Rick signed up to be a Friend at the Huckleberry Festival in Trout Creek, Montana, in mid-August after stopping at the FSPW booth to visit with his friend and mentor Ernie Scherzer, a fellow retired teacher, long-time FSPW Friend and volunteer. “He’s the perfect 3,000th Friend,” Ernie says. “Rick is an avid outdoorsman and hunter who has been a great asset to  Thompson Falls as a teacher, coach and athletic director at Thompson Falls High School.”

3,000th Friend Rick Dieterich (L) and FSPW volunteer Ernie Scherzer show off their new Scotchman Peaks hats with Star Peak in the background

Rick is a native Montanan who grew up in Big Timber and Laurel before attending Montana State University in Bozeman. After graduating in 1976, he taught school in Malta for three years before moving to Thompson Falls, where he taught for 28 years, retiring 2 years ago to “go hunting,” he says.He is looking forward to searching for a big bull in the upper reaches of Ross Creek in the future as well as joining in some of the led hikes that FSPW organizes every year in both the summer and winter.

As the 3,000th Friend, Rick recieved a FSPW t-shirt and hat, as well as a FSPW hooded sweat shirt to help keep him warm on chilly days while chasing critters in the back country. For his diligent help in signing up new friends, Ernie Scherzer also got a hooded sweatshirt and a new Scotchman Peaks hat.

Rick and his wife Kristy, who still works part time at TFHS, have two grown sons, Nate and Shawn.

Swimmers from the 2010 Johnny Donovan Memorial Swim

The swim which began as a family remembrance has grown now into an annual event that attracts dozens of folks, many of whom mark the event by donating money to a favorite charity or cause. Among the beneficiaries of this have been the volunteer fire department and the local search and rescue team. This year, Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness was added to the list. In honor of Johnny, FSPW received $350.00 from five contributors who participated in the swim on July 31.

“We’re pleased and grateful,” says FSPW program coordinator Sandy Compton. “It’s great to be recognized by such a good group, first of all, and the money comes at a great time. We have a matching grant from the Cinnabar Foundation, so the donations from the memorial swim plus the match equal $700.”

Johnny’s niece, Meg Seward, an English major at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, shares a fine essay about Johnny and how the swim began, written when she was a freshman in 2006.

Johnny Donovan

Perhaps nothing is more tragic than an untimely death in a family. If not for the perseverance of my family, my Uncle Johnny’s death, like countless others, might have remained nothing more than a tragedy forever. Johnny’s 1995 fatal heart attack at age 49 came as a shock to the whole family. I was only six when he died, but what stands out in my mind about him is his energetic personality. My most distinct memory is skiing with him at Schweitzer Mountain in Northern Idaho. I was standing in front of the ski lift that led to the mountain summit. He came up behind me, playfully tapped his ski pole on my helmet and eagerly asked, “Are you ready to do some black diamond runs at the top?” Thinking about this makes me wish that I had known him better because I’m always up for an adventure. Maybe I got that from his side of the family.

For the next few years, Johnny’s death hovered over my family; he was the only son and much loved. The pall began to lift in 1999 when my mother decided we needed to celebrate his life rather than merely mourn the loss. That is how the idea for the annual Johnny Donovan Memorial Swim came about. The plan was to swim from “The Wall” beach on Lake Pend Oreille to a small island a mile away. My family’s roots at the lake go back to pioneer Irish immigrants in the 1800s, and Johnny and my mother were raised there. The swim had special significance because my uncle and mother used to do it as children. Each member of my large, extended Irish Catholic family collaborated to make it a successful event. My mother did the planning. My sister and I designed t-shirts. My aunt made a giant banner for all the swimmers and hangers-on to sign. My cousins made the carbo-load dinner the night before and the huckleberry pancake breakfast the morning after the swim. Others in the family manned the small flotilla of canoes and kayaks that rescued, or more often towed, those who were over-taxed. The first swim in 1999 was a hit with my family, and nearly twenty people participated.

Now, seven years later, the swim is a beloved annual family tradition. Summer would not be the same without it. The first year, only a select few family members participated. By last year, we had swimmers from all over the country, including Massachusetts, and locals from all over the Northwest. We never could have imagined that our little family swim would become the popular annual event it is today. Each year, we raise hundreds of dollars for the local volunteer fire department and Search and Rescue. The fire department recently hung a plaque honoring the swim next to its new fire truck in its new fire station. The money for charity is important, but, for my family, the best part is the time we can share and appreciate together and the chance to swap happy memories about Johnny’s always fast-paced life of flying, sky-diving and whatever other adventure passed his way. Despite his death, the swim has given me and others the opportunity to appreciate the man we hardly knew or, in some cases, didn’t know at all and create new memories for new generations.

