Two brothers, one who lives in Stevensville and the other in Victor, were recently convicted of trespassing after being videotaped fishing in the Union Ditch. The two were also cited for trespassing for walking on the banks of Mitchell Slough as they fished. Although the men pleaded guilty to both charges in Ravalli Justice Court before Judge Jim Bailey last Wednesday, the charges of trespassing on the banks of the slough were dismissed “in the interests of justice and at the request of FWP.” However, the two men, Scott and Patrick Godown, were fined $185 each for trespassing into the Union Ditch. Ten-day jail sentences were suspended but the two were placed on six months probation.

Mitchell Slough was the focus of a controversial lawsuit that was recently settled by a Montana Supreme Court ruling which established that the 310 Law and Stream Access Law apply to the old river channel. Attorneys for some of the landowners along the slough argued that such altered and manipulated waterways should be removed from those laws because they are no longer natural and the laws explicitly apply to “natural” waterbodies. Although District Court Judge Ted Mizner agreed to apply this dictionary definition of “natural” to the slough and remove it from the law’s protection because it was “no longer natural,” a unanimous Supreme Court reversed that ruling last November, declaring that the 310 Law and Stream Access Law do apply to altered and manipulated streams and rivers.

Regional Law Enforcement Officer Jeff Darrah told the Bitterroot Star that it is important for people to know that the recent Supreme Court ruling means that there is public recreational access to Mitchell Slough.

“But if you are going to recreate in or fish in Mitchell Slough you are going to get wet,” said Darrah. He said that it is important for fishermen to know this as well. The law allows fishermen to use the bank of a stream or river up to the ordinary high water mark.

But the problem with Mitchell Slough, according to Darrah, is that it flows steadily at all times of the year. Its flows are controlled in large part by the Tucker Headgate, located at the head of the slough. Therefore, like many true spring creeks, it does not experience the large fluctuations of flow like most streams and rivers that flood in spring.

“In Mitchell Slough,” said Darrah, “the high water mark is pretty much at the water line no matter where you are along the slough.” As a result, he said, if you want to be legal, you’ll probably be standing in the water.

Patrick Godown told the Bitterroot Star that he and his brother just wanted to fish in Mitchell Slough and see what it was like. He said they had no intentions of trespassing.

Godown said that he and his brother read the law about the high water mark and were trying to stay within what they thought was the high water mark.

“But it turns out,” he said, “that in this case the high water mark is wherever the water level is at the time. I’ve learned my lesson now about that.” He said there was no notification posted anywhere that he saw about how this particular stream never overflowed its banks and thus did not really have a high water line on the bank where you could walk.

Asked about how he ended up trespassing in the Union Ditch, Godown said that he and his brother were harassed all along the slough as they were fishing by security people working for the Tucker Crossing Ranch, owned by Charles Schwab. He said the security people videotaped their every move.

He said that he and his brother entered the Union Ditch by mistake trying to avoid the constant harassment. He said that there was no sign declaring it to be a ditch and the slough was full of diverging channels and dams and headgates. He said they just got confused about where they were.

“It would sure help if they just put signs up at the ditches,” he said.

Godown said that, in his opinion, it was Schwab’s ranch manager Roger Raynal who was behind the videotaping program.

“Most people won’t want to go fishing where they are being videotaped and their every move is being documented,” he said. “It would make them uncomfortable. They are putting the pressure on not to let people in there. It’s the kind of pressure that will keep most people away. But my brother and I will be back.”

Godown said that it cost him and his brother $185 each to learn this lesson about fishing the slough.

“But it’s a one time payment,” said Godown. He said that there were streams in other states where you pay that much every time you go fishing. Now that they’ve paid their dues and learned their lesson on Mitchell Slough, he said, it makes sense to go back there. He said the fishing was good.

Roger Raynal, manager of the Tucker Crossing Ranch, declined to comment for this story.

Mack Long, Regional Director of FWP, said that it was a situation that deserved monitoring because there were some landowners along the river that were very adamant about protecting their private property rights.

“It’s their right, and their rights need to be respected,” said Long.

He said that it was important for the public to understand that some spring creeks and other streams and river channels with controlled flows don’t have the kind of high water flood events that most do. In those streams and river channels that do not flood, the ordinary high water mark is going to be pretty much where the water line is.

