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 . . .
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?
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!
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…
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.
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…
A 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.
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.”
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.
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.
HELENA – In Montana, grizzly bear populations have expanded in both number and in distribution along both sides of the Continental Divide and in the Greater Yellowstone area. In many instances, grizzly bears are expanding into areas they haven’t been in more than a century.
With this expansion comes an increased focus by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to help people and communities stay safe and avoid conflicts. Across Montana’s bear country, FWP staff are working hard to respond to conflicts, provide tools to landowners and communities to prevent conflicts, and to educate people on how to stay safe.
As part of that effort, FWP unveiled a new Grizzly Bear Conflict Dashboard as a resource for information on where FWP staff are helping landowners and communities with conflicts and the types of conflicts people are experiencing.
On Tuesday, June 24th, 7:00pm at Sondreson Hall we welcome back North Fork neighbor, author, and world-renowned wildlife biologist, Diane Boyd. She will discuss wildlife-human challenges through the parallel lenses of Montana-Nepal-Human carnivore coexistence. A presentation of photos and videos will complement the conversation.
A short reading from A Woman Among Wolves and book signing will follow.
Snacks will be provided at both presentations and Q&As will follow!
