All posts by nfpa

Jeff Mow takes over at Glacier Park

News,

Glacier National Park’s new superintendent is settling into his new job . . .

Jeff Mow has taken the reins of one of America’s most iconic national parks. The 25-year veteran of the National Park Service officially became Glacier National Park’s 22nd Superintendent on Aug. 28.

Mow, 54, was selected as Glacier’s new chief in June. Before coming to Montana, he was superintendent at Kenai Fjords National Park, a 600,000-acre preserve along the Gulf of Alaska. Since arriving in late August, Mow said he has been meeting with staff and the park’s partners.

Read more . . .

The Missing Piece Rendezvous, Sep. 28

News

Headwaters Montana and Flathead Wild are hosting “The Missing Piece Rendezvous: A Festival for the Flathead” at Waterton Lakes, Canada on September 28. Their aim is to encourage the expansion of Waterton Lakes National Park. Here is the meat of the press release. (You can also read more on the Headwaters Montana web site.) . . .

Citizens of Canada and the United States, wanting peace after the horrors of World War I, embarked upon a truly unique journey when they proposed the creating the world’s first international peace park.  This Peace Park, established between Waterton Lakes (Canada) and Glacier (United States) national parks in 1932 still represents a triumph of citizen action that compelled two governments to do what no nations had ever done before: establish a Peace Park as an enduring symbol of peace between their two nations.  This achievement – promoted and completed by Rotary International – was further manifested when the United Nations – all the nations of the world – recognized this gift to humanity as a World Heritage Site in 1995.

Yet this milestone in the evolution of human consciousness remains incomplete. Take a look at a map of Waterton-Glacier and you will see what remains undone. There’s a  Missing Piece, that part of British Columbia where the Flathead River flows south through a spectacular and biologically rich wilderness.

This part of B.C. is unmatched in North America for its variety, completeness and density of living things.  It’s also a critical corridor for animals moving north and south along the Rocky Mountains – the “Backbone of the World”. The B.C. Flathead is a magical place of great wildness that was never permanently settled. As early as 1911 Kootenay Brown, the first superintendent of Waterton Park, called for Waterton to be expanded into the Flathead “to create a breeding ground in conjunction with Glacier National Park”.

With your continued help, we, the citizens of today, can Complete the Park by adding that missing piece in the Flathead to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Headwaters Montana and our partner groups of Flathead Wild! will host Wildlife Beyond Borders: The Missing Piece Rendezvous Saturday, September 28, 2013, at the historic Waterton Lakes Opera House, starting at 4:00pm.  This event is part of the annual Wildlife Weekend in Waterton.

This celebration will be MC-ed by Harvey Locke, a long-time champion of this effort, and joined by renowned conservationists Charlie Russell, Sid Marty, Cristina Eisenberg and the team members of Flathead Wild!

While in Waterton be sure to also visit the Waterton Heritage Center for The Flathead: The Missing Piece Art Show.  This exhibit includes paintings and artworks by artists specifically commissioned to interpret the significance of the Flathead Valley.

We are honored to help host this exhibit throughout the latter part of September. The exhibit will be formally opened by Harvey Locke on Saturday, September 28 at 4:00 pm, with artist in attendance.

Third forest plan revision field trip scheduled for Sep. 12

News, ,

In the midst of everything else they do, the Flathead National Forest has started the process of revising their Forest Plan. According to the Forest Plan Revision web page, “Forest Plans provide strategic direction to guide management of forest resources and provide a framework for decision making on site-specific projects and activities.”

The last Forest Plan was established in 1986. They hope to have the new one in the bag by 2016. This time around, they are required to have better transparency and consultation with the public.

As part of this effort, they are running a series of field trips this year, open to the general public. The third trip is on September 12. Here’s the press release . . .

The Swan Lake Ranger District will host the third of four field trips to kick off the collaborative effort for forest plan revision on Thursday, September 12,2013. This trip will focus on terrestrial and aquatic habitats, threatened and endangered species, species of conservation concern, and invasive species. Each of the public field trips focus on subject matter important to the forest plan revision effort. On these field trips we ask people to provide input to help us accurately assess the current conditions we have on the forest as they pertain to the topic of the field trip. The trips will also be an opportunity to experience the distinct geographical areas that make up our ranger districts.

The Flathead National Forest is embarking on a multi-year process to update its forest plan, the document that guides how we manage your public lands. The forest plan provides direction for managing resources and activities such as recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, historic and sacred sites, vegetation and timber production. Forest plan revision is achieved in a three-phase process: assessment, revision, and monitoring. The 2012 National Forest System land management planning rule calls for an enhanced commitment to collaboration and public engagement across all three phases, including outreach to groups such as youth.

