Flathead National Forest project notifications require new sign-up & feedback procedures

Action Alerts, Environmental Issues, News, ,
Flathead National Forest
Flathead National Forest

“The Flathead National Forest is adjusting the way planning projects are announced and public comments are solicited.” Short version: There is a separate project announcement email list. (Sign up for the list here: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/flathead/projects.) Project comments will need to be sent to the individual project manager. There will be no formal time-frame for comments and feedback.

If this sounds a little vague, that’s because it is, in fact, a little vague.

If the little veins aren’t standing out on your forehead yet, here’s the text of the October 14, 2025, press release. That should do the trick . . .

From: Anthony B. Botello, Forest Supervisor

Dear Interested Stakeholder:

The Flathead National Forest is adjusting the way planning projects are announced and public comments are solicited. You are being contacted because you have expressed interest in Flathead National Forest projects, have previously submitted comments, or have subscribed to project information email bulletins.

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed the Executive Order, Unleashing American Energy. This E.O. directed the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) to provide guidance on implementing NEPA to expedite and simplify the permitting process. CEQ responded to this direction by rescinding its NEPA regulations, creating a path for agencies to reform their own NEPA procedures.

On July 3, 2025, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) removed seven agency-specific regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), including those for the U.S. Forest Service, and replaced them with new department-wide NEPA regulations. As a result of these recent changes, the Flathead National Forest is beginning to implement new E.O.s and USDA direction by more efficiently complying with NEPA, especially in regards to projects that address forest health and fuel reduction or other active forest management objectives.

Notices of proposed actions (scoping) will no longer be sent by way of email mailing list. I encourage you to look to our webpage as the primary source of project information and updates at https://www.fs.usda.gov/r01/flathead/projects. You may also sign up for information and be alerted to happenings around the Forest.

Your comments and input remain valuable to our project development and informing decisions. Rather than only engaging public at specific and restricted timeframes, please provide your input on Flathead National Forest projects at any time during project development. To keep informed, please monitor our project webpage, selecting the project that interests you, and contact the individual listed as the project leader.

Wildfires are getting worse; logging isn’t the solution

Environmental Issues, News, Science,
Forest ownership in the United States — Mark D. Nelson, Greg C. Liknes, and Brett J. Butler – U.S. Forest Service

“…there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.” — H. L. Mencken

Here’s a good article, with a minimum of editorializing and including actual numbers and stuff, discussing why increased wildfire danger does not actually  justify an increased timber harvest. Better forest management however . . .

The western United States is facing another destructive wildfire season, with more acres burned in Colorado alone in 2025 than in the past four years combined. If global warming continues on its current trajectory, the amount of forest area burned each year could double or even triple by midcentury.

In other words, more fire is coming, more often.

As U.S. forests burn, Congress and federal agencies are asking an important question: What role should federal land management play in reducing fire risk?

Continue reading . . .

 

Action Alert! ‘Roadless Rule’ on the chopping block

Action Alerts, Commentary, Environmental Issues
Flathead National Forest
Flathead National Forest

When created in 2001, The Roadless Rule protected almost 60 million acres of U.S. Forest Service Land by preventing new road construction and development. 37% of these lands are in Montana. At that time 1.6 million communications were submitted during public comment with over 95% in favor of the Rule. The present Department of Agriculture Secretary Rollins is using two of Donald Trump’s executive orders to justify the eliminating Roadless Rule. One demands increased timber harvest and another calls for making wildfire prevention and suppression more effective by easing burdensome rules and regulations. These actions will endanger the ecosystems of the public lands we cherish, diminish wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities, and increased runoff will reduce water quality.

Please help protest the rescinding of the Roadless Rule by participating in the public comment period. NOTE: The public comment period expires on September 19!

Here is the link to the USDA announcement: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/29/2025-16581/special-areas-roadless-area-conservation-national-forest-system-lands.

Here is the link to the comment page: https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FS-2025-0001-0001. Comment deadline is September 19, 2025!

Help further by contacting your representatives in Congress and ask them to support the Roadless Area Conservation Act which has been introduced by  Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and Representatives Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03) and Andrea Salinas (OR-06). This legislation has support  in both the House and Senate and if passed will codify the 2001 Roadless Rule into law once and for all.

For more background, here are a couple of articles worth reading…

The Roadless Rule – on the Chopping Block – is Our Life Support System for Humanity’s Life Support System, a guest column in the Flathead Beacon by Sarah McMillan

Feds takes next step in removing protections from 6.4 million acres of Montana’s national forests by Micah Drew of the Daily Montanan

Montana jacks up wolf hunting limits in most regions

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Gray Wolf - Adam Messer-Montana FWP
Gray Wolf – Adam Messer-Montana FWP

Here’s and excellent article by Tristan Scott of the Flathead Beacon concerning last Thursday’s Fish and Wildlife Commission decision to further raise wolf hunting quotas throughout most of Montana . . .

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Thursday raised the state’s wolf hunting quota by about 37%, approving new regulations that cap the number of wolves that hunters and trappers can kill annually at 452 while stopping just shy of adopting a statewide quota.

The seven-member commission formalized the new rules after a full afternoon of debate and discussion, including hours of testimony from members of the public who were mostly set against a state management regime aimed at reducing the statewide wolf population, per a state legislative mandate.

