SWAN VALLEY – Swan Valley Connections (SVC) will release a new Swan Valley Trails Interpretive Map mid-September. Their goal for the interpretive map is to help educate visitors and residents about the human and natural history of the area while providing a resource that helps people think about the various recreation available in the Swan, where they can do it and what kind of an experience they can expect.
The idea for the map started in 2014 when Northwest Connections (NwC) recognized the need to produce a map to foster the connections between people and the landscapes in the Swan Valley. They started ground truthing the area and Executive Director of Swan Ecosystem Center (SEC) Maria Mantas pulled together all the GIS layers for the map.
When SEC and NwC connections merged forming SVC, the project continued since both organizations were already working on it. This past year they developed the interpretive content and worked with the cartographer putting it together.
“With more than 2,000 visitors stopping at the Condon Work Center every year, we saw the need to distribute better information about the Swan Valley and why it is a unique place [in which] to recreate,” said SVC Education Coordinator and project lead Rebekah Rafferty.
The three main objectives for the map are:
• Improve information about the recreation access and existing amenities
• Provide information about what makes the Swan Valley unique historically, ecologically, culturally.
• Inventory and showcase what is already here including the human history, seasonal display of natural history and recreational opportunities.
SVC worked with the Upper Swan Valley Historical Society (USVHS) to develop the content about the history of homesteading, fire lookouts, outfitting and the logging industry in the valley.
“We wanted to highlight all the things that underlie what we think of as the current valley culture of self-reliance and creativity and pride in the place that this is,” said Rafferty.
The natural history content is specific to the seasons providing information about grizzly bears, seasonal songbird migration, elk and deer and how they use the valley year round.
Gage Cartographics of Bozeman, Mont. created the map under the direction of SVC. The map extends south to Rainy Lake, north to Sixmile Creek and Swan Lake, includes the entire Mission Mountains Wilderness to the west and the western extent of the Bob Marshall Wilderness to the east. It includes all open, non-highway roads, seasonally open and closed logging roads and trails with their restrictions available for motorized and non-motorized recreation. The Continental Divide Route established by Adventure Cycling and Great Parks North route down highway 83 is highlighted.
The map includes land ownership and hillshade is used to denote topography versus topography lines. Local businesses are included in the legend including icons that identify what amenities are offered.
“The map provides the recreation detail of the [Forest Service] Swan Lake District map while making it easier to read and more aesthetically pleasing,” said Rafferty.
Interpretive narrative accompanies the map and indicates where people can recreate and the type of experience they can expect to have. This includes all the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Mission Mountains Wilderness access trails and what can be done in the valley bottom.
“Our goal is to give visitors a resource that they can walk away with that will allow them to continue to access this place and learn more about it,” said Rafferty. “My goal for distributing it beyond here is for people to have a resource to use for accessing the Swan without having to physically come into our office to get it. We meet the need for recreation that [exists here] and help people understand why it is such an incredible and unique place to recreate in.”
Private charitable foundations and other donors funded the project. SVC partnered with Adventure Cycling, USVHS, Swan River State Forest Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the Flathead National Forest who all reviewed the map for accuracy and provided information for the interpretive components.
A demo will be available to view and a presentation about the map will be given at the SVC Shintangle, Aug. 20 beginning at 6 p.m. The maps will be available by mid-Sept. for between $5-$7 at the Condon Work Center and on their online store once the store is open at http://www.swanvalleyconnections.org. Rafferty is working to have them regionally available as well at locations yet to be determined in Seeley Lake, Missoula and Kalispell.
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