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Covering the Bitterroot Valley – “Where Montana Begins!”
’ ! l a c o est at L
‘The B Volume XXXIV, Number 34
Established 1985 - Locally owned & independent
Montana Wilderness School
Short term forecast is a nice slow melt
By Michael Howell
Youth participants in the Montana Wilderness School learn lessons about life and the great outdoors by engaging in challenging expeditions like scaling a mountain peak or plunging through the rapids of a roiling river.
Learning to walk on the wild side By Michael Howell
Montana is blessed with some of the most spectacular wilderness areas in the country. These special places have come to define our state in the minds of most Americans and for most of us who live here. But actually, getting out into the wilderness and enjoying it can be a very trying and even dangerous affair. That’s why even a born-in-Montana baby could use a little education before heading out into the wild woods and one place they can get it is at the Montana Wilderness School (MWS). The school’s mission is to provide empowering expeditionary wilderness courses to youth that foster personal growth and cultivate a conservation ethic through connecting with remote landscapes and wild places. The school is designed to handle young people between the ages of 14 to 18 years old and no previous experience in the outdoors is required. Communications Manager and Development Assistant Claire Kleese, who was raised in
the Bitterroot Valley, said, “Our belief is that wilderness areas in Montana are extremely important and powerful spaces that offer amazing classrooms of knowledge gained through experiential handson learning.” She said spending extended periods of time in these places offers young people opportunities to be away from our human-built world and become immersed in the rawness of nature. According to Kleese, by experiencing challenging situations on a multi-week wilderness course, students have opportuni-
Senate Bill 24, a bill increasing the optional light motor vehicle registration fee for parks and recreation, appears to be headed for approval by the Senate. It would then be taken up by the House. The bill would increase the optional fee from the current $6 fee to a $9 fee. The bill, sponsored by Senator Terry Gauthier, a Republican from Helena, apportions the funds raised by the fee between state parks, fishing access sites and community trails and recreation. Out of every $9 fee collected, $6.74 would go to funding the state’s parks, that’s up from $5.37 under the current $6 fee.
June 28th & 29th!
The amount going to FWP for spending on Fishing Access Sites would double from the current $.25 to $.50. A newly established trails and recreation facilities fund would get $1.37, and the Montana Heritage Preservation and Development account used for the operation of facilities at Virginia City and Nevada City would get $.39. Angie Grove, Chair of the Montana State Parks and Recreation Board, said that she is hopeful the bill meets final approval in the Senate, where it has passed already. A third and final reading was scheduled for Monday, March 11. According to Grove, it has been a long time since the state parks have seen any sort of increase in funding, although use of state park lands and facilities continues to grow. She said there are ongoing costs related to maintaining the lands, like weed control and pest control and facility maintenance, that keep going up as well as the cost of inflation. Grove called the bill “a really good opportunity for small towns like Stevensville where you have a conglomeration of all these
The Bitterroot Valley started out the new year around 20% below average in snowpack. Then came the snows of February. It was a lot of snow and a lot came down all at once over a couple of days. It turns out, by March 1, it was enough to bring the Bitterroot back up to about an average snowpack. Actually, a little bit above, at 103% of average. Historically, Montana has accumulated about 80% of its total snowpack by March 1. The Bitterroot Valley wasn’t the only area to be so affected. According to snow survey data collected by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), snowfall for the month was above normal to record setting across the state, and snowpack totals for March 1 have improved in all river basins. Lucas Zukiewicz, water supply specialist with NRCS, said, “It seemed like every time a storm was moving out another one was lined up to come in.” Monthly totals were especially impressive in some southern and central
regions of Montana, including the Bitterroot. “This month was the perfect setup with cold air in place and abundant moisture coming from the Pacific that collided with it,” said Zukiewicz. “Sixteen NRCS snowpack measurement locations set new records for February snowfall in central and southern Montana, and an additional 13 sites recorded the second highest monthly totals.” While improved snowpack totals and above normal totals in certain rivers basins is good news for this date, there is still plenty of winter and spring left to come. Snowpack in the state typically peaks in early April west of the Divide and in mid to late April east of the Divide. “We have another month or two of snow accumulation to go, and it can be an important couple of months to top things off before we start to see snowmelt and runoff,” said Zukiewicz. “We’re back on the right track, so let’s hope that the snow keeps flying and the above average temperatures don’t show back up before then.” Luke Robinson at the
