Campground and Trails Remain Closed
Rain Helps Firefighters Close in on Lindbergh Lake Fire
CONDON - Three days after a wildland fire broke out at Lindbergh Lake firefighters have got it 60-percent contained.
The Lindbergh Lake Fire was reported at one in the afternoon on the 21st, the cause of the fire remains under investigation. The Lindbergh Lake Campground and all trails to Crystal Lake remain closed as firefighters hand dig the fire line on the steep slopes.
Three parties reach tentative agreement
Legal Struggle Over; Kootenai Estates for Sale
Erik Torgerson power washes logs on the Russell house at the Kootenai Lodge Estates on Swan Lake. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
After three years of legal wrangling, the lawsuit over the Kootenai Lodge Estates, a development at the northern tip of Swan Lake, appears to have been settled.
The Swan Lakers, a community group opposing the 42-acre subdivision, and the defendants, Florida-based developer, the Milhous Group and Lake County, confirmed last week that a general settlement had been reached. The three parties declined to give specifics until the agreement is finalized, likely in the next week.
Heavy Winds Have Their Own Fan Club
Wind Junkies
Ozzie Lenzsch of Whitefish drove down to Bigfork to take a spin on his kite, "I woke up this morning," said Lenzsch, "saw the wind warning on the news and thought; 'well, I'm going kite boarding today." - Katrin Frye for the Beacon
Bigfork aims to become ‘greenest little village in the state’
Promoting Recycling, While Luring Cyclists
Each week the Echo Lake Café used to fill two dumpsters with trash. Bob and Christi Young, who own and run the café, are now down to one dumpster and one cardboard recycling bin. Bob Young says just about everything they get, from oranges to napkins, comes in cardboard, and half their dumpster would fill up with the flattened boxes.
[read more]The Skeeter Scourge
Flathead Suffers From Five Years Worth of Mosquitoes at Once
Jacqueline Hadorn uses a small cup to collect samples of mosquito larvae and pupae from a section of standing water off Auction Road south of Kalispell. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
A mosquito swarm has descended on the Flathead, the likes of which hasn’t been seen in years. Arriving with the warm weather, the gossamer-winged pests have burdened every barbecue with their buzzing bloodlust. The attack of the “skeeters” forces those who wish to enjoy the long summer evenings to choose between fleeing indoors or suffering the red, itching bites left in the wake of these irritating insects.
Related: Surviving the Swarm
FWP Commission to Hear Update on Study
Purifying the South Fork Drainage’s Fishery
Lakes and trails in the Jewel Basin Hiking Area are just starting to open up, enabling fisheries biologists to take their first samples from lakes poisoned last fall.
“It was encouraging,” says Fish Wildlife and Parks biologist Matt Boyer, “to see, from our samples, life coming back.”
Boyer and his colleagues are taking samples to survey the insect, plankton, and amphibian life in Black and Blackfoot lakes.
Their work is part of the South Fork Westslope Cutthroat Trout Project (WCT). The two lakes were poisoned with rotenone last fall as part of a 10-year effort to rid the South Fork Drainage of hybridized cutthroat trout
The Orchard at Flathead Lake
An Organic Twist on a Traditional Crop
Heidi Johnson and Gary Johnson stroll through their cherry orchard overlooking Flathead Lake in Yellow Bay. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
YELLOW BAY – When Gary Johnson spotted a black bear in one of his family’s cherry trees, he first pointed it out to his wife Heidi and their three kids so they could see it. But when the bear wouldn’t leave, Gary had to get out the hose and chase it back into the woods. The cherries are their livelihoods, and though the Johnsons would like to live as harmoniously with the bears as possible, broken branches leaves them little choice.
[read more]With a Son in Iraq, Bigfork Mother Organizes Donations for Troops
July Fourth Guide: The Homefront
Bigfork resident Kim Jones started the local Adopt-A-Soldier program for her son Todd Jones' HHC 4th Brigade in Iraq. - Lido Vizzutti/Flathead Beacon
BIGFORK – Kim Jones can tell you exactly what time it is in Kalsu, Iraq. It’s easy, she says. Subtract three hours from whatever time it is here in Montana, then flip it from a.m. to p.m. or vice versa. So on a recent day around noon, she knew it was 9 p.m. in Kalsu, and that one hour later, her son, Todd, would begin his 12-hour overnight shift as a soldier in the 4th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division.
Todd, 23, is a member of the brigade’s “Headquarters Headquarters Company,” or HHC, where he operates computer systems that manage the base’s security in Kalsu, 45 minutes southwest of Baghdad.
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