Skywatch Friday: like a house a'fire, summer is ending

Summer is at and end with the first heavy frosts gracing the hills of the Continental Divide ringing Butte, Montana. Large forest fires are burning throughout the northwest United States. Though the heavy smoke obscurs our view of the mountains (visibility is usually 60 miles or so), it makes for outstanding sunsets (view from Montana Tech):

On a recent trip to the Portland, Oregon, area for a wedding, we began our visit on the deck of a the Mount Hood Winery:

And watched as the fire on Mt. Hood went from "laying low:"

To a major "blow up:"

Fires and all, the Columbia Valley is a lush place with abundant wild fruit, like these blackberries:

And lots of excellent farm stands with yummy fresh produce:

No trip to the Portland area is complete without visiting a few of the many wonderful brewpubs. We took in music (and a few pints) at the Double Mountain Brewpub:

Samplers and pints at the Coalition Brew Pub (a true 10-barrel microbrewery with OUTSTANDING English-style ales):

And even a visit to the McDonald's or Starbucks of beer, one of the many McMenamins locations--the former Kennedy School, with its movie theatre, several restaurants and bars--including a bar with a "steam punk" theme:

 

We worked off the brewpub visits with activities such as a hike up Beacon Rock:

Get a load of those walkways bolted into the cliff face! (looking up):

(and down):

A visit to just one of Portland's several incredible, sprawling Rose Gardens:

As always, walking around Portland delivers architectural delights, ranging from this quonset-hut house:

To the fantastic architecture of this building supply store:

Oh yeah, we were there for a wedding, and that was great fun too. How can you not have a wonderful time when the wedding begins with the arrival of the bridal party in "pedicabs?":

 

Back at home, fires around East Missoula and Phillipsburg are still mostly out of control with tens of thousands of acres ablaze (see Montana Forest Fires):

Still, as with our visit to Portland, we're not letting our summer fun go up in smoke. This past weekend marked the Boulder Music & Art Festival -- a fun, low key event with good local music including Mariah Paige (she did a knockout version of Miranda Lambert's "Famous in a Small Town"):

And our favorite--little yodelin', fiddlin' sensation Bridget Reedy (with her Dad accompanying on guitar): 

 Summer is nearly gone, but we are enjoying those last few sweet drops.

Skywatch Friday: Rainbows, Forest Fires and Happy Campers

College classes began this week, with all the usual hectic craziness. On an early morning drive downriver to the "mother ship" campus (University of Montana-Missoula), this double rainbow appeared as we drove out of a rainstorm:

We also saw the reason for the smoky skies in Butte this week--forest fires in the East Missoula area (here, a "spot fire" near the highway):

Last weekend marked the Annual Dr. Anaconda Lake Rendezvous, the last major campout of the season. Jim Handley redefined the term "happy campers" by grill roasting a turkey for the Saturday feast:

Geez, how do you follow that act? Andrea Stierle managed to find a way with this fantastic desert:

For many of us, the Annual Rendezvous is defined by hanging out at Montana's finest sandy beach. Kenia and Adler Patch entertained the Schahczenski dogs with kayak rides on the lake:

I like waking in the early morning chill, taking in the quiet forest and the mist rising from the creek behind our tent:

Soon the camp stirs to life. Hwe Tu and Frank Ackerman demonstrate their coffee making skills--Hwe on the chopsticks strategically placing embers under the coffee pot and Frank supplying kindling of just the right size:

One night, Brent Patch, his kids, and I bivouacked on a sandy point across the lake. They were in a tent, but I spent the night under the stars, drifting off to sleep with meteors flaming overhead and only a few distant worries about that bear sign I'd seen in the forest behind our little camp:

Last year, camping in the snow, three days seemed to go on forever. With this year's perfect weather, the weekend ended all too soon as we closed it out with the group photo (left-to-right: Don Stierle, Chukah-The-Dog, Kenia Patch, Brent Patch, Adler Patch, Andrea Stierle, Jeff Schahczenski, Celia Schahczenski, Woo-The-Dog, Donna Patch, Karina Patch, Jan Munday, MollyTheDog, EcoRover, and Sheikah-The-Dog (missing from all photos are hikers extraordinaire Debbie & Mike Stickney and daytrippers Lori Shyba, David Bunnell and Bill Macgregor):

 

This week's classes and start-up activities were a blur, but the end of the week brought the annual Clark Fork Watershed Education Program's celebration. The event included great music by Chad Okrusch followed by El Dealbreakers. How can you not smile when the band includes Garrett Smith on the tuba?:

A good week.

Skywatch Friday: A Full Moon Sets Over Montana

It's been a sunny, blue-sky week here in southwest Montana. Many days there's not a single cloud all day.

