Fall/Winter 2018 Newsletter

The Confluence Fall/Winter 2018

From The Director

What a beautiful autumn we have been having here in the Swan Valley. The early colors were particularly beautiful this year: radiant reds in the understory of the forest, brilliant leaves of gold whispering in the breeze atop the aspen trees and raining down upon the Swan River from the cottonwoods, and the spectacular spectrum of color of the larch as they transition from forest green, to chartreuse, to yellow – bright as the sun! At the time of this letter, the showy larch is beginning to put itself to sleep, colors fading, and needles falling along with the rain that penetrates our soils with the moisture the Valley depends on. As the steady rain falls, it will soon crystalize as the air continues to cool, and snow is in the forecast… blurring the lines of autumn and winter and blanketing the landscape in white as we move into the long, transitional “snuggle season.”

Bears are gorging as they prepare to break through the snow to find their winter dens.

The squirrels outside my office window are busily scampering about, gathering cones and seeds for their winter cache. The deer and elk are moving and mating beneath the cloud-covered skies. We humans are cutting and splitting firewood to warm our homes for the next six months.

I’ve seen all the seasons pass now, after my arrival to the Valley in September 2017. I reflect on this year gone by and smile at my good fortune to have landed here in this special place, with this special organization. The surrounding landscape captivates me and fills me with endless wonder, as this organization fills my heart with boundless pride and hope as I look to the future.

Swan Valley Connections is a collaborative conservation and education nonprofit. We collect and share scientific information, coordinate technical and financial assistance to get conservation projects done on the ground; assist landowners with living better on the land through consulting and cost share assistance for forest health, fire resiliency, and weed management as well as living better with wildlife with additional cost share assistance for electric fencing and bear resistant trash containers.

We also provide educational opportunities to people of all ages through our K-12 and community programs, and what makes us unique among all the other amazing, collaborative conservation organizations around the state are our experiential college courses accredited through the University of Montana. Our goal continues to be connecting people to one another and to this extraordinary landscape.

I’ve always felt that experiencing something is how I learn best, and I think that’s true for most people. It’s through experience that we can gain a new perspective and a deeper understanding through the use of all five of our senses: hearing, smell, taste, touch, and sight. We encourage people to make the Swan Valley their classroom.

It is through the experiences of hearing the howl of a wolf, smelling the forest in the

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Swan Valley Connections 6887 MT Highway 83 Condon, MT 59826 p: (406) 754-3137 f: (406) 754-2965 info@svconnections.org

Board Members Barbara Hill Raible, Chair Juanita Vero, Vice-Chair/Secretary Alex Metcalf, Treasurer Kathy DeMaster Steve Ellis Larry Garlick Pam Hamilton Neil Meyer Helene Michael Kathleen Richardson Casey Ryan Mark Schiltz Rich Thomason Scott Tomson

Emeritus Russ Abolt Anne Dahl

Advisory Board Kvande Anderson Lex Blood Jim Burchfield Andrea Stephens

Staff Rebecca Ramsey, Executive Director Jonathan Bowler Laura Cannon Andrea DiNino Leanna Grubaugh Kirsten Holland Luke Lamar Mike Mayernik Rob Rich Uwe Schaefer Lindsay Wancour The Confluence is published by Swan Valley Connections, a non-profit organization situated in Montana’s scenic Swan Valley.

Our mission is to conserve the intact ecosystems within and surrounding the Swan Valley and to strengthen the connection between people and the natural world through collaboration and experiential learning. Images by Swan Valley Connections’ staff, students, or volunteers unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved to Swan Valley Connections.

Change service requested.

SwanValleyConnections.org Cover Image: Kestrel Wing by Andrea DiNino

rain, tasting your neighbor’s garden bounty at a monthly potluck, and touching the earth with your feet as you climb to see the alpenglow sunset that you may stimulate the sixth sense - a sense of knowing that this is a place worth being in, a place worth learning more about, a place worth protecting for your children and their children and the generations after them.

At Swan Valley Connections, we are all conservationists, we are all educators, and we are all fundraisers all the time – because together, it is our duty to be ambassadors for this amazing place, and the valuable work we do within it. We can’t do it alone, and we can’t do it without your help. This fall/winter newsletter focuses on education. Our education programs stem from our conservation work. Our instructors are practitioners. It’s an area I’ve always felt passionately about and where I feel we have the most room for growth. You’ll read about our upcoming tracking classes, and in the spring, you’ll see more opportunities for learning offered.