Road trip! Stevensville friends take off on national road trip

By Michael Howell

It all started with four friends and one dilemma: "what do I want to do with my life?" Fresh out of college and unsure about the career paths in front of them, they were determined to expose themselves to more than just the traditional life roads. They hopped in an old RV, painted it green, and hit the road to talk with inspiring people from all walks of life to find out how they came to do what they love for a living. According to its website, this was the origin of Roadtrip Nation.

And now three friends from Stevensville are about to do the same. And yes, it will be in a green RV.

Today, Roadtrip Nation has evolved into a PBS series, three books, an online community, and a student movement. It sends people on the road who are interested in exploring the world outside their comfort zone, talking with individuals who chose to define their own road in life, and sharing their experiences with the next generation. And now it is sending Liz Agosto, Aaron Curtis, and Autumn O’Brien out to do the same.

The three have been friends for a long time. They graduated from Stevensville High School together in 2003 and moved on to studies at the University of Montana. Agosto graduated with a major in Forensic Anthropology and Archeology. Curtis graduated with a major in Business Marketing and a Minor in Media Arts. O’Brien is still in school. She is currently majoring in Psychology after stints in Journalism, Religious Studies and Media Arts.

All three are ripe for taking a road trip across the nation. They are outgoing and inquisitive young people. They are eager to see the world and to learn. They are standing on the threshold of important life-defining decisions themselves, such as what career to actually embark upon. What to do with all that education?

They tuned into the internet and found that there were a lot of other young people standing on the same threshold. They discovered the website for Roadtrip Nation. And they decided to give it a try. After all, interviewing people who have made those choices and are successful in what they do could be enlightening.

It turns out they had no idea at the time what they were getting into. After passing the first round of the three-round application process, which consisted of questions about themselves, they moved on to round two. This involved making a video interview of themselves.

In a bind because O’Brien was out of town, they made a puppet to play her part and interviewed her on a telephone while the puppet played her part on the video. The O’Brien puppet, unbeknownst to her, was placed in a sack of sugar. O’Brien is a sugar freak. The judges liked it and the trio moved on to round three.

In round three the trio was supposed to do an interview, such as they would be doing on the road trip, with a local person who was successful at doing what they love. The trio interviewed Deby Lackas, Stevensville entrepreneur and president of the Stevensville Main Street Association, and now attribute their triumph in round three to Lackas.

“At first she seems to be a very ordinary person,” said Agosto, “but once we began questioning her, it was obvious that she was a very motivated person and she was following her passions in life.” All three agreed that the interview with Lackas was the clincher.

Once chosen by Roadtrip Nation, the real work began. That was to plan the itinerary. Choose whom to interview and plot the route to be traveled. The trio spent about two and a half months doing this. They used Wikipedia to investigate potential people to interview. The route changed as each person they contacted either agreed to be interviewed or did not.

The final list is impressive and includes a wide variety of professions. There is a lawyer turned yoga instructor, a Nobel Prize winning chemist, the doctor who performed the first face transplant, and UFO investigators. They even asked Oprah Winfrey, but there were scheduling problems.

They contacted over 100 people to come up with the final 30 to be interviewed.

They will start out from Los Angeles and head east to Las Vegas; down to Austin, Texas, by way New Mexico; then to New Orleans; then on to Knoxville, Tenn., Cleveland, Ohio and Braddock, Penn., New York, Washington, D.C., and Norfolk, Va. and finally to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina for a farewell event along with the other two teams that will also have been touring the country.

The episodes featuring the three will air on PBS in the summer of 2010.

The three confessed to feeling a little unprepared for the coming endeavor. But there was no question that they were eager and enthusiastic to give it a try. They said that the community support for their endeavor has been great and they wanted to thank everyone for the gifts and encouragement they offered.

“This is going to be a life changing experience,” said Agosto. “It’s going to open our eyes to the world.”

Vet center mill levy to go to vote

By Michael Howell

The Ravalli County Commissioners agreed on Monday to place a one mill levy on the next election ballot, in June 2010, to support the Valley Veterans Service Center.

The Valley Veterans Service Center is a local volunteer organization dedicated to seeing that the valley’s veterans receive the care and benefits due them following their valued service in the armed forces.

According to VVSC Director Ron Skinner, the effort to form a local veterans service center began about three years ago in response to the needs of local veterans that were not being met by the Montana Veterans Affairs Commission.

The volunteer organization has since incorporated as a tax-exempt organization with one full time employee. It has an office located at 319 North Third Street in Hamilton.

