All it takes a few crunchy footsteps on the dry leaves blanketing the ground and deer will raise their whitetails high in the air and bound away in all directions.

These deer, while an important part of the diverse ecosystem in the Bitterroot Valley, are making it hard on some of the trees and shrubs that make up riparian habitat, said Sam Lawry, director of conservation at The Teller, a private conservation property north of Corvallis, formerly the Teller Wildlife Refuge.

Whitetail deer love to eat the young tree sprouts as they emerge, he said.

Last summer, with help from a special grant through the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Environmental Quality Initiatives Program, The Teller fenced more than four acres of their riparian habitat with specialized electric fencing in an effort to keep whitetail out and promote the growth of shrubs and trees.

“When I first got here in 2006, one of the first things I realized was the structural diversity and age class of the riparian gallery was lacking,” Lawry said.

Essentially, this means that the cottonwoods, willows, and aspens that make up a key piece of the riparian habitat were all mature, but the young trees and shrubs weren’t sprouting up to replace them.

This lack of diversity has an effect on migrating neo-tropical songbirds, Lawry said. The EQIP grant was part of a special program in western Montana to address migrating bird habitat.

Neo-tropical songbirds are essentially birds that migrate south to the region between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn to winter, said Sharon Ritter, an ornithologist who is monitoring the bird population within the project area for The Teller.

“One of the problems there and other places in the valley where there’s a high deer population is the deer are eating down the shrubs and the young trees,” Ritter said.

Good habitat for migrating songbirds has a variety in age and size of shrubs and trees. Some birds, like flickers, need the older trees and the cavities they provide, for nesting. Other birds, like the MacGillivray’s warbler nest in the ground shrubs, she said.

Neo-tropical songbirds nest in the Bitterroot Valley, as well as use it for a stopover place when migrating both north and south, Ritter said. Besides having places to nest, these birds predominantly feed on insects.

“You get more insects in a denser under story layer than you would in an open under story, which is what The Teller has right now,” she said.

Electrobraid Fencing out of Canada produced The Teller’s new electric fence, Lawry said. It’s much different than what most people think of as electric fencing. Rather than being made up of charged metal wires, it’s composed of an elastic braided cord, which will stretch if a tree or branch falls on it.

The fence is 72 inches high and roughly 2,000 feet long. It’s powered by solar panels and a battery system that can keep the fence operating for five days without sunlight, Lawry said.

To demonstrate the elastic ability of the fence, he shut off the power to the elastic braids and pulled down on the top wire. He was able to stretch the top wire nearly to the ground. When he let go, it snapped back into place.

A few deer have found their way into the enclosure, Lawry said, but they didn’t stay there long. Deer are social creatures and once the herd moved away from the fence, the ones caught inside made the effort to get out.

The fence is also portable. The plan is to keep the fence where it is for about five years so the young trees and shrubs can establish themselves and then move it to another area, he said. However, he’s flexible.

“It might prove that we need to keep it in longer to establish a certain height class that could withstand a certain amount of browse,” Lawry said.

The blooming whitetail deer population isn’t the only reason why the riparian habitat is struggling to rejuvenate itself on portions of The Teller.

Cottonwoods and willows also reseed themselves during floods, Ritter said. Floodwaters wet the ground around the trees, which then drop their seeds.

“The thing that the Bitterroot has going for it is that it still floods and it’s the flooding that allows cottonwoods to grow,” she said.

However, in many places in the valley, and particularly at The Teller, a major flooding event hasn’t occurred for some time. The combination of whitetail grazing and the lack of a major flood have kept the young cottonwoods and willows from growing well in places on The Teller, Ritter said.

The places along the Bitterroot River where the riparian habitat is doing well are typically areas that commonly flood, she said.

Even though it’s early in the electric fencing project, the evidence of future success is growing through the mat of autumn leaves. Cottonwood, willow and alder shoots are already evident within the enclosure. Outside the fence it’s a different story.

“I think you could fairly say that walk through the unfenced portions of Teller and it was difficult to find a young cottonwood shoot,” Lawry said.

Like any project on The Teller, Lawry hopes this one will provide examples for other landowners.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is utilize and test certain conservation tactics that other landowners can use and learn from,” he said.

It wouldn’t be prudent to use this type of fencing over a large area, Lawry said. Smaller areas work better because it is less disruptive for the deer and other larger animal species that use the riparian area.

The important thing for other landowners, who might be interested in using electric fencing to reestablish riparian areas, to consider a long-term vision for their property, he said. Then the fence could be used as one tool to reach that goal.

In addition to excluding deer from the enclosure, The Teller is going to plant several species of shrubs and trees within the enclosure on this coming Earth Day, April 22.

For more information on the project or to volunteer for Earth Day project, contact The Teller at 961-3507.