As you read about the work we do and the value it brings to this community and the next generation of community members, I ask you to look inside yourself, and your pocketbook, to make a generous contribution. Help us enhance our ability to work with our local schools and the homeschool community to get young people outdoors to learn about the wonders of life beneath the surface of the stream. Help us provide scholarships to college students in need of a little help to get here to experience our community, and take those experiences back to their own communities to make a positive difference. Help us continue to provide opportunities to learn about wildfire, wildlife, wildflowers, and more to people of all ages and all walks of life. Help us help our public land managers learn more about our people and places that matter so much.

As grant funding becomes more limited and as public agency budgets decrease, we’ve seen our financial needs increase.

Please consider giving more than you ever have, because we need you now more than ever.

We also need you to share your thoughts of how we can better serve you – please, call me and let’s go for a coffee or cocktail so I can experience your perspective. Together, we will carry a legacy of community excellence into the next twenty years of collaboration, conservation, and education.

Onward in Gratitude,

Rebecca Ramsey, Executive Director

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Landscape & Livelihood and Lifelong Learning

By Lindsay Wancour, Field Program Coordinator

L&L Students and education staff before heading out on their backpacking trip in the Swan Range.

This fall I had the privilege of instructing students in my first college field program with Swan Valley Connections - Landscape and Livelihood. I led nine college students from around the country to a variety of agricultural operations in the Mission and Blackfoot Valleys and the Front Range during their Sustainability and Agriculture course. At each stop we explored the sustainability of the operation, the complexities of its water usage, and the role it played within the larger community.

L&L students came to the program with their own knowledge base, sets of interests, and perceptions shaped by their personal history. Seeing these individuals experience their education in nine unique ways, despite being exposed to the same opportunities, was fascinating and led to an enriching learning opportunity for me as well.

Facilitating a conversation about the beef industry in Montana while sitting between a vegetarian from Berkeley and a student raised on a small cattle farm in Tennessee exposed

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everyone present to a diversity of opinions and a fulfilling conversation about food ethics and sustainability. (It is worth noting that every conversation was carried out with grace and fueled by curiosity.) Allowing students to captain their individual educational experiences allows for a deeper understanding of each topic covered and exposure to ideas that often go unheard.

I have pages and pages of notes from the trips with the students, some from guest speakers, and many from students.

Having been involved in this course led to me gaining nine new perspectives on sustainability and agriculture. With each consecutive year I am involved with the course, I will continually expand on my own knowledge base and understanding of differing perspectives thanks to the ideas shared by students.

Each student is a unique resource worth listening to and learning from. Thank you to the L&L class of 2018. I am certain you will take your newly expanded perspectives back home and continue to make the world a more understanding place.

Welcome!

Swan Valley Connections is excited to welcome Sophie Trull as our 2019 Big Sky Watershed Corps Member beginning January 7, 2019. Sophie is a Swan Valley native and a 2014 alumni of the Landscape and Livelihood class, as well as former carnivore monitoring intern in 2016. Sophie’s position will be multifaceted! She’ll work full time with the carnivore monitoring crew through March and then focus on both conservation and education, assisting the Swan Valley Bear Resources team and our Aquatic Invasive Species prevention and monitoring efforts, and working with our education team to develop new programs and assist with our college field semester programs.

Big Sky Watershed Corps (BSWC) is an AmeriCorps program that began seven years ago as a pilot program to provide direct service to conservation organizations across Montana. Members assist Montana’s watershed communities to make a measurable difference in local conservation efforts while strengthening the experience of young professionals. Participants around the state focus on watershed research, planning and project implementation, watershed education and outreach, and community engagement.

The BSWC program is offered through a partnership of Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Montana, the Montana Watershed Coordination Council, and Montana Conservation Corps.

Back Under the Big Sky

By Sophie Trull

These past few months have been full of changes and transitions, which in turn results in a lot of packing and unpacking. Just last week I stumbled across an envelope full of old pictures that I hadn’t seen in years. I sat down on the cool hardwood floor and began flipping back through the photos, mostly pictures of children grinning “cheese” staring back at me. Mixed in were photos of me knee deep in Cold Creek, swimming from the rope swing at Holland, traipsing across the meadows in front of the Swan River, and standing in front of our wall tent in a tunnel of snow, all bringing back a flood of memories and emotions.

