Monthly Archives: June 2012

Grizzly bear panel eying oil activity on east side

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Land and wildlife managers are keeping an eye on the impact of oil and gas development on the Rock Mountain Front . . .

An interagency panel of land and wildlife managers has turned its attention to the impacts on grizzly bears from oil-and-gas exploration and extraction on the Rocky Mountain Front.

The Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem Subcommittee is geared toward delisting the grizzly bear population, with a draft Conservation Strategy for doing so expected to be released this summer.

But removing the threatened Northern Rockies grizzly bear population from protection under the Endangered Species Act is still “several years out,” said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Continue reading . . .

FWP issues alert for grizzly bears on high plains east of Rocky Mountain Front

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Even more evidence that grizzlies are starting to disperse eastward from the Rocky Mountain Front . . .

Wildlife officials are warning residents that grizzly bears are on the prairie east of the Rocky Mountain Front and precautions should be taken.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks workers tell the Great Falls Tribune that the agency has received reports of grizzlies east of Valier, on the Sun River between Fort Shaw and the town of Sun River, and along the Marias River above Tiber Reservoir.

Continue reading . . .

Montana FWP to hold public forum on proposed wolf rules

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Here’s more information on the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks effort to gather public feedback on this year’s proposed wolf hunting and trapping regulations. (For more background, see last week’s post.) . . .

Residents will have a chance to speak up about proposed changes to the wolf hunting and trapping season at a public gathering in Kalispell next week.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is hosting an open house forum in the Science and Technology building at Flathead Valley Community College from 7 to 9 p.m. on June 13.

Wildlife officials will give a presentation on the proposed regulations that were recently approved by the state wildlife commission. Attendees will be able to ask questions and discuss the proposals further afterward.

Continue reading . . .

Jimmy DeHerrera retirement party June 9

News,

Jimmy DeHerrera, District Ranger for the Hungry Horse-Glacier View District of the Flathead National Forest took a well-deserved retirement June 1. Jimmy has had a real impact on the North Fork and shown a rare talent for balancing the Forest Service’s often conflicting mandates.

Jimmy’s retirement party is Saturday, June 9th, 6:00 p.m. at the Whitefish Moose Lodge. The cost is $10.00 per person for pulled pork and all the sides. RSVP by June 6 to Munch Woods, ckwoods@fs.fed.us, 387-3811 or Louise Larimore, llarimore@fs.fed.us, 758-5251.

Cline sues B.C. over Canadian Flathead mining ban

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

As mentioned last Wednesday, Cline Mining, the outfit that planned an open pit coal mine in the North Fork headwaters area up in Canada, sued British Columbia over its decision a couple of years ago to ban mining and other extractive industries in the Canadian Flathead. The story has since gotten quite a bit of coverage on both sides of the border. One of the better follow-up articles was just posted by the Missoulian . . .

The decades-long dispute over a proposed mining ban on the northern edge of Glacier National Park flared up this week when a Canadian mining company filed a lawsuit against the Province of British Columbia seeking $500 million in compensation for lost revenue.

In the lawsuit, Cline Mining Corp. alleges that the government of B.C. expropriated three coal properties in the Canadian Flathead Valley by passing the Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, a recent piece of legislation that halted mining on all lands within the Flathead River watershed.

Cline lost its coal claims in the Flathead Valley in southeast B.C. when former Premier Gordon Campbell signed the Flathead Watershed Area Memorandum of Understanding with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, reversing a longstanding land use plan for the Canadian Flathead that gave drilling and mining primacy over all other uses.

Continue reading . . .