To achieve this reduction, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) last month proposed a plan that blends the 2021 directive from Montana’s Republican-controlled legislature with its own recommendations, which are based on population estimates and projections that meet the minimum recovery criteria determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Continue reading . . .

More reading: The official press release . . .

FWP releases Bear Relocation Dashboard, the third in a series

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Grizzly Bear - Montana FWP
Grizzly Bear – Montana FWP

Beginning last year, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks began releasing grizzly bear management “dashboards.” FWP developed the Grizzly Bear Mortality Dashboard last year and the Grizzly Bear Conflict Dashboard earlier this summer. The most recent in the series, the Bear Relocation Dashboard, was posted on July 25.

Links to the entire suite of dashboards, as well as a great deal of additional information on FWP’s bear management efforts can be found on their Grizzly Bear Management and Conservation webpage.

 

Judge orders endangered species status review for gray wolves in Northern Rockies

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Gray wolf - John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Gray wolf – John and Karen Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Saw this coming . . .

Citing “serious and pervasive” deficiencies with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s basis for rejecting a 2021 petition by a coalition of environmental groups seeking to revive Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, a federal judge in Missoula this week instructed wildlife managers to reconsider.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued the 105-page ruling in response to a lawsuit that conservation and animal welfare groups filed last year seeking to either restore protections, or afford new ones, to a distinct population of wolves spanning Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, as well as portions of Washington, Oregon and Utah…

Continue reading . . .

Grizzlies were raiding Montana farms. Then came some formidable dogs.

Environmental Issues, News,

Grizzly bears, gaping mawsA very interesting article from the New York Times discussing how folks on the east side of Montana’s Continental Divide are learning to deal with grizzlies as they return to their historic range . . .

The grizzly bears feasted on piles of spilled wheat and barley. They broke into grain bins. They helped themselves to apples from family orchards. Sometimes they massacred chickens or picked off calves.

Once nearly eradicated from the lower 48 United States, grizzlies are growing in population and spreading onto Montana’s plains, where they had not roamed in perhaps a century.

In their travels, they’ve acquired a fondness for the good eating to be found in farmyards.

Continue reading . . .

Montana passes landmark wildlife crossing legislation

Environmental Issues, Legislation, News
A wildlife overpass along U.S. Highway 93 in Montana - Kylie Paul, Center for Large Landscape Conservation
A wildlife overpass along U.S. Highway 93 in Montana – Kylie Paul, Center for Large Landscape Conservation

Montana now has some dedicated funding to support wildlife crossing efforts . . .

Montana has taken a major step toward protecting both wildlife and drivers with the passage of two groundbreaking pieces of legislation this spring: House Bill 855 and House Bill 932. Together, the bills establish the state’s first dedicated funding streams for wildlife crossings, structures proven to reduce collisions and improve landscape connectivity.

Montana currently has the second-highest per capita rate of wildlife-vehicle collisions in the United States. The average driver faces a 1 in 53 chance of hitting an animal each year and 13 percent of total reported collisions in the state related to wildlife, according to the Montana Department of Transportation. These crashes pose serious risks to people and animals alike, and cost Montanans tens of millions of dollars annually.

Kylie Paul, road ecologist at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, a nonprofit creating strategies to solve large-scale challenges like climate change and habitat fragmentation, told Mountain Journal the nonprofit supported the legislation.

“In Montana, we have  a lot of roads cutting through intact wildlife habitats and migration routes,” Paul said. “Many are high-speed, low-light and, to some level, still low-traffic highways which help animals still feel safe to move across them.”

Read more . . .

What could the end of the Roadless Rule mean for Montana’s national forests?

Environmental Issues, News
Flathead National Forest
Flathead National Forest

Here’s an excellent, objective and informative long-form article on the Roadless Rule written by Tristan Scott of the Flathead Beacon. Highly recommended . . .

When U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced last month that the administration was taking steps to rescind a decades-old policy to restrict road building and timber harvests on 58.5 million acres of national forest lands, she justified it as another step by the Trump administration to remove “absurd obstacles” that have stymied forest management and intensified the threat of wildfire.

Continue reading at the Flathead Beacon . . .

NFPA announces 2025 Kreck/Fields Scholarship recipients

News

The North Fork Preservation Association (NFPA) is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of the Kreck/Fields Scholarship. The scholarship honors Dr. Loren Kreck and Edwin Fields and is given annually by NFPA. Dr. Kreck, DDS, dedicated much of his life to wilderness and natural resource conservation on the Flathead National Forest and was a key activist in the designation of the Great Bear Wilderness and the protection of the North Fork of the Flathead River Valley. Edwin Fields, a well respected builder in the Flathead Valley, spent decades as an activist for protecting Montana’s remaining wilderness and wild places, including founding and serving as the president of Headwaters Montana. After their respective passings, both the Kreck and Field families bequeathed funds to Headwaters. Ultimately, the Headwaters board voted to sunset the organization, and as a result, transferred these funds to the NFPA for the management and administration of the Loren Kreck/Edwin Fields Wilderness Scholarship.

This year, NFPA was able to fund three $2000 scholarships. The pool of applicants was quite competitive. The recipients are Elizabeth Tobey, law student at Alexander Blewett III School of Law, University of Montana; Davis Paul, also a law student in Missoula and Abigail Fuseler, PhD Candidate In Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of Montana. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THREE RECIPIENTS.