Two of our biggest opportunities to make new Friends and get our message to literally hundreds of people are just around the corner: the Trout Creek Huckleberry Festival (August 13-15) and the Bonner County Fair (August 24-28). Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness will have a booth at both of these multiday events staffed by volunteers, board members and staff.

Who will the mystery guest — our 3000th Friend — be — and who will be there to greet them?

FSPW always welcomes and encourages volunteers to help in our booths and at our tables. It is a rewarding and illuminating experience, a chance to meet like-minded folks and also an opportunity to enjoy the event going on around the booth even as you help FSPW get the word out about the Scotchmans. This year, though, someone in one of these booths will be privileged to sign up that 3,000th Friend, and we will honor both of them (once we figure out who they are — our reporting process will take a couple of days) with some FSPW swag and some special recognition.

It could be you. We are still accepting volunteers for both the Festival and the Fair.

To help at the Huckleberry Festival, e-mail Ernie Scherzer at xberea@blackfoot.net

To volunteer for the Bonner County Fair, e-mail sandy@scotchmanpeaks.org

“The things I have to do for the Friends,” Compton complained, tongue firmly planted in his cheek. “I’ve attended the Festival before, but I’ve never been to Turner, and I think I’ll force myself to come back . . . probably in January or February . . . or both.”

Music for the Festival was provided by Alan Lane, Wise River Mercantile and Drum Brothers. Lane is a gravelly-voiced and talented balladeer in the finest Western tradition. Wise River Mercantile are two married couples who play and sing bluegrass to a central mic. Last on, the Drum Brothers brought their special blend of “world music.”

Northwest Montana balladeer Alan Lane entertains at the Yaak Wilderness Fest July 31.

FSPW signed up several new Friends from Lincoln County and Compton was able to put faces to names of  “veteran” Friends he had never met in person, including YVFC staffers Robyn King and Lisa Mountain.

In addition to the music and food and beverages provided by the Turner Lodge kitchen, Kim Annis from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks brought her bear education booth to the Festival, and Mike Justus of Eureka from the Lincoln Conservation District used a specially-designed hydrology education trailer to teach Festival goers about water dynamics and conservation.

“It was a great time for a great cause,” Compton said, ” and a good opportunity to meet wilderness-lovers from the north side of the Kootenai.”

For more pictures, visit Sandy Compton’s Facebook page here

Joel Sather of the FS leads the way up Trail #998 as FSPW volunteer Jake Ostman removes a chunk of blowdown from the trail. (Photo courtesy Jacob Styer)

“It was a serial trail project,” said FSPW program coordinator Sandy Compton, “Two different groups took on two connected trails on two different weekends. The common point is the lookout at Star Peak. We got a lot done.”

On July 10, FSPW volunteers Jacob Styer, Jake Ostman, Jim Doudna, Lindsey Larson and Kim Givler followed Cabinet Ranger District Recreation Technician Joel Sather and his chainsaw up Big Eddy Trail #998, building water bars, rebuilding tread and removing brush and blowdowns, cleaning up the 4.5 mile trail clear to the lookout.

FSPW volunteer Jane Hoover exercises a pulaski on Pillick Ridge Trail #1036. (Sandii Mellen photo)

Two weeks later, Jim and Sandii Mellen, Jane Hoover and Compton picked up the pulaskis Styer, Sather and their crew left behind at the lookout and began working on Pillick Ridge Trail #1036, which runs 11 miles eastward from Star Peak to the Pillick Ridge trail head just off of Montana Highway 56.

“We didn’t get the whole 11 miles knocked out, I can tell you that,” confessed Compton, “but we made respectable progress.”

Over the 24th and 25th, the Mellens, Hoover and Compton “refreshed” the trail from Star Peak over a distance of about 3.5 miles to Napoleon Gulch, removing rocks, cutting blowdowns out with pulaskis and building waterbars. From there to the end of the trail (”a long blinkin’ walk on a smokin’ hot day,” Compton characterized it), they removed the blowdowns they could and “kicked rocks.”