At the time the photos were taken it was just my place, the place I grew up, the backyard I played and explored in, and the place that has shaped me into adulthood. Over the years, after moving away, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect and recognize how unique a childhood in the Swan Valley truly is. This realization was amplified when I returned to the Swan as a student with Northwest Connections for the 2014 semester of Landscape and Livelihood.

It was a humbling experience to peer behind the scenes of a Sophie, age 2, in front of her family’s Christmas community I only knew as a child. It was an opportunity to learn and explore wall tent by the Swan River the land and complexities that come with living in a rural community.

When I returned to the University of Montana I knew I wanted to pursue a degree that would give youth an opportunity to connect with the natural world, not fully knowing how influential my childhood was on my career path. Through many lectures, readings, and papers, the picture became more clear - in order to love a place you first have to know it. Not everyone is fortunate enough to live in a place where the Swans and the Missions are your backyard. But sometimes what is in front of you all along can be hard to see, and I realized that through the process of using the outdoors as a classroom you develop strong, resilient youth who feel a sense of belonging in the outdoors that hopefully carries through into adulthood.

I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to return to the Valley as a young adult. I have so much to learn and am confident that Swan Valley Connections, Big Sky Watershed Corps, and most importantly the community as a whole, have a lot of knowledge to give.

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Swan Stream Monitoring with Watershed Education Network and Swan Valley Connections

By Deb Fassnacht, Executive Director at Watershed Education Network

It was a cold, rainy day in early October when the Watershed Education Network loaded up bug collecting nets, waders, and water monitoring gear to head north for a field trip to Glacier Creek in the Swan Valley. As we drove up Highway 83, we were treated to stunning views of western larch changing from dark green to vibrant yellow. There is nothing quite like the magic color change on the hillsides above Salmon Lake this time of year. Sipping coffee and planning our day, we rolled on to Kraft Creek Road just behind volunteer Diann Ericson’s rig and joined her and the Swan Valley Connections education program staff heading up to Glacier Creek. Turning onto Elk Creek Road, we wound our way to the pristine tributary that tumbles out of the Mission Mountain Wilderness on its way to the Swan River.

When Diann called to set a date for Swan Valley School children to go water monitoring, I realized it had been a few years since WEN had traveled north to sample streams in the Swan Valley. Looking back in the water sampling records, I recalled that since 2007 local school children had participated in class lessons about healthy water before going out to local streams, where they gathered data that told the story of their backyard creeks and rivers. Reviving the Swan Valley program and joining the Swan Valley Connections team to offer a field trip for local students was going to be great – even in the rain!

We parked on the west side of the Glacier Creek bridge – just in time to set up an aquatic insect station and a chemistry station before the bus arrived. We chose the location just upstream from the bridge that had been used over the years - giving us additional baseline data about Glacier Creek. The students poured off the bus, excited for a field trip, even in the deluge of rain as teacher Jamie Matthew and volunteer Katie Gleason helped corral the young scientists.

Our first challenge was getting the kids into waders without getting their feet wet as they took off their sneakers.

Organizing the students and dividing them into two groups, we reviewed our tasks of monitoring the aquatic insects (bugs) and gathering chemical data (pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature), along with a safety talk before we got moving to the creek. The kids’ spirits were high as they joined the ‘bug group’ or ‘chemistry group’ with lots of curiosity and energy all around.

The bug team learned to use a ‘D-net’ to collect insects living on and under the rocks, discovering that mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, and craneflies all live in Glacier Creek. They learned that mayflies have three tails and gills on their abdomen and they swim like a dolphin – the kids even ‘danced’ the mayfly mambo.

Then they learned that stoneflies have two tails and gills under their arms, creating a movement to get oxygen like a ‘stonefly strut.’ As the students examined aquatic insects in the tubs, they learned their names and how they are indicators of healthy river.

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At the chemistry station, the young scientists and volunteers took shelter under a canopy to help keep the chemical tests dry. The dissolved oxygen testing got underway with everyone putting on gloves and goggles, then adding the reagents to a bottle of Glacier Creek water. As the reaction took place, we took turns making several trips to the Creek to get additional water samples for pH and to test the water temperature. We had a few mishaps shaking our chemistry test with the bottles flying out of slick hands‌all part of a day’s work conducting field science! We wrapped up our water testing and recorded the cold water temperatures (10 degrees Celsius) and high dissolved oxygen levels (11 and 12 ppm), which told us the Creek is a very healthy habitat for aquatic insects and fish.

