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In response to an increase in the recreational use of national forests in the early 20th century, Congress passed the 1915 Term Occupancy Act, which allowed permits for private use and development of forest lands. The growing interest in outdoor recreation and conservation also triggered the popularity of dude ranching and guided pack trips in the western United States. By 1920, early-day settlers, Roria "Babe" and Eva Wilhelm, moved to Swan Valley after trading a house they owned in Butte for H...
At the Clearwater Montana Properties office here in Seeley Lake, two specific questions have been very popular over the past few months. The first is a question we get regardless of the season, year, or current events: “How’s the market?” The second question is about the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) settlement that took effect this summer and its impact on buyers and sellers. Let’s dive in and get some answers. HOW’S THE MARKET? The real estate market in the Seeley-Swan Valley is continuing to stabilize after rapid price increases...
Many property owners in Missoula County participate in outdoor burning, whether it is to regenerate a hay field or burn vegetative debris. With those crazy summer windstorms, many people have more tree debris to burn than normal - but you may have to wait until spring to burn it. Fall outdoor burning has different rules than spring burning. This article explains the different burning seasons detailing what is allowed in the fall versus the spring, as well as highlights safe outdoor burning...
As winter approaches, gardeners face the challenge of protecting plants from the season’s harsh elements. Unlike regions with milder, consistent climates, our winters are unpredictable, with temperatures that can plummet below -25°F one month and climb to 50°F the next. This fluctuation means that preparing our plants for winter is essential. By following a few crucial steps, gardeners can help their landscapes survive — and even thrive — when spring arrives. Adjusting Watering Habits Gradually reducing watering as temperatures drop allows...
We have news that we are anxious to share with you. The Seeley Lake Community Foundation wants to do more for our community, more for the people and this valley we all call home. Over the past 20 plus years we have endeavored to be one of the leaders in our community. To be a centering place. Through our programs, we have worked to enhance the viability of the many organizations that must rely on donations to survive and prosper. For instance, we established the Change Your Pace Challenge. Both full-time and seasonal residents of our community...
It has all come full circle. For the past six years, through all types of weather and against all odds, the Seeley Lake ROCKS team repurposed a former baseball diamond at the elementary school into a weather dependent, night lit, fully functioning skating rink, complete with free skates, helmets, nets and changing benches. Given the fickle nature of Montana winters, maintaining and operating an outdoor rink is no small task, and we depended on hearty skaters to pick up a shovel or a broom to sweep the ice from time to time. Countless Seeley...
By reading the column “A Place for All” in the Pathfinder over the years, we can learn about the places, organizations and programs that make our valley a special place. We can remember what went on in the past underlies all of what we have now. In times like today with lots of changes happening, it’s important to look back at this history and ask ourselves a question. Is what we are today because of external — things from the outside -— or internal, driven by those who live here? The answer is both. Indigenous peoples were present in our ar...
Rush skeletonweed is rapidly advancing from the Idaho border where it has long been established along the I-90 corridor towards the Blackfoot watershed and points beyond. Rush skeletonweed is native to Asia, the Mediterranean and North Africa, and was first reported in the United States near Spokane, Washington in 1938. A small infestation was found in Sanders County, Montana in 1991 and has subsequently been reported in Lincoln, Flathead, Ravalli, Lewis and Clark, Beaverhead, Missoula and...
This long slow process of the Pyramid Mountain Lumber mill shut down is just heartbreaking. Seeley Lake Community Foundation staff got to be a fly-on-the-wall at the Rapid Response hosted by Missoula Job Service in June, to see if there was any way the SLCF could help during this sad time. This meeting at the Community Hall was set up to get Pyramid employees info on next steps as the layoffs occur this summer. At that meeting, several mill employees asked the Job Service to offer their services...
Throughout the years, the Forest Service has had a lasting impact on the landscape and culture of the upper Swan Valley. Many residents were employed by the Forest Service from the local teenagers on the YACC (Young Adult Conservation Corps) crews, to the seasonal trail crews, fire crews, planting crews, spraying crews, building crews, fire lookouts, to the full-time employees. The Condon Work Center has remained an important part of the fabric of the community. When the Forest Service decided...
Fifty years ago, a new law significantly altered the landscape of wildlife conservation in the U.S. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) turned 50 on Dec. 28, 2023, providing an opportunity to reflect on its lasting impacts for species of all kinds, including grizzlies. After two centuries of willful persecution of wildlife in North America, the ESA formalized into our federal structures a counterforce of conservation. Environmental historian Dan Flores, who gave a webinar for Vital Ground last...
SUMEMR SALES ON PACE WITH PREVIOUS YEAR Following four years of a dramatic covid-19 real estate market that saw rapid price appreciation, very limited inventory and multiple offers on many properties, the past two years have seen sales in the local market stabilizing. Locally, we are coming off a real estate run with virtually no inventory, to an increasing inventory. Nationally, active home inventory for sale is 22% higher than it was this same time last year. Properties with unique aspects like creek front, bordering forest service, mountain...
The Seeley Lake area is no stranger to wildfire and smoke. Both are a seasonal hazard here and can be unpredictable. We never know exactly where a lightning bolt will strike or a campfire will be left to wander, and often the smoke filling our valley comes from hundreds of miles away - beyond our control and reach. While there is a lot about wildfires that we individually cannot control, we can work to be prepared for the inevitability of their occurrence and effects. We know that it is not a...
