[news]
WEEK IN REVIEW
VIEWFINDER
by Joe Weston
Wednesday, July 2 A day after Ravalli County officials discover missing deposits worth more than $5,000 hidden behind the desk and wall of Valerie Stamey’s former office, county commissioners begin deliberations about who should replace Stamey as the county’s interim treasurer.
Thursday, July 3 With temperatures moving into the 90s, no significant rain in sight and fireworks season imminent, the Missoula County Fire Protection Association moves the area’s fire danger from “low” to “moderate.”
Friday, July 4 The Whitefish Fire Department uses a fire boat to exterminate a blaze aboard a wooden barge used to set off fireworks in Whitefish Lake. It is the second year in a row a boat used to launch Independence Day fireworks on the lake has caught fire.
Saturday, July 5 A female jogger reports being grabbed from behind while running on the Kim Williams Trail. Missoula police officers respond but are unable to locate the suspect, who is described as being a 25- to 35-year-old white male.
Missoula cowboy Dustin Jenkins rides the bull “Wired Monk” to fourth place and earns a small share of the more than $21,000 handed out at the 72nd Drummond PRCA Rodeo on Sunday.
Sunday, July 6 Despite rallying late, the Missoula Osprey end a six-game home stand with an 11-8 loss to the Great Falls Voyagers. Left fielder Justin Williams is a rare bright spot for the Osprey, going 3 for 5 with two runs batted in.
Monday, July 7 At 2:18 a.m., two males break into Lolo Peak Brewery, three days after it opens. They leave nearly two hours later with a camera, two computers and three digital tablets. The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office reports the suspects are likely juveniles.
Tuesday, July 8 Missoula police ask the public for help locating a man involved in a hit-and-run accident that occurred the previous day. The man—described as 5-10, 180 pounds, and white—was driving a black pickup truck when he hit a bicyclist on N. Reserve Street.
Wilderness
Tapping a healing power Since his family moved to Montana in 2000, Tristan Persico has developed a fondness for wild places. He grew up in a remodeled cabin in the Garnet Range before moving to Missoula for high school, and took up hunting big game like elk and antelope. While stationed in Afghanistan as an explosive ordinance disposal technician with the U.S. Air Force, he says he’d look around at the treeless brown mountains and think, “Man, I wouldn’t mind being in Montana.” But Persico’s favorite moment late last month, while leading a Montana Wilderness Association-sponsored backcountry outing on the Rocky Mountain Front, wasn’t necessarily the untrammeled vistas. It was sitting around a campfire with seven fellow veterans, swapping stories in the kind of environment he believes is typically more comfortable for members of the armed services. “It was almost like all of the positive aspects of being in the military, with that quality of person that
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[6] Missoula Independent • July 10–July 17, 2014
you’re serving with, but with none of the negative aspects,” Persico says. Persico, who left the Air Force in 2011 and is currently a student at the University of Montana, is set to lead four similar outdoor excursions throughout the summer in areas like the Swan Range and the Great Burn. The outings—free and offered exclusively for veterans and their families—represent a sort of pilot program for the MWA, one aimed at introducing vets throughout the state to wilderness and giving them the skills to pursue future backcountry trips. MWA NEXGen Program Director Zack Porter says Persico’s participation has been a perfect fit at a time when the nonprofit is trying to revitalize its connection with the veteran community. “Veterans have had a really long and storied connection with wilderness,” Porter says. “Veterans coming back from World War II and Korea, they were the legislators and the advocates who pushed to get the Wilderness Act passed.” Both Porter and Persico say there’s a good chance similar trips could be scheduled in future summers.
Persico feels the exposure the trips offer have an added therapeutic benefit for those still struggling with the transition from military to civilian life. While that’s not really his or MWA’s main focus, he does feel the mix of veterans and wilderness is “a no-brainer, especially in Montana.” “Wilderness areas are naturally therapeutic,” Persico says. “So if a veteran chooses to take advantage of that therapeutic aspect and we’ve given them the knowledge and experience to be able to do that, then that’s great.”. Alex Sakariassen
Business
Dunrovin goes cyber Just before 1 on a recent Friday afternoon, SuzAnne Miller sits in a shed at Dunrovin Ranch and calls Kristol Stenstrom, a certified veterinary acupuncturist who lives in Kansas, to talk about Flash, a 14-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse who apparently has nerve damage in his