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Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Page One News at a Glance
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In an effort to encourage and enable Hamilton’s children to walk and bike to school, the Hamilton School District is beginning its Safe Routes to School Program.
The Safe Routes to School Program encourages and enables children, including those with disabilities to walk and bicycle to school and makes bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative.
The Hamilton School District will be conducting a survey called “Safe Routes to School” online at www.hsd3.org or citizens may complete a paper version at the school offices and Hamilton Senior Citizens Center. The Hamilton School District is asking citizens to tell the district what is most important for the community. Completion of this survey could bring grant money into the community for these suggested improvements. Deadline to complete the survey is February 28.
Childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the past 30 years, while the number of children walking and biking to school has declined. According to the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, less than 16 percent of students between the ages of 5 and 15 walked or biked to or from school, compared to 42 percent in 1969.
Through the 2005 passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Congress designated a total of $612 million toward developing the National Safe Routes to School Program.
For additional information, visit these web sites:
Hamilton School District #3 at www.hsd3.org or the National Center for Safe Routes to School at www.saferoutesinfo.org.
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By Michael Howell
Employees at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital in Hamilton decided to focus their community efforts during the month of February on raising awareness of and support for the various food banks operating in the Bitterroot Valley.
According to MDMH Marketing Director Amy James-Linton it meant, first off, educating themselves and raising the awareness of MDMH employees concerning the community’s needs and the existing services that aim to meet those needs. It also meant challenging themselves to give what they could in terms of cash and food donations. It meant doing an internally focused, employee focused educational/food drive at the hospital.
As part of that effort during the week of February 7th to 14th the hospital’s “Share the Love Bulletin Board” was the site of a Jeopardy contest. The answer and question game was designed to educate the participants in the specific items needed at the various food banks. Available at the site are detailed “shopping lists” provided by each of the food banks.
But the need for basic food, at the bottom line level in our community, is not just a problem for the employees of MDMH. Nor is it one that they alone can resolve. It is a community problem and the best solution will always involve the community as a whole. That led the employees, according to James-Linton, to lay out a plan to include and involve the whole community in their self-education program and food drive.
What has been arranged, through cooperation with many of the valley’s grocery stores and supermarkets, is an intense community collection drive lasting from Thursday, February 24 through Saturday, February 26.
All day Thursday, from 4 to 7 pm on Friday, and from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday, MDMH staff, auxiliary and volunteers will be at various supermarkets in the valley hosting “food boxes” for collection of donations.
The MDMH Food Drive goal is to raise at least $6,000 worth of food and cash for the valley’s food banks to be divided proportionately among food banks.
Haven House, which provides about 473 food boxes per month to 1,282 people in 473 households, would get $3,000. Donation boxes will be located at Super One in Hamilton, Hamilton IGA, Albertsons, and Safeway.
Pantry Partners, which distributes 200 food boxes per month to 822 adults and 200 children, would get $2,000 with a donation box at Super One in Stevensville.
The Bread Box, which distributes 104 food boxes per month to 292 adults and 95 children, would receive $1,000. A collection box will be at People’s Market in Darby.
Grocery lists can be obtained at the participating grocery stores during the February 24-26 drive.
Pantry Partners has some current special needs that are not food items, but include such things a shampoo, soap, toilet paper, hand soap, toothpaste and dental floss. Haven House has need of some special food items including boxed cereal, oatmeal, cream of wheat, chili, peanut butter, and canned vegetables, fruits and soups. The Bread Box could use some cash. It comes in handy for purchasing some things that need to be fresh such as fresh vegetables, greens and fruits.
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By Michael Howell
Discovery of the time capsule buried underneath the cornerstone of the Stevensville Junior High School building following destruction of the historic structure a few weeks ago, spurred Ruth Baker, a board member of the Stevensville Historical Museum, to do a little further research. She went up to the Ravalli County Museum in Hamilton which houses the collection of old valley newspapers in the Miles Romney Room and looked up the July 5, 1901 edition of the Northwest Tribune and discovered there a list of all the items supposedly included in the time capsule. Evidence now suggests that there may be a gold nugget in the old tin box.
