Bitterroot Star

By Christin Rzasa When the directors of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organization voted unanimously in 2017 to change the group’s name to Scouting BSA and allow girls to become members, two young Stevensville residents jumped at the chance. Meline Gardner and Ara Masar had tagged along with their older brothers on various outdoor […]

The Darby Adult Education (DAE) program is offering Bitterroot Valley residents and visitors a unique opportunity to not just learn about the history and the flora and fauna of the area, but to actually walk through it. Program director Dawn Ringer worked through an agreement with the forest service to permit DAE to offer weekly […]

Montana Senator Steve Daines is taking credit for convincing President Trump to keep the Anaconda Job Corps Center open. Daines stated in a media conference call last week that he phoned Trump to discuss the site’s significance to the Montana economy and its top ranking within the Civilian Conservation Corps. “The president…  overruled the decision […]

Lewis’s Woodpecker populations are declining throughout their range, but the Bitterroot and Missoula Valleys have some of the highest densities anywhere in the world. Researchers Kate Stone and William Blake from MPG Ranch, located at the north end of the valley, are in their fifth year of color banding these colorful woodpeckers, in an attempt […]

Successful Coding for Kids program helps lead the way By Michael Howell After partnering with the local non-profit organization Coding for Kids for a few years now as a summer program, Stevensville School District Superintendent Dr. Bob Moore is excited about the prospect of integrating the program into the new Trades & Technology Center planned […]

This year’s Western Heritage Day celebration in Stevensville is on track to raise funds for the Bitterroot BackPack Program at Stevensville and Lone Rock schools. Due to generous sponsors and the popular activities such as the Chuck Wagon meal and the beer garden, significant proceeds are anticipated this year. The committee has chosen to donate […]

  Shooting victim Casey Blanchard has returned to his home in Stevensville from the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City where he received treatment for severe gunshot wounds. He was shot on the evening of March 14, 2019, in Missoula when he exited his vehicle to check on a motorist who he thought […]

Montana’s U.S. Congressmen are moving quickly to try and reverse the planned closure of the Anaconda Job Corps Center. Having been under the control of the USDA since its inception in 1966, authority over the Job Corps was recently transferred to the Department of Labor. According to a report in the Montana Standard (May 25), […]

By Gary Garthwait For those who have participated in the Bitterroot 50 Mile Garage Sale since its inception four years ago and for those who are hearing about it for the first time, much fun lies ahead as the two-day event is being planned for the fifth year. The sale is scheduled for Friday, June […]

On May 21, Governor Steve Bullock appointed Howard F. Recht, Esq. to serve as District Judge for Department 1 of the 21st Judicial District Court, in Ravalli County. Recht succeeds the Hon. Jeffrey H. Langton who retired effective April 30, 2019. At the time of his retirement, Langton was the longest serving district court judge […]

The Smithsonian National Museum of History exhibit “Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World” has come to the Bitterroot and is on display at the Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton thanks to Jerimiah Matson, a graduate student working at Rocky Mountain Laboratory as a predoctoral fellow at RML working on his Ph.D.  The exhibit opened in […]

Highway Patrol Trooper Wade Palmer got an incredible welcome from the community last week as he returned to his home in Stevensville from the Salt Lake City hospital where he has been receiving care after being shot in the line of duty. On March 15, Palmer was shot in the neck, face and head after […]

The Stevensville Town Council went awry last week when one of the two applicants for the vacant council position withdrew his application during the public comment period and the other applicant was, without an interview and without council discussion, unanimously rejected.  Before any agenda items were considered, the mayor read some email correspondence into the […]

In a press release from its U.S. office in Philadelphia, PA, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced recently “$100 million of new investment in its manufacturing site in Hamilton, Montana to expand the production capacity of key components of the adjuvant system used in several of GSK’s vaccines, including SHINGRIX, which was approved by the US Food and […]