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GZ will bring you to Stockstad Memorial Wetland and Habitat Area. This cache would be hard in the winter months. You might need a Tribal Permit.
In honor of ‘Stocky'Wildlife habitat near Charlo dedicated to biologist and Renaissance man September 18, 2006 12:00 am • By JOHN STROMNES of the Missoulian CHARLO - If you turn off U.S. Highway 93 on dusty Olsen Road at the top of Post Creek Hill between Ronan and St. Ignatius and travel straight west down the section line, you'll come to a modest parking area behind a split rail fence. Fields of wheat surround you. Far to the west is the Charlo water tower. You are just south of Ninepipe Reservoir and in the midst of the famous Ninepipe pothole region, a glacially formed wetlands dotted with ponds and the occasional stately willow tree. It is a paradise for upland game birds, waterfowl, hawks, herons, turtles - and western Montana hunters, birdwatchers and wildlife photographers. The parking lot, unpaved as yet, is the newest access to some of the best pheasant hunting in western Montana. In the northwest corner, a big boulder guards the enclosure. Coming closer, you'll see a bronze plate, inscribed to the memory of a man who lived nearby. His portrait is emblazoned on the plate in bas relief. The 70-acre Stockstad Memorial Wetland and Habitat Area is named in honor of the late Dwight "Stocky" Stockstad, a Fish and Game agency biologist in the 1950s who went on to carve a career with the U.S. Forest Service Intermountain Fire Science Lab in Missoula. Stockstad was a Renaissance man, his friends say, a person of multiple interests who had enough skill, education and creative talent to fill several lifetimes. He lived those interests to the hilt until his death in 2002 of pancreatic cancer. It was through Stockstad's vision and efforts more than 60 years ago that the state Department of Fish and Game (now Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks) began purchasing the land for public use. The entire Ninepipe Wildlife Management Area, which Stockstad was instrumental in founding in 1953, now comprises about 4,000 acres, with the Stockstad Memorial the most recent addition. "Stocky was one of the first guys working for the Fish and Game to work toward buying land for public benefit. He got the support of all the farmers around here (for the land purchases) when that support was hard to get," said Jim Rogers, who lives near the Stockstad habitat area, and who is the former habitat chairman of Mission Valley Pheasants Forever. Mission Valley Pheasants Forever purchased the Stockstad habitat as time was running out on an offer to sell the property to the state agency. Fish, Wildlife and Parks did not have the funds in hand or approval yet to buy the property. So Pheasants Forever stepped forward and essentially acted as an escrow agent. It then held title until FWP came up with the money to buy the property and incorporate it as wildlife habitat, with public access guaranteed in perpetuity, as part of the Ninepipe WMA. As in all WMA property throughout Montana, the local county government, in this case Lake County, is compensated so bringing it into the public domain results in no loss of local tax revenue. "It was the first piece of property the Mission Valley Pheasants Forever bought," Rogers said of the Stockstad Memorial, which the club dedicated in 2004, two years after Stockstad's death. Rogers said Sid Rundell of Polson was president of the club at the time. Rundell ushered along the sale to a successful conclusion, and proposed that the acreage be named in honor of Stockstad, who lived nearby with his wife Hope in a home they built overlooking a pond. Since his death, Hope Stockstad has sold - at well-below market price - 70 acres of their 80-acre parcel to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for additional wildlife habitat. "This will assure it too will be protected in perpetuity for wildlife," she said in a recent interview. Jim Williams, regional wildlife manager for FWP in Kalispell, said the Stockstad habitat area was one of two recent additions to the public land base at Ninepipe. The acreage was once part of a dairy farm. But it was in the cross hairs of subdividers in the late 1990s. Ironically, as the dairy and farming businesses in the Mission Valley waned, property values in the unique "pothole" pond region didn't decrease. Instead, the price of land shot up because of its value as subdividable residential home sites. (This occurred before a countywide density zoning regulation was approved by the county commission in 2005, which provides some control to rural sprawl.) "The No. 1 crop that landowners are growing these days are homes," Williams said. But with the help of Pheasants Forever, and the support of landowners who prefer wildlife habitat over development, many acres of this unique area have been preserved for wildlife. In addition to the 4,000 state-owned acres in the wildlife management area, habitat surrounding the Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge includes approximately 3,000 acres of land of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and 2,000 acres of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conservation easements. Much of the tribal acreage is open to the public for recreation and hunting, with proper permits. Although the separate 2,000-acre Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge itself is off-limits to hunting, public access is still allowed, and the reservoir is a popular fishery for bass and perch. Closure of the refuge itself to hunting enhances the quality of hunting on surrounding lands by providing a sanctuary for game birds during hunting season, wildlife biologists believe. "There's really been a lot of wonderful projects. There are many private landowners who are willing to consider selling their property for future public use, versus growing homes," Williams said. "For a lot of Montana folks, these public lands are the only 'family' farms they'll ever own." How to get there Directions from Missoula to the Stockstad Memorial Wetland and Habitat Area in the heart of the publicly owned Ninepipe Wildlife Management Area: Drive north on U.S. Highway 93 about 50 miles north of Missoula and turn left on Olsen Road, just south of Ninepipes Lodge. Travel west 3.5 miles or so and watch for the fenced-in parking lot on your right about halfway between Charlo and the highway. Reporter John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or jstromnes@missoulian.com.
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