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As summer is approaching the seasonal population influx around Seeley Lake begins. The campgrounds and outdoor activities will become much more active as the community wakes up. This increase in movement begins an increase in our highway traffic. Visitors unfamiliar with our scenic roads will not be as attentive toward driving, as people tend to look at surroundings rather than focusing on the road. Motor vehicle accidents happen. Should an accident occur please consider the following: • 911 should be called immediately and emergency crews w...
In New Delhi, India, the summer air is heavy with humidity while the stifling heat serves to wring every last bit of magic out of a gin and tonic, long on gin, but short-changed with precious ice. The smog can be oppressive, hanging over the ancient city like a bad dream. The constant racket of the rickshaws' (tuk-tuks) horns and bells can wear on the traveling soul, like fingernails dragging endlessly down a chalkboard. The sea of humanity seems to have no beginning, no end. Waves of people,...
12 SALES START ON PACE WITH 2018 RECORD YEAR The market continues to be strong and very consistent in sales and upward value trends in Seeley Lake and Condon. The local market is maintaining a great balance and generally is not tipped in favor of either buyers or sellers being at a negotiating advantage. Summer is generally the "selling season" and now through September is when a majority of the sales in the valley close. New home construction continues throughout the valley, a drive through t...
Each spring, there's a subset of grizzly bears that act like teenagers cut loose from home for the first time. With mother bears turning their attention to mating or younger cubs, the two- or three-year old sub-adults start getting ignored and kicked out. Parentless for the first time, these young grizzlies walk into a world of stimuli that they're still learning to interpret. It can be a dangerous time. It was two of those freewheeling subadult grizzlies that a boater recently filmed swimming...
Prior to John James Audubon's birth in 1785, not much was known about bird migration. Some people believed birds went underground in winter, hibernating like bears. Some thought waterfowl spent the winter under the ice. Others believed birds turned into other birds in winter. One silly scientist even suggested birds flew to the moon in autumn and returned in spring. In 1805, Audubon discovered a cave where eastern phoebes returned to nest each spring. He tied silver thread around the legs of...
With spring weather teasing us occasionally, I can't help but think what a difference a year makes! Missoula Electric Cooperative's (MEC's) 2019 winter maintenance season, which runs from November to April, was much different when compared to our 2018 season. While most rang in 2018 with loved ones, many of the dedicated employees at MEC were working tirelessly to restore power that was lost during a New Year's storm that wreaked havoc on the northern part of our system, including Seeley Lake.... Full story
A new annual invasive grass is on the horizon, literally. Just down the highway from the town of Seeley Lake, Ventenata dubia is taking hold along our roadways. Though Ventenata is newly arriving in our corner of the county, it is increasingly becoming widespread in the state of Montana. New populations are being identified every summer and current populations seem to be moving/growing at a rapid pace. Land managers around the West are reporting this invasive grass to be more challenging to...
The North Fork Blackfoot River is an iconic Montana River. Flowing through the heart of the Blackfoot Watershed, the North Fork is a stronghold for native bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout owing to its crystal clear and ice-cold waters. Even if you don't cast a fly, you will find yourself mesmerized by the kaleidoscope of river rock framing the river bed. This river is not only important to trout, it is also very important to the landowners living nearby, many of whom are sixth generation...
In recent years, agencies and homeowners alike have raised the question "How can a fire adapted community benefit me?" It's not until we start asking around to other communities in the northwest do we actually have our eyes opened to the possibilities and the benefits we may reap if we could strive for a common goal. When dealing with the impacts of a wildfire, the best way to get through a wildfire event is to stick together as a community and support each other. What if we prepared earlier...
I know how you're feeling...Spring is here! Mountain Bluebirds have returned. Robins are prominently flying around town. A few early-season bugs splattered on my windshield on a recent drive. The weatherman has even forecasted some early rain with a possibility of some rolling thunder. Within the next couple weeks, the ice will be off the lakes and lawns and trees will be sprouting new green growth. And as with previous years, social media and personal conversations will be filled with people...
Over the last few months, watershed students young and old experienced a variety of Blackfoot Challenge program work first-hand. In the following paragraphs we'll guide you through their journey, each step of the way woven with our mission to "coordinate efforts to conserve and enhance the natural resources and rural way of life in the Blackfoot watershed." Through place-based learning, our ridge-top to ridge-top conservation efforts permeate not only the landscape in which we work, but student...
One attraction to the many homeowners who have purchased lots on the Double Arrow Ranch is the extent and variety of the common areas. These are lands owned by DARLOA, the homeowners association, and are available to all residents for their enjoyment. Since association common areas are also open to the public, this is a benefit to the wider Seeley Lake community. It’s one way the Ranch adds to the attractiveness of our valley. Let’s take a look at some of these common areas in more detail, and then learn about a possible swap for some cou...
