The Blackfeet tribe is keeping up the pressure to remove the remaining oil and gas exploration lease in the Badger-Two Medicine region . . .
The Blackfeet Nation’s leaders are ramping up efforts to protect the Badger-Two Medicine area near Glacier National Park, and recently highlighted the cultural, spiritual and ecological significance of a region threatened by oil and gas development.
On June 26, members of the Blackfeet Nation launched the most recent phase of a campaign to rally support for the area, with the aim of terminating 18 oil leases within the Badger-Two Medicine. The mountainous area, located between the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, is a cornerstone of the tribe’s creation story, a spiritual nexus known as the “Backbone of the World” and a pristine, untapped ecosystem home to grizzly bears and other wildlife.
To celebrate the area, the tribe hosted Badger-Two Medicine Days, which among other Blackfeet traditions featured an all-night “holy smoke” ceremony led by spiritual elders, with the goal of warding off oil and gas development, said Tyson Running Wolf, secretary of the Blackfeet Business Council.
When we passed the fire site at around 10:30 a.m. this morning, a small smoke plume was rising from the face of the ridge west of the North Fork Road. Otherwise, there was little activity evident.
Here’s what the Flathead Beacon had to report . . .
Update: June 30, 12 p.m.
Firefighters reined in a human-caused wildfire north of Columbia Falls on Monday but concerns loom from a series of thunderstorms that swept the valley last night.
The Glacier Rim Fire, located near the western banks of the North Fork Flathead River across from Glacier National Park, has burned 85 acres and is 30 percent contained, according to incident managers. Nearly 115 personnel and two helicopters are battling the blaze.
“We’re looking a lot better today than the start of yesterday,” Keith VanBroeke, operations chief for the incident management team in charge of the fire, told crews in the June 30 morning briefing.
Glacier Rim Fire Update — 11am
Fire Information — 406-387-3867
The Glacier Rim Fire is burning on the Glacier View Ranger District, in the Flathead National Forest and Glacier National Park. This fire is being managed with full suppression tactics, with fire fighter and public safety as a priority.
Fire Summary: Location: North of Columbia Falls, MT, approximately 11.5 miles up the North Fork Road in the vicinity of Glacier Rim. Detected: June 27, 2015 Cause: Human caused, under investigation. Legal Description: SE, Section 27, T32N, R20W: Lat/Long: Lat. 48 30′ 9″ North, Long. 114 8′ 39″ Current Size: 80 acres; Containment: 25%
Current Status: The Glacier Rim fire started on June 27, 2015, at approximately 1 p.m. The fire is believed to be human caused and is under investigation. The fire is burning in the old 2003 Robert Fire burned area. The fuels are mixed heavy dead timber and brush, with significant snag hazard. The fire is primarily located west of the North Fork Road, though it has spotted across the North Fork River in to Glacier National Park.
Yesterday, Sunday, June 28th crews worked to build fire line and contain the flanks of the fire. Control lines have been completed on the east side of the fire, nearest to the North Fork Road, and crews are working on the south and north sides with heavy equipment to build fire line. Helicopters were used to assist with containment on the leading edges. The spot fires on the park site were staffed with firefighters. Today, Monday, June 29th firefighters will continue the same tactics of using heavy equipment and hand crews to build fire line, with helicopters assisting. Firefighter efforts are challenged due to safety concerns involving extreme danger of falling dead trees originally burned in the Robert Fire of 2003. Unseasonably warm weather and extremely dry fuel conditions are driving fire behavior in these previously burned fuels. An incoming weather system may bring winds to the fire. There are 6 threatened structures. Two residences have evacuated, but there is not a general evacuation notice.
The following resources are assigned to the fire: three 20-person fire crews and several other smaller modules of firefighters, two engines, two water tenders, two helicopters, a mix of heavy equipment including a dozer, two feller-bunchers, a grappel skidder and an excavator, two jet boats to facilitate floater safety on the river, a local type 3 Incident Management Team composed of Flathead National Forest, Glacier National Park, Flathead County, and MT State Department of Natural Resources, for a total of 90 total firefighters.
