Bill Walker – Page 19

Area wildfire status, morning of August 1st

Using information from Lynn Ogle, Debo Powers (currently at Cyclone LO) and some digging through online resources…

The Weasel Fire is at 30 acres, up from it’s initial 10, and moving towards the northeast. It generated a lot of visible smoke yesterday, but is currently no threat to the North Fork. Location is in the Kootenai National Forest, 26 miles northwest of Polebridge (see image; fire location is in upper left corner).

The hot spots in last year’s Hay Creek burn disappeared from the satellite imagery overnight and there is no smoke from that location.

The Flattop Mountain Fire in Glacier NP continues to skunk around at 0.1 acres.

There were no other verifiable local smoke reports yesterday.

Bill

Area wildfire status, morning of July 31st

Hello, everyone.

This is a summary of local wildfire issues based on information from Lynn Ogle and various other resources. No agency had issued any press releases at the time I put this together at 0720…

Glacier Park: Flattop Mountain Fire, 0.10 acres; initial report 29 July.

Flathead NF: Two hot-spots along the ridgetop in last year’s Hay Creek burn; FNF is sending a ground crew in to check it out; initial report 30 July. (See image below.)

Kootenai NF: Weasel Fire (sometimes called “D3 Weasel”), on the east slope of a ridge to the west of Weasel Creek. It was about 7 acres in extent initially on 30 July, is now 13.50 acres, and is being handled by the Kootenai National Forest. According to Bill Fordyce, “The Kootenai has put a lot of resources on the Weasel Fire. It’s a 10 plus acres. Some of that area burned 5 or 6 years ago so there would be standing dead and down…”

Bill

Approximate position, according to Zoom Earth, of the two hotspots in last year’s Hay Creek burn. The nearest is about 6.5 miles west of Polebridge. We should know more once Flathead NF gets some people up there to look around…
(look for the kind of orangy glows near the left edge of the image. Those spots are *not* to scale, they just indicate rough positions!)

Hay Creek Hotspots, approximate postions, 31 July 22

GNP bridge construction projects begin July 18

According to the official press release, the bridge work in Glacier Park starts off with a couple of items on the “Inside North Fork Road”…

Glacier National Park is starting a construction project to rehabilitate 13 bridges throughout the park. The work will take place over the next two years with funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through the Federal Lands Transportation Program.

The improvements to the bridges will include bridge deck and approach repairs, timber pile replacement and repairs, timber curb replacement, painting, concrete repair, stone masonry repairs, erosion control measures, and more.

Construction begins on two Inside North Fork Road bridges on July 18. The Inside North Fork Road is managed for a rustic experience and is currently open to vehicles in certain sections and provides pedestrian, bicycle, and emergency vehicular access in other sections. Visitors will have pedestrian and bicycle access to Dutch Creek, Anaconda Creek, and Camas Creek.

The Fish Creek Bridge will have limited delays in traffic until it is fully closed to motorized, pedestrian, and bicycle access on September 6, 2022, after Fish Creek Campground closes for the year.

Reminder! First Aid/CPR/AED course next week; only three slots left!

For those of you who missed it in May, Bob Lee will be giving his well-regarded First Aid/CPR/AED class in the North Fork again this summer. It is an all-day course, starting at 9:00am. The date is Tuesday, July 12. The course will be held at Sondreson Hall. Cost will be $45/person. (Make checks out to Red Tail Education and Research.)

If it has been two years or more since you took this course, you need to take it again in order to maintain your certification.

Course size limit is 10 people! Contact Bill Walker (wkwalker@nvdi.com or 406-407-2764) if you wish to attend.

Note! Like last time, the certification cards will be distributed electronically. The emails sometimes get misdirected to spam, so it is important to keep an eye out for that.

Get those issues in! North Fork Interlocal meeting, 1:00pm, July 13th at the hall!

The Summer 2022 Interlocal Agreement Meeting is at 1:00pm, on Wednesday, July 13 at Sondreson Community Hall. This summer’s Interlocal is hosted by the North Fork Landowners’ Association (NFLA). It follows the annual Firewise meeting at 9:30am. Lunch is at noon, with the NFLA providing the main course. If you wish, bring a side dish or desert to share.

Continue reading Get those issues in! North Fork Interlocal meeting, 1:00pm, July 13th at the hall!