SEELEY LAKE - Recent cold snaps have been instructive about the role weather plays in Seeley Lake's winter air quality. Since the wood stove change out program of 2012-2014, Seeley Lake winter air quality has varied with weather patterns and temperatures. Immediately following the change out program, winter air quality in Seeley Lake improved, with far fewer days exceeding the 24-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for fine particulate than was observed before the change out....
In late February, the U.S. House of Representatives moved to save the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), approving a sweeping package of public lands bills that includes a measure to permanently reauthorize the program for the first time in its 54-year-history. The package, approved by the Senate earlier in February with near-unanimous support, puts an end to the cycle of expiration and renewal LWCF has suffered in recent years. The fund last expired in September, prompting a bipartisan group of lawmakers to push for permanent...
SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake ROCKS is thrilled to be building non-motorized, multi-use recreation trails near Placid Lake State Park in the Hill-16 recreation area. We cleared more than two miles of old logging roads last fall and will continue our work this spring and summer. Funding will allow us to construct three and a half miles of new connector trails, vastly improve the logging road trails and to construct three trailhead parking areas. [You can help promote our grant application at the end...
We've been experiencing an active residential market in Seeley Lake this winter with five homes currently under contract. Not bad for the dead of winter in Seeley Lake! Experts agree that the market is softening for buyers, but will it be a full-on buyers' market? In Seeley Lake, it depends on the price range. The demand for houses in Seeley Lake under $300,000 is currently strong. All five homes presently under contract are listed under $300,000. There are only eight active residential...
The North Fork Blackfoot River is one of the most important spawning and rearing streams for migratory bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout in the Blackfoot River watershed. Private landowners, watershed groups and government agencies have worked tirelessly for decades to address limiting factors throughout the lower sections of the river. Today, all major diversions on the North Fork have fish screens, resulting in full connectivity for migrating trout. Furthermore, many water conservation...
Your chances of stepping into the role as "caregiver" for a family member, are greater than you might think. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, it is estimated that over 44 million caregivers have provided informal or unpaid care to an adult or child in the last 12 months. These family caregivers averaging 49.2 years old, have often provided care for family members for three or more years, an average of 13 days each month and helped with personal care, food preparation,...
I didn't write this as an expert on land management and wildlife issues, 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. As I was growing up I always thought it to be pockets of humans surrounded by wild.Now I sadly see it's pockets of wild surrounded by humans. In the 1960's when I major...
All of us see logging trucks going through town, know folks working in the woods and see active logging around Seeley Lake. Reactions to active or recent logging are varied, depending on the experiences of the person reacting and the prescription being met on the ground. Like it or not, all property owners have rights and their land management objectives may not match the objective of someone observing the logging activity. Big Larch Campground would be a good example of that. What about those who might not like what they see, how do they know...
Let's take a look at what happened across Montana in 2018 in the battle against Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS). More than 100,000 watercraft were inspected at 35 watercraft inspection stations across the state. Clearwater Junction continues to be one of the busiest. Sixteen out-of-state watercraft with invasive mussels were intercepted. AIS monitoring crews surveyed 1,450 sites on 250 unique waterbodies for invasive plants and animals. One new population of faucet snails was found in Lake...
When a federal judge returned grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone area to the threatened species list in September, he cited the bears' fragmented range in the lower 48 states as one of his justifications. It is hard to call a species recovered, he argued, when it is isolated from other wild populations, as Yellowstone's grizzlies are. Earlier this month, two conservation groups took an important step to ending that isolation. Twenty miles west of Missoula, near the confluence of western...
Beginning in 1933, the Forest Service began an intensive winter game study in the South Fork of the Flathead to determine the number of big game, forage use, snow depth, temperature, migrations, etc. Within a few years the study included the Swan and Middle Fork drainages. Forest Service ranger Henry Thol was in charge of the local winter game patrol in 1935. He was a rugged outdoorsman in his 50s who was experienced in mountain travel. Assistant ranger 27-year-old Norman Schappacher spent much...
ANNUAL REAL ESTATE SALES CONTINUE TO TREND UPWARD THROUGH 2018 The year of 2018 has seen great success in home sales in both Seeley Lake and Condon. The local market is maintaining a great balance and generally is not tipped in favor of either buyers or sellers being at a negotiating advantage. Summer is generally the "selling season" and May through September is when a majority of the sales in the valley close. Tourism numbers in Glacier Park have tripled over the past four years, and we have...
It may seem far away now, but we all remember the wet, chilly days of last spring and the water that seemed to be everywhere as streams overflowed when the snow melted. Those conditions made it challenging for the trumpeter swans that, with help from many concerned landowners and others, have been trying to make a comeback in the Blackfoot Watershed. At least one nest site was under water for weeks, making it impossible for the swans to nest. And eggs or young cygnets in other nests may have...
