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Volume XXXVI, Number 13
Plenty to go around
www.bitterrootstar.com
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
COVID numbers continue to soar By Michael Howell
With Eldon Kauffman driving the tractor and Hans McPherson keeping watch on the potato digger, people fall in behind to pick up the freshly dug potatoes. Jean Schurman photo.
Annual spud dig a success
By Jean Schurman
The second Saturday in October has become somewhat of a family holiday for many in the Bitterroot Valley. This is the day that McPherson Farms has their annual potato dig on their farm on Willoughby Lane in Stevensville. Not only can families get their winter’s supply of spuds, but for many, it’s a chance to connect with the earth and see where food comes from. Hans McPherson, his sister Jeanie Robbins, brother Peter, and a few family friends oversee this annual event and each has an appointed duty. Hans planted the potatoes last spring. Sister-in-law Tina McPherson is the parking cop. She stands on Willoughby directing cars into parking areas. Jeanie is the go-to person for the day and does the overall managing of the day’s events. To the uninitiated, the potato field looks somewhat like an ant hill with people swarming everywhere but especially in the row behind the tractor and potato digger. The tractor eases up and down the rows with the potato digger churning out potatoes of all sizes. There are kids in bib overalls, and even a few in tutus. The squeals of delight as the younger ones find the potatoes is much like those heard during an Easter egg hunt. For many years, Kenneth and Elaine McPherson, parents to Hans, Peter and Jeanie, planted extra potatoes and invited people to come and harvest them. When Kenneth passed away, his kids decided to keep the tradition going and 13 years ago, Jeanie decided to get
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were amazed at the event and how much fun everyone was having. Towards the back of the field, a pickup and trailer sat with people filling the trailer. Hans said this was a group from Pinesdale who make this an annual event. “They feed a lot of people with these potatoes.” No potatoes were donated to the Food Bank this year as the government has been buying and providing potatoes to food banks across the state and nation. At first, Jeanie thought they may not be able to have all of the potatoes picked up but an hour after they started, the field was almost done and picked over. People were leaving the field toting bags, boxes, plastic tubs full of potatoes. And they all had smiles on their faces. “Dad’s probably drinking chocolate milk and Mom’s turning cartwheels,” said Hans.
Jasper Beaudin, 7, and Gilespie ‘G’ Roberts, 6, dig in the dirt for potatoes. Jean Schurman photo. the day a little more organized. These days they have a hot chocolate and doughnut stand for those who want to warm up. Proceeds go toward next year’s seed crop and an outhouse for the day. There was an old John Deere tractor nearby with hay bales stacked around it for photo opportunities too. They decided to donate bins of potatoes to the Food Bank in Missoula and had people fill these bins. In fact, Jeanie recalls they did such a good job of getting the
RON
bins filled one year that they didn’t realize the McPherson clan had not kept any potatoes for themselves! Pam and Jerry Hall just recently moved to Stevensville and were enjoying watching their family glean potatoes. “This is one of the greatest ideas I’ve seen,” said Pam. “The kids are so excited to find the potatoes.” There were four missionaries from the LDS Church helping out too. They were from Arizona, and California, and like the Halls,
The pandemic is surging nationally, across the state and locally. Last month the number of active COVID-19 cases in Ravalli County grew steadily from a low of three on September 8th to 23 active cases by the end of the month. Ten days later, on Friday, October 9, the number of active cases reported by the Ravalli County Health Department had grown to 65. The next day, an additional 24 new cases were added. It’s what happens after the new cases are reported – the contact tracing and the quarantining – that makes the growing number and rate of new cases so alarming. The Public Health Department was able to contact 18 out of those 23 new cases on Saturday, but tracking down the people on the list of potentially exposed contacts can be a very daunting and time consuming task. At this point, the Public Health Department is directing people who are considered close contacts to a positive case to go to the Ravalli County webpage for instructions on how to proceed if they have been exposed.
The usual minimal demographic information was lacking from this special report. The valley’s schools are feeling the impact as one after the other has closed for a short period over Covid-related incidents and implemented building sanitization procedures. Hamilton High School was shut down last Thursday while some contact tracing took place over a recent case of COVID-19. School District Superintendent Tom Korst said that it was their first time dealing with the County Public Health Department over a contact tracing process and they were not sure about how long the process might take. He said they actually got done with the tracing fairly early in the day. Korst said that the school district provides the county health department with information if there is a case in the school and their close contacts and then the Health Department gives them direction about who may need to be quarantined. He said the county has done a good job at it. According to Korst, if there is a positive case, either a student See COVID, page 3
Darby Lumber timber sale to go forward By Michael Howell
The Darby Lumber Lands Phase II Project, a vegetation management project located east of Darby on the Bitterroot National Forest, may proceed following a ruling mostly in favor of the U.S. Forest Service by U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen. Friends of the Bitterroot filed a lawsuit in August challenging the legality of the timber sale associated with the project. The timber sale will harvest timber from 959 acres, build 4.3 miles of new permanent road and another 8 miles of temporary road. About 334 acres will be thinned and another 1,294 treated with prescribed fire. The proposal calls for decommissioning 39 miles of road and 4.7 miles of trail. About two miles of off-highway-vehicle trails
will be constructed to connect into the current trail and road system. It is a continuation of the watershed improvement and transportation work conducted in the Darby Lumber Lands Phase I Project, and was developed, according to the agency, to design and implement a suitable transportation system for the area, improve forest health and stand resilience, reduce potential fire severity, and provide timber products and related jobs. The area encompasses former privately-owned lands which, prior to acquisition by the Forest Service, were managed for heavy timber production resulting in an extensive road network throughout the area. Many of these roads were not built to Forest
See DARBY LUMBER, page 9
‘Colors of Cancer’ campaign focused on fundraising By Michael Howell
It’s Colors of Cancer month in the Bitterroot valley once again when people from all walks of life and all ages come together to support the team of their choice in a race to see who can raise the most money to fight cancer. According to Stacie Duce of the Daly Hospital Foundation, the Colors of Cancer campaign is really a grassroots effort. People
who are cancer survivors or people who love someone who has been touched by cancer, have been working for years doing bake sales, sponsoring small events and raffles and promotions in their businesses to support cancer patients not only with finances but also with encouragement and messages of hope. She said COVID-19 restrictions have interrupted much of that traditional fundraising
recently but some businesses are still helping in innovative ways. Evans Ace Hardware in Hamilton, for instance, has taken on one of the new colors: White for Lung Cancer. Owner of the business, David Evans, has been a big supporter of the Colors of Cancer the last few years, but this year he decided to honor his parents who originally opened the store in
MARSHALL Paid for by Ron Marshall for HD 87 . 840 South 1st . Hamilton, MT 59840
See COLORS, page 5
HD 87