The soggy and smiling students hiked back to trade their waders for dry shoes, then loaded up in the warm bus chatting about what they found in Glacier Creek. We met our goal to have a safe field trip where students collected water health information that can be compared with data from previous years on Glacier Creek. Swan Valley School students can now tell their friends and family how to tell a mayfly from a stonefly and why these are good bugs to have in Glacier Creek. We hope to get back to Glacier Creek and the Swan River for more field trips next spring.

Watershed Education Network (WEN) is a nonprofit organization that leads students and community members on river fieldtrips to learn more about healthy watersheds.

Learn more at www.montanawatershed.org

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“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.

Photos by Andrea DiNino

Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.

Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.

Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”

-Yoko Ono

Back in the Day

By Rob Rich, Aquatic Programs Coordinator

Once upon a time there was a twenty-year-old young man who was curious about everything, but, when it came to how animals live in the Swan Valley winter, he was clueless. That included human animals, and how he, himself, would survive a week at this place called the Beck Homestead.

There was plenty of intrigue about his classroom: a ravenous wood boiler, a composting toilet cold on the cheeks, a hip-high depth of snow covering miles and miles of wild land.

But after a single day floating through the landscape on snowshoes with college classmates in a course called Winter Field Studies, that young man’s journal was steeped in wonder. “I can’t believe how lucky we were today! My first day in the Swan Valley, and I can already say that I’ve seen a mountain lion print!” Such is the passion of youth, thrilled without a glimpse of the live great cat, scarcely able “to fathom that we were within a mile of that lion – and that we could actually see where it bedded down and ran away.”

Truth be told, there’s a part of that lion that never ran away. After twelve years, reading the scrappy old field journal of the young man I was, I can go right back to that moment and laugh at how little has changed. I’ve still never actually seen a lion. I still judge a hike by the quality of the relationships felt and not distances walked or peaks bagged. And though a whole lot of life has happened in between, today – as an SVC employee and local citizen – I’m still just as filled with awe when I see a track in the mud or the snow.

As we approach a new winter, SVC still shares the wonder of tracking as proudly as ever and uses these skills to monitor some of the most important wolverine and lynx populations on the continent. We don’t know where all our trails lead, but the old mantra was and is helpful after all these years: “when in doubt, track it out.”

The Value of Animal Tracks & Sign

By Luke Lamar, Conservation Director

There is an incredible array of animal tracks and sign to be discovered in nature. Some are obvious and some are very subtle. Footprints, droppings, scrapes on trees, and foraging sign are just a few things that can provide clues about an animal species’ presence and how it uses a given area. Learning and honing animal tracks and sign skills is an art that challenges the human sensory system and requires no technology. Tracks can be found any time of the year on many substrates (snow, dust, sand, mud, etc). You can learn an incredible amount about a place by observing tracks and sign. A deeper appreciation of how an

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animal relates to plant communities, water, weather, seasons, and other species grows with tracking skills. Ultimately, tracking skills create a greater understanding of ecosystem functions.

Part of tracking an animal is piecing clues together into a story. Chances are, the puzzle will never be complete, and the animal will not be directly observed.

But tracking an animal reveals details and scenes that are rarely noticed yet can be extremely valuable.

I’ve only witnessed wolverines for several seconds in my life, but I’ve learned a great deal about their behavior and life history from spending countless hours tracking them. They are very solitary and mysterious critters about which the scientific community still has much to learn. I’ve learned that they like to scavenge dead animals, cache meat and bones in snowy holes often directly on or under ice, are capable of taking down a mule deer, actively scent mark their territory boundaries, and are much more sociable than previously understood. I’ve learned these things, and many more, from following their tracks. By tracking them, I’ve gotten to know their behaviors, habitat needs, and relationships with other plant and animal species. I’ve gained a true appreciation for them and their tracks have led me on a quest to discover more. I’ve begun to read books and scientific papers to help tie together what I’ve learned about them on the ground. Ultimately, tracking has led me to be more interested and aware of wolverine conservation and their environment, as it has for all species whose tracks and sign I’ve observed.