It states in the article in the Northwest Tribune, July 5, 1901:
"The following is a list of articles deposited in the corner stone of the Stevensville Training School July 4th, 1901:
• One copy New Testament
• One copy constitution of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Montana
• One copy Epworth Era
• One copy Montana Methodist
• One Badge of the Missionary Conference held at New Orleans, April 26-30, 1901
• One copy School Laws enacted by the 9th Legislative Assembly of Montana
• One copy Rules and Regulations of the State Board of education
• One copy constitution Grand Lodge A.O.U.W.
• One copy constitution Grand Lodge I.O.O.F.
• A part of a copy each of the North West Tribune, Western News, Ravalli Democrat, Ravalli Republican, the Missoulian, The Democrat Messenger,
The I.O.G.T. News, The Anaconda Standard, The Butte Miner, The Butte Inter-Mountain, The Helena Independent, The Montana Record, and The Helena Herald.
• One Gold Nugget from Welcome Gulch
• One Small U.S. Flag
• One copy Constitution of the Modern Woodmen of America
• List of the names of the Charter subscribers of the school
• A short Historical Sketch of the school, from its inception to the present
• One copy of the Commoner
• Coins of the Realm.
Could it be possible? All that stuff in this one little tin box?
We should have the answer to that question in a few weeks, according to Stevensville Historical Museum board member Chris Weatherly.
Weatherly, who was instrumental in alerting the demolition crew to the possible existence of the time capsule, turned it over to experts associated with the Mike Mansfield Memorial Library at the University of Montana following its discovery. Weatherly said that opening of the box and removal of the contents is set to begin in a few weeks.
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By Michael Howell
House Bill 309, a bill that makes changes to the state’s
Stream Access Law, was passed on a 57 to 43 vote last Thursday, February 10, and was transmitted to the Senate where it will be considered by the Senate Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Committee. The bill, which proponents contend simply clarifies the law by more clearly defining what is an irrigation ditch in relation to recreational access, was sponsored by Representative Jeff Welborn, a Republican from Dillon, and sent to the floor by House Agriculture Committee members on a 13 to 8 vote. Opponents of the bill consider it an attack on recreational access that will effectively remove many of Montana’s streams and rivers from public access under the state’s Stream Access Law by expanding the definition of a ditch to include streams and river channels that have irrigation structures on them and carry return irrigation flows.
It would also prohibit recreating on water bodies that flow with a majority of water consisting of return irrigation flows as well as prohibiting recreation on waters that are being diverted to reach the access points of ditches.
Rep. Welborn said on the House floor in defense of the bill that “this is just a simple little water bill about irrigation.” He contended that critics who say it is gutting the stream access law are wrong.
“This is a bill to restore the original intent of the Stream Access Law passed in 1985,” he said. He said the bill was only about private property rights and safety.
The Montana Farm Bureau Federation also came out in strong support of the legislation, stating they agreed with Welborn that the legislation “merely states what the original supporters of the legislation had in mind in 1985, that diverted waters were not accessible for recreation.”
The vote came down mostly along party lines, but Ravalli County legislators were split on the issue. Representatives Ron Ehli and Ed Greef voted with the majority in passing the legislation. Representatives Gary MacLaren and Pat Connell voted against it.
Rep. Ed Greef called the bill one of the more “polarizing” issues at the legislature this term. There was a conflict between the opinion of sportsmen and the opinion of landowners on the issue, he said.
“But as I saw it, it was neither. I didn’t vote against the sportsmen and I didn’t vote for private property,” said Greef. He said the issue went back to a Supreme Court ruling over Mitchell Slough. He said in that case the court made it clear that it was not their position to put definition and clarity into the law, that was the role of the legislature.
Greef said that following the Mitchell Slough ruling a lot of small irrigators were left wondering how the law applied to them.
“This is the clarity those people are asking for so I support it for that reason, not for those other reasons.”
Rep. Ron Ehli said that he and Greef were “on the same page with the issue.” He said the Supreme Court’s Mitchell Slough ruling left it open to the legislature to clarify the law.
