Police chief

New St. Ignatius police chief outlines plans for future

By Taylor Davison Valley Journal

ST. IGNATIUS — Chief of Police Jason Acheson was sworn in on July 7, and since then has been working to implement new measures in the police force.

Originally from Columbia Falls, Acheson has worked throughout the Flathead in his career. He started out as a reserve police officer in Columbia Falls in 2000, becoming a fulltime officer close to the 9/11 terrorist attack. From there, he became an officer in Whitefish in 2007 until late 2013 when he took a break of service.

In 2015 he went to work in Ronan, before moving to Florida for three years where he worked as a corrections officer. Missing Montana and law enforcement, he made his move back right around the strike of Covid-19 in 2020.

While he was reestablishing himself, Acheson worked part time in Polson and Hot Springs, where he also received training to become a certified EMT. Even after applying for and receiving the Chief of Police position in St. Ignatius earlier this year, he still occasionally works on an ambulance.

Thanks to delving into the medical field, Acheson said, led him to other things medically related, including Narcan training.

Narcan, also known as Naloxone, is a medication that can quickly reverse the effects of overdoses from opioids such as oxycodone, heroin, and fentanyl.

“When I was over in Hot Springs, we already knew fentanyl was in the area… I wanted to get Narcan in the area, because rural communities I found out were really struggling with getting it,” Acheson explained. While larger municipalities like Missoula and Kalispell can get Narcan to the public at no cost, rural areas don’t have those kinds of grants available. That’s where the Narcan training comes in.

“This is something that’s sanctioned by the State of Montana through the department of health and human services, through a grant, so people who attend this Narcan training, for two years they get free Narcan to keep with them in case they should ever need it,” Acheson said. “If people feel like they need to carry it for their own protection, or out of concern for someone else or a loved one… or even children in the household exposed to that kind of environment and inadvertently ingesting or consuming a narcotic, and that Narcan can save their life.”

A Narcan Master Trainer outside of his police and EMT duties, Acheson is working to get more master trainers brought in to offer more training to the general public. Right now Acheson is offering one training per month until he can get more help, and the next session will be in Thompson Falls in October. Future trainings will be announced on the new St. Ignatius Facebook page at https:// www.facebook.com/ St-Ignatius-Police-Department-Lake-County-Montana-101939175927439/ as well as advertised locally. Those interested in participating can call the office at 406-745-3881 or email Acheson at chief@ townofstignatius.com.

“It’s one service I want to bring to the community, and it’s very, very needed,” Acheson said.

Additional improvements Acheson is working to bring to the police department include obtaining important equipment for health and safety.

Recently, Acheson was able to obtain $2,000 from the Mason Moore Foundation to purchase body armor, as Acheson had been going without a vest and another officer’s vest was close to expiring. The organization was founded by the widow of Broadwater County Deputy Sheriff Mason Moore who was gunned down in the line of duty in 2017. Although the foundation hadn’t been accepting grants at the time, when Acheson reached out to explain their need, the foundation gave the department twice the amount they asked for. Acheson credits them for incredible support for the police force in Montana.

Acheson also got in touch with the State of Montana to acquire AED defibrillators for patrol cars, as he said their officers are often first on scene to a lot of medical calls. “Those also kind of tie into Narcan,” he added. “When you’re administering Narcan, chances are you’re going to have to do CPR, and when you’re doing CPR you almost always need an AED if you can get one. They’re critical for any sort of cardiac.”

Additionally, Acheson is working to update the department’s policy and procedure around his other duties to, in the future, hire reserve officers for extra help in critical instances.

“I feel like a lot of people still don’t know there’s been a change in leadership here, so… I’m just trying to make sure for the people I haven’t been able to get out and meet, or the folks that don’t know, I just want them to know the force has a new chief in the office and with that there’ll be some positive changes,” Acheson said. “I want to work more with the community, I want to have more transparency with the community, and I want to create, build, and maintain trust that may or may not have been there before... We can always do better.”

The changes will take a while to implement, Acheson stressed, as the small department has a lot on its plate, “but we’ll get there because we have a desire to get there, to be better than we were before. We should always strive to be better. We want to move forward and bring security and satisfaction to the community so that they know they are protected, and they are well served.”

COURTESY PHOTO Members of the Saint Ignatius Fire Department, Saint Ignatius Police Department and the Ronan Police Department participated in training to be Certified Narcan Master Trainers at the September training course.

Bear sightings in Lake County increase

By Taylor Davison / Valley Journal

LAKE COUNTY — There has been an increase in bear sightings in communities this year, but according to biologists from the Wildlife Management Program of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, it isn’t due to this year’s fire activity.