Group seeking donations to help countywide planning effort

By Greg Lemon

Last year, an ad hoc group of citizens involved in the Ravalli County zoning process, decided it was going to take more money than the county could pony up, so they went looking for more funds.

That pursuit led them to the Brainerd Foundation, a Seattle-based non-profit conservation organization, said David Schultz, a member of the Ravalli County planning board’s land use subcommittee.

“We saw that (countywide zoning) was going to be a big job and it was going to take a lot of resources,” Shultz said at a press conference Wednesday in Hamilton.

Now the group is looking to the community to contribute money to match part of the Brainerd Foundation’s grant.

“We’re asking the community to step forward and help us run through the finish line,” Shultz said.

The Brainerd Foundation donated $100,000 to Ravalli County in the past year for the countywide zoning project and is committed to donating $200,000 for the total project. But to make that happen the community needs to help raise $176,000 in matching funds, Shultz said.

The grant oversight committee has been raising money to match Brainerd’s grant for the past several months. This committee is made up of a handful of citizens from a variety of interests in the county, Schultz said. The committee is charged with ensuring the county is using the funds in accordance with the grant, as well as raising the matching money, he said.

The oversight committee has raised $60,000 in matching money over the past several months. They need $40,000 more by April 1 and another $76,000 by mid-summer, Shultz said.

Thus far they’ve raised money from a diverse representation of people, businesses and organizations in the Bitterroot Valley, including the Bitterroot Building Industry Association, Bitterrooters For Planning, and the Bitterroot Resort.

The Bitter Root Land Trust is serving as the fiduciary agent for the grant and will be the organization people can donate funds to for the countywide zoning project.

The grant from the Brainerd Foundation and the community support for the interim zoning ordinance that was passed by voters in November 2006 shows the enthusiasm for countywide zoning, said Ravalli County commissioner, Carlotta Grandstaff.

“You might remember it wasn’t that long ago that you couldn’t say zoning in this community unless it was in a whisper,” Grandstaff said. “We’ve come a long ways.”

Grandstaff and fellow county commissioner Jim Rokosch, wrote checks toward the cause at the press conference.

Chip Pigman – a local developer, member of the Ravalli County planning board and president of the Bitterroot Building Industry Association – is pleased with the countywide zoning project, in part because it will add more predictability to developers and landowners. The current process for getting developments approved isn’t fun for anyone, Pigman said.

“I feel like we can get something good out of (the countywide zoning) for the community and my industry,” he said. “I think it’s good to get people involved and speak their interest.”

The countywide zoning is part of Ravalli County’s Countywide Planning and Enhancement Program, which also includes developing a rural resource planning program and updating the current subdivision regulations. The total cost of the CPEP is estimated to be nearly $822,000 through June 2009, said Karen Hughes, director of the Ravalli County planning department.

However, not everyone at Wednesday’s press conference was happy with the way things are going with the zoning project. Jan Wisniewski is a member of the Darby community planning committee, which is one of seven in the valley. The CPCs were formed to aid the county in the zoning process and are saddled with recommending zoning districts around their respective communities.

But they aren’t getting any money from the county for community outreach, Wisniewski said. The Darby CPC has stopped all official proceedings until they receive money from the county for community mailings, he said.

Grandstaff and Hughes told him the county was planning to do a mass mailing to let people know about the zoning project in April and July.

Earlier would be better, Wisniewski said. His group is supposed to be deciding on and mapping zoning districts in February and March, he said. It needs to get the community input now and still it doesn’t have money for outreach.

It was unclear at the press conference whether the money already received from the Brainerd Foundation would be used for to aid the CPCs in immediate outreach. However, Grandstaff assured Wisniewski the Darby CPC would get some money for that effort.

People interested in donating to the cause can go to any of the six local Farmers State Bank locations or send checks to the Bitter Root Land Trust at P.O. Box 1806, Hamilton, 59840.

For more information, contact the land trust at 375-0956.

Baucus hears rural health care needs and concerns

By Greg Lemon

Rural health providers are facing challenges on several levels, said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, at a lunch forum in Hamilton Thursday.

The struggle with Medicare reimbursements are hurting family physicians and urban hospitals and health facilities are siphoning money away from rural hospitals, Baucus told about 80 local citizens and health care professionals during the hour-long forum at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital.

Baucus, chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee told the crowd that Montana was lucky.

“All of you are fortunate in a sense,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve had a Montanan chair this committee.”

Baucus has served in the Senate for 29 years and his currently running for a sixth term.

Montana’s concerns about rural health care are shared by other states and with his position in the Senate, Baucus assured the crowd those concerns will certainly be addressed.

The current health care system makes it easier for urban health centers to qualify for money, Baucus said. However, previous legislation Baucus championed has allowed rural hospitals, like Marcus Daly, to be identified as critical access hospitals. This designation makes more funding available and is essential because the small hospitals are crucial in rural areas, he said.

