Driving while thinking: A better idea
If you need any more reason to be careful on area roads, consider this: The highest number of highway crashes in the state last year was in Northwest Montana.
The numbers came from a Montana Highway Patrol report, which indicated troopers investigated 2,207 crashes (3.2 wrecks per 1,000 miles driven) in Flathead, Lake, Sanders and Lincoln counties.
More numbers for thought: Flathead County led the state with 30 fatal crashes and Lake County was second with 22 fatalities.
These aren't exactly the types of lists that we really want to lead.
A rising number of motorists on sometimes-narrow roads is a prime reason for our area's accident surge.
"Kalispell has had a huge increase in the number of people, but [much of] its traffic is on two-lane highways, and most of them are unimproved," a regional Patrol commander explained. "You have a population rate growing much faster than the infrastructure."
Since we can't expect that many roadways are going to be widened soon, the solution might be for all of us to be a little more careful when we're behind the wheel.
The University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station may be at the leading edge of scientific research thanks to a recent grant.
The station received a three-year, $4.6 million grant to continue research on pristine trout and salmon watersheds along the Pacific Rim.
The goal of the project is to complete a massive, in-depth study of these rivers by examining geology, chemistry, vegetation, aquatic organisms, stream flows and more.
The research promises to be another feather in the cap of the Flathead Lake station.
Looking for something to do this weekend?
A different sort of family outing awaits people who venture to the Family Forestry Expo this weekend in the North Valley.
The 18th annual expo features a popular forest walk with educational stations and demonstrations ranging from fisheries to wildfire to GPS navigation. There also will be logging and logging-sports demonstrations.
Events run all day Saturday and Sunday at the Trumbull Creek Educational Forest two miles north of the intersection of U.S. 2 and Montana 40.