Nov 30 2011
Larry Wilson discusses Thanksgiving on the North Fork and tail end of hunting season . . . As usual, the Thanksgiving dinner at Sondreson Hall was a big community success. While most of the U.S. has made Thanksgiving a family holiday, here on the North Fork it is a community event. Just like the original [...]
Nov 29 2011
From today’s Missoulian . . . Hunters across Montana had killed less than half the quota of wolves set by state biologists as of Sunday, the end of rifle season for deer and elk. The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks had recorded that hunters had shot 99 wolves by Sunday across 14 management [...]
Nov 27 2011
Here’s a pretty good discussion of the impacts on Montana’s forests over the next 50 years or so. Interestingly, some of the changes may actually restore earlier, healthier conditions . . . Three things will combine to radically transform Montana forests in the next 50 years: bugs, fire and politics. Mountain pine beetles have killed [...]
Nov 27 2011
Invasive lake trout continue to cause problems for native bull trout . . . An annual stream survey of native bull trout in the Swan River drainage revealed a continued decline in reproduction, while the number of spawning trout in the North Fork Flathead Basin also fell below average. Continue reading . . .
Nov 26 2011
This is a bit confusing. Apparently, Larry’s column didn’t make the deadline for the print edition of the Hungry Horse News, but it did get posted online — over a “Larry Peterson” byline [update - they fixed it]. Go figure. Anyway, Larry discusses the season’s first serious snowfall and cold snap . . . No [...]
Nov 26 2011
Montana’s big game season will end as scheduled, but the wolf hunt will continue. So far, hunters have taken only 96 of the allowed 220 wolves. Here’s the lead-in from an AP article discussing this . . . Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials say Montana’s 2011 general big game hunting season will end Sunday evening, [...]
Nov 24 2011
An interesting article from today’s Flathead Beacon . . . A rash of grizzly bear incidents in Northwest Montana has led to one of the busiest years ever involving captures and relocations, according to Fish, Wildlife and Parks. FWP has made 43 grizzly bear captures in Region 1 because of problem incidents this year, one [...]
Nov 22 2011
From the Daily Inter Lake . . . Heading into the final week of the big game hunting season, the deer and elk harvest picked up but still lags behind last year’s numbers while the wolf harvest is approaching quotas for a few Northwest Montana hunting districts. Northwest Montana has six wolf hunting districts with [...]
Nov 22 2011
George Ostrom of the Hungry Horse News just finished up a fascinating history of wolves in America. Recommended reading. Here’s the lead-in for part 1 . . . When wolves first made a comeback into Glacier National Park from a pack coming down from Canada, I did a lot of research on their past history [...]
Nov 22 2011
Ralph Maughan’s The Wildlife News weblog presents a refreshingly personal view of the recent B.C. legislation to protect the Flathead Basin . . . What a turnaround in the space of 3 years! In 2008 I took a 2 week trip to the headwaters of the famed North Fork of the Flathead River in B.C. [...]
