Sports

Huskies beat Bulldogs in state championship

Story and Photos by Porter Counts / Valley Journal

ST. IGNATIUS — The Mission Bulldogs hosted the Belt Huskies in the Montana Eight-Man football state championship on Saturday, Nov. 19, losing 52-24. Both teams came into the championship game undefeated. This was Mission’s first football championship game since 1948 and Belt’s first since 1994, with both teams looking to write themselves into the history books.

On a frigid afternoon, both teams struggled getting their respective offenses going with the hard, slick field and cold air affecting both the pass and run games. The Bulldogs scored the first and only points of the first quarter through their tough defensive work. Kenny Ness blocked a Belt punt and it was recovered by Canyon Sargent who ran it back for a touchdown.

In the second quarter, both teams scored two touchdowns with the Huskies converting both two point conversions and the Bulldogs missing out on both of theirs. Mission quarterback Kellen McClure through one of his two touchdown passes to Ness after the Huskies’ Garret Metrione had rushed for a one yard touchdown, making the score 12-8. After a 35-yard rushing touchdown from Belts’ Jeremy Nebel, the Bulldogs responded on the defensive end through Chance Bockmans picksix, ending the first half up 18-14.

After the break, the Huskies’ Metrione scored both the third quarters touchdowns to put Belt up 30-18. The Bulldogs scored a beautiful 40-yard pass from McClure to Ness to give Mission High a bit of hope for a big comeback, but the Huskies were not going to be denied their first title in almost 30 years. Metrione rushed for his fourth touchdown of the day and Ethan Triplett ran for two of his own to finish the game 5224.

“We knew we were in a tough fight, and they came to play,” said Belt head coach Matt Triplett. “Hats off to those guys for playing hard. We threw a couple of picks and they were dropping in that zone really hard, so we thought we could just pound the ball a little bit and maybe break one, and the guys just got it done.”

see more photos at valleyjournal.net

News from the Ronan Hall of Fame Committee

RONAN — The Ronan Hall of Fame Committee is pleased to announce the members of the second class to be inducted into the School District #30/Ronan Hall of Fame. The new members will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Ronan Community Center.

In the category of “Distinguished Athlete,” Bob Camel and Monica VanMaanen have been selected. Camel was a three-sport star for the Chiefs and a 1978 graduate. Camel was named to All-state teams in football and basketball and was a State Champion in the 180-yard low hurdles. VanMaanen, a 1991 grad, competed in cross-country, girls’ basketball, volleyball, and track for the Maidens. She was crowned a State Champion as an individual eight times in the sprints and was a member of the State Champion 1600-meter relay team.

Crystal Pitts was chosen as a “Distinguished Coach or Staff Member.” Pitts was the first woman in Montana hired as the head coach of both boys’ and girls’ high school track programs. She spent 33 years coaching in the track program, 24 years as head coach.

Gary Hughes, a 1960 RHS graduate, was selected as a “Distinguished Alumni.” Hughes worked from 1966 to 2000 for the University of Montana coordinating ticket sales and athletic events including Montana High School Association championship competitions. He became just the third-ever recipient of the Grizzly Lifetime Honors Award in 2021 and was inducted into the Grizzly Hall of Fame.

Dr. Joe McDonald was selected to be inducted as a “Distinguished Community Contributor.” McDonald came to Ronan as high school principal in 1968 before leaving to start Salish Kootenai College in 1977. The college now has an enrollment of over 600 students and 70 full-time faculty members.

The 1974 Class A State Champion football team will be inducted as a “Distinguished Team.” The team finished the season with a 10-0 record and defeated Glasgow in the State Championship title game.

More detailed information related to the accomplishments of these inductees will soon be available on the Hall of Fame website at: ronanhof.touchpros.com

Forest Service unveils Crazy Mountains land swap proposal

If approved, the East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange would consolidate checkerboard land in the Crazies and execute a smaller land swap in the Big Sky area.