“This is not a bill closing access,” he said. “It’s a bill that is clarifying the rights of small irrigators and small landowners that were left feeling threatened by the ruling and asking for more definition.”
Rep. Connell said that he voted against the bill because he thought it was just going to lead to a lot more litigation that would be just as divisive as the Mitchell Slough litigation.
“Trying to re-litigate Mitchell Slough is not a functional way to alleviate the problem,” said Connell. He said that he understood that people needed some clarification and comfort concerning their investments in their irrigation infrastructure. But he does not believe that the current bill provides that clarity and will only lead to more litigation all over the state.
Rep. Gary MacLaren spoke to the Agriculture Committee about the bill.
“I don’t think this bill will solve the problem,” said MacLaren. He said that he had already talked to some proponents and to some opponents of the bill and found two polarized and very different interpretations of the bill.
“It will create more problems than it will solve,” said MacLaren. “I’d rather see a bill better thought out.”
Bob Lane, chief legal counsel for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, is a strong critic of the bill.
“HB 309 almost completely repeals the public’s right to recreate on rivers and streams,” Lane told the House Agriculture Committee. He said the bill did so by making any stream or river a private stream or river where the return flows from irrigation are the majority of the flow, and by privatizing side-channels of braided rivers and streams.
“As written,” he said, “it defines the Bitterroot River as a ditch where recreation is prohibited.” Lane said that most of Montana’s streams and rivers flow with return irrigation waters in the summer.
“HB 309 not only doesn’t work, it just doesn’t make any sense,” said Lane.
Lane said that the current law prohibits recreating in ditches and clearly defines them as “a constructed water conveyance system that is used to divert water for a beneficial use.” He called this a simple, clear, and effective protection for landowner irrigators that has worked well since passage of the law in 1985. Lane, too, believes that the legislation, if adopted, will lead to “endless litigation.” He said the process of creating the bill also failed to include all the stakeholders affected.
“It violates the tradition of inclusion and collaboration that forged the original stream access law in 1985 and later hammered out the terms and conditions of county bridge access in 2009,” said Lane.
Mark Aagenes of Montana Trout Unlimited echoed Lane’s concerns. He said that the losers in the Mitchell Slough case are looking to reverse that decision by expanding the definition of a ditch in Montana law to include streams and river channels. He called it a deceptive bill that presents itself as a simple clarification when in fact it is a substantial attack on the state’s stream access law.
He said that if this bill becomes law the reality is that most of Montana’s streams and many of its river channels will be removed from public recreational access.
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By Michael Howell
As of Monday, February 14, about 35 elk in areas up the East and West Forks of the Bitterroot River had been radio collared and released as part of a study aimed at gathering information that may help in determining the declining cow/calf ratios and population numbers that have been documented. In the end FWP hopes to have 44 adult elk radio collared. General information about the animal’s body condition is also being gathered as well as blood samples to check for disease and pregnancy.
The radio collars are GPS equipped to track the animals and they can detect when an animal has died and emit a mortality signal, in which case FWP tries to locate and recover the device and possibly determine the specific cause of death. The devices are also set to automatically break off after a year. Those devices are also located and retrieved if possible.
FWP biologists hope to use the radio tracking devices to monitor the elk’s migration habits and also to determine where they might be calving. The aim is to locate newborn calves and place ear tag tracking devices in 60 of the calves this spring. Mike Thompson, FWP Region 2 Wildlife Manager, said that the ear tags weigh about the same as seven pennies and do not hamper the young elk at all.
These ear tag tracking devices also send out a mortality signal indicating the animal may be dead because it is not moving over a certain period of time. This will help in investigating the cause of death amongst the elk calves if FWP officials can get to the site in time.
Two wolves from the Divide Creek Pack at the north end of the French Basin were also netted and received radio collars. FWP wildlife biologist Liz Bradley said that they were monitoring wolves in the same general area as the elk to see if they can gather even more information about the interaction of the wolves and the elk in the area.
Not everything goes all right all the time when capturing such large animals as elk and there have been two mortalities in the operation so far, one up the East Fork and one up the West Fork.
