Flathead Community of Resource Educators
May 20, 2020 Conference Call
In attendance:
Kathy Martin (Hockaday Museum of Art);
Brian Schwartz (Lone Pine State Park Mgr.);
Casey Lewis (City of Kalispell);
Emilie Henry (Big Sky Watershed Corps
Member, City of Kalispell);
Mikaela Richardson (Big Sky Watershed Corps
Member)
Shannon Anderson (Americorps Member, Lone
Pine State Park);
Monica Elser (Flathead Lake Bio Station);
Abby Schmeichel (Big Sky Watershed Corps
Member, Flathead Lake Bio Station)
Teresa Wenum (Flathead Natl. Forest)
Thank you for sharing your time, joining our CORE ‘call in’!
Flathead CORE admin items
Thank you Flathead Conservation District for helping to host our webpage! If anyone is interested in
helping with the ‘care and feeding’ of the page, do let us know. We could use help with regular event
posting and updating existing content. We’d welcome your help OR if you would like to help recruit
and guide a potential volunteer or student intern to help us out.
Educational Trunk Workshop – Thank you Brian for putting in a Lone Pine Visitor Center reservation
for an October 15 workshop and checking with Derrick about taking the lead to help plan the workshop.
Let’s look into perhaps following same format as we did last year, hosting one school as their PIR
training day and soliciting ideas from participating teachers on how we can make our trunk program
more effective for teacher/classroom use.
Flathead Watershed Through the Seasons, teacher professional development training – wrapped up the
2019-20 workshop April 18 – received positive feedback from the eight participating teachers about
their experience. Next year’s training kicks off in September at the Flathead Bio with 12 teachers signed
up.
Round Robin Report Out
Hockaday Museum of Art – Kathy Martin, Education Director
Museum re-opened on Saturday, May 16 under limited hours, new temporary hours are: Thur. 9am-12
“Just for Seniors”, and Fri.-Sat. 11-3. At this time programs, classes, and tours are postponed.
Plein Air Glacier 2020 scheduled for mid-June, take place in Glacier, if open. The event’s live auction
will be replaced with an on-line auction. The annual Arts in the Park event re-scheduled for August 21-23 Kathy doing Traveling Medicine Show trunk presentation on-line for area school.
Lone Pine State Park – Shannon Anderson and Brian Schwartz
Under the Governor’s Phase II re-opening, the park’s visitor center will re-open June 1. The park saw a
46% increase in April visitation over April 2019 visits. Park staff seeing more family groups. Josh one
of the park’s AmeriCorps members, continues his “Tid-bit Tuesdays’ videos, featured each week on the
park’s FB feed. Check it out to learn something new about the park’s natural and cultural history. The
May 19 spot was all about basic outdoor knot tying and the week before featured spring wildflower id.
AmeriCorps member Shannon, developed a virtual Forest Ecology field trip, targeted to grades 2-5 and
features videos, informational slides, interactive worksheets, and educator-led discussions. Shannon is
working with Big Sky Watershed Corps member Abby Schmeichel working with the Flathead Lake Bio
Station on a water related virtual field trip, to be available this coming fall.
Flathead Conservation District – Mikaela Richardson
Many summer workshops planned at the district’s new Outdoor Education Center and Demonstration
Garden, still working through if workshops will take place as planned ‘in-person’ or virtual. Visit the
district’s Workshops and Classes web page for a listing of classes offered this summer and fall. First one
kicks off June 17, with a “Garden Party and Open House”. Check out the district’s on-line Forestry
Expo resources on riparian areas – the district hosts a hands-on riparian at the annual Expo event.
District also working to post add’l water related educational videos.
Flathead Lake Bio Station – Monica Elser
The popular Science on Tap returns June 1, in a virtual format and features Bio Station aquatic ecology researcher Shawn Devlin. Will work with the University of Montana Science Center to assist with summer programs with the Girls and Boys Club out of Ronan and Polson. Looking forward to in-person school field trips to station this fall. Check out the Earth Day 2020 Artwork submissions
City of Kalispell, Public Works Dept. – Casey Lewis and Emilie Henry
Continuing work on the rain garden program, working with homeowners interested in installing one at home; and with FHS teacher/class to build and install one at the school – creating and presenting virtual resources for class. Capturing funds to purchase native plants for the FCD demo garden. Check out the Flathead Rain Garden Initiative web page – full of great info about rain gardens, DIY workbook on how to build one and suggested design plans.
Whitefish Center for Sustainability and Entrepreneurship – Randy Hohf
Just hired a new ‘farmer’ for the center, oversees the grounds, planting, growing, harvest and
maintenance operations. Successful year for student projects at the center, with the 5th grade farmer’s
market program, the December market raised $1300 for area non-profits, the grown micro-greens sold
out quickly. Sixth graders took on a five-day salad dressing design challenge, with students creating
their own dressing and business in small groups, then ‘pitch’ their projects in a ‘Shark-Tank’ type of
presentation. The “winning dressing” would have been featured at a local restaurant. The center received
a FCD grant to help with the development of a raingarden, including the purchase of native wetland
plants.
Flathead National Forest – Teresa Wenum
The Artist-Wilderness-Connection artist-in-residence program will postpone 2020 artist residencies until
the summer of 2021. The Forest Service Summit Nature Center, a partnership project with Whitefish
Mountain Resort, will focus on outdoor activities, with ‘roving rangers’ on the trail, at the summit and
Base Lodge areas. We’ll evaluate opening the center as the summer progresses.
NEXT Flathead CORE Meeting…
September 30 – 3:30pm to 5pm – Location TBA