By Amanda Eggert Montana Free Press

MONTANA — More than a year after the Crazy Mountain Access Project group put a land swap proposal before the Custer Gallatin National Forest, the public has an opportunity to comment on the deal, which seeks to consolidate checkerboard land in the Crazy Mountains.

If the swap is approved, the Forest Service will acquire 6,430 acres of private land in exchange for 4,135 acres of federal land. Most of the land that would change ownership is in the Crazy Mountains, an area with a complicated ownership pattern where access to a handful of trails historically managed by the Forest Service has become contentious and uncertain. The proposal also involves about 1,000 acres of land near Eglise Peak in the Big Sky area and the transfer of a section of land that includes Smeller Lake from Crazy Mountain Ranch to the Forest Service.

The proposal was initiated by the Yellowstone Club, which has long sought access to Forest Service property adjacent to its existing holdings in order to expand its expert ski offerings. The Yellowstone Club started working with landowners in the Crazies in 2019 to put together a land swap package that would address some areas the Forest Service had identified as being high priorities for that kind of resource-intensive real estate transaction. Last July, the Crazy Mountain Access Project submitted a proposal to the Forest Service for review.

If the East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange goes through, the Yellowstone Club will swap 605 acres of its property for 500 acres of Forest Service land. Proponents of the swap would also pay for the construction of a new Forest Service trail, Sweet Trunk Trail #274, located primarily on federal land along the east side of the Crazies to address contested access on the East Trunk Trail, which the Forest Service would relinquish claims to.

Members of the Crazy Mountain Access Project urged support for the project and touted the process that’s brought the Forest Service to this point.

“The East Crazy (Inspiration Divide) Land Exchange is a positive path forward to solving the access issues that have plagued this region for decades,” Melville rancher and CMAP member Nathan Anderson said in a Nov. 9 release about the proposal. “It is the end result of many years of collaborative, grassroots efforts between the Forest Service, land owners, recreational and conservation communities. The dialogue and trust that has been created between these entities throughout this process has been invaluable and sets a wonderful example for future projects.”

Brad Wilson, who founded Friends of the Crazy Mountains, a different group focused on maintaining access to historical trails in the area, disputed that characterization in a Nov. 15 conversation with Montana Free Press.

“This is all about Tom Glass and the Yellowstone Club. These are the guys that presented the proposal,” Wilson said, referencing one of the two consultants who coordinated meetings of the Crazy Mountain Access Project and helped wrangle brass tacks of the proposal such as grazing and water rights and land deeds. “This is not a citizen’s proposal.” Glass is the founder of Western Land Group, the firm hired by the Yellowstone Club to work on the swap.

Wilson said years of working on ranches in the range has given him intimate knowledge of the sections being swapped. As proposed, the exchange won’t be a good deal for members of the public, he said. He described the higher-elevation parcels the Forest Service would acquire along the east side of the Crazies as “just shale rock and ice,” while the lowlands that will enter into private ownership offer elk habitat and support public hunting opportunities. The lowland parcels also offer more desirable grazing land for private landowners with livestock operations, Wilson said.

Wilson’s concerns about elk habitat were echoed at a Forest Service meeting in Bozeman on Nov. 15 attended by approximately 100 people, plus another 20 or 30 who tuned in online.

One Bozeman resident in attendance described the process of resolving issues inherent in the 150-year-old checkerboard ownership framework as a “nightmare” and said he applauded the Forest Service’s

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Court order changes wolf hunting season, effective immediately

News from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks

HELENA – On Tuesday, a District Court in Lewis and Clark County issued a temporary restraining order impacting some of Montana’s wolf hunting and trapping regulations. The changes go into effect immediately.

