Trego's Mountain Ear

"Serving North Lincoln County"

Category: A Science for Everyone

  • Montana’s Greatest Climatologist

    My one class in climate studies was about 40 years ago at Montana State University.  The professor was Joe Caprio . . . yeah, “The Father of Scientific Phenology.”  It’s interesting how many state climatologists make their starts as meteorologists.  Anyway, I was back in school, getting enough credits in ag engineering to qualify as a professional with SCS, and when I took his class on climate, and when he learned of my experience in snow surveys, it became Mike and Joe – a very honored Mike that was told “Call me Joe.”

    Dr. Caprio’s specialization and research was climate events that occurred simultaneously with the first bloom of the common lilac.  Phenology is the study of cyclical plant and animal life events and how climate influences them.  If memory serves, evapotranspiration has used 8.2 inches of soil water when the lilacs bloom.  The blooms come at different times in different places, but always at the same number of growing degree days.  Beans, cucumbers and squash should be planted when the lilacs are in full bloom – it correlates with soil temperatures.  Lettuce should be planted when lilacs begin to leaf out. I didn’t remember these over the past 40 years, I looked them up here, and the site has a lot of other correlates that will help planting your garden if you have a lilac around.

    In Montana – heck, across the west, lilacs were planted at most homesteads, and in most towns.  The first leaf, the first blossom, full bloom, all provided specific points of data to Dr. Caprio.  Of course his research included standardizing the lilac, and providing clones to volunteers who would note the significant dates of blossoming, leaf growth, etc.  To Joe Caprio, climatology was everyone’s science, and while his research depended on many volunteers, the projects were inexpensive.  He taught that science is method, and in my later career, I realized that by using U-haul rates as a proxy for migration data that didn’t exist, I just extrapolated from the lessons Dr. Caprio gave me as I mixed sociology and ag engineering to begin my own professional career. 

    This article describes the studies that originated with Dr. Joe Caprio at MSU: This one is also worth reading.

  • Searching Lincoln County Data

    There’s a long-term question of whether North Lincoln County gets fairly treated in county services.  Back when the county was created in 1909, it made sense – everything drained into the Kootenai (except for Stryker, and driving 93 toward Kalispell makes it easy to see how that mistake was made.)  Sixty years later, Libby Dam removed the towns along the Kootenai that were the middle of the county.  Since then, Lincoln County has existed with a center that is “drive-through” and commerce from Eureka generally goes along highway 93. 

    The easiest way to get the taxable values data is to search by school districts.  The Office of Public Instruction shows them, and we only need to check the 3 high schools.  This data is from the FY2021 budget reports.

    Taxable ValuationPercentage
    Libby District$13,407,78336.7%
    LCHS (Eureka)$16,318,59244.7%
    Troy$ 6,775,14618.6%
    County Total$36,501,521100%

    The county lists 7 school districts and taxable values are available by school district, and the 2010 Census SF1 provides population data by school districts.  Libby has a unified school district, while Eureka needs Fortine and Trego added, and Troy needs Yaak and McCormack added.  The 2010 Census Profile shows:

    PopulationTotal PopulationPercentage
    Libby9,8449,84450 %
    Troy2,850
    Yaak248
    McCormack351
    Sylvanite134
    Total3,58318 %
    Eureka4,902
    Fortine770
    Trego588
    Total6,26032 %
    Lincoln County19,687100%

    .

    Taking the taxable values and apportioning through the population, allows us to rank the proportion of county services each resident of the three districts funds:

    High School DistrictTaxable Valuation per Capita
    Libby$1,362.03
    Lincoln County High School$1,680.77
    Troy$1,964.38
    County Average$1,586.88

    The data demonstrates that the burden of funding Lincoln County’s services falls lightest on the average Libbyan, heavier on the North County, and heaviest on the Trojans.   Demonstrating that the North County receives less service requires a different method of extracting data.

  • Why Complete the Census

    The Decennial Census is mandated in the Constitution for a single purpose – to apportion Congressional Representation according to population.  It’s important to Montana – and looking at just Montana, Wyoming, and California shows the math – Wyoming has the lowest population (547,637 in 2010), California the largest (37,253,956 in 2010) and Montana’s 2010 population was 989,415.  Montana and Wyoming each have a single Representative in Congress, so in Montana one Congresscritter represents almost a million people, while Wyoming’s 547,637 inhabitants each have nearly twice the personal congressional clout of a Montanan.

    California’s 37 million people are represented by 53 congresscritters – roughly one per 703,000 Californians.  So each Californian has a little less than a third more congressional clout than a Montanan. 

    We don’t know what population will get Montana 2 members of Congress.  We do know that Rhode Island has 2 – and we know the 2010 population of Rhode Island was 1,052,567.  And that is just 63,000 more than Montana showed at the last Census.

    Filling out the form is a good idea.

    -Mike