The last two trips are planned to run from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM. Transportation is provided for all the field trips. The trips will begin and end at the Flathead County Fairgrounds with one additional pick-up/drop-off spot on the way to the area we are visiting. The second pick-up/drop-off point for the September 12th trip will be at the Swan Lake Campground just off of Highway 83 at 9:30 AM.

  • September 12 – Terrestrial and aquatic habitats, threatened and endangered species, species of conservation concern, and invasive species (Swan Lake Ranger District)
  • September 26 – Inventoried roadless areas, recommended wilderness, and wild and scenic rivers (Glacier View Ranger District)

 * Social science, economics, and the role and contributions of the Flathead National Forest will be a component of each of the field trips.

The information shared and the feedback received will be used to develop and finalize the assessment, determine needs for change, and to draft a proposed plan. There will be additional opportunities to engage in the collaborative process as the plan is developed over the next few years.

Please RSVP to Wade Muehlhof (ewmuehlhof@fs.fed.us or 406-758-5252) at least one day before the field trip(s) you plan to attend. Please let us know if you have any special accommodation needs. For additional details please visit the Flathead National Forest Plan Revision page on our website: http://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/flathead/landmanagement/planning/?cid=stelprdb5422786&width=full.

World’s oldest radio-collared bear dies

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The oldest radio-collared bear in the world died recently . . .

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported last week that a black bear they had been tracking since 1981 died in the wild at 39 1/2 years of age.

Bear No. 56 was found Aug. 21 in the Chippewa National Forest. She was radio-collared in July 1981 when she was seven years old. At the time, the black bear was accompanied by three female cubs. From 1981 through 1995, Bear No. 56 had eight litters of cubs and successfully raised 21 of 22 cubs to 18 months of age.

Bear No. 56 outlived all of the 360 black bears that MDNR researchers radio-collared in 1981 by 19 years.

Read more . . .

A senator’s fight to protect the Flathead’s North Fork

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

North Forker Doug Chadwick has an excellent article on the National Geographic web site discussing Sen. Max Baucus’ decades-long efforts to protect the North Fork Flathead watershed and the reasons behind this work . . .

Daybreak on August 8 found me on a bank of the North Fork of the Flathead River in northwestern Montana, among the mixed tracks of deer, otters, and grizzly bears, marveling, as I have a thousand times before, at the near-magical transparency of these waters.

The bottom stones stood out as if on display under glass. Decades ago, my wife and I built a cabin nearby.

Across the river on the east bank, in Glacier National Park, the campers were stirring in their tents and the first cars were snaking up the Going to the Sun Road. But I was headed west that day, into the Whitefish Range, to see a man about the future of this valley.

Read more . . .

Access to Coal Ridge lookout area reopens

News, , ,

The gate at the foot of Moran Basin Road is open again, restoring access to the trail to the old Coal Ridge lookout and points nearby. The trail should be in good shape. Earlier this year, a forest service crew cleaned it up. They also performed maintenance on the old patrol cabin.

Moran Basin Road is the second left heading westbound on Hay Creek Road. The Coal Ridge trailhead is about three miles up Moran Basin Road, just before the terminating “kelly hump.”

Update: This summer’s crew did more than just clean up the trail to Coal Ridge, they performed major renovations to the old “pray-and-scramble” trailhead, replacing it with a couple of well-designed short switchbacks. Nicely done.

Flathead Valley’s smoky haze coming from Idaho

Fire Information and Status, News,

In case you were wondering why the air looked a little murky . . .

The Flathead Valley was socked in with smoke Thursday for the first time this summer, and according to the National Weather Service most of it was drifting in from wildfires in Idaho.

“Throughout Idaho there’s a lot of smoke,” meteorologist Marty Whitmore said Thursday morning. “We were in a westerly [wind] flow earlier this week, but now we are in much more of a southwesterly flow.”

There are five fires in Idaho that have exceed 10,000 acres, including the 108,094-acre Beaver Creek Fire and the 131,258-acre Elk Complex.

Continue reading . . .

Grinnell Glacier study reveals 25,000 years of climate history

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Hungry Horse News has a fascinating report on a recent Waterton-Glacier Science and History Day session. A presentation by Kelly MacGregor, a geomorphologist and associate professor of geology at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, discussed the history of Grinnell Glacier over the past 22,000+ years as revealed by core samples from nearby lakes . . .