The changes outlined in the temporary restraining order are as follows:

Reinstitutes wolf management units (WMU) 110, 313, and 316 as they existed in the 2020 wolf regulations. WMU 110 borders Glacier National Park and WMUs 313 and 316 are north of Yellowstone National Park

Reinstitutes the quotas for WMU 110, 313, 316 as they existed in the 2020 wolf regulations, which are two wolves in WMU 110 and one wolf each in WMU 313 and 316. Currently, one wolf has been harvested in WMU 313 and no wolves have been harvested in WMU 316 and 110. Wolf hunting and trapping in WMU 313 is now closed.

Restricts all hunters and trappers to harvesting five wolves total per person, per season.

Prohibits the use of snares as a legal method of take for trapping wolves.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will make legal arguments in this case at a hearing scheduled for Nov. 28. The court has set the temporary restraining order to expire on Nov. 29.

“We have a healthy and stable population of wolves in Montana,” said FWP Director Hank Worsech. “We’ve proven we can manage wolves across the state and will continue to do so. We will comply with the judge’s order and look forward to the opportunity to defend good science and management strategies.”

Energy Share announces help for energy bills

News from Energy Share of Montana

MONTANA — It is no secret that the cost of living is significantly higher than it was a year ago. Things are tough out there for a lot of people. If you or someone you know is struggling to pay their home energy bill, please contact Community Action Partnership of NW Montana (CAPNM) at 406-758-5433 or 1-800-344-5979. You can also visit their website at www.capnm. net. Help is available in various forms such as emergency bill assistance through Energy Share of Montana or LIHEAP (formerly called LIEAP). CAPNM handles applications for both programs.

Energy Share is for people who are facing a no-heat situation and have no resources to pay the bill themselves. It is important to note that Energy Share assistance is situationally-based, not income-based. Applications are considered on a case-by-case basis and reviewed individually.

Energy Share is privately funded. Assistance is made possible through the generous donations of individuals, utility companies, electric cooperatives, the propane industry, and large electric users across the state.

If you’re in a position to contribute, you can do so by mailing a check to Energy Share, PO Box 5959, Helena, MT 59604 or donate online at www. energysharet.com/ donate-now. Energy Share is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations are tax deductible, and they are directed to be used first in the area from which they came. One hundred percent of your donation will be used to help someone in need.

Last but not least, please remember that it is hard to ask for help. If you know someone who really should be on the receiving end of one of these programs but is hesitant to ask, please come alongside them as they reach out for assistance. In Montana, neighbors help neighbors and that’s what Energy Share is all about.

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efforts to resolve issues arising from those complexities. He added that he has concerns about lower-elevation parcels on the eastern side of the range being removed from public ownership.

“On the face of it, it looks like a good deal. What I have concerns about is that you’re giving up lower-elevation wintering grounds for elk in exchange for high-elevation [parcels],” he said.

Custer Gallatin National Forest Wildlife Program Manager Josh Hemenway acknowledged the Forest Service’s loss of elk winter range presented by the proposal, but noted that the higher-elevation parcels entering into Forest Service ownership are “beneficial for a number of other species,” a likely reference to snow-dependent animals such as Canada lynx and wolverine as well as ungulates like mountain goats adept at navigating steep, rocky terrain.

Meeting attendees also flagged concerns about trail maintenance and snowmobile access along the proposed reroute of the Inspiration Divide trail and asked the Forest Service whether the traded parcels in the Crazies are equivalent in terms of streams and wetlands.

Forest Service fish biologist Clint Sestrich responded that the agency is working through available data on area wetlands in the areas proposed for exchange to pair with onthe-ground observations the agency hopes to get next summer in order to ensure there is no clear deficit.

Kerry White, a motorized-use advocate who has previously served in the Montana House of Representatives, voiced concerns that snowmobile access along the Big Sky portion of the exchange involving the Eglise Rock Overlook Trail would be diminished if the swap goes through.

“The [environmental assessment] doesn’t address the impact to winter use at all,” he said, pointing out a section of the 59-page proposal noting that, even with an easement through private sections, the proposal’s reroute of Eglise Rock Overlook “may create complicated management issues particularly in winter as the trail will be challenging to follow in the snow.”

