Outdoor news
Ultramarathon
Ninety-two runners from North America and Italy are registered to race the length of Hungry Horse Reservoir on Saturday, Oct. 11, in the 33rd annual Le Grizz 50 Mile Ultramarathon. The race is sanctioned by USA Track & Field as its Montana 50-mile championship and is sponsored by the Cheetah Herders Athletic Club. Athletes from the Special Olympics, members of North Valley Search and Rescue, and local volunteers will assist the runners with aid, traffic control, course patrol and radio communications.
Hunting films
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and Kimber will present an evening of heart-stopping hunting films from the Hunting Film Tour at Casey’s Pub and Grill in Whitefish on Wednesday, Oct. 22, with doors opening at 6 p.m. There will be $3,000 in top-shelf raffle items. Tickets cost $12 in advance and $15 at the door available at Sportsman & Ski Haus in Kalispell and Whitefish, Casey’s and online at http://huntingfilmtour.com.
Fishing access
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has completed a draft environmental assessment for the acquisition of 4.26 acres between the Whitefish River and the Pine Grove Pond Fishing Access Site to provide additional access to 750 feet of shoreline along the Whitefish River. FWP also proposes to accept the donation of 0.33 acres of land adjacent to the existing parking area and to construct a parking area to provide additional parking and to reduce vehicle congestion along the access road. The draft EA is available at FWP headquarters, 490 North Meridian, in Kalispell; at Flathead County Libraries; and online at http://fwp.mt.gov under Public Notices. Deadline is Oct. 17. For more information, call Tony Powell at 406-751-5423 or e-mail tpowell@mt.gov.
Road closure
The Flathead National Forest will temporarily close Forest Road 546, Emery Creek Road, on the east side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir to install two new culverts. For safety reasons, the road will be closed about four miles up the road before it crosses Royal Creek until about Oct. 15. The culverts will replace smaller existing culverts where Remington Creek and Royal Creek cross under the road. Replacing the culverts is expected to reduce the risk of the current structures failing while also aiding in the passage of westslope cutthroat trout. For more information, contact the Hungry Horse/Glacier View Ranger District at 406-387-3800.
Trout Unlimited
Darwon Stoneman, owner of Glacier Raft Company, and Bill Hart, a long-time fishing guide, will be the featured speakers at the Flathead Valley Trout Unlimited Chapter meeting at the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1 offices on Meridian Road in Kalispell on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. They will share their experiences fishing for tarpon, permit and bonefish on trips to Cuba. For more information, call Larry Timchak at 250-7473.
Survey work
Forest Service and contract employees will be conducting 8-13 minute long voluntary surveys at developed and dispersed recreation sites and along roads across the Flathead National Forest from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2015. Forest officials say well-trained interviewers will ask about why people are visiting the national forest. All information is confidential and will be used for Forest Service and local tourism planning. For more information, visit online at www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/nvum.
Land trust
Flathead Land Trust invites the public to help plan future conservation efforts at a meeting at the Central School Museum in Kalispell on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 6:30 p.m. The nonprofit organization negotiates voluntary conservation agreements with private landowners to help preserve open space, wetlands, wildlife habitat and other conservation values. For more information, visit online at www.flatheadlandtrust.org.
Polar bears
Flathead Audubon will host a talk by Frank Tyro about his trip to the “Polar Bear Capital of the World” at the Gateway Community Center, off U.S. 2 West, in Kalispell, on Monday, Oct. 13, at 7 p.m. Tyro became an Arctic traveler with the Great Bear Foundation in 1984, accompanying Charles Jonkel to Churchill, Manitoba, to learn about and observe polar bears, other mammals and the ecology and geology of the Arctic. Tyro has since visited the Churchill area more than 34 times.
Geocaching
Flathead Valley Community College and students in the Natural Resources Conservation and Management program will offer their second annual Geocache Adventure on the FVCC campus on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Geocaching is an outdoor recreational scavenger hunt using global positioning system (GPS) coordinates. The course will be designed for families and children ages 12-and-under with 10 caches hidden around the immediate campus. For more information, contact Relyea at 756-3946 or crelyea@fvcc.edu. More information on geocaching can be found online at www.geocaching.com.
Carnivores
Science writer and wildlife ecologist Cristina Eisenberg will talk about “Saving all the pieces: Large carnivores in the Crown of the Continent and beyond” at Montana House in Apgar Village in Glacier National Park on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 4 p.m. with time for questions and a reception to follow. She will talk about wolves, grizzly bears, lynx, jaguars, wolverines and cougars on a 7,500-mile wildlife corridor from Alaska to Mexico. Seating is limited, so call 406-888-5393 for additional information and to reserve seats.