All posts by nfpa

Glacier National Park’s Chief of Science and Resources Jack Potter retires

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Jack Potter retired last Monday after 41 years at Glacier National Park! A no doubt big retirement potluck is scheduled for May 13. See the following press release for details of Jack’s career, as well as information on the potluck.

After 41 years of service in Glacier National Park, Chief of Science and Resources Management, Jack Potter retired on May 2nd. A potluck gathering will be held to celebrate his retirement in the West Glacier Community Building on Friday, May 13th, at 4:30 p.m.

In the summer of 1969, 19 year old Jack Potter took the train from western Pennsylvania to Glacier National Park to work as a bus boy at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn Coffee Shop. The following summer he was hired on the park trail crew and over the next seven summers, he worked seasonally while studying political science at Colgate University and later forestry at University of Montana, becoming a trail crew leader in 1973. Following one summer away from the park, Potter started a permanent, subject-to-furlough position in 1978 as Hudson Bay District Trails Foreman. He was subsequently promoted to backcountry supervisor in 1984. In 1992, Potter took the position of Assistant Chief Ranger, supervising field resources. In 2003, he became assistant chief of the newly formed Science and Resources Management Division, and has served as the division chief since 2005.

Potter has received numerous awards including the Superior Service Award in 2007 from the Department of Interior and the National Park Service Intermountain Region Director’s Award in 2003 for Excellence in Natural Resource Management. Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright stated, “Jack Potter knows more about Glacier National Park than any person alive. He is the conscience of the park, and possesses an uncanny sense of what’s appropriate and what’s not. His passion for the job, and life in general, is infectious. Although I’ve never believed that any employee is irreplaceable, Jack Potter comes the closest of any person I’ve known. He will be sorely missed!”

Continue reading Glacier National Park’s Chