Simon’s Weekly Weather
NorthWest Montana Regional Forecast
Issued Sunday July 31, 2022 – 8:20 P.M. MDT
Wednesday, Aug 3
Mostly sunny, locally breezy and a little cooler. Lows in the mid 40s to mid 50s except mid 60s on slopes and hillsides with upper 50s around 5000 feet. Highs in the mid 80s to lower 90s with upper 60s around 5000 feet.
Thursday & Friday, Aug 4 & 5
Partly cloudy and seasonal with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 40s to mid 50s except mid 60s on slopes and hillsides with mid 50s around 5000 feet. Highs in the 80s to near 90 with mid 60s around 5000 feet.
Friday, Aug 6
Dry and very hot. Lows in the mid 50s to mid 60s except mid to upper 70s on slopes and hillsides with upper 60s around 5000 feet. Highs in the mid 90s to 104 with lower 80s around 5000 feet.
Saturday & Sunday, Aug 7 & 8
Not as hot with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Locally breezy to windy each afternoon. Lows in the lower 50s to lower 60s except near 70 on slopes and hillsides with lower 60s around 5000 feet. Highs in the upper 80s to upper 90s with mid 70s around 5000 feet.
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Book of the Week
“Long Live the Pumpkin Queen By Shea Ernshaw
Sally Skellington is the official, newly-minted Pumpkin Queen after a whirlwind courtship with her true love, Jack, who Sally adores with every inch of her fabric seams – if only she could say the same for her new role as Queen of Halloween Town.
Movie of the Week
Luck
Suddenly finding herself in the never before seen Land of Luck, Sam Greenfield, the unluckiest person in the world, must unite with the magical creatures there to turn her luck around.
Montana Gas Price Update
As of Monday, July 25—
Montana gas prices have fallen by 16.7 cents in the past week, averaging $4.57/g today, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 615 stations in Montana. Gas prices in Montana are 37.0 cents lower than a month ago and stand $1.36/g higher than a year ago.
Courtesy of GasBuddy.com
Recipe of the Week – Basic Homemade Bread
Ingredients:
1 pkg. (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
3 TBSP. plus 1/2 TSP. sugar
2 1/4 C. warm water
1 TBSP. salt
6 1/4 C. bread flour
2 TBSP. canola oil
Directions:
1.) In large bowl, dissolve yeast, 1/2 TSP. sugar in warm water; let stand until bubbles form. Whisk remaining sugar, salt, 3 C. flour. Stir in remaining flour, 1/2 C. at a time to form dough.
2.) Turn on a floured surface; knead until smooth, 8-10 min. Place in greased bowl, turn to grease top, cover and let rise 1 1/2-2 hrs.
3.) Punch dough down, turn onto lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape each into loaf. Place each in greased loaf pan, cover, let rise 1-1 1/2 hrs.
4.) Bake at 375 until golden brown. 3.-35 min. Cool on wire rack.
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Obtain a generic Employment Application by contacting Job Service Libby -417 Mineral Avenue, Ste 4 LibbyJSC@mt.gov. Submit completed applications to Job Service Libby using any of the above methods.
406-293-6282
Response to Lincoln County commissioners’ opinion on the Proposed Black Ram Timber Sale
Submitted by Rick Bass
To read the Lincoln County commissioners’ opinion on the Kootenai National Forest’s (KNF) proposed Black Ram timber sale in the midst of an extreme heat category, no longer classified as a “wave” but simply the world’s new weather, is to enter into deep cognitive dissonance. The reasons the commissioners list for their support of the project include fuels reduction, grizzly bear recovery, a wildland-urban (WUI) focus, and most preposterous, aid in the fight against climate change.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Black Ram is not a WUI fuels project. The vast majority of proposed units lie far beyond even the generalized interpretations of the WUI. Black Ram is a clearcut-heavy (over 2000 acres) timber project that targets old and mature timber far in the backcountry. The heart of the project is located on the Canadian border far from human habitation, in a self-sustaining forest of centuries-immense old spruce, larch, cedar, hemlock and white pine, large portions of which—according to the KNF’s own fire maps—have no fire history. It is these old trees, and others like it, slated for “regeneration harvests”–effectively, clearcuts– that retain the most carbon in the forest, as well as sequestering new carbon faster than do smaller trees. And bizarrely, the USFS acknowledges that the proposed replanting of this forest will result in 80-90% regeneration failure.
The assertion by the commissioners that the proposal is good for grizzlies is not true. The project has high likelihood, in the words of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the USFS, to negatively affect grizzlies. Grizzly numbers in the ecosystem are declining, not increasing. And the limiting factor for grizzlies in the Yaak is not food, but human caused mortality. Grizzlies need fewer roads and better monitoring of closed roads. Nor is it true that the planned regeneration harvests will result in more huckleberries. An earlier USFS study was canceled after evidence failed to validate this claim.
Increases in “big game forage” and “winter range,” two other assertions made by the commissioners are also false. We see these generalizations copied and-pasted in every thin proposal Environmental Analysis put forth from the Kootenai. The limiting factor on elk, as with grizzlies, is habitat security. And more clearcuts mean more deer—a generalist—with greater crowding conditions in ever-compressed winter range. The Yaak (and Lincoln County) doesn’t need more deer.
Black Ram is an embarrassment, and as with other projects coming from the Kootenai, will continue losing money, harming grizzlies, accelerating climate change, and drying out the landscape.
We have a chance to do something positive and proactive in Lincoln County: Stop Black Ram. Keep the carbon in the forest. While airport workers in Europe are hosing down runways to keep them from buckling, the Kootenai is racing to cut down more of the carbon-storing giants, and in the process, creating even more heat. As Terry Tempest Williams writes, the eyes of the future are looking back at us. Replacing old and mature forests with thousands of acres of barren clearcuts does not stop fires. It makes a hot planet hotter.