baby rode in a baby backpack on mom's back. "In France, the Tour Divide is a famous bike ride," Julien Bonin said about their decision for the ride. "We are firefighters at home and like the exercise." Six-year-old Agathe sits on a Gekko adaptive sea...
Missoula, Mont., August 27, 2023 — The Seeley Lake Ranger District of the Lolo National Forest is seeking public comment through September 28 on a proposal to manage safety concerns and improve forest health conditions throughout nearly 23,000 acres of Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas along Highway 83 in North Seeley. The proposed Highway 83 WUI project was collaboratively designed with multiple stakeholders to mitigate public safety concerns within the area through the removal of dead and diseased trees. Major infestation of Douglas fir b...
HELENA – Montana’s famed fisheries provide amazing recreational opportunities, from blue ribbon trout streams in the west, to the world-famous Fort Peck Reservoir in the east. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks provides abundant fishing opportunities, while protecting native fish species, and critical aquatic habitat. This includes managing fisheries under drought conditions. A new draft comprehensive statewide fisheries management plan is a key piece of that management and is now out for public comment. “The intent of the statewide manag...
Twenty Years Ago Thursday, August 28, 2003 Weather is a blessing...high in the Mission Mountains Wilderness By Gary Noland An earlier invitation to take photos on the front line at the Crazy Horse Fire hadn't taken into consideration that rains late Friday and Saturday morning would make possible a break in fire activity and action. So even though the only action was high in the Mission Mountains Wilderness west of Lindbergh Lake, we trekked as fas as our energy allowed and found some hand...
The final outcome of the Holland Lake Lodge could still be years away, but Forest Service officials in Washington D.C have joined the process in deciding the future of the resort. Representatives from the nonprofit Save Holland Lake told members of the public at the Swan Valley Community Council on Aug. 15 that questions submitted by Save Holland and the public have been routed to the Forest Service national headquarters. With new development looming, the council also started the process of...
The Missoula County Sheriff's Office reserves three deputy jobs for the Seeley-Swan Valley, but since May just one officer lives in the area full-time, and sometimes there is no law enforcement on patrol. With the high price of housing, there's a chance that there will be no resident sheriff deputies in the future, although there will always be patrol cars in the area, according to Missoula County Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen. The sheriff's office hopes to hire a second Seeley Lake deputy from its...
A heavy-duty recumbent tricycle pedaled out of Ovando on Monday, Aug. 14. It was not to take a quick trip, as pedaler Greg Veal plans to make an 18-day, 820-mile trip to Bismarck, North Dakota, from Missoula. This is the second leg of his Lewis and Clark Trail bike ride to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer. He successfully made a trip from the West Coast to Missoula in 2022. Veal said he was an avid cyclist and jogger as a young man, but both of his knees required surgery in his...
For thousands of years, members of the Salish Tribe would cross the Mission Mountains into Lindbergh Lake - what they called Long Ridge Trail - and up Holland Creek to reach hunting grounds in the Bob Marshall and Rocky Mountain Front. The story weaved with countless others as the chair of cultural and language studies at Salish Kootenai College Tim Ryan connected with the past practices of Indigenous groups that lived across western Montana during the annual talk at the Upper Swan Valley...
A movement in the art world has begun to take hold. A collective of people are having the same idea around the state, region and nation: to get together in person and share the experience of making art. This has inspired Alpine Artisans to host Seeley Lake’s first-ever, multi-day, multi-media, multi-instructors event called “The Nature of Art Workshops” on Sept. 15-17 in Seeley Lake. Over a single weekend, artists and anyone with a creative spark can come and try something new! Organizer Kris Gullikson states, “I am inspired by the experie...
Twenty Years Ago Thursday, August 21, 2003 Dawson Community college honors Seeley Lake area students for academic achievement Glendive, Montana, DCCC registrar Lane Holte has released the names of students who made the Dean's List during the spring semester of 2003. Students who achieve a 3.5 grade point average or higher are included in the Dean's List. Ryan Plum, son of John and Dianna Plum of Seeley Lake , Monte McNally, son of Donald and Barbara McNally of Ovando, Brendan Banning, son of...
Wild trout management is a cornerstone of fisheries management in Montana. Here in the Blackfoot, a primary focus of our river and stream management program is native, wild trout. The Blackfoot has a long history of habitat restoration with an emphasis on native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Actions that benefit these species also improve habitat conditions for nonnative trout that represent an extremely popular and important component of sport fishing opportunity. Several key elements of our management portfolio in these popular...
Country music, a dunk tank and food trucks drew a crowd of almost 300 to the Blackfoot Challenge's block party Aug. 11 in downtown Ovando. Seth Wilson, executive director, welcomed everyone to the celebration of 30 years of partnerships, friendships and conservation. The Blackfoot Challenge was formed in 1993 following conservation efforts from the 1970s to build partnerships with public agencies. Early on, participants focused on working together to accomplish public access goals. In the '70s...
Despite near-record breaking temperatures in the Seeley-Swan Valley, any growth on the Colt Fire has been stifled over the last few days and little activity is expected as cooler temperatures come into the region. The Colt Fire sat at 7,154 acres as of Aug. 19, a decrease of about 50 acres from earlier estimates in the week. Containment has shored up to 51%, with hand line and heavy machine line around most of the fire. Fire crews have continued to mop up areas where there is residual heat....
Twenty Years Ago... Thursday, August 14, 2003 Wildlife well adapted to Montana Firestorms By Mike Thompson Hi, I'm NOT Johnny Cash, but we who live in Missoula are in a ring of fire this week. I've already fielded several questions from folks wondering how wildlife survives these live events. So, before you become weary of reading about fires this season, I thought I would offer a little information on the subject from the scientific literature. Back in 1988, when the Canyon Creek fire was...