Skinner told the County Commissioners that he did not want to say anything bad about the Montana Veterans Affairs Commission. He said they are a huge agency doing the best they can to deal with an overwhelming problem. The local Veterans Center was born to help fill some of those unmet needs.

Since March, when the group hired its first full time employee, over 600 veterans have contacted the Center looking for help. That would amount to almost 1,800 contacts per year. Skinner told the Commissioners that there are about 5,600 vets in the valley. There are over 109,000 vets in the state, making Montana the second largest in vets per capita in the nation.

Skinner said that last year the center succeeded in bringing in over $1 million in benefits to veterans in the valley. He said that is money that re-circulates in the local economy. He said that this year the VVSC had assisted in bringing in $425,438 in local veterans’ benefits, not counting medical. He said that there were currently about 50 pending claims being handled by the Center.

The center has operated strictly off of donations from the community and grants. Total income this year is expected to reach about $22,000. But expenses are forecast to reach over $34,500. That would leave the center about $12,500 in the red.

“That’s why we are here looking for the opportunity to place a mil levy on the ballot,” said Skinner.

A one mill levy would come close to tripling the Center’s income.

Skinner said that the Center would have no problem spending the added revenue. He said another pert time employee was sorely needed as well as more office space. Right now the Center may conduct videocast interviews with federal agencies from their office in Hamilton and speed up the response time of the federal and state agencies involved with veterans affairs.

They found an appreciative ear in Commission Chair Carlotta Grandstaff who said her own husband spent close to eight and a half years trying to get the help he needed from the system. She said the system was not user-friendly and was not easily understood by ordinary people. She said veterans really needed a local advocate to help them through the system.

Commissioner Jim Rokosch said that it would not be enough to simply put this on the ballot. He said the issue needs an advocate to educate the public to the need and to help usher the effort through the elections.

Commissioner J.R. Iman said that the Center needed to provide the public with a detailed picture of the veterans’ needs, how they are not being met by established services and how the money raised by a mill levy would be spent.

The Valley Veterans Service Center, along with the Vietnam Veterans of America #938 and American Legion Post #94, will be sponsoring the fourth annual Veterans Stand Down in Hamilton on August 22 at the National Guard Armory at 910 W. Main St.

The Veterans Stand Down is an event where close to $277,000 worth of excess goods has been distributed to veterans in the past. Veterans may come in and get free medical screening, free dental screening, free haircuts, free lunch, free blood pressure monitoring, free clothing and blankets, free counseling and benefits assistance and visit with a medical health care enrollment coordinator as well as a homeless veteran representative.

Open house set for subdivision regs

The Ravalli County Planning Department will host a second public open house on its subdivision regulation revision project on July 6.

On June 13, 2009, the Planning Department hosted a public open house aimed at gathering public comment on the subdivision regulation revision project. Approximately 40 people attended the event and provided comments on everything from how to improve the subdivision review process to what types of developments should install pedestrian facilities.

Based on the turnout of the first event, the planning staff has decided to schedule a second open house for Monday, July 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Florence School Old Gym. The goal of holding a second open house is to gather further preliminary public input that will be utilized to help guide the Planning Department when creating a first draft of revised subdivision regulations. Planning staff has also posted the visuals used at the open house on the Planning Department’s website ( HYPERLINK "http://www.ravallicounty.mt.gov/planning/SRR.htm" http://www.ravallicounty.mt.gov/planning/SRR.htm) for those who cannot attend the event but wish to participate at this early stage of the project. In addition to completing questionnaires created by the Planning Department to garner feedback on specific topics, written public comments on all aspects of the current subdivision regulations will also be accepted.

In conjunction with gathering input from the open houses, the planning staff has spent the past few months meeting with numerous public and private agencies and entities that have been identified as being stakeholders in the subdivision review process, and has tasked the Planning Board Subdivision Regulation Revision Subcommittee with diagnosing the current set of regulations. Results from the public open houses, agency meetings, and the Planning Board Subcommittee report will be summarized in a report the Planning Department hopes to release by mid to late July. The summary report will provide Planning Staff’s recommendations for moving forward with the project and request the Board of County Commissioners to determine what direction the project should take.

More information is available by contacting the Ravalli County Planning Department: call 375-6530, e-mail planning@ravallicounty.mt.gov, or visit http://www.ravallicounty.mt.gov/planning.

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