NFLA – Page 23 – North Fork Landowners Association

August/September/October Wildland Fire Potential Outlook

Greetings, All!! As you can tell, fire season is upon us, as Lynn Ogle has pointed out.

Here is the latest monthly outlook for August, September and October.
The good news of course is that we benefited from a cold, wet June and the first half of July. The bad news is of course the hot, dry weather that has been parked over us for the past couple of weeks or so. That is forecasted to persist for a while, and we are forecasted to have a more active than normal fire season for the month of August:

Continue reading August/September/October Wildland Fire Potential Outlook

Area wildfire status, morning of August 2nd

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

The Weasel Fire in the Kootenai National Forest grew quite a bit yesterday, reaching 150 acres (see attached image). There was some spotting across Road 319 to the east, but it rained for 30 minutes and a helicopter made water dumps, too. It continues to be no threat to the North Fork.

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

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

Wernick’s Wednesday Market for July 27 canceled

Wernick’s Wednesday Market for July 27 has been canceled.

Drat!

No word yet on whether it will be rescheduled.

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.

Bear Resistant Containers Available for Loan or Purchase

NFPA/Polebridge Bear Smart is offering Kodiak brand 96 gallon bear resistant garbage containers for loan or purchase at a reduced price. This opportunity is being made to the Polebridge community with the help of grants and private donations.

Purchase price per canister is $300.
Canister Loan Program fee is on an able-to-pay basisCans are available now!

Please contact Suzanne Hildner sdhildner@icloud.com or (406) 253-3263 to purchase or rent.

Help the Polebridge Community be BEAR SMART!!

Proposed bylaw amendments available online

The Board of Directors spent quite a bit of time over the winter reviewing the NFLA bylaws. As a result, a total of six amendments to the bylaws will be formally proposed and opened for discussion at the general meeting on July 10, 2022. These amendments will be voted on by the membership at the August 14, 2022 meeting.

The proposed amendments can be viewed/downloaded here. This is the same material that was made available in printed form at the June 12 meeting.

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!