Flathead CORE

Sept. 16, 2015

Pati Mason, Diann Ericson (MEEA director at large), Laura Law, Teresa Wenum, , Vicki Forristal ([email protected]), Joan West ([email protected], Lone Pine Americorps); Mary Jo Gardener ([email protected]), Kathy Martin (Hockaday).

1. Flathead Audubon – Raptor Day went well on Sept. 12, 2015. Approximately 150 people. There were many events: Bird walk and Dr. Avian Guano and adult talks. There was a lot there. Lone Pine used the Owl Trunk for a session and there was a Peregrine Falcon presentation. Flathead NF, Wild Wings, Lone Pine, Audubon, DNRC’s Big Sky Watershed Corps – Flathead River Steward (sponsored by FWP and Flathead Lakers and NRCS). Glacier NP may be able to participate next year.

2. Website – we need to add MCC and Foys to Blacktail to the Local Providers List. Teresa checked on these organizations: Women and Timber (OK as is), MT for Multiple Use- just keep as is; need to change society of American foresters to the local website (Mary Jo will do). Mary Jo will also contact MT Logging Assoc. about their listing. It would be great if volunteers could do some new “featured” articles for the website. Patti will do a migration article. Laura will ask a Glacier NP seasonal ranger to do a winter article in January.

3. Project Learning Tree – Kari and Holly still have space in the fall 2015 workshop. This is a joint project done by the Flathead Conservation District with Women and Timber and PLT. There is sign-up information on the FCD website. Post-meeting follow-up is that this workshop went well.

4. Watershed Sourcebook Curriculum – the drafts are being reviewed and need to go to teachers to pilot for the final. Hope to have all done by end of 2015. There is a meeting scheduled in November that is being coordinated by Vicki at the Flathead Conservation District (see website link above).

5. Trunk Workshop –October 15, 2015 on the PIR day. Check out the updated trunk list on the CORE website. Mary Jo and Sheena can help organize; Patti, Kathy, and Diann can help that day. Laura will have a seasonal ranger present the park’s new Repeat Photo Trunk and they will bring the park’s Land of Many Stories trunk. Patti will do owl and Kathy Martin will do a Hockaday trunk. Joan will see if she can do FWP. (Post meeting follow-up on this was that Joan couldn’t do this so Teresa had one of her staff bring the FireWorks Trunk to present). Sheena can help with PIRnet and updating trunk list. Diann and Mary Jo can MC that day J

6. Winter Trails Day, January 9, 2016– start getting folks to participate. Teresa will check with Lone Pine State Park, Swan Ecosystem Center, Whitefish Legacy Partners has a big event, Flathead Audubon, Glacier National Park. We could do a series of events instead of one day.

7. MEEA Regional meeting (for our region) – Diann said she could check with Eliza and see if there is already a meeting going on that we could piggy back on. Mary Jo suggested even a “training” session type meeting from 4-6:30 some evening with PLT lessons or something could be a “draw.”

Round Robin

· Summit Nature Center closed on Labor Day and will re-open in winter on weekends and holidays. Also will have 30 classes come up for winter ecology field trips. Woodsy Owl is nominee for icon hall of fame. Cast your vote!

· Teresa will be “Acting” Public Affairs Officer until the position is filled, probably a couple of months. Another resource for the notes….

· FreshWaterLIVE: A Distance Learning Adventure is an online exploration of the origins, travels and perils of fresh water from green forests to household faucets. Participate in FreshWater LIVE on October 1 by watching a webcast and sending questions and comments to freshwater scientists. Come back to this web site on that day and watch the webcast at 1 p.m. ET. Scientists will be standing by all day to answer questions from your students or any others who have questions about water and watersheds. In fact, you can ASK A QUESTION. http://www.freshwaterlive.org/

· Kathy has new exhibit and free entrance tomorrow night. The Climate Change Quilts Exhibit is done now. The new calendar is out. There will be a certificate that the museum will give to encourage students to visit.

· Lone Pine has school programs starting this spring. They want to recruit teachers to help with education programs. Suggestions?

· Hans Bodenhamer is working with Lone Pine SP to teacher middle and H.S. students GIS mapping skills.

· Road Scholar is just wrapping up, 650 participants with 30 different programs. There will be 2 weeks of winter programming in January and February that will have cross country, downhill, dog sledding, etc…

· Bird Sleuth Ambassador program with Cornel has curriculum for up to 6^th grade that Patti is working on. FVCC Birds of MT class in October, 3 nights. The 2016 Audubon Phenology calendar is now available.

· Swan Ecosystem Center contracted with NW Connections, Sarah Halm is now the education person.

· Glacier National Park – Every Kid in a Park website -https://www.everykidinapark.gov/ Also, look for travel grants in the next year as part of the Montana National Park Units’ efforts to support getting under-served youth to public lands for outdoor education programming.

Next Meeting

4 – 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, Gateway Community Center.