The main suspected reason, according to bear biologists Payton Adams and Padden Alexander, is due to poor berry production and a general lack of food.

“We had a late winter, and it got hot pretty early, and I think it just messed with the growing cycle that a lot of the plants bears like to eat,” Adams said. “So now, this time of years, when ideally we’d like to see bears moving up into the mountains and eating huckleberries … they’re not finding any. I haven’t been able to find any huckleberries either. All the plants we’ve seen kind of look scorched.”

Now, as bears move into hyperplasia - trying to build up fat reserves for the winter - they’ve been following garbage sources into new places. “Residents that aren’t normally accustomed to securing attractants from bears are seeing bears this year, and we have been expending efforts to educate the public on bear safety and awareness as often as possible,” wildlife biologist Kari Kingery stated. “We appreciate the good stewardship of Flathead Indian Reservation residents by practicing methods to prevent these often-avoidable human – wildlife conflicts.”

Measures residents can take to avoid these conflicts include a variety of ways to protect and secure potential attractants, such as garbage, exterior fruit and produce, pet and bird feed, and small livestock.

Bear-resistant garbage bins can be leased for an additional fee from Republic Services for those who have their trash picked up, Adams explained. For those who haul their own garbage, these garbage bins can be purchased at Ace Hardware. People can also consider making an extra trip to the dump each week, or keeping garbage inside until morning. Pet and bird food should also be brought inside at night and grills and grease traps should be cleaned regularly.

“Although it may seem safe, sheds aren’t a secure place to store trash or feed, as bears can damage a shed if it smells food inside,” Kingery added. “Ammonia, bleach and other cleaners are effective at getting rid of smelly trash; however it is not an effective way at keeping bears out of your trash.”

Removing excess and unused fruit from around the home will also be extremely important this year, as low availability of natural fruits will pressure bears to seek from fruit trees in people’s yards, Kingery mentioned. Those who need help picking unused fruit can visit the Mission Valley Fruit Gleaning Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/MissionValleyFruitGleaning to connect with people in the community able to help. Drop-off locations where community members can leave boxes of gleaned fruit to be shared with various community programs and food banks can also be found on this page.

Electrification is also an option and something they try to provide, Adams said. “It goes well with fruit trees, berry bushes, chicken coops … A lot of the time a simple net loaner kit might not work for someone, so we’re able to go out, look at what the issues are and where someone’s at, learn what they do or don’t want, and come up with a creative solution with the landowner to protect whatever it is they have that’s attracting bears,” he explained.

“As long as they get all the material, we’re more than willing to help them install it,” Alexander added.

“We’ve had a few people say that they turned their fence off because they didn’t want it to start a fire. That’s a reasonable concern. All the materials that we use, all the materials that we recommend people use for their own fence, they’re all new and updated fencing that isn’t the type that would cause any type of live spark,” Adams explained. “Take a weed eater around your fence, make sure nothing’s growing into it, and you should only need to worry about it about three times per summer. If people have those concerns, they’re more than welcome to reach out, but as far as just thinking if a blade of grass touches the electric fence it’s going to start a grass fire, that’s not how the electric fences work.”

“We are often asked why we don’t set culvert traps and remove every bear in conflict. On the surface this seems like a good solution, however, it is only a temporary solution to a deeper issue,” Kingery added. “Removing one bear that has learned this behavior may resolve the issue momentarily, but if the attractant is not removed or secured, new bears - sometimes even only hours later - will find that same food source and learn the same behavior.”

The best way to reach out for bear safety consultations is the non-emergency conflict call line, 406-275-2774. Those interested specifically in electric fencing help can call 406-883-2888 ext. 7299 to speak with Adams.

Additionally, it’s important that bears do not grow comfortable in residential areas. “If you’ve been seeing the bear for months and it’s been hanging around, what it’s doing is getting more and more comfortable,” Adams said. “They’re going to get bold.”

“Open a window and yell, bang pots and pans, blow a boat-horn, spray them with bear spray, or make some loud, audible noise to alert and scare the bear away as soon as possible. The longer a bear is allowed to be in a yard or on a porch without hazing, the more bears will learn to associate human dwellings and yards as safe places to be, and will seek them out for shelter,” Kingery stated. “It is up to each of us as residents in Bear Country to prevent bears from learning bad behaviors. Bears will take behaviors learned in your yard and take them to your neighbor’s yard, or the next neighborhood, so let’s teach them healthy, safe behaviors.”

BIGSTOCK PHOTO For a bear safety consultation, call the Wildlife Management Program’s non-emergency conflict call line at 406-275-2774.