Activity Report Explorer

Northwest Montana • Entered by Rosemary McKinnon on August 28, 2024

Vist to Lost Prairie Refuge

May 24, 2024

Key Issue: Public Lands Health & Protection
Activity Type: Education & Outreach (tabling, films & lectures, regional B-walks/works)
Key Partners: Lost Prairie Reserve, Montana Native Plant Society

Short Description of Activity

We were fortunate that the longtime wild life biologist who has worked at Lost Trail Refuge for the past 11 years, Beverly Skinner, had postponed her retirement in May just long enough to join in leading this tour. Beverly was able to share the ancient history of migrations of Native Americans through this glacial valley, the more recent history of the cattle arriving north from Plains, MT to gaze on the fresh summer pastures and the railroad which came right through Pleasant Valley in the 1940s and helped to settle the valley. The railroad has subsequently been rerouted and it is likely that the cattle migration has also ended. The National Wildlife Refuge System, with regional offices in Denver, CO purchased roughly 10,000 acres of a former cattle ranch as a mitigation effort to compensate for the loss of wetlands to the Kerr Dam at the southern end of Flathead Lake with a mission to restore wetlands to this area. This meant tearing out the existing road through the center of the valley, removing dams and allowing Dahl Lake to spread and the streams to resume their natural courses along with replanting riparian vegetation natural to the area. The National Wildlife Refuge Service was able to purchase a conservation easement of a further 10,000 acres to the north which Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, showed up to dedicate. It is currently in the process of securing a further large easement to the west, including Island Lake. All this contiguous protected acreage secures a large, and seldom visited, preserve of varied riparian, forested and grassland creating habitats for diverse flora and fauna. The largest elk herd in NW Montana makes its home here and is managed by FWP for hunters. Bear, wolves and deer graze here along with lynx. The refuge is also home to an endangered plant, Spauldings Catchfly – a Palouse prairie plant – at the end of its NW range which emerges erratically from a long tap root over years when it is not excessively browsed. Soon the bitterroot with also be in bloom. Ducks and trumpeter swans nest in and around Dahl Lake and violet green swallows nest side by side with western bluebirds in the many nesting boxes. The remoteness of this refuge so close to a growing urban area has also qualified it as a dark sky preserve where people can come to enjoy the night sky as it used to appear.

Reflection/Evaluation

All were delighted.

Photos/Uploads

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Photo Captions

Northwest MT Broads and MT Native Plant Society visit Lost Prairie Reserve;