Snow Warriors concerned about need for leadership

Mark Christian is deeply concerned about the future of the Ponderosa Snow Warriors and hopes to see some of the younger snowmobilers in Lincoln step forward to lead the club into the future.

"The club's 50 years old. It got started with a great corps of people who were all friends. They took care of the club as long as they possibly could, and people got spoiled because they did all the work. Unfortunately, time is time, and either we lost those great people or they're unable to (help)," he said. That crew is gone, and the crew you have now is senior citizens." "That ought to tell the people the problem we have right there."

Christian's apprehension about the club's future grew in August, when a series of resignations left the leadership of the organization in question.

Julie Zarr resigned from the president position due to a conflict of interest with her employer and Christian said they also lost their vice president, who resigned for personal reasons, and one of their directors who stepped down to take care of some health concerns, within the space of about two weeks.

"The club had no officers at all going into the season," he said.

As a past president, Christian was appointed to fill the empty president's seat and board member Ron Huebert took on the vice president's duties.

"We were still two directors short," Christian said. "As president, I got to appoint two people, Jerry Mann and Bill Wellenstien. That was mostly just peer pressure."

The Snow Warriors are in good shape for this winter, but with most of the leadership past retirement age, he doesn't know how long that can last.

"We got most all our fall work completed. We are ready for the grooming season, but this spring, I believe I'm gonna lose two more board members," he said.

After the initial panic about keeping the board alive, they went big on recruitment and rebuilt their list of volunteers, which Christion said he's very thankful for.

"We live off the volunteers," he said, referring to the "in kind" contributions they make that can be used as matching funds for grants. "That's how we cover our grants and that's how we stay in business," he said.

What they haven't found, however, are volunteers from the younger and more energetic generations who will to take on the task of leading them, whether on the board, as a committee chair or even as a work party organizer.

"What it amounts to is, we have an army now, but I don't have officers," he said. "I don't have the leadership of people who will take on a fencing detail, find the materials, round up the help- and get the job done."

Although Christian said all organizations seem to face a dearth of volunteer leaders these days, for a club with so many long-established programs, it can cause a ripple effect that may have dire consequences for even the club's most established programs, if not for the club itself.

This year, there was a worry that they wouldn't have the volunteer hours needed to qualify for the grant that funds the groomer.

"That groomer is a state-owned machine. I think there are 28 clubs now, only 18 groomers and the fleet is very old," he said. "If we, for some reason, did not apply for our Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks grant and we lost the groomer, I don't see how you'd get one back. That is main street business right there."

Christian think many people in Lincoln may have lost sight of the ways in which the Snow Warriors benefit the town and its economy.

"We do impact the community more than people think," Christian said.

A list of the tasks the club completes throughout the year includes everything from working on fences and cleaning ditches to applying for grants to grooming in the winter and spraying for weeds in the summer.

"Our club is year-round. People think three months in the winter? It starts in January and ends in December. All 12 months this club does something for this community," he said.

As Christian explained it, the different Snow Warrior programs work together to provide the community with several benefits, including better access to public lands.

Their weed program not only keeps weeds at bay on some 600 acres along their 250-mile trail system, it also fosters good relationships with the area's private landowners who allow the club to use their lands for trails.

"It's shocking how much of our trail system is on private land," Christian said. "People might think we just snowmobile on state and Forest Service land. All our trails, almost every one of our trails somewhere crosses private land. Boy, our hats off to those people. They've been great neighbors to us."

Many of those trails across private land provide access to public land on the National Forest. Likewise, many of the trails also follow roads that are used by hunters and anglers in the summer and fall, as well as by snowmobilers in the winter.

During the summer, the club works to clear trails of deadfall - an increasing issue due to the number of beetle and fire-killed trees in the area. In winter, the groomer keeps the trails on those roads open to snowmobilers, which again provides greater access to public lands.

"I hear people, the young ones, say they don't use the groomed trails. That's nonsense," he said. "As soon as that groomer is not here, even Sucker Creek Contour won't be passable. Everybody uses the groomed trails, whether they want to own up to it or not."

Christian hopes some of the younger generations will realize that many of the things they love about Lincoln rely on Ponderosa Snow Warriors volunteers, and that the success of those volunteers relies on having someone who will step forward to organize and guide them after .

"I live in Lincoln for the mountains. I would think a younger person lives here for the same reason," he said. "If you lose this club, if you lost the groomer... you're gonna lose so much more than people realize."

For anyone interested in joining or volunteering, the Ponderosa Snow Warriors are hosting their annual membership dinner at 6 p.m., Dec. 8 at the Lincoln Community Hall.