Greetings, Beacon Nation! As much as I’ve enjoyed our extended summer, yesterday’s cool weather helped me blink free of a seasonal fugue state that’s held me captive since Labor Day. It’s a recurring symptom of September: Two competing forces bear down on me, at once heralding a peaceful passage to fall while also haranguing me to wring the last droplets of moisture out of summer.

But in limbo I lie no more. I can even locate the precise moment over the weekend when something switched in the atmosphere and I surrendered to the seasonal shift.

It arrived during an al-fresco bagel breakfast, while sunning my forearms on a patio beneath clusters of ripening elderberries. Their sweet floral fragrance seemed to turn musky and sour in real time, the conversion occurring between bites of bagel crowned with diadems of peach jam. I was overcome with the urge to preserve the moment in a Ball jar and store it in the root cellar of my imagination, interring the memory and squirreling it away for winter, when I’ll excavate its sweet syrup and reignite the magic of Montana’s seasonal metamorphosis.

I’m Tristan Scott, wishing you all well as you bid your own fond farewells to summer, and welcoming you to your Monday edition of the Daily Roundup.

Preserving memories of summer seems rather inconsequential compared to the family land legacies that were permanently protected last week through the establishment of a new conservation easement west of Whitefish. The news was announced today by the Flathead Land Trust, whose latest effort to safeguard property and wildlife habitat vulnerable to development occurred in the Star Meadows area, including a stretch of creek in the Tally Lake (pictured below) watershed.

“This land protection agreement secures the future of a 52-acre forested property, the culmination of a combined family conservation effort that has assembled the parcels since the mid-70s,” according to the Flathead Land Trust’s announcement.

The land’s history stretches back to the 1920s, when it was part of a remote 160-acre homestead, settled along a clean, clear tributary of Logan Creek that meanders through the property for a third of a mile, ultimately flowing into Tally Lake.

According to Laura Katzman, land protection specialist with Flathead Land Trust, protection of the remote forested property adds to an interconnected network of open space and quality habitat at a landscape scale. Adjacent to Flathead National Forest land on three sides, the conservation effort safeguards wildlife habitat and helps protect the natural integrity of the region for future generations.

“We really appreciate the foresight of landowners we work with to secure the future of their land and protect our abundant wildlife, exceptional water quality, and special places in northwest Montana,” according to Katzman.

The newly protected property includes a mix of upland forest and thick riparian forest, providing a variety of habitats for black bear, elk, white-tailed deer, beaver, coyotes, and occasionally grizzly bear and moose. It is also home to many bird species, including pileated woodpeckers, western tanagers, and chestnut-backed chickadees.

“In spring and summer, the northern forested hillside comes alive with plentiful pink orchids known as fairy slippers and abundant blooming bear grass beneath a canopy of subalpine fir, Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, and Engelmann spruce,” Katzman said. “The southern hillside explodes with brilliant yellow as its western larch trees change color each fall.”

I suspect the Flathead Valley’s hillsides will glow a brighter shade of gold very soon. In the meantime, let’s get on to the rest of the Daily Roundup.

What You Can Buy for About $600,000: In Romy Caro’s latest real estate roundup, she features a Kalispell home in the Buffalo State subdivision; a Whitefish home with a detached guest house; and a cabin on 5 acres near Flathead Lake. See all the listings here.