Last weekend found us camped along the Madison River, watching the full moon set as the morning sun rose:

An osprey fished in front of our campsite; this one is carrying a fish:

We did not fish, but took in the festivities at Virginia City (a "frontier-era" tourist town) with friends Jeff & Celia Schahczenski, and made a fun kayak float on the river:

And of course we took in the soothing waters of Norris Hot Springs (and enjoyed their lovely hollyhocks):

The dogs waited patiently in a shady spot while we ate brunch and soaked:

Closer to home, Dave Carter and I got out in the Big Hole River country. Hmmm, why are the vultures circling?:

Oh, it's a dead (and very stinky) cow in the meadow:

While we checked out the cow, the turkey buzzards swooped in low over our heads:

On the high prairie of the upper Big Hole River valley, herds of watchful antelope played:

And, up at timberline, this young bull moose played peek-a-boo with us (I like the way moose think they are hidden while standing behind a little tree):

Look at these Big Hole haystacks--a bountiful harvest for the ranchers that need to feed cattle through the long Montana winter:

Note that these are true haystacks, not bales; made with a "beaverslide" (a ramp for stacking hay in a wind- and water- resistant pile; the cleat-track is for dragging the beaverslide from place to place):

And check out the cool, custom-made "buck rake" for pushing the hay to the base of the slide:

We are nearing summer's end, and as fall approaches we intend to milk every last drop of this sweet weather.

Native Trout Revival: Westslope Cutthroat Trout, Silver Bow Creek, and Superfund

When I have a good day fishing, I recall the wise words of Butte conservationist George F. Grant: we don't catch wild fish because we are so clever--after all, how smart do you have to be to fool a creature with a brain the size of a pea? No, we catch trout because they are there. And usually, in the modern world, they're there because of people who have helped to restore and protect them.

Well, I had a good morning on Silver Bow Creek just a few miles downstream from my home, catching wild, native Westslope Cutthroat Trout--many (like this one) fat & well over a foot long:

If you imagined a perfect small trout stream (average flow c. 20 cfs), it would look a lot like this Durant Canyon reach of the creek:

And even better, there were riseforms of large trout slurping caddis flies and spruce moths:

For more than a century, there were no trout. Just a few years ago, Silver Bow Creek (at the headwaters of the Clark Fork River in southwest Montana) was still a lifeless, industrial sewer (NRDP photo):

Superfund changed that, and it's a great success story. The success came in two parts--remedy (i.e. clean-up) and restoration. On the remedy side, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandated that the party responsible for a century of mining and smelting pollution -- Arco-British Petroleum -- clean up its mess. On the restoration side, the State of Montana settled for several hundred million dollars in a natural resource damage lawsuit against Arco-BP.

In a unique approach that integrated remedy and restoration, the state took the lead in an $80 million project that included additional funds for enhancements such as restoration work in German Gulch Creek--a major tributary of Silver Bow Creek.

When Montana's Natural Resource Damage Program began developing a restoration vision for Silver Bow Creek, the program was very hesitant to us native trout as a restoration goal. Many thought the creek could never sustain native cutthroats, and even optimists like me thought it would take decades. It was a hard struggle, but thanks to the support of many good people and organizations (see list below), it came together and in a series of meetings in 1997 both the NRDP and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks agreed to embrace the goal of native fish. A big thank you from your most important client:

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Folks who deserve special credit, in no particular order:

George F. Grant (1906-2008). George established Montana's first chapter of Trout Unlimited in 1972. He began campaigning to halt mine waste pollution of the Clark Fork River by the mid-1970s.

Board members of the George Grant Chapter of Trout Unlimited. They attended a lot of meetings and wrote a lot of letters in support of Silver Bow Creek restoration, and also directed a $1 million restoration project on German Gulch.

Montana Trout Unlimited, particularly its Executive Director, Bruce Farling.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks fisheries biologists Wayne Hadley (retired) and Ron Spoon.  After those 1997 meetings, Ron began collecting data on westslope cutthroat trout in German Gulch and was especially influential in convincing the NRDP that native fish restoration in Silver Bow Creek was a reasonable goal. Jason Lindstrom, along with his excellent field technician (and gifted cabinet maker) Ben Whiteford, are keeping Ron's commitment alive.

Board members of the EPA-funded citizens' group, Citizens Technical Environmental Committee--former officers George Waring, Mary Kay Craig, and John W. Ray were particularly effective leaders.

Montana Department of Environmental Quality project director for Silver Bow Creek, Joel Chavez. Also, the revegetation contractor for the project, Rich Prodgers.

My apologies to those I have inadvertently omitted from this short list of environmental heroes.