Jim Mellen (right) and Sandy Compton remove a blowdown from Trail #1036 the old-fashioned way. (Sandii Mellen photo)

Sather was very happy with the efforts of the FSPW volunteers. “You guys were awesome,” he said. The combined labor of the FSPW volunteers stretched his trails budget by over $1400, which is approximately  what he would have had to pay for non-volunteer labor.

Star Peak is the site of the only still-intact lookout building in the proposed Scotchman Peaks Wilderness. Vandalized last year, it is in need of cleanup and repair.  It is the hope of Sather and Compton that the lookout will benefit from another cooperative workday between the Forest Service and FSPW in late summer or early fall.

Friends and the Forest Service, ready to go to work on Trail #65

Panhandle Forest Trails and Recreation Manager Mary Ann Hamilton brought a trail crew of six to help out on Saturday, including sawyers Eric Morgan, Lance Gidley, Brian Pratt and Eric Demers and trail workers Anthony Copeland and Matt Ruskey.

FSPW work crew "chases" the saw crew, clearing branches and brush from the tread.

The Friends crew followed the saw team up the mountain with pulaskis, loppers, shovels and just plain old people power, rolling the sawn sections of blowdowns off the trail, as well as tossing rocks, refreshing worn tread, removing brush and branches and dealing as best as they could with several huge “rootwads,” the base of uprooted trees that sometimes entirely blocked the trail.

In addition to supplying the saw team, the Forest Service also brought tools, hard hats, gloves, water, bug spray, sun screen, cookies and t-shirts for the participating Friends. And, in recognition of the great work done last fall by veteran FSPW hike leaders and volunteers Jim and Sandii Mellen, Mary Ann Hamilton expressed the gratitude of the Forest Service by presenting them with fleece jackets emblazoned with “Volunteer.” The recognition is well deserved.

It took two sawyers and three "swampers" an hour and 15 minutes to clear the biggest mess on the trail.

This first cooperative work day between the Forest Service and FSPW was initiated by an e-mail from Hamilton last spring. The results were spectacular. In about five and a half hours, the lower half of the trail got a great facelift, as well as a couple of major surgeries to repair tread and remove obstacles. A string of “free hikers” throughout the day expressed their admiration and gratitude for the work done by the Forest Service and the Friends.

“I hope we can do another day soon,” said Hamilton. “The saw crew was impressed with how much the FSPW group accomplished.”

FSPW program coordinator Sandy Compton was grateful for the efforts of the FSPW volunteers. “One of the most satisfying moments of the day came while walking out at the end of the day,” he said. “I was with a string of FSPW folks carrying pulaskis and loppers and we met a group of hikers who stepped out of our way and said ‘Thanks’ to us as we passed by. Made me straighten my back. I was proud to be a part of that work crew.”

A workday on Star Peak Trail #998 in cooperation with the Kootenai National Forest Cabinet District is planned for July 10. To volunteer or for more information, contact Jacob Styer at jacobstyer@yahoo.com.

In a continuing process that began last fall with a telephone call from Glass, he, Stauble and Foster are coming to the West to gather footage for a documentary focusing on FSPW as a group and the process of home-grown, grass-roots wilderness advocacy. In addition to spending time shooting the spectacular interior of the Scotchman Peaks, most notably the upper Ross Creek and Blue Creek drainages, they will interview a spectrum of volunteers, neighbors and others who are familiar with the efforts of FSPW and the area itself.

Jared Shear (top) and Aaron Johnson get down to work during the 2009 Extreme Pleinair. They may find themselves in the movies after the 2010 event.

“We’re excited to view the Scotchmans through the lens of three student documentary film makers,” said FSPW exec Phil Hough. “This is an opportunity to tell our story to the larger world, not only about the Scotchmans, but also about the dedicated group who are our Friends and the grass-roots effort and methods we are using. Part of our hope for this project is that other environmentally-focused groups will be able to learn from what we are doing with somewhat limited resources and primarily volunteer efforts.”

FSPW program coordinator Sandy Compton adds, “I’m looking forward to the privilege of taking these young men into the Scotchmans for the first time. It will be interesting to see how they interpret what they see, hear and learn during their visit with us. Nearly as importantly, I imagine we’ll have a great deal of fun showing them around.”