“I think we’re setting up for an enforcement issue on snowmobiling in Third Yellow Mule,” he said, referring to a drainage near the two trails that would be impacted by the Big Sky portion of the swap.

In an emailed statement, a representative from the Yellowstone Club said the exchange would route the Inspiration Divide trail directly through national forest, an improvement on the trail’s current route, two miles of which cross property held by the Yellowstone Club. He also said the swap involving parcels in Big Sky will be a net win for public recreationists, who stand to gain improved access to lower-elevation terrain in exchange for a steeper parcel.

Bozeman-based Public Land Water Access Association Executive Director Drewery Hanes asked whether the Forest Service had thoroughly explored maintenance and ownership records for Rein Lane (formerly Sweetgrass Road) leading into Sweet-

see page 20

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grass Canyon to investigate the viability of a prescriptive easement claim.

“We just have concerns about ceding so much public access without doing due diligence, because that’s obviously very hard to walk back,” she said.

Hanes also voiced concern that the swap would effectively close one public trailhead along the eastern side of the Crazy Mountains, concentrating recreational traffic and leading to a situation in which horses or other accommodations would be required for older and less fit individuals to enjoy the trail.

Custer Gallatin Forest Supervisor Mary Erickson replied that the Forest Service doesn’t make a claim to Rein Lane and described the Forest Service’s history with Sweetgrass Trail as “mixed” and involving “many, many decades or permissive use.”

The issue of permissive use plays an important role in determining whether a party to an easement dispute can assert prescriptive rights to a road or trail. Per Montana law, if use is permissive — meaning members of the public obtain landowner permission or sign in before using the route — federal land managers have a much weaker claim for the existence of a prescriptive easement if they take the matter to court. (Absent a written or recorded easement, the only way for a party to definitively establish a prescriptive easement is to bring the matter before a judge, who will examine maintenance, use and title records.)

In her introduction to the swap proposal, Erickson described the prospect of securing prescriptive easements in a courtroom as a “long, uncertain process,” and one that the Forest Service uses only as a “tool of last resort.”

Erickson said land exchange proponents have indicated they will continue working toward conservation easements for the sections of Forest Service land that would enter into private ownership. Switchback Ranch, one of six landowners in the Crazy Mountains trading land as part of the swap, has agreed to put one section of acquired land into a conservation easement in coordination with Helena-based nonprofit land trust Montana Land Reliance as part of the swap. Switchback Ranch has also agreed to allow tribal access to Crazy Peak to Crow tribal members, in recognition of the important role the range has played in spiritual and cultural traditions of the Crow people.

Asked whether the Forest Service would relinquish any claims on Sweetgrass Trail, a historical trail that’s appeared on Forest Service maps for decades, Erickson said it would. She said the landowner of the pertinent parcel has indicated they will continue to allow permissive use on Sweetgrass Trail, but added that such an arrangement has not been formally codified in the proposal.

Sweetgrass is one of four trails that inspired a lawsuit between public access advocates and the Forest Service in 2019. Plaintiffs in that suit, including Friends of the Crazy Mountains and the Montana chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, argued that the Forest Service has succumbed to pressure from politically powerful landowners over the past several years in its decision to walk back earlier attempts to defend access to those trails by removing threatening signs and locked gates.

Earlier this year, federal judges in Billings sided with the Forest Service in their determination that the Forest Service was within its discretionary authority to alter its approach to managing historical trails. The plaintiffs appealed that ruling, and the parties are currently exploring mediation, according to Matthew Bishop, the attorney representing the plaintiffs.

In the Nov. 15 meeting, Erickson acknowledged both the enormity of the proposal the Forest Service is considering and its inherent trade-offs.

