A small herd of elk run across the meadows below Dahl Lake on the Lost Trail National Wildlife Refuge in Pleasant Valley. The refuge about 20 miles northwest of Marion provides winter range for about 300 elk and year-round habitat for a variety of wildlife. The approximately 8,000 acres, which used to be working cattle and horse ranches, was acquired by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1999 as a way to mitigate for wildlife losses and impacts on the Flathead Lake Waterf…

July 13, 2008