News briefs, Aug. 12

Juneau announces student loan help for teachers

POLSON — Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau announced Aug. 5 that Montana is providing student loan repayment help to 163 teachers as an incentive to recruit teachers in needed fields to rural areas. The 163 quality educators who received loan repayment represent 125 different schools and eight special education cooperatives including K. William Harvey Elementary and Charlo Public Schools, St. Ignatius School District #28, St. Ignatius Middle and High Schools, Polson Public Schools, Pablo Elementary and Ronan High School.

The teachers, selected from about 500 applicants, will get student loan repayment assistance of up to $3,000 a year for the next four years for a total of up to $12,000.

“Montana has some of the best teachers in the nation,” said Juneau. “It is important that we do what we can in this economy to keep good teachers here in rural schools, especially in areas like technical and special education, which are difficult to fill.”

Recipients covered identified academic subject areas with identified teacher shortages including: career and technical education, music, special education, mathematics, speech/language pathologist, science, world languages, school counselor, library media and art. The greatest number of loan repayment assistance was given to special education teachers with 55 awardees and career and technical education teachers with 38 awardees.

-Courtesy of Jessica Rhoades

West Swan Valley conservation project proposal

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) has written a draft environmental assessment (EA) for the proposed West Swan Valley Conservation Project, located about seven miles south of Swan Lake in Lake County within the east half of the Swan River State Forest.

FWP proposes to secure permanent conservation management on up to 9,500 acres of important fish and wildlife habitat on land currently owned by Plum Creek Timber Company. FWP is considering three alternative methods to achieve this outcome, including the purchase of a conservation easement, purchase of fee-title ownership, or a combination of conservation easement and fee-title ownership, as well as no action.

The public comment period for this draft EA runs through 5 p.m. on Sept. 7. A public meeting is scheduled at 7 p.m. on Aug. 19 at the Swan Lake Community Center, located behind the Swan Lake Fire Hall just south of mile marker 71 in the town of Swan Lake.

Copies of this draft are available on the FWP website at www.fwp.mt.gov under Recent Public Notices; also at FWP Region One office, 490 N. Meridian Rd., Kalispell; Montana State Library, Helena; Flathead County Libraries in Kalispell and Bigfork; Seeley Lake Public Library, Seeley Lake; Polson City Library, Polson; Missoula County Library, Missoula; Swan Lake Library, Swan Lake; Swan Ecosystem Center, Condon.

Please direct written comments to Nancy Ivy, FWP, 490 N Meridian Road, Kalispell, MT 59901 or e-mail to nivy@mt.gov. 

-Courtesy of Nancy Ivy

Mollman Pass Trail closed

The Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation has implemented a temporary closure to all human use for the entire 3.5 miles of the Mollman Pass Trail in the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness, also known as the Mollman Lake trail. On Aug. 9, Tribal Game Wardens received a report of two dead horses off the trail there. Mollman Lake Trail is located east of Kicking Horse Job Corp Center and southeast of Ronan.

The closure will protect wildlife that may be in the area from potential human/bear conflicts. 

“This type of closure is common for all trails in the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness when there is a report of a dead horse near the trail,” Dale Becker, Tribal Wildlife Program Manager, said.

This closure is to protect both people and bears from potential human/bear conflicts and will remain in effect until an investigation has been completed.

Visitors to the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness can contact the Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation for the most current information regarding bear activity in the Mollman area.

For additional information on the closure contact Germaine White, Information and Education Specialist or Pablo Espinoza, Chief of Tribal Game Wardens at 883-2888.

-Courtesy of Germaine White