The community picnic held at Sondreson Meadows last Tuesday was a great success. It was a nice day, good food, and fun playing beanbag toss and horseshoes. Thank you to Jan and Alice Caldwell for their hard work. Special kudos to Jan for providing a much needed sanitation facility at Sonderson Meadow as pictured here.
Kevin Ulricheson sent a note that said… Could you please post that Dick and I are cancelling the next community float on Aug. 17th, Tuesday. We are not doing it because the river is getting so low.
Come join your neighbors and friends for another fun-filled Game Night at Sondreson Hall. The games begin at 7PM. Bring a snack to share.
At the NFLA Business Meeting last evening, it was suggested that we publish a list of fire information sites. Here’s a list that we’ve put together. This list has also been published on the Fire Mitigation Committee page.
If you have another information site that you use, please let us know via the contact page.
An interagency fire information line has been established in order to streamline calls, share facts and serve the public during fire season. The Office of Emergency Services Information Line is 406-758-2111, and the Interagency Fire Fact Sheet can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/FlatheadOES. Fact sheets will be updated as needed during the fire season.
DNCR Interactive Wildland Fire Map – Great summary of the fires that are going on everywhere.
http://gis.dnrc.mt.gov/apps/firemap/
Fire Imagery – Remote Sensing Applications Center – Tap on MODIS Satellite Imagery to get information about where our smoke is coming from.
https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/afm/imagery.php?op=fire&fireID=id-mt-000
WildCAD – Kalispell Interagency Dispatch Center – Dispatches from our area. It can be a little difficult to interpret, but useful.
http://www.wildcad.net/WCMT-KIC.htm
InciWeb – A national website showing the big fires under active management. This page is for Montana.
https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/state/27/
Northern Rockies Geographic Area Current Wildfire Activity – Great overview map for our area
https://gacc.nifc.gov/nrcc/predictive/intelligence/ytd_historical/firemaps/current_large_wf.htm
Active Fire Map Program – Nice map of large fires.
https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/afm/
Northern Rockies Coordination Center – More good incident information.
https://gacc.nifc.gov/nrcc/index.htm
Montana DEQ (Air Quality) – Some information about the air quality and suggestions on what to do.
http://svc.mt.gov/deq/todaysair/
The August 2017 Business Meeting was held last evening. There was a proposed by-laws amendment on the table to change the business meeting day from the first Saturday of the month to the second Sunday of the month. This proposed amendment was approved by 2/3 of the members attending the meeting last evening. The time of the business meeting was not changed. As a result, the business meeting dates for the remainder of the year are:
Before the September meeting there will be a presentation at 7PM be Lois Walker: The NFLA’s 70th Anniversary: Seven Decades of People, Issues and Activities.
Our new Board of Directors is as follows:
At 7 PM the Two Bear Search & Rescue Helicopter will arrive and speak on their important work here in the North Fork. It will be interesting and informative!
At 8 PM the election of officers will occur and we need interested members to join the board.
Also, don’t miss voting on a by-laws amendment changing the day of the business meetings to the 2nd Sunday of each month (as opposed to the current 1st Saturday).
The purpose of this proposed and to be voted on change is to allow greater involvement of community members for whom Saturday poses an impossibility to attend.
Bring a neighbor and see you Saturday @ Sondreson Hall @ 7 PM.
Dick Leigh sent these from the Community Float that took place yesterday, Aug. 1 … On the shuttle back up got 12 people 2rafts and 4 kayaks in pickup and trailer. Great time!
The Pie and Ice Cream Social and Square Dance of 2017 was well attended and everyone had a good time. Thank you Linda Pittman and Debo Powers for hosting this wonderful, annual event.
Check out these photos from Patti Hart.
As the Fourth of July holiday approaches, Montana anglers are reminded that they need to purchase a new Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Pass.
The AIS Prevention Pass is required for all anglers, in addition to a fishing license. The cost is $2 for residents and $15 for nonresidents. This is not a license fee increase, but rather an additional requirement from the 2017 Montana Legislature to fund the fight against aquatic invasive species such as mussels.
The pass is available at all Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks license providers and online at fwp.mt.gov. If you purchased a fishing license prior to May 19, you will need to obtain an AIS pass.
“We know this will be an inconvenience for some anglers, but protecting the health of our waterways is critical,” said FWP director Martha Williams. “The AIS program we have in place is our best chance at keeping mussels from spreading to other Montana waters and at keeping other invasive species from gaining a foothold in the state.”
Also included in SB 363 was a fee for hydro-electric facilities. The AIS Prevention Pass is anticipated to generate about $3.2 million in revenue per year. The hydro-electric fee will generate about $3.7 million.
The 2017 Legislature provided additional funding for FWP’s aquatic invasive species program after the discovery last fall of aquatic invasive mussel larvae in water samples from Tiber Reservoir. The response plan includes increasing the number of inspection stations around the state, operating decontamination stations at both Tiber and Canyon Ferry Reservoir, an expanded public education and outreach effort, and doubling the water sampling efforts for mussel larvae around Montana.
Also, because it is a separate program and not a fee increase, the pass can be purchased by non-anglers as well who would want to help contribute to Montana’s fight against aquatic invasive species.
Tim Manley from the FWP will be giving a talk on grizzly bear management at Sondreson Hall on July 1 before the NFLA’s Business Meeting. His talks starts at 7PM. The Business Meeting starts at 8PM.
Tim was born in Great Falls, MT and went to college at Colorado State University where he graduated with a degree in Wildlife Biology. He moved back to Montana in 1981 and started mapping grizzly bear habitat for the Forest Service on the Kootenai in 1982. In 1984 Tim began working on the Cabinet Mtns grizzly program based out of Libby. Then in 1989, he started on the South Fork Grizzly Project.
Since 1993, Tim has been the Grizzly Bear Management Specialist for Montana FWP where he has been doing a great job minimizing conflicts between people and bears.
Come join your neighbors and friends to learn from Tim about grizzly bears in general, bears in our area, and get some tips on how to remove bear attractants.