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been doing forest conservation in the Blackfoot and Seeley-Swan Valleys since the mid-1970s and when we heard the announcement of the Pyramid Mountain Lumber mill closure this spring, like for so many in the community, it was a gut punch. Local Montana mills and all the contractors they support are a vital part of reaching our collective forest restoration and conservation goals, and we recognize that the economics of running a mill in Montana have gotten harder and harder. There has been nearly no change in...
On a sunny autumn day, in a beautiful little slice of Montana, two people bob up and down in the chest-deep water of a beaver pond wrestling with a giant tube attached to a fence. Their names are Elissa and Elyssa, which I know can be confusing, and they are both some of the leading experts in western North America on protecting human infrastructure from beavers. The giant tube Elissa and Elyssa are wrestling runs through a notch in a broad, decades-old beaver dam. Pretty much as soon as the pip...
The fate of Pyramid Lumber has been very much a topic of local discussion over the last few months. It isn’t just the employees and owners of the mill that will be affected if it closes. Foresters, loggers and truckers are all part of the machinery that generates “timber dollars.” More than recreation, those “timber dollars” are what caused Seeley Lake and the Seeley-Swan Valley to grow in a stable fashion and become complete communities with schools, churches, grocery stores, hardware stores, auto parts, pharmacies and even a medical/d...
The winter of 2024 will be remembered as one of the driest winters on record for Montana. According to the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), the average statewide snow water equivalent (a measure of how much water is in our snowpack) was only about an inch above the 30-year-average record low in March. In the Mission Mountains of the upper Swan River watershed, the snow water equivalent was 36% below average. These conditions aren't a complete surprise, as forecasters predicted that...
Community-wide giving campaigns are a growing trend in the nonprofit world. Place-specific giving days are happening around Montana this month. The Seeley Lake Community Foundation is now running our community-giving campaign, the Change Your Pace Challenge, for the month of May. Let’s take a deeper look into this popular form of philanthropy. Giving Tuesday — the Tuesday after Thanksgiving — is the most well-known giving day in the US. It was formed in 2012 as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving seaso...
During the early to mid-twentieth century several upper Swan Valley dude ranches were at the height of operation, providing packing and guiding services to guests from around the world. Holland Lake Lodge and 33 Bar Ranch In 1924, Roria "Babe" Wilhelm, along with his sister, Ada, and her husband, Art White leased land from the Forest Service and built the Mountain View Hotel near Holland Lake. The hotel was built with lumber from Babe's steam-powered sawmill and sided with half-logs to give the...
Layered onto the diverse landscapes that grizzly bears call home is another, equally variable ecosystem: the human one. As bears exit their winter dens in search of food and mates this year, be it in sprawling sagebrush steppes, high-elevation whitebark pine stands, or willow-lined waterways, their success will be determined by the availability of social habitat - the tolerance and attitudes that enable coexistence - as much as physical habitat. As a collective, we humans wield immense...
Ever since Pyramid Lumber announced their upcoming closure, I have been asked one question by clients, friends and community members more often than any other: How will the mill closing affect real estate? Before I expound on that, there are many other things appropriately considered. First and foremost are the 100 employees that will be without a job. Behind each one of those employees are families that count on the wages brought home from the mill and without those wages, those families will be adversely impacted. Then there are the loggers,...
While researching the history of the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area (Game Range), local nonprofit Protect the Clearwater (PTC) found an article written by Jay Kolbe in 2007. Kolbe was the Wildlife Management Area Manager and Wildlife Biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) for the area at that time. PTC feels this article highlights the critical role the Game Range plays and is worth reprinting. When the Clearwater Resource Council met this summer to identify some of...
A robin sits atop the slow awakening western larch branch, pauses a moment, then chimes into song before rising into the early morning air. Spring is here. With spring's early appearance across western Montana, we see animals and people alike preparing for the change. Snow melting off the north side of Rice Ridge, and Salmon and Seeley Lake becoming no longer available to committed ice fishermen, reminds us that it's time to prepare for warmer weather. Yard clean-up begins for fire season peeks...
Soup’s on is an iconic call to come eat what’s been prepared. I am fascinated with food history! I quickly learned from a Google search that the phrase comes from a German word “sup, or suppa,” meaning some kind of hot broth meant for soaking bread. The phrase “soup’s on,” or “soup’s up” no longer refers exclusively to soup, however. Soup is no longer described simply, as a broth. Now there are countless varieties from which to choose: hot, cold, commercially canned, homemade, spicy, sweet, savory, with pasta, rice, beans, vegetables, etc. It...
The winter of 2023/2024 brought a ton of sunshine and blue skies to Seeley Lake, and it also brought a ton of challenges for the ROCKS team as we struggled to keep our winter recreational areas functional and fun. No strangers to adversity, we who rely so heavily on the weather, everyone persevered. While our winter activities looked a wee bit different from normal years, we skated and we skied whenever we could. As we maintained the yurt with the Nordic Ski Club, we marveled at the ingenuity with which they forged ahead with a paltry amount...