Glacier Park implements Camas Road Bypass policy

Camas Road in Glacier NP as seen from Glacier View Mtn, April 16, 2017 - W. K. Walker — Camas Road in Glacier NP as seen from Glacier View Mtn, April 16, 2017 – W. K. Walker

Here’s some information a lot of folks have been waiting for, received late in the afternoon on May 27 from Pete Webster, Deputy Superintendent of Glacier Park . . .

An update from Jim Dahlstrom, North Fork District Ranger concerning Camas Road Bypass permits (continue the reading the main article for more details): “The passes will be here at the station by the end of the day [Saturday, May 28]… Ideally, [North Forkers] …would present themselves in person during business hours where we record their vehicle information, etc. and then get them their pass. Since I don’t have the packet in front of me right now, I don’t have many more details on the program logistics. But it shouldn’t be too onerous.”

Welcome to Summer!

Now that we have begun the vehicle reservation system, I want to share with you what we are calling the Camas Road Bypass permit. This is the access we committed to for this season to allow immediate park neighbors, with justifiable needs, a chance to use the Camas Road for thru traffic without a vehicle reservation.

Continue reading Glacier Park implements Camas Road Bypass policy

First Polebridge Bear Smart training session a big success

Polebridge Bear Smart training session, Home Ranch Bottoms, May 26, 2022

PBBS Program Coordinator Suzanne Hildner reports . . .

The Polebridge Bear Smart (PBBS) Committee would like to announce a very successful first Polebridge Employee Training session at Home Ranch Bottoms this afternoon. We had 12 participants who were from all across the country and with a couple of exceptions all new to living and recreating in bear country. Many had already seen a bear. They were a really fantastic audience, polite, engaged and asked excellent questions. Most were already in possession of bear spray.The entire event lasted a little over an hour. Thanks to all who helped make this happen. Next training is June 4th.

Reminder! First Aid/CPR/AED course next week; only two slots left!

Bob Lee will be giving his well-regarded First Aid/CPR/AED class in the North Fork again this spring. It is an all-day course, starting at 9:00am. The date is Tuesday, May 24. The course will be held at Sondreson Hall. Cost will be $45/person.

If it has been two years or more since you took this course, you need to take it again in order to maintain your certification.

Course size limit is 10 people! Contact Bill Walker (wkwalker@nvdi.com or 406-407-2764) if you wish to attend.

Note! Like last time, the certification cards will be distributed electronically. The folks sending the cards insist that every recipient have a unique email address. I.e., if you share an email address with someone else and you are both attending the course, one of you would need to pick up a second address. I can hand out temporary course email addresses if needed, just let me know. Also note that the emails sometimes get misdirected to spam, so it is important to keep an eye out for that.

Helicopter training at Demers gravel pit May 13-19

From Mark Heaphy:

Two Bear Air will be conducting training at the Demers Ridge gravel pit from this Friday (May 13) through Thursday (May 19). Signs will be posted and helo operations will occur both day and night.

They’re just doing their own training, running scenarios in the gravel pit such as rolled vehicles and medical response.

[ The entrance to the Demers gravel pit was already blocked off this afternoon. ]

Call for Volunteers! Sondreson Hall Cleanup — May 7 & 14, 10:00am

The Sondreson Hall spring cleanup is fast approaching. This year, there will be two events: Cleaning out the loft over the kitchen area on Saturday, May 7, and the usual general cleanup in and around the building on Saturday, May 14. Start time for both events will probably be 10:00am.

We need to ensure we have volunteers on both days for some specific tasks, listed below. Contact Irv Heitz (47irvh@gmail.com or 406-261-2690) if you can help out.

Sat., May 7, 10:00am – Loft Cleanup

Clean up. Haul unneeded junk from loft above kitchen.

Some of this material should probably be kept (Christmas decorations, for example); some may be useful to other folks in the community; some may just be trash.

We need folks to haul down and help sort all this out.

We will also need a trailer for disposal of material that doesn’t make the cut.

Sat. May 14, 10:00am – General Hall Cleanup

Outside tasks include, but are not limited to…

- - Place cinder blocks under wood-fired cook stove in kitchen.
  - Search for and repair roof leak over counter window. Look on roof for loose screws/nails.
  - Clean up brush with weed-whacker.
  - Cut and remove to burn pile those trees/brush per Deb Starling Hazardous fuels reduction inventory. (Irv will have marked them)
  - Fix inside roof by new chimney; seal and insulate. (Call Irv for instructions.)
  - Replenish wood supply.