June Board Meeting

The next regular meeting of the Lewis & Clark Conservation District will be June 9.  It will begin at 8:30 a.m. and takes place at the Dearborn Community Center, 5855 Highway 434 outside of Wolf Creek Mt.  Also, here are the minutes from the May meeting and the Agenda for the June Meeting. The Dearborn Community Center can be found on Highway 434 NW of Wolf Creek and South East of Highway 200--see map below.
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Sustainable Low Cost Crop – No More Over Grazing

Over Grazing Solutions for Small to Large Landowners By: Ashley Rivero           The discovery for us here at the Conservation District was during a stream permitting assessment on the Rocking Z Guest Ranch.  The Rocking Z Guest Ranch along Wolf Creek, run by a ranching family since 1974, offer an innovative range of opportunities to horseback riders, vacations goers, internships, as well as ranching and conservation education with the full Montana experience.  They offered to show us some of the environmentally friendly methods they have integrated into their daily operations and one that stuck out the most offers a potential solution to overgrazing…
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May Board Meeting

The next regular board meeting of the Lewis & Clark Conservation District will be May 12, 2016.  The meeting will take place at the Augusta Youth Center, on main street, in Augusta Montana.  It will begin at 1 p.m. The minutes to the last board meeting are here and the notice and agenda for the May meeting are here. Conservation District meetings are open to the public and anyone is welcome to attend.  If you have any questions, please contact the CD office at lccd@mt.net or 406-449-5000 ext. 112.
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Interesting Phone Calls

In the past few weeks, I've gotten 2 phone calls from individuals with questions about property taxes.  One was from a prospective property buyer, one was from a realtor who was asking questions on behalf of a client.  It seems as though every few years I get a number of these calls, so I thought I'd post about the issue. On property tax bills, especially for homes or other "real" property, there is a line item for Soil and Water Conservation District or other similar description.  This amount varies by property value--as do most tax line items--and is really not…
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Annual Plan of Operations

The Board of Supervisors approved the updated Annual Plan of Operations for 2016 at the February 11, 2016 board meeting.  The Annual Plan is tied to the Conservation District's budget and allocates district resources toward priority concerns of the Board of Supervisors.  The current year budget, as well as previous year budgets, shows a planned net loss as a result of some extra programs that the board is running.  Over several years the savings account has accumulated funds and the board has opted to put those funds back out to taxpayers in the form of a Weed Cost Share program and…
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Board Meeting for February

The next regular board meeting of the Lewis & Clark Conservation District Board of Supervisors will take place February 11, 2016 at 1 pm in the USDA Service Center Conference Room, 790 Colleen Street, Helena MT 59601.   Due to the fact that the January meeting was cancelled, the board will be reviewing and hopefully approving, the 2016 Budget and 2016 Annual Plan of Operations. Once approved, both of those documents will be posted on the website.   The minutes for the December 2015 meeting are available here, pending approval.  The agenda and notice for the meeting in February is…
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January Board meeting change

Due to the requirement for District Administrator Chris Evans to attend a training, the January 14th meeting will be rescheduled to a different date in January, yet to be determined.   The Board of Supervisors reviewed and edited the Annual Plan of Operations for 2016 at the December meeting and is currently working on budget revisions.  Those two documents will be posted when they are complete.  January 4th, the Conservation District office will welcome Big Sky Watershed Corps (associated with Americorps) member Ashley Rivero.  Ashley will be working with the CD, the Lake Helena Watershed Group and the Lewis &…
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December Board meeting

The next regular meeting of the Lewis & Clark Conservation District Board meeting will be held at 1 p.m. on December 10, 2015 and will take place at the USDA Service Center Conference Room, 790 Colleen Street, Helena MT 59601. For the meeting minutes from the November meeting, click here, and for the meeting notice and agenda, click here.    
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