“Elk are big and heavy animals,” said Craig Jourdonnais, FWP biologist. “Sometimes they can fall wrong and get hurt in the process.” Aside from potential injury when being netted the animals can also have a bad reaction to the drugs used to dart them, which is an alternative. FWP did have a certified person from Bozeman come in to dart elk on the West Fork Saturday, but today they are back to netting in that area, according to Jourdonnais.
“We are trying to do the netting in deep snow if we can,” said Jourdonnais. “That seems to work better by providing some cushioning.”
Jourdonnais said that unfortunately fatalities are always a part, though not a big part, of the process and the average ranges from about two to three percent. Jourdonnais said that recently, in the Ruby Valley and Bitterroot studies combined, about 138 animals had been processed with only three fatalities. When possible the dead elk are processed and donated to the local food bank.
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Montana's U.S. Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester introduced legislation on February 10 to delist the Northern Rocky Mountain population of the gray wolves in Montana and Idaho from the endangered species list and return those wolves to state management. The Senators also sent a letter to Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar again urging quick action to approve Montana's application to hunt wolves in the West Fork of the Bitterroot. This application is in conjunction with the Senators' request to hold a state-wide gray wolf hunt.
“Montanans don't need D.C. bureaucrats telling us how to manage wolves in our state,” said Baucus. “This common-sense bill will put Montana back in control and restore our successful management plan that allows wolf hunts that protect ranchers and wolves. The debate has gone on long enough. It's time to come together to find a solution, and give ranchers and hunters the lasting certainty they deserve once and for all. In the meantime, it's absolutely crucial for the Department of Interior to move quickly to approve Montana's wolf hunt this year.”
“We need a solution that delists wolves and gets them back under Montana's management—and we need that solution now," said Tester, Chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus. "Montana's management plan was working just fine, and this legislation will return us to that plan and let Montanans start hunting wolves again."
The Baucus-Tester bill would restore management practices as they were before the 2010 court ruling that resulted in the return of the gray wolf to federal management under the Endangered Species Act. Before that court decision, a Fish and Wildlife Service Rule had delisted those portions of the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf population in Montana and Idaho and put the states in charge of managing wolves. The proposed bill codifies that rule, returning the wolf once again to state management and taking it off the endangered species list. The rule also delists gray wolves in portions of Utah, Washington and Oregon.
While pursuing legislation, Baucus has also pressed Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Director Rowan Gould to take action to bring wolves in northern Montana under the same management rules as those in the southern half of the state and to allow all Montana landowners to protect their property from wolves.
Tester, Chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, wrote the bipartisan Wolf Kill Bill, which provides a compensation fund for Montana ranchers who lose livestock to wolf predation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also announced it was one step closer to approving a wolf hunt this year in portions of Idaho and Montana. The FWS issued a draft environmental assessment addressing a potential hunt in Idaho and announced its plans to issue a similar notice within six weeks for Montana. Baucus and Tester's letter to Salazar urges the Secretary to move quickly to expedite this process for Montana.
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Senator Jon Tester and Senator Max Baucus co-signed a letter to President Obama on February 7 urging him to help in their efforts to re-authorize the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Self-determination Act.
Since 1908, a Congressionally approved revenue sharing plan has been in place, which specified that a portion of all revenues from National Forests would be returned to forested counties to support infrastructure and education in these communities. When timber harvests fell in the late 1980s, revenues for the nation’s 780 national forest counties had declined by over 70 percent. In 2000, Congress recognized that the 1908 formula was outdated, and it passed the SRSCS Act of 2000. The program was re-authorized for a year in 2007 and extended in 2008 to run through 2012 in steadily decreasing amounts.
Ravalli County Finance Officer Klarysse Murphy said that the SRSCS Act funds are divided by law and 33 percent of the funds go to the school districts in the county and the other 66 percent goes into the county Road and Bridge Department.
Murphy said that in 2007 and 2008 the county received $208,000 each year earmarked for the Road Improvement Fund under the SRSCS Act. That fund received $1.68 million in 2009. It was reduced to $926,000 in 2010, and fell to $885,000 in 2011. It is slated to be reduced in 2012 to $763,000.
Tester and Baucus asked President Obama to extend the funding in his upcoming budget for the nation.
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