Regional writer to write article on Beaver Creek

Celestine Duncan, editor of the regional magazine TechLine, said Thursday she will write an article on Beaver Creek Park after she visits in the summer.

“We’ll do an article on it because it’s so unique,” Duncan said.

She said she and Hill County Weed District Supervisor Terry Turner talked about the noxious weed problem in Beaver Creek Park, and she is set to visit the park June 6.

Duncan, who lives in Helena, said she had no idea about the size of Beaver Creek Park until recently.

“I didn’t even know it was 10,000 acres,” she said. “That’s an impressive park.”

When she’s not writing articles about the latest in invasive plant management research for TechLine, Duncan’s biography on TechLine says, she conducts field research, environmental assessments and training programs throughout the Northwest on invasive plants.

Turner told Beaver Creek Park Board members Monday night at the board’s monthly meeting that he hopes the attention the article may garner will lead to a grant, money to fight the large list of noxious weeds.

Duncan said her magazine has 58,000 unique web users annually.

Turner said the list of noxious weeds — plants that grow aggressively, multiply quickly without natural controls and adversely affect native habitats — in the area has gone from 15 to 35 since 1986. The problem, he added, is the budget to spray for them is still based on when the list was 15.