Small-acreage management a big need as Flathead grows

Valerie Beebe takes being a landowner very seriously.

When she bought the 25-acre stand of mature ponderosa pines next to her Kila home years ago, she tapped into all kinds of resources to help her manage the forestland.

Now Beebe has a 5-acre horse pasture she wants to make sure is managed wisely. When she heard a six-week small-acreage landowner seminar series is planned in Kalispell during the winter months, she signed on immediately.

“I have four horses and two donkeys, and the area they’re put in is fragile,” Beebe said. “I want to learn about soil, what to do to invigorate the grass growth that I do have.”

Pat McGlynn, the Montana State University Extension agent for Flathead County, is organizing the seminar series. It will tap into the expertise of several state and county agencies.

“The county is challenged with more and more new residents who have not previously owned acreage,” McGlynn said. “Through a lack of education many landowners purchase livestock and overstock their property. The land is quickly overgrazed and noxious weeds take over.

“Some have forests that are not managed for wildfire danger,” McGlynn continued. “Some do not know the caution that must be used when working near water with chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. Some have never had a well or a septic system.”

Beebe said she has tapped into several grant programs through the years that have helped her manage the forest acreage that was placed in a conservation easement about five years ago.

“I felt this responsibility to take care of it,” she said.

Beebe took a forestry stewardship course through MSU Extension that helped her put together a management plan for her Birdsong Tree Farm.

When Beebe bought her house in 2003 she wasn’t thinking much about benefiting future generations. But that’s exactly what she has done with her property, turning the original 3-acre homesite into 28 acres of protected forest.

Alison Godfrey is another property owner who has signed up for the course. Invasive week management and tree pest issues are two topics she hopes to learn about. She has 40 acres of mostly wooded acreage, with a couple of pasture areas for two donkeys.

“Due to the creatures of the wetlands — who do not restrict themselves to those areas alone as we find them all over — we do not spray to control the weeds,” Godfrey said, adding that she was advised at a county weed seminar to not spray as the wetlands wildlife could be harmed.

The seminar topics will cover several areas of Godfrey’s land — pasture management, tree management for both fire and pest issues, native pollinators and wildlife management, and alternative controls for weed management. She also is interested in the pollinator and wildlife management issues.

“I find the invasive weeds most difficult as most areas where the weeds pop up can’t be mowed, so I am hoping for some good ideas here to help manage weeds,” Godfrey said.

The small acreage series comes at a time when many government agencies are facing reduced budgets and less staff, McGlynn said. She has networked on a quarterly basis since 2008 with agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the Flathead Forest weed management coordinator, Flathead Conservation District, USDA Rural Development and others.

“The county is growing at roughly 4 percent a year, which means the requests for service continue to climb,” McGlynn said. “We have talked in our meetings about seeing the demand increase and the conundrum of limited resources.”

McGlynn has taught and facilitated classes on pruning, gardening, beekeeping, poultry production, pasture management, weed control, private pesticide applicators guidelines, agri-tourism and landscape design each year, but the requests for this kind of education continue to grow as new people move into the area. ?

By dividing the teaching of small acreage management issues among many presenters, “each one of us could multiply our efforts,” she said.

The Flathead Conservation District is supplying the resource binders for the series and has been an active partner in the planning phase of this program.

Class size will be limited to 35 for the first year.

“If the class is as well-attended as we expect, we may offer it again in the fall of 2018,” McGlynn said. “I am excited by the experts that we have recruited as speakers.”

Registration for the course is now open. The meetings will be held Wednesdays starting Feb. 7 and continuing through March 14. Classes will run from 6 to 8 p.m. in the main conference room at Gateway Community Center, 1203 U.S. 2 in Kalispell. Cost is $125 per person, with two scholarships available.

For more information or to sign up, call the Flathead County Extension Office at 758-5554.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.