Winter Wildlife tracking classes

At SVC, we want to provide an opportunity to connect people to the outdoor world and foster an appreciation for conservation. SVC teaches animal tracks and sign classes to all ages and abilities. In 2019, SVC is offering tracks and sign classes on January 26, March 9, and April 13. Please contact us to sign up!

RSVP at 754-3137 or lindsay@svconnections.org

Photo by Steven Gnam

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The (Over)Story on Forest & Communities

By Meredith Fraser, 2018 L&L Intern

Landscape & Livelihood students spent two weeks delving into Forests and Communities, one of the five courses covered in the L&L program. This year we had the pleasure of learning from two new instructors, SVC Conservation and Stewardship Associate Mike Mayernick, and Jim Burchfield, SVC Advisory Board member and former Dean of the School of Forestry at the University of Montana. Students learned about stand characteristics, fire ecology, timber harvest, and the many different realms of forest management strategy and policy. Students were also able to gain some insight into the inner workings and challenges of collaborative group dynamics by attending the Southwestern Crown Collaborative meeting.

L&L student Sarah Fisher summarized the depth of the Forests and Communities class:

“Forests and Communities sounds simple but covers a wide range of niches both ecological and economical, from learning how to wield a maul, to being a part of the passionate and powerful communication it takes to wield ideas into critical and collaborative action. Thanks to the stories of individuals and their relationship to the woods, we were able to get a glimpse into the complicated and truly mosaic stewardship practices that impact the Swan Valley and its neighbors.”

While each day of the course was jam-packed with learning and amazing people, one of the students’ favorite days was Community Firewood Day right here in Condon.

This annual event brings the community together to buck, split, and deliver firewood to their neighbors in need. You never know what winter is going to bring in the Swan and a little extra firewood in the bank can go a long way!

L&L student Addison Doporto was impressed by how much was covered in the course including forest measurement, meeting with loggers in the Swan and Flathead Valleys, attending the Southwestern Crown Collaborative meeting, speaking with a wildlife biologist, and learning about forest ecosystems, fire ecology, and collaboration. She shared her reflections on the true meaning of forests and communities:

“During the Southwestern Crown Collaborative meeting I had a true epiphany where I realized what the title of the course, “Forests and Communities” really means. While we listened to members of the Collaborative and the Forest Service discuss the public lands surrounding us, it became clear to me that not only are communities dependent on forests, but that forests also need communities to survive. This course taught us that forests play a large role in many people’s lives. When we met with different loggers across the Northwest we learned that people are dependent on forests for their livelihoods, and when we helped at community firewood day we learned that people are dependent on forests to heat their homes in the winter. Forests literally provide means of survival to those in the surrounding community, and community members provide protection to forests. If I have learned anything in this course, it is the importance of connectivity between ecosystems and communities. While the forest is necessary for our survival, we cannot forget that the forest needs us too, and this relationship must remain a symbiotic one. Instead of being the Mountain Pine Beetle, the most damaging insect to a Whitebark Pine Stand, let humans be the Clark’s nutcracker and help hold the ecosystem together.”

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The Impact of Providing Place-Based Education

By Jonathan Bowler, Education Director

“What we know, we may choose to care for. What we fail to recognize, we certainly won’t.”

These words from Robert Michael Pyle’s The Rise and Fall of Natural History exemplify the importance of the placebased, experiential education that Swan Valley Connections (SVC) facilitates in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.

The wildlife, natural resources, and human communities that reside in this ecosystem provide the classroom, subject matter, and instructors for our college field programs – Wildlife in the West and Landscape & Livelihood.

We believe that opportunities for understanding the human and non-human communities of Northwest Montana and the choice to care for the world around us should be available to everyone. In an effort to make these experiences available to all students, SVC maintains two scholarship funds for students who have the passion and commitment to excel in one of our college field programs, but who require financial assistance to join us for this life-changing experience.

In addition to federal financial aid, Americorps Segal Education Awards, VA Benefits, and flexible payment plans, Swan Valley Connections General Scholarships and the Agnes Beck Memorial Scholarship Fund help to broaden the opportunities available to college students seeking to invest in their futures.

SVC considers these funds to be an investment as well – one that contributes to the future of conservation by supporting the next generation of wildlife biologists, conservationists, landscape ecologists, land use planners, educators, and any number of other professional tracks our students may pursue.