It’s well documented that the glaciers in Glacier National Park are receding and many have vanished. But when they were bigger, they were likely far bigger — in fact, the iconic Grinnell Glacier once likely extended nearly to what is now Swiftcurrent Lake.

Kelly MacGregor, a geomorphologist and associate professor of geology at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., has been studying the ebb and flow of Grinnell Glacier over the past 25,000 years.

Giant masses of moving ice, glaciers are difficult to study on the ground — the carving, grinding and shaping of the landscape occurs beneath them and simply can’t be observed. Glaciers also have a tendency to destroy, or at least alter, their geological tracks. But there is a way to track glaciers over time, MacGregor explained to a packed house at the Waterton-Glacier Science and History Day recently — by taking core samples from the sediments in the lakes that glaciers leave behind. She called the sediment in lakes “nature’s junk drawer” — heaped with remnants from the past.

Continue reading . . .

Second of four forest plan revision field trips coming soon

News, ,

In the midst of everything else they do, the Flathead National Forest has started the process of revising their Forest Plan. According to the Forest Plan Revision web page, “Forest Plans provide strategic direction to guide management of forest resources and provide a framework for decision making on site-specific projects and activities.”

The last Forest Plan was established in 1986. They hope to have the new one in the bag by 2016. This time around, they are required to have better transparency and consultation with the public.

As part of this effort, they are running a series of field trips this year, open to the general public. The second trip is on August 29. Here’s the press release . . .

The second of four field trips to kick off the collaborative effort for forest plan revision will be held August 29, 2013.  The trip will focus on recreation opportunities, access, existing wilderness and scenic character and will take people around the Hungry Horse Reservoir on the Hungry Horse and Spotted Bear Ranger Districts. The public field trips each focus on subject matter important to the forest plan. On these field trips we ask people to share their values and the benefits they derive from the Flathead National Forest as well as provide input to help us accurately assess the current conditions we have on the forest as they pertain to the topic of the field trip. The trips will also be an opportunity to experience the distinct geographical areas that make up our ranger districts.

The Flathead National Forest is embarking on a multi-year process to update its forest plan, the document that guides how we manage your public lands. The forest plan provides direction for managing resources and activities such as recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, historic and sacred sites, vegetation and timber production. . Forest plan revision is achieved in a three-phase process: assessment, revision, and monitoring. The 2012 National Forest System land management planning rule calls for an enhanced commitment to collaboration and public engagement across all three phases, including outreach to groups such as youth.

Due to the distance we will need to travel on the August 29th field trip we will start at 7:45 AM at the Flathead County Fairgrounds, with second a pick-up at the Hungry Horse Ranger District at 8:30 AM. We plan to return people to Hungry Horse by 5:15 PM and the fairgrounds by 6:00 PM. The last two trips are planned to run from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. Those trips will begin and end at the Flathead County Fairgrounds with transportation provided for all the field trips.

  • August 29 – Recreation settings, opportunities and access, existing wilderness and scenic character (Hungry Horse/Spotted Bear Ranger Districts)
  • September 12 – Terrestrial and aquatic habitats, threatened and endangered species, species of conservation concern, and invasive species (Swan Lake Ranger District)
  • September 26 – Inventoried roadless areas, recommended wilderness, and wild and scenic rivers (Glacier View Ranger District)

* Social science, economics, and the role and contributions of the Flathead National Forest will be a component of each of the field trips.

The information shared and the feedback received will be used to develop and finalize the assessment, determine needs for change, and to draft a proposed plan. There will be additional opportunities to engage in the collaborative process as the plan is developed over the next few years.

Please RSVP to Wade Muehlhof (ewmuehlhof@fs.fed.us or 406-758-5252) at least one week before the field trip(s) you plan to attend. Please let us know if you have any special accommodation needs. For additional details please visit the Flathead National Forest Plan Revision page on our website.

Local fires under control so far

Fire Information and Status, News, , ,

Wildfires in this corner of Montana are under control as of this morning . . .

While our neighbors to the south are dealing with considerably more wildfires and the resulting smoke, the northwest corner of the state hasn’t yet had any starts blow up to something more serious.

Authorities said to credit rapid responses, and wildfire location.

Three helicopters on Monday “hammered with water” the 100-acre Stoner Creek blaze just 2 1/2 miles west of Lakeside and prevented its further spread toward structures, the closest just a quarter of a mile away.

Continue reading . . .