Revive & Thrive, The Nature Conservancy's annual volunteer work party, meets at Lost Horse Meadows.
Join The Nature Conservancy and its partners July 15 for Revive and Thrive, an annual work party and celebration. This year volunteers will help spruce up and restore Lost Horse Meadows, located off Hwy. 200, east of Missoula. The volunteer activity runs from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., followed by free lunch for the volunteers (RSVP to Helen Jenkins at [email protected] or 406-543-6681).
The Nature Conservancy, Blackfoot Challenge and Five Valleys Land Trust collaborate on this annual event, which offers individuals and families a way to connect with nature in a very direct way by helping with onsite restoration work.
Since the Nature Conservancy purchased the land from Plum Creek, the organization has been actively restoring the forests and streams as well as meeting regularly with the community to create a plan for the future of this special place.
Over the years, the Nature Conservancy has worked to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of Montana forests and works hard at restoring the land before it’s handed off to new owners. These areas are popular destinations for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation, and play a key role in the economies of surrounding rural communities.
“It seems like there’s never enough time to do all the things that need doing,” said Steve Kloetzel, TNC’s Western Montana land steward. “But working together between folks in the local community and agency partners, we’ll be able to achieve lasting conservation for this great chunk of ground.”
Revive & Thrive: A history of success
This is the fourth year for Revive and Thrive, which has brought together a couple hundred people. This year they will be hand-thinning young evergreens that are encroaching on aspen groves, picking off and bagging seed heads from noxious weeds and doing some fence maintenance.
Last year, volunteers gathered at Fawn Pond to build a 1.5-mile trail around the ponds, and cut trees and peeled logs for a new footbridge.
In 2016, the work party met at Tupper’s Lake where they cleaned up the woods and campgrounds, limbed trees, piled slash, picked up trash, constructed a trail and installed a “beaver deceiver” to keep beavers from blocking the lake’s outflow.
In 2015 participants thinned encroaching Douglas firs from Primm Meadows where they were threatening the Ponderosa pine grove.
For information and a map to Lost Horse Meadows, visit The Nature Conservancy’s website.