“We” are the artists and other hikers who will participate in the second annual Extreme Pleinair expedition in the Scotchmans. Perhaps the only pleinair event of its kind, the Extreme Pleinair premiered last summer when Compton led Jared Shear of Thompson Falls, Montana, Aaron Johnson of Moscow, Idaho, and Victor Vosen of Heron, Montana, into the Scotchmans for four days and three nights of what Compton termed “panting and painting.” When they weren’t traversing the challenging terrain of the interior Scotchmans, Shear, Johnson and Vosen produced dozens of watercolors of the upper reaches of Blue Creek, Ross Creek, Spar Creek and Savage Creek, The finished and framed results went on display at the Timberstand Gallery in Sandpoint shortly after the event.

This year’s Extreme Pleinair, July 9 through 13, expands to five days and four nights, and will include Shear, Johnson and a Moscow sculptor, as well as Compton and the film crew. Hough will join the group for a couple of days sometime during the hike.

The 2010 Extreme Pleinair results will be displayed at the Outskirts Gallery in Hope, Idaho, as part of the larger “Paint the Scotchmans” Pleinair event to be held in late September. Glass, Stauble and Foster will be filming in and around the Scotchmans for about two and a half weeks. The final product, which will run 20 to 30 minutes, will be finished sometime in the fall of 2010.

Gladstone is a Native “PoetSinger” and lecturer from the Blackfeet Indian Nation of Montana. Regarded as a cultural bridge builder, he delivers programs nationally on American Indian mythology and history. In a career spanning two decades, Jack has produced fifteen critically acclaimed CD’s. In 1985, Jack co-founded “Native America Speaks”, an award-winning lecture series for Glacier National Park.

Blackfeet Nation entertainer Jack Gladstone will appear in a free concert on June 11 in Libby, Montana, courtesy Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness

A former college instructor, Jack has been featured on both the Travel Channel and in USA Today magazine. Honored as a modern day warrior and bridge builder, he holds a Human Rights Award for Outstanding Community Service from Montana State University. Since 1997, Jack Gladstone has collaborated with Lloyd Maines, Grammy winning producer of the Dixie Chicks. He was also a key tribal voice providing alternate perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition during the recent bicentennial commemoration. In 2004, Jack narrated the Telly award winning Lewis and Clark film Confluence of Time and Courage.

In 2008, 2007 and 2006, Gladstone headlined programs at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indians in Washington D.C.  In the fall of 2008, Jack travelled as Montana’s spokesperson and troubadour for the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree.

The concert on Friday night is free and open to the public.

Olivia Guthrie of Sandpoint, Brittani Wilder of Hope, Amber Kardokus of Heron, Ryan Humphrey of Trout Creek, Thomas Roeder of Troy and Paige Ward of Libby were awarded scholarships by Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness for their winning essays in the annual FSPW essay competition.

Each year, FSPW sponsors a writing competition with themes about wilderness for graduating high school seniors in Lincoln and Sanders Counties, Montana and Bonner County, Idaho. This year’s theme was “Describe how wild country, which still exists near our communities today, influences your life.” Seniors from Clark Fork, Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High Schools in Idaho as well as Troy, Libby, Thompson Falls, Noxon and Plains, Montana, schools, were invited to submit essays, with $250 going to the writer of the best essay from each school, and an additional $250 awarded to the top essay overall.

Olivia Guthrie accepts the congratulations of FSPW board member Carol Jenkins for her winning 2010 Scotchman Peaks essay. Olivia recieved $500 for submitting the best essay overall in this year's competition. Read the entire essay below.

Guthrie, whose essay was deemed best from Sandpoint High, as well as best overall for 2010, writes, “In the wilderness, you are connected to the Earth, not by your phone or internet, but by the simplicity of you bare feet on the cool ground and the aroma of the pine trees wafting around you.”

Wilder took the honor for Clark Fork High School. She wrote, in part, “It is within nature that I feel connected to all living things. One can watch a bird fly above the entire forest, an ant carry a leaf back to its hill, or a deer grazing on an afternoon snack of grass, and it’s evident, we are all connected. The wilderness shows us that. It is a living example of life at its finest.”

Humphrey, whose wrote the best essay from Thompson Falls High, writes “Out in nature, I have never felt so whole or calm. It is something that is truly a gift, and I do not know what I would do with out it. I hope that all can enjoy the beauties of the natural world and protect it for generations to come.”

