All posts by nfpa

Montana’s wolf trapping plan draws big response

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

This year’s Montana wolf hunt proposal stirred things up a bit . . .

The public response to the plans for this year’s wolf hunt in Montana has been staggering: A whopping 6,500 comments have been received on the proposal set for approval Thursday by the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission.

That far outnumbers the 1,500 comments received on the 2011 wolf hunt plan and just about doubles the comments FWP took on last year’s hotly debated proposal to relocate Yellowstone National Park bison, agency officials said.

Driving the renewed interest is a proposal to expand the hunt to include trapping for the first time, along with bow and rifle seasons.

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Flooding closes Inside North Fork Road

News, ,

Logging Creek got over its banks a while back and closed the Inside North Fork Road . . .

The Inside North Fork Road, Glacier National Park’s oldest road, will need some repair work this spring before it can fully open. Logging Creek has braided into several channels just south of the Logging Creek Ranger Station, and the road is closed between Logging and Fish creeks.

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Idaho wolf season ends, sort of…

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Idaho wolf season has ended, but not really . . .

The day after Idaho’s 2011-12 wolf hunting season ended, some parts of the state started hunting for 2012-13.

Private lands in the state’s northern panhandle region are allowed to keep the pressure on wolves through the summer, according to Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Tony McDermott. The new season started Sunday, just after the June 30 ending of last year’s Idaho wolf hunt.

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Larry Wilson: Another outhouse bites the dust

Commentary, News, ,

Larry relates a good outhouse story . . .

I don’t know why outhouses are the subject of so many stories. Maybe because they’re slowly disappearing from rural America, and even where they still exist, they have been replaced by indoor plumbing — even on the North Fork. Whatever the reason, there is one less outhouse on the North Fork today, and its demise is an interesting, and hilarious, story.

A Trail Creek summer resident went outside early one morning this week and immediately noticed that her frame outhouse was missing an entire wall. On closer examination, two walls had been ripped off the small building, and the firewood which had been in the otherwise unused outhouse was scattered on the ground.

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Scientists sorting out relationship between beetles and other wildfire factors

Fire Information and Status, News,

Researchers are putting a lot of effort into studying the relationship between beetle killed and damaged tress and wildfire intensity . . .

Inside university laboratories and government research facilities across the country, scientists are playing with dozens of variables — mixing and matching and rearranging — to gain a better understanding of what makes wildfire go.

They’re busy building computer models as firefighters toil on steep mountainsides to put out more than a dozen new blazes in what has already become a vicious summer of destruction.

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Western Montana OK so far, but wildfire risk is rising

Fire Information and Status, News

As temperatures rise and humidities drop, fire management officials are starting to get nervous abut fire conditions in Western Montana . . .

Western Montana seems to have misplaced its ticket to the bonfire season that’s torching the eastern half of the state, but fire officials remain braced for trouble over the Fourth of July week.

“We certainly came out of the chute pretty quick this year,” said Paula Short at the state Department of Natural Resources on Friday. “At least we’ve got all our large fires staffed with incident management teams now. With this early start, we’re expecting above-average temperatures and below-average humidity in the southeast and all along the bottom of the state.”

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Glacier Park’s free Going-to-the-Sun shuttles begin service today

News, ,

For those of you wishing to visit Logan Pass and Going-to-the-Sun Road, Glacier Park’s free shjuttle service starts today . . .

With construction under way on Going-to-the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, visitors are encouraged to use the park’s free shuttle service, beginning Sunday.

Visitors traveling the Sun Road can expect 30-minute maximum traffic delays on the west side of the park this summer and no delay on the east side.

The shuttle system provides two-way service between the Apgar Transit Center and St. Mary Visitor Center.

The Apgar center is the shuttle hub on the west side of the park.

The first two shuttles of the day are express trips straight to Logan Pass, without intermediate stops, departing at 7 and 7:30 a.m. Regular shuttle service for all stops on the west side of the park departs the transit center at 8 a.m.

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Sheep-killing griz to be moved to Whitefish Range

Environmental Issues, News, ,

A grizzly bear and her cub that have been involved in a string of sheep killings near Great Falls are being relocated to the Whitefish Range . . .

State and federal wildlife officials have decided to relocate a female grizzly bear that was responsible for the recent deaths of 70 sheep on three ranches north of Great Falls.

Mike Hoggan with USDA Wildlife Services says the bear and her cub will be moved to an area near Frozen Lake in the Whitefish Range near the border of British Columbia, which puts her and her young cub about 160 miles from the ranches.

The bears were tranquilized and captured Sunday near Collins.

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Larry Wilson: Some good advice for June floaters

Commentary, News, ,

Larry talks about the effects of the wet spring weather and discusses safety on the river . . .

It appears that the professional foresters were correct — the lodgepole pine that seemed to be dying only weeks ago are already producing new, green needles. We still need to remember that the foresters also warned that several wet springs in a row could cause the death of some of these young pines.

So far, this spring seems wet to me. In fact, I’m told that Kalispell has had more than two inches of rain above normal for this year to date. I guess that lodgepole pine regeneration would not be hurt by some mortality, but I would prefer to do the thinning myself.

Even though I consider this a wet spring, so far I haven’t seen or heard anything that would indicate we could have any flooding on the North Fork…

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