SPECIAL MESSSAGE: FOR YOUR SAFETY AND THE FIRE FIGHTERS SAFETY DO NOT STOP IF YOU ARE TRAVELING IN THE FIRE AREA. Vehicles on driving on the North Fork Road are asked to not stop in the fire area. River floaters on the river are asked to not stop in the fire area. Helicopters are working over head to shuttle fire fighters to the fire as well as performing water drops. The helicopters cannot fly overhead if people are stopped below.
Today, the fire information center will be working to start up an inciweb site and an email for the fire.
There was not a lot of new information posted overnight about the Glacier Rim Fire. It is now about 60-80 acres in size. The blaze continues to burn in the old snags and debris left over from the 2003 Robert Fire, which is no fun for fire crews. The North Fork Road is still open — tentatively. The Type III fire management crew should be on-site by now, along with even more equipment. They are treating this one as a “full suppression” fire. Smoke from the fire is causing air quality problems down-valley, especially in Columbia Falls. I saw no discussion about the thunderstorms due through the area later today.
The Glacier Rim Fire continues to burn as crews work on containing it to keep it away from heavier fuels . . .
A 30-acre wildfire along the North Fork of the Flathead River is still burning today and U.S. Forest Service officials say a Type III management team will be put in place to try and contain it.
The Glacier Rim Fire started shortly after noon on Saturday and grew from less than an acre to more than 30 acres in a matter of hours. The fire forced the closure of the North Fork Road about 11 miles north of Columbia Falls, but today the road has been reopened. However, officials ask that people not stop along the road and to stay out of the way of firefighters in the area.
Flathead National Forest Public Information Officer Ema Braunberger said that at least 50 firefighters were on site early Sunday morning and that more were on the way. She said firefighters hope to build a firebreak around the entire fire today before this afternoon’s record-breaking temperatures arrive. Saturday was the hottest June day on record in Kalispell with the mercury hitting 97 degrees. But that record may not last long as the National Weather Service in Missoula says temperatures could exceed 100 degrees today.
The “Wildfire Information” page has been updated to repair “link rot” and add some new material. This is a collection of forest fire information links, including prescribed burns, applicable to the Flathead National Forest and Glacier National Park. The page also links to Canadian resources.
Chris Peterson of the Hungry Horse News reports that crews are making good progress on the Glacier Rim Fire. The North Fork Road is now open and river traffic is allowed past the area. Travelers are not permitted to stop and rubberneck, though . . .
The North Fork Road reopened to vehicle traffic Sunday morning after being shut down by a wildfire near Glacier Rim yesterday. Floaters, at least as of this morning, were allowed to use the North Fork of the Flathead in the area, but cannot stop on the river above Glacier Rim where heavy helicopters are hitting hot spots with bucket drops.
Vehicles on the road also cannot stop in the fire area.
The fire looked to be roughly 30 to 40 acres in size, skunking around in downed timber from the Robert Fire burn of 2003. Crews appear to have made good progress on the fire overnight.
The 30-acre “Glacier Rim” wildfire brewed up Saturday afternoon in a gravel pit near the Glacier Rim area. Multiple agencies have responded. So far, the fire is confined to the west side of the North Fork, with minor spotting on the Glacier Park side of the river. The North Fork Road is closed. At least one home has been evacuated and warnings issued to three more.
Researchers say increased residential development near wildlands is beginning to cause problems . . .
Despite heavy development, the U.S. still has millions of acres of pristine wild lands. Coveted for their beauty, these wilderness areas draw innumerable outdoor enthusiasts eager for a taste of primitive nature.
But University of Georgia researchers say these federally protected nature areas have a problem: Their boundaries have become prime real estate.
As the country’s population continues to grow, people have built homes close to national parks, forests and wilderness areas for the same reasons these systems have been left protected from development. However, this construction and growth near the National Wilderness Preservation System is beginning to degrade the quality of these lands and erode biodiversity.
Scientists may have found a link between two deadly fungal infections. Researchers have taken a closer look at snake fungal disease and have found that it’s eerily similar to the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome in bats.
The snake fungus, in this case, is called Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola. It possesses traits that allows it to persist across a range of habitats and infect multiple species.
“The fungus killing these snakes is remarkably similar in its basic biology to the fungus that has killed millions of bats,” said Andrew Miller, one of the authors of the new study, in a news release. “It occurs in the soil, seems to grow on a wide variety of substances, and it possesses many of the same enzymes that make the bat fungus so persistent.”
