

■JJ---' 



— :^.W^\. 



Regular school class- 

 rooms in the Great Falls 

 area have just turned 

 green with envy at the 

 "competition"— a 100- 

 acre "outdoor classroom" re- 

 cently made available to the 

 Cascade County Conservation 

 District by the Montana Power 

 Company. 



Shown in part in the pic- 

 ture above, the area was 

 leased to the CCCD on a 

 public service basis by the 

 MPCo. 



Louis G. Brewer, Great Falls 

 division manager for the MPCo., 

 in making the land presenta- 

 tion, pointed out: 



". . . We feel the Cascade 

 County Conservation District 

 in conjunction with the Soil 

 Conservation Society of Amer- 

 ica and the Nature and Wildlife 

 Society will manage this natural 

 area for the benefit of many 

 people of the Great Falls city 

 and surrounding communities." 



Present plans for develop- 

 ment of the area include fencing 

 and posting plus the construc- 

 tion of self-guided nature 

 trails so that school children and 

 other visitors can learn of the 

 various plants and soils in the 

 area. 



10 IHb CASUAL observer, il s /usl rough rolling land, not unlike 

 the hundreds of miles that border the Missouri River east of Great 

 Falls. To members of the Cascade County Conservation District, 

 however, the nearly JOO acres that were turned over to them by 

 the Montana Power Company provides a unique study area 



Located approximately seven miles east ol Great Falls on the 

 north side of the Missouri, above Cochrane Dam. the 1 00 acre 

 "outdoor classroom " wilt be used for environmental studies by 

 school children of the area. (For further pictures and articles, see 

 Page 3 ) 



^ 



Vol. XXXIV, No. 2 



March/April/May, 1972 



Again in 1972, the Mon- 

 tana Association of Con- 

 servation Districts, in 

 cooperation with Mon- 

 tana Associated Utili- 

 ties, is sponsoring a high school 

 level state-wide speech contest. 



Subject for the 1972 con- 

 test is "Land Use Planning" 

 with 3500 in college scholar- 

 ships to be awarded the three 

 top winners in the state con- 

 test ($250, SI 50 and SI 00) 

 to be held at Miles City, 

 Nov. 14. 



Any boy or girl attending 

 high school, grades 9-12, in 

 Montana is eligible to partici- 

 pate, according to Yugo Nay- 

 ematsu, MACD education chair- 

 man in charge of the program. 

 The winner and runner-up of 



individual high school con- 

 tests, held earlier this spring, 

 will meet in District-level com- 

 petitions to be completed by 

 Sept. 1 5. Area competitions 

 will be held prior to Oct. 20. 



7776 finalists from the 

 six Area-level competitions 

 will vie for scholarship 

 honors at MACD's annual 

 meeting, Nayematsu said. 



Money for the scholarships 

 is provided by MAU, statewide 

 association of Montana's rural 

 electric cooperatives, with 

 Riley Childers, executive secre- 

 tary, to make the final presen- 

 tation at the Miles City meet- 

 ing. 



Every time the phone rings 

 at the offices of the 

 MACD these days, every- 

 one in the office grabs 

 for it — hoping for "good 

 news" on MACD's proposal for 

 federal funding of its SEEK 

 Project— a cooperative program 

 submitted by the Montana As- 

 sociation of Conservation Dis- 

 tricts and the State Office of 

 Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction. 



To date, the ringing phone 

 has not produced tidings — 

 either good or bad Theoretic- 

 ally, the grant decisions for the 

 next fiscal year were to have 

 been announced prior to May 

 15. At this writing (June 30), 

 the more worthy proposals 



(some 1,700) were submitted 

 and MACD's was ranked in the 

 top five per cent, according to 

 unofficial word from Washing- 

 ton, D.C.) are still sitting on the 

 desk of the U.S. Commissioner 

 of Education, awaiting his final 

 decision. 



"Unfortunately," according to 

 Ray Fenton, MACD's public in- 

 formation chairman and one of 

 the drafters of the SEEK Proj- 

 ect proposal, "the whole pro- 

 gram appears to have become 

 involved in a political log-jam. 



"Despite repeated efforts to 

 find out the status of the pro- 

 posal, both individually and by 

 members of Montana's Con- 

 gressional delegation, nothing 

 definitive has been released on 



MACD's program proposal. 

 The lack of activity at the feder- 

 al level was the reason, earlier 

 this month, for the plea for 

 help from Montana's conserva- 

 tion district supervisors— let- 

 ters, wires, telephone calls to 

 key education office personnel 

 and our Congressional delega- 

 tion," Fenton said. 



"Although, we feel that the 

 caliber of the proposed program 

 will ultimately insure its favor- 

 able consideration, we are not 

 so naive as to believe that right 

 will always triumph," Bob And- 

 erson, MACD president said. 

 "And 1 hope that those of you 

 so inclined will continue to 

 'keep the pressure on' until the 

 project becomes a reality." 



Deadline time is fast ap- 

 proaching for Montana's 

 Conservation Districts 

 planning to participate in 

 MACD's "Conservation 

 Yearbook for 1972," accord- 

 ing to Ray Fenton, MACD pub- 

 lic information chairman. 



As previously announced, 

 publication of the Yearbook is 

 planned in conjunction with 

 MACD's annual meeting pro- 

 gram. Each of the state's Con- 

 servation Districts is asked to 

 submit pictures and/or copy 

 illustrating a key conservation 

 project in their district which 

 will then be featured in the 



Yearbook 



Deadline date for the 

 districts to indicate their 

 intention to participate in 

 the program is 1 Sept. 



Those districts able to help 

 finance the publication by in- 

 cluding a check for S50 with 

 their notification of cooperation 

 are asked to notify the state 

 office by the same date. How- 

 ever, such payment is not man- 

 datory, and Fenton urged that 

 ALL districts try to participate 

 in the Yearbook whether they 

 are financially able to help fi- 

 nance the book or not, 



"Unless every Conservation 

 District in the state participates 

 in providing copy and/or pic- 

 tures, the concept of a Year- 

 book of Conservation must be 

 meaningless," Fenton said. 