National Weather Service office in Missoula agreed, adding that based on current weather forecasts, there currently was not much chance of any major flooding along the rivers for another couple of weeks. He said it would take a warming trend with above freezing temperatures at night with some rain to bring the snow down out of the mountains in any major way. Right now, he said it was too far off to predict what that runoff would be like, but in the short-term things look pretty good as far as the current melt off of low-lying snowfields on the valley floor. According to Robinson, the daytime temperatures are forecast to be in the high 30s and 40s during the day and dip below freezing at night for the next several days. This will result in a gradual melt-off during the day that will stop at night, making for a slow release of the 2 to 4 inches of water contained in the low-lying snow on the valley bottom. Streamflow forecasts issued on March 1 for April 1-July See FORECAST, page 8
ties to deal with a diverse group and different leadership styles, and the ability to communicate and collaborate with others to solve problems and accomplish objectives. This is not a school for “troubled” teens. It is not a drug rehabilitation program and does not accept emotionally disturbed kids, nor are they set up to handle the developmentally disabled. But they are set up to handle kids who are economiSee WILDERNESS, page 2
Proposed legislation could affect local parks, trails, FAS’s
By Michael Howell
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
components.” She said there was a state park there, a Fishing Access Site, and river trails, all of which could use these maintenance funds. She called Stevensville “the prime example of the kind of community that we want to help out.” Grove said that the proposal was originally brought up by a group called the Montana Trails Coalition, organized by retired FWP employee Bob Walker. She said the group had a really broad representation from motor vehicle users and non-motorized users, OHV users and hikers, from all around the state. Grove said this funding was really important for state parks and fishing access sites but that the group working on trails has been the group really pushing hard for this legislation. Another bill that may impact state parks, she said, was SB 70, a bill designed to address certain issues with the Headwaters State Park. That park, she said, is designated as a “primitive” park. But there is strong public interest in establishing a canoe camp and a bicycle camp within the park. SB 70 would remove the “primitive” designation and allow the development of the camp sites.
City crews and local contractors in Stevensville and Hamilton have spent many hours trying to get ahead of any flooding threats by removing the massive piles of snow to areas that will have less impact on residents and businesses. Victoria Howell photo.
Road access bill under consideration by legislature
By Michael Howell
Senate Bill 224, sponsored by Sen. Tom Jacobson, D-Great Falls, has passed the Senate and been transmitted to the House. Proponents of the bill say it gives county attorneys a tool to prevent public road closures by increasing the fine for illegally gating established county roads. It would increase the fine for an encroachment on a county road from the current $10 per day to up to $500 per day, with no minimum fine. “For decades, this fine has been so low that it’s simply no deterrent for people to gate off county roads and block off public lands,” Jacobson said. “And when access to our public lands is blocked off, it turns that land into private playgrounds for the lawbreakers who are doing it and the public loses.”
The Montana Wildlife Federation, which supports the bill, claims that hunters, anglers, and other public land users are tired of seeing illegal gates on public roads that lead to public lands. The bill also has support from county attorneys and officials who are caught up in litigation when a road is gated off and becomes the focus of lawsuits. Two disputes over public road access in the Bitterroot have gotten the attention of the courts recently. The Montana Supreme Court ruled this past summer that the Hughes Creek Road gate, which has blocked public access for over forty years, should come down. In another case on Robbins Gulch Road, no gate has been locked, but landowners have taken the Forest Service to federal court challenging public access on the road. That case is due to be heard
in Judge Dana Christensen’s Court in Missoula on March 16. “Having a real, meaningful fine in state law for gating these public roads will give county attorneys a strong tool to get these roadblocks taken down quickly,” said Erin Arnold, Senior Civil Deputy County Attorney for Gallatin County. “A lot of these cases could be prevented in the first place or resolved quickly if the penalty is a real deterrent.” “The first step toward keeping public roads open to public use is having some real teeth in the fine,” said Dave Chadwick, executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation. “Senator Jacobson’s bill will make people think twice before they put up barriers to the public’s legal access to public lands for hunting, fishing, and other uses.”