Kardokus, who took the honor at Noxon High School, wrote, “There are many ways that wild country influences my life. I think the largest impact it has on me, though, is the quality of life it presents. . . . Areas that remain untamed and undeveloped allow for peak health on both physical and spiritual levels. . . .”

Ward, who graduated from Libby High, writes, “Some of my favorite days are spent in amidst the peaks and valleys surrounding our town. There are so many lakes, streams and rivers that are hidden from civilization. I love to sit silently on their shores, gazing into the sunlit sky, listening to the cool breeze flow through the trees as the waves slap against my toes in the water.”

Roeder took the honor for Troy High School. He wrote, in part, “Each time I enter the wilderness, I learn something new. . . . My grandpa says the wilderness has healing powers that fix a man’s soul even in the hardest times.”

“We received a couple of dozen essays this year, and, as always, it was hard to pick who we would give awards to,” said FSPW program coordinator Sandy Compton. “But, it’s satisfying to read wilderness-related essays by young people and know that they were written by the future of our country.”

Read Olivia Guthrie’s winning essay in its entirety below:

Wilderness: it’s what makes Idaho unique, the vast expanse of open, unspoiled land. No roads, no civilization and no other humans for miles around. When you are in the wilderness, you feel so small compared to the miles and miles of forest, meadows, lakes and streams. This incredible feeling of the immensity of our world is something I have had the honor to enjoy throughout my entire life.

I have hiked, swam, paddled, floated and biked over hundreds of miles in the great wildernesses of the Northwest. I have slept under the stars hundreds of nights without seeing a single city glowing over the hills and mountains. Nature brings you back to the beginning of time; ancient rocks that shape the jagged mountains, crisp serene lakes, and streams that over time have wound their way from the mountain tops to their wide bases. It is here that we can find absolute peace and serenity. In the wilderness, you are connected to the Earth, not by your phone or internet, but by the simplicity of your bare feet on the cool ground and the aroma of the pine trees wafting around you.

I know this feeling, nothing can compare to it. It lures me outside every sunny or not so sunny day, and coaxed me to stay out later. I have been able to enjoy so much of this wilderness for one main reason: my doorstep is the great outdoors! With the mountains towering over pristine Lake Pend Oreille as my view, I know I always want to be near the wilderness.

I was fortunate enough to have been born into a family that valued the outdoor experience in its most pure form. My parents respected the wilderness and what it had to offer and tread softly, teaching me and my brother and sister to do the same. We backpacked into the Scotchman Wilderness and Cabinet range countless times (beginning at a very young age) to soak up its grandeur. I have been located so close to the outdoors my whole life that it is the main component of whom I am and will become. I cannot leave this part of me behind regardless of where I end up; I will forever be imprinted with the fragrant breeze, untracked ground and clean water. I will never forget my experience in the wild and always strive for more.

Here’s how MWA describes the Brass Lantern Award: “Each year, the Montana Wilderness Association presents Brass Lantern awards to honor members, friends, and supporters who have given exceptional service to wilderness. The recipients are people who have taken action that promotes Wilderness, quiet trails, and responsible management of our public lands.”

In presenting the award, MWA President Elect and FSPW Vice Chair, Doug Ferrell read his nomination of Bill Martin:

“Bill Martin has been one of the most persistent, thoughtful, original and creative voices for conservation in NW Montana, for nearly 40 years. His friends refer to him simply as “The one and only”.

This is partly because his way of considering problems and opportunities is often brilliantly unique, and leaves listeners scratching their heads, and all the while the gears are running inside their heads, trying to connect the dots that were so obvious to Bill. The eureka moments that follow can be very illuminating.

Bill is an original founder and still a mainstay of the Cabinet Resouce Group, a classic grassroots fixture on the Kootenai Forest for over 30 years. CRG has published a newsletter and promoted a thoughtful approach to resource management, more or less steadily, all this time.

Bill is a forester, hunter, woodsman, tree planter, stonemason, collector of vinyl records, student of philosophy, and with many more talents too numerous or too obscure to mention here. One of his greatest talents is his ability to relate to and form friendships with all kinds of people, especially including the opponents of conservation, and the workers and rural residents around his community near Troy, Montana.

And Bill is a wonderful friend to his many, many friends scattered all over the state. Thank you Bill, for applying your wonderful character to the values we all hold dear – friendship, community, respect and appreciation for the beautiful natural world we all live in.”

Congratulations Bill!!!

posted by Phil Hough