Out of the 55 hospitals in Montana, 47 are designated critical access.

“You can’t help but notice the funding advantage of being a critical access care hospital,” said emergency room doctor Brian Kelleher.

However, proposals are coming forward in Congress that would freeze the increase in funding for rural hospitals, Baucus said. He plans to fight those proposals.

“I don’t think it’s right that Montana hospitals (face) a $10 million cut over the next three years,” he said. “My main goal back there is to get them to understand that rural areas must have a hospital.”

Baucus supports a simplification of the Medicare system, which he said is plagued with “fat and waste.” This drives up costs of health care by complicating the system.

“We spend twice as much per capita (for health care) as the next most expensive country,” he said. “We spend 18 percent of all our health care dollars on administrative costs. We have a very complex system and it’s unnecessarily complex.”

In Ravalli County, mental health patients are putting a strain on everyone from emergency room staff to the local sheriff’s department, Kelleher said.

“Mental Health resources are few and far between,” he said.

Though Marcus Daly is currently expanding their emergency room facilities, thanks in large part to their critical access hospital designation, it still doesn’t account for the needs of their mental health patients, Kelleher said.

The hospital is strained by the increase in mental health patients and the lack of long-term mental health facilities in the state. Often the emergency room is the place where patients with psychiatry emergencies are brought, he said. These patients often need long-term care, but none is available. So they are released back into the community only to be admitted again when another emergency arises.

“Resources for further care both inpatient and intensive out-patient is somewhat lacking,” he said.

John Bartos, Marcus Daly CEO, suggested Baucus help Montana establish a mental health residency program, which could bring more mental health doctors to the state.

Kelleher also spoke about the reimbursement problems with Medicare. Many physicians are struggling with receiving reimbursements for Medicare patients, he said. This is forcing doctors to consider how many Medicare patients they see.

The fact is the American health care system is broken and needs a major change, Baucus said. Nearly 47 million Americans don’t have health care, but Baucus sees a change coming with the next administration.

“In 2009, we’ll see a major health care proposal for this country,” he said.

Baucus also addressed the problem of retaining family doctors, which has become a problem of late because of Medicare reimbursement. Medical students understand they can make more money as a specialist, because they get more of a reimbursement for Medicare patients, he said.

He pledged to address the reimbursement problem “to make sure we get a bigger bump in the reimbursement for family practice... I have a hunch we can do a little better.”

The current health care system is nearing the point of crisis, Baucus said. This crisis will necessitate changes. These changes will need bipartisan support, which will hopefully come from the next president.

“If whoever is elected president is really non-partisan about this issue, that will go a long, long way,” he said.

Despite regulations, streamside property still valuable

By Greg Lemon

Streamside property in Montana is valuable, no matter the restrictions on it, said Rocky Haralson, Montana Department of Revenue’s Region 4 bureau chief.

“Proximity to water is everything,” Haralson told about 60 people at a meeting of Ravalli County’s streamside setback committee last week.

Haralson spoke to the group and interested citizens about how the Montana Department of Revenue values property for taxation purposes. The committee asked him to speak about how streamside setbacks and zoning could affect property values.

The streamside setback committee is working on setback regulations for the county and is due to have them to the Ravalli County commissioners some time this summer.

The committee has already developed an interim setback ordinance and presented it to the county commissioners in November. The commissioners have made no move to implement them.

Property values are based on facts, Haralson repeatedly stated. These facts are based on things like comparable sales, neighborhoods and to some extent regulations. In Montana, property is reassessed every six years. The next reassessment will be in 2009.

Tom Robak, who owns property on the West Fork of the Bitterroot River, asked Haralson if a property were zoned so that a home would have to be moved away from the stream, would that affect its value?

Robak is concerned with the language in the interim streamside setback regulation that doesn’t explicitly say a home built within the setback will be allowed to stay in perpetuity.

“If in fact that building couldn’t remain in that spot, then (the value) could go down,” Haralson said.

But his experience is that waterfront property, no matter where the home is situated on it, is more valuable than property without any water frontage.

As an example, he pointed to Whitefish Lake, where some properties have homes built right on the water and some well off the lake.

“The fact that the property abutted water and provided access seemed to be the driving factor in sales prices,” Haralson said.

Another audience member asked about streamside property that had restrictions on it that wouldn’t allow building within 100 feet of the river.

“If (the restriction) makes an impact, it will show in the market value,” Haralson said.

Those market values are part of the facts appraisers work with when figuring out the value of a property. If government regulations reduce the value of a piece of property, the market will demonstrate it.

On any given piece of property, the highest valued acre is the one where the home is built, said Debbie Reesman, Department of Revenue area manager.

Property values are broken down to acres, she said. If you own a home on 20 acres, the most valuable acre for tax purposes is the acre with the home. If the remaining acres have building restrictions, chances are its not going to reduce the value of the property for tax purposes.

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