Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 5.21.14

22 | MAY 21, 2014
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over time, and an incremental and
FREE UPGRADE NETTING
transparent decision-making process
TO LEGACY SCREEN
Continued from page 5
that includes public involvement. Each 40 VALUE
year a team of isheries professionals $
while supporting a stable, or “secure,” will review the results, followed by pub-
population of native species, says bull lic scoping and review by the Reserva- THROUGH
trout levels in the Flathead Basin are tion Fish and Wildlife Advisory Board, FATHERS DAY
stable as deined by the previous co- and concluding with a decision by the with coupon
management plan.
Tribal Council.

CSKT Tribal Council then recom- The netting was conducted under a
mended an aggressive reduction of permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wild-
nonnative lake trout in Flathead Lake, life Service to address the incidental by-
supporting a preferred alternative that catch of bull trout, a threatened species.
would allow for the reduction of 75 per- Wade Fredenberg of the USFWS
cent of the adult lake trout population in monitored the netting for compliance
Flathead Lake.
and, after the review, stated that “the

That alternative recommended a results were exactly what we expected
harvest of 143,000 lake trout every year, – a high lake trout catch with virtual-
but Hansen said CSKT is moving for- ly no bull trout bycatch. As a result, we
ward cautiously as it continues to assess continue to give our full support to this
and evaluate their suppression methods.
adaptive efort to incrementally reduce
He said the plan calls for removing lake trout numbers.”
25,000 ish by way of the general recre- Clint Muhlfeld, an aquatics ecologist
ational harvest, 45,000 ish through the at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Glacier

spring Mack Days ishing contest, which National Park ield station, hailed the
ended May 18, and between 20,000 and suppression efort as one of the largest
30,000 ish through gill-netting.
ever, and encouraged the tribe to move
The tribes prepared the plan to be a forward deliberately but aggressively.
living document, subject to annual re- “The quicker the better to get this to
views and course corrections, rather a manageable level,” he said. “Go big or
than as a rigid and inlexible plan.
go home.”

In addition, the plan describes [email protected]
changes in the ishery of Flathead Lake

MCKEFFICK

Continued from page 19
closely in the college’s welding shop.
When McKeick went under the hood
to weld, Erb joined him. After a few se-
mesters, though, McKeick was working
gree in welding and nondestructive test- solo.
ing.
On the hard days, he would think
Challenges surfaced right away.
of his family, including his newborn
McKeick left Great Falls with a daughter who is now ive months old. On

ifth-grade proiciency in math and sev- his welding helmet he wrote, “Dream to
enth-grade reading level. At FVCC, he achieve our goals. Believe in yourself for
needed to be able to understand college- it will guide you.”
level material and meet higher stan- Earlier this year he passed his pro-
dards in reading and math.
fessional certiication test. Then last
So for two years he studied every- Friday the 29-year-old walked onstage
thing he could get his hands on, either on at FVCC’s graduation wearing a cap and

his own or with a translator. He took as gown and accepted his degree. McKef-
many classes as he could it into his busy ick had a job waiting for him right away.
schedule, alongside working and raising It will utilize his welding skills and, as
his daughter as a single parent.
he hoped, make it easier to raise his two
“He pushes himself pretty hard,” daughters.
said Roddy “Mort” Hill, coordinator of “This is an amazing achievement,”
FVCC’s welding and metal fabrication Erb said of McKeick’s graduation.
program.
The blend of nervousness and excite-

Within a few semesters, his reading ment of graduating settled in for McKef-
and math skills skyrocketed and he ad- ick in the days leading up to May 16.
vanced to the next challenge.
“It’s kind of scary. But at the same
Learning the intricate hands-on time it feels really good because I’m
skillset of plasma cutting and NDT re- about to be done. But I’m not really sure
quires a fervent attention to detail using I want it to be over because I kind of
a variety of senses.
want to stay here,” he said.

McKeick was immediately at a dis- “My favorite experience at this col-
advantage.
lege would be the staf, the other stu-
“Half of welding is what you hear. If dents and the people here. I have become
you can’t hear what the welding rod is very good friends with a lot of them.
telling you, you’re missing a whole lot,” They helped inspire me to continue and
Hill said.
to be persistent. If it weren’t for all of
It only drove McKeick to work them I wouldn’t be sitting right here.”
harder.
And as others around him can attest,

Days on end, he and a translator, who the inspiration went both ways.
was most often Kimber Erb, worked
[email protected]