“They’re really a big deal. They’re long-term commitments of resources, long-term choices that affect people and users and habitat forever, really — for decades to come,” she said. “Take the time, read the maps, look at the documents.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 17 comments on the proposal had been submitted through the agency’s online portal. The comment period closes Dec. 23.

Disclosure: MTFP Reporter Amanda Eggert is married to John Meyer, executive director of Cottonwood Environmental Law Center, which is involved in unrelated litigation against the Yellowstone Club. Meyer did not contribute to the reporting or writing of this story.

CHRIS BOYER / KESTREL AERIA PHOTO

The Crazy Mountains, viewed to the north-northwest over the West Fork of Duck Creek.

Polson

By Pete Mangels for the

Valley Journal

POLSON — I know that this article is written a week in advance of Thanksgiving, but I can safely tell you that I will overeat. I can also tell you that pumpkin spice is out, eggnog is in, and I still have leaves to rake as soon as the snow melts in March.

See’s Candy has arrived. A great holiday gift. Limited supply. Hoard them.

ACTIVITIES: All activities are open to all. Plan a party at the center.

Bowling: Fun league, pay by the day - non-sanctioned, no-tap, Tuesdays, 1 p.m. weekly

Bingo: Fridays, 7 p.m. “Playing Card” bingo first Wednesday and third Thursday

Exercise for mobility: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 10:30 –11:30 a.m.

Pinochle: Thursdays, 12:30 –3 p.m. - earlier or later if you wish

Bridge: Tuesdays and Fridays - open for all - 12:30 p.m.

Pool: open table from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. - weekdays

Veterans’ Rep: first Friday, Dec. 2, and third Tuesday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m.-noon

MENU (subject to change): Sit-down, takeout, or delivery, only $5 from 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

— Thursdays, Dec. 24: Thanksgiving Day - closed until Monday - A special thanks to the employees, officers, and volunteers serving the seniors in our community — Friday, Nov. 25: closed — Monday, Nov. 28: turkey/rice soup, focaccia, green salad, cinnamon apple sauce — Tuesday, Nov. 29: beef stroganoff, pasta, mixed veggies, coleslaw, cookies — Wednesday, Nov. 30: chicken enchiladas, refried beans, salsa, corn salad, fruit crisp — Thursday, Dec. 1: pork chop, rice, gravy, green beans, Jell-O, pound cake — Friday, Dec. 2: fish, mac ‘n cheese, peas, pickled beets, cheesecake bars

The Polson Senior Center is open from 8 a.m.-3p.m. on weekdays. Lunch is available from 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. weekdays. Call: 406883-4735, Email: polsonseniorcenter@gmail. com; mail or visit us at 504 Third Ave. E.

St. Ignatius

By Barb Plouffe for the

Valley Journal

St. Ignatius Senior Center wishes you all a Happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful time with family and friends. — Friday, Nov. 18:- lunch at noon- Korean beef, rice, veggies, fruit, brownies — Thanksgiving dinner will be sent to Meals On Wheels clients. — Tuesday, Nov. 22: lunch at noon - creamy Tuscan chicken with pasta, veggies, fruit, French bread, cookies — Friday, Nov. 25: We will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

We will start the cooking classes by Havilah Burton, CSKT Extension Office, on Nov. 15. The classes will be every Tuesday for the next six weeks through Dec. 20. Call 406-883-2865 or visit: buyeatlivebetter.org for more information.

Bingo will be played on Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. Come enjoy some fun and stay warm.

The senior citizen members will be helping with the Tree Lighting event at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 3.

They will also have a spot at the Community Bazaar at the St. Ignatius School Gym on Dec. 10.

Bonnie Kiser has Gentle Yoga on Wednesday afternoons at 1 p.m. If you interested, please call Bonnie Kiser at 4062253-0171. Her rates are five sessions for $60.

Our St. Ignatius Senior Center is open to people renting it. If you are interested, please call 406-7454462 and leave a message. We will call you back with the information you need.

We hope you enjoy the Thanksgiving week.

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