SVC General Scholarships are awarded based on financial need and academic merit. We are grateful to the Evelyn H. Fuldner Foundation for supporting our general scholarship fund. The generosity of the Fuldner Foundation provides seed funding to help us grow and expand our scholarship opportunities to inspire new approaches to increasingly complex social, economic, and environmental issues in the West and across the nation.

We have seen the effects of this contribution through many of the out-of-state students whose studies have been made

possible by General Scholarships and are immensely proud of the subsequent accomplishments of these alumni. From competitive research programs to conservation project employment, to graduate studies, these scholarship recipients have gone on to reshape the way conservation is practiced in their home regions.

Continued page 14

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P Photo by Faith Bernstein

Swan Valley Connections, like other conservation organizations, realizes the importance of collaboration, education, and outreach. Many hands make light work, and it is our mission to bring as many hands as possible to the heavy work of conserving the working landscapes and traditions that make Montana the “last best place”. Our scholarships offer anyone the ability to partake in this shared responsibility. Whether contributing to maintaining the last best place or helping to make other areas become “the latest best place,” these scholarships ensure that conservation education is not an exclusive experience.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to these scholarship funds over the years and invite our supporters to join us in broadening our outreach efforts, increasing diversity, and expanding our program curriculum so that we can inspire a new generation of conservationists. Your generous donation will ensure these opportunities remain available to future students. In the end, conservation is about maintaining a shared quality of life. A contribution to these scholarships is a contribution to grizzly bears, bull trout, wolverines, varied thrushes, white bark pines, rural communities, working landscapes, and the students who study these and many other aspects of Northwest Montana’s Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.

We also offer the Agnes Beck Memorial Scholarship which honors the legacy of a remarkable woman and is reserved for students who currently have in-state residency status at any Montana university. Agnes Beck lived with her husband Ed in the original homestead-era cabin on the Beck Homestead, where our student programs continue to operate. She was without a doubt one of the most generous people in the world.

You never left her cabin without something she had thoughtfully given to you. This scholarship fund was developed after her death in 2005 and has helped many students attend our education programs. The Agnes Beck Memorial Scholarship is an investment in Montana’s future leaders in conservation that has resulted in many excellent returns. We look forward to hearing about our in-state students’ accomplishments and are rewarded each year by alumni who return to the Valley to visit and discuss the role our college programs have had in their personal and professional growth.

We couldn’t do what we do without all of you and your continued support!

Please make a donation today! Thank you.

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Ways to support Shop Locally This Holiday Season We’ve got some incredible gifts available for sale in our office including books, maps, cards & pottery by local artisans... and of course SVC swag. One of our favorite’s is our Icy Hot Water Bottle that’ll keep your hot beverages hot while you’re out adventuring in the snow and your cool beverages cool while you’re fireside with friends.

Wish List

When shopping online for the holidays, please keep us in mind! You can give two gifts in one (and one of those gifts will continue to give to the future of our wild landscape and its future stewards).

When you shop at smile.amazon.com, Amazon donates to SVC!

• • • • • • • • •

Enclosed Snowmobile Trailer New snowshoes (adult & kid sizes) Reliable 4WD vehicle DJI Phantom 4 Drone Flight over the Swan Valley iPad, for front desk credit card transactions Chest waders with boots Gas cards Visa gift cards

If you have one of these items and would like to donate, contact Rebecca at (406) 754-3137 or rebecca@svconnections.org.

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Swan Valley Connections every time you shop, at no cost to you! When you shop at http://smile.amazon. com, you’ll find the exact same selection as Amazon. com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization - that’s us! Consider signing up, it only takes a few clicks.

And don’t forget to mark your calendars for our yearend celebration potluck, December 5th!

www.swanvalleyconnections.org 15

NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID CONDON, MT PERMIT #16

6887 MT Hwy 83 Condon, MT 59826-9005 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Coming Up DEC 5

Community Potluck Dinner

Live Music and Year-End Celebration DEC 15

Christmas Bird Count Post-count potluck JAN 9

Community Potluck Dinner

Presentation on Wolves by Diane Boyd

JAN 26

Wildlife Tracking Class FEB 6

Community Potluck Dinner Presentation TBD Mar 6

Community Potluck Dinner Presentation TBD

Mar 9

Wildlife Tracking Class