Outdoors News
Lake volunteers
The Northwest Montana Lakes Volunteer Monitoring Network is looking for lake property owners and/or homeowners, summer cabin owners, recreationists and other people interested in becoming lake monitors. There are 41 lakes in the program. Volunteers will receive training and equipment to assist in data collection but need their own boat. To learn more visit online at www.nwmtlvmn.org or call the Whitefish Lake Institute at 862-4327 or e-mail josh@whitefishlake.org.
Firewood cutting
The Hungry Horse Ranger District will open sections of the west-side Hungry Horse Reservoir Road for firewood cutting and gathering for about 12 miles from the dam to Lid Creek from May 26 through June 26. Gathering may still be restricted in areas clearly signed along the road. Permits cost $20 for four cords. For more information, call 387-3800 or visit online at www.fs.usda.gov/detail/flathead/passes-permits.
Outdoor classes
The Glacier Institute will kick off its 32nd summer by offering many educational courses and camps in Glacier National Park. Janet Paul Bones will lead "Spring Wildflowers" on June 12, Steve Wirt will lead "Orchids - Glacier's Precious Beauties" on June 13, and photographer Tom Ulrich will lead "Glacier Up Close: Macrophotography" also on June 13. A course on the common loon will be offered on June 14, and the "Montana Master Naturalist Course" multi-day residential workshop will take place on June 12-16. For more information, visit online at www.glacierinstitute.org or e-mail register@glacierinstitute.org.
Fire lookouts
The Forest Fire Lookout Association will host Jeanne Kellar Beaty, author of the "Lookout Wife" at the Belton Chalet in West Glacier on Saturday, June 27, from 6 to 10 p.m. Published in 1953, "Lookout Wife" is about Beaty's experiences staffing lookouts with her husband Chip on the Salmon National Forest in 1949 1950. The event is a fundraiser for the FFLA. Raffle tickets for the "Standing Watch" giclÈe are two for $5 or five for $10.
Alpine wetlands talk
Climate warming in Glacier National Park is causing extensive loss of glaciers and snowpack. Any potential shifts in hydrologic processes could impact wetland vegetation. Cristina McKernan, recent graduate student at Colorado State University, will discuss how alpine riparian wetland vegetation may respond to changes in stream flow and geomorphic processes caused by glacial recession in a talk Thursday at noon at the Glacier Park community building. The talk is free and open to the public.