Prairies to Potholes
2024 Annual Meeting, June 28-30, 2024 — Friday thru Sunday
The Clark Fork Chapter is hosting MNPS 35th annual meeting at Camp Utmost on Highway 200 in the Blackfoot Valley. The area is one of the most diverse in western Montana with myriad wetlands in a matrix of grasslands and open forest, what Meriwether Lewis called the “Valley of the Knobs.” To the north are the high mountains of the Mission and Swan ranges. The venue, Camp Utmost, is located at mile 30.5 on Highway 200, 42 miles east of Missoula and 1.5 miles west of Clearwater Junction, where state highways 200 and 83 intersect at the Big Bull.
12901 Camp Utmost Way
Greenough, MT 59823
Register online here beginning April 1 through June 21
- Meals will be catered, with dairy-free and gluten-free options. (Bring your own lunch for Saturday)
- Chaperoned activities for kids ages 2-11 available on Saturday after breakfast.
- Wi-fi is available at the camp, but cell phone service is very limited in the area.
- Camp Utmost asks attendees to avoid the use of alcohol, cigarettes, and non-prescription drugs on the grounds.
- No pets allowed on the grounds – or at MNPS activities generally.
Friday, June 28
- 3:00-6:00 Arrive, register, and sign up for field trips, with a social and snacks before dinner.
- 6:00 Dinner served in the main hall.
- 8:00 Tim Ryan will share his experience with traditional ecological knowledge and ethnobotany in Montana. Tim is the department head of the Culture and Language Studies and the Indigenous STEM instructor at the Salish Kootenai College.
Saturday, June 29
- 6:30-8:00 Breakfast served in the main hall.
- 8:30-4:30 Field trips depart around 8:30 am. Field trips offer a range of drive-times and lengths/difficulties of hikes, so return times will vary accordingly. Most should return by 4:30. Don’t forget to pack a lunch!
- 4:00-5:30 Test your knowledge in the annual Wayne Phillips Plant ID contest.
- 5:30-7:00 Dinner served in the main hall.
- 7:00-8:30 Auction to support MNPS, along with a general membership meeting, and a slide show of photos from last year’s field trips.
Sunday June 30
- 7:00-9:00 Breakfast served in the main hall.
- 8:30-9:30 MNPS committee meetings – meetings are open to all, so join in to learn about what MNPS is up to!
- 10:00 Field trips will depart around 10 am
- 12:00 Break camp by noon.
Lodging preference will be based on date of paid registration. Four types of accommodations are available:
- Eight log cabins that each sleep up to 16 people in bunk beds. There are 2 bath houses located nearby with multiple restrooms and showers (with stalls) for those staying in cabins, tents and RVs.
- Ten bedrooms that each sleep up to 4 people in the 2-story dormitory. Rooms are furnished with bunkbeds or double beds, and have ensuite bathrooms with showers. One room is ADA accessible.
- Twenty RV spaces with electrical hook-ups, with more space available for dry-docking.
- Tent camping – space is unlimited!
Motels are available 15 miles away in Seeley Lake or Ovando.
What we did in 2023
We explored the broad sagebrush steppe and southern Pioneer Mountains of southwest Montana. Our meeting site at Bannack State Park lay among extensive grasslands, incised by the Grasshopper Creek drainage, that support a rich native flora in diverse ecological settings, while the adjacent granite-cored mountains are timbered with conifers including the embattled Whitebark pine. Native Americans long used the region, crossing Badger Pass to reach the eastern bison herds. Later history embraced the gold rush of the 1860s, with Montana‘s first significant gold strike on Grasshopper Creek, establishing Bannack as Montana’s first capital and the reign of the vigilantes.
PETS ARE NOT ALLOWED ON MNPS ACTIVITIES
Annual meeting photos
Click on the captions to see photos from past annual meetings shared by generous participants. Please enjoy the pictures and respect the talents and work of the photographers – i.e. please don’t steal their work.