In the News… – Page 28 – Lewis & Clark Conservation District

Meetings, Office closures

Office closed

The Conservation District office will be closed Thursday morning, June 9, from 7:30 til after noon since the Board meeting is out of town. We should be open in the afternoon. The office will be closed again Friday June 10th. Please let us know if there's anything we can help with!

310 Permits, Budget, Meeting Minutes, Meeting Notices, Meetings, Uncategorized

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.

310 Permits, Education, Events, Noxious Weeds, Students, Water Quality, Watershed

Flood Awareness at EVMS!

Since the spring of 2008, the Lewis & Clark Conservation District has worked with area agencies to bring Flood Awareness to the East Valley Middle School. What began with a parent visit during an open house in the fall of 2007, turned into a 9 year commitment to education. Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Lewis & Clark County Disaster and Emergency Services, and the Water Quality Protection District helped with planning efforts that first year and in subsequent years. This year, we missed the East Helena Volunteer Fire Department, but had great presentations from DNRC's Michelle Phillips (floodplain), USGS'…

Agriculture, Budget, Drip irrigation, Education, Resolutions, Water Quality, Watershedbarley, conservation, hydroponics, overgrazing, rockingzranch

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…

310 Permits, Budget, Meeting Minutes, Meeting Notices, Meetings

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.

Budget, Communication, Education, Realtor, Website

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…

Education, Events, Students, Training, Uncategorizeddonate, education, envirothon, lewis&clark

Helena High Envirothon State Champs Need Your Help

Congratulations Helena High - Envirothon State Champions 2016! It's not over yet for Helena High, they have the opportunity to attend the North American Envirothon competition in Ontario in July but they need your help to get there.The team needs your help raising money to help with their travel costs. The Lewis & Clark Conservation District budgets funds annually to support the teams and have been doing so since 2009. However, we can't cover the entire cost so they need you to donate if you can. Please donate through the Conservation District which allows for tax…

Agriculture, Education

Women in Agriculture-An Oral History

There is a page on the Department of Natural Resources (State of Montana) web page that has a series of stories, "From the Ground Up, Montana Women and Agriculture". This is amazing group of stories told by women about their lives and ties to Montana agriculture. If you get an opportunity, please have a listen and enjoy the stories. Their stories can be found here. If you live in Lewis & Clark County and would like to tell your story, please contact the Conservation District and we can figure out a way to make that happen for you! I would love…

Drip irrigation, Earth Day, Education, Recycling

Happy Earth Day!

On this Earth Day, I would encourage any and all of you to take a step back and consider your habits and practices and think about how you could make changes to improve our climate and living situation. Here in Montana, our wide open spaces allow us to live with less litter, less people etc. We don't necessarily see the impact of our daily activities as much as if we lived someplace with more people. However, even here there are things we can do. Recycling--especially electronics such as computers and cell phones--will keep more toxic items out of our…

Cost Share, Forestry, NRCS, Programs

Ten Mile Forestry Project Signup Deadline

The Natural Resource Conservation Service has funds available to landowners for improving their forest health. The project is for private land and consists of pre-commercial tree thinning, fuel breaks and other practices specific to forest health. It is a cost share--usually a per-acre payment--program to assist landowners who are concerned about the potential for wildfire and also overall health of the forest on their property. If you own land in the Ten Mile area, and are interested in your forest health, please contact the Natural Resource Conservation Service at 406-449-5000 ext. 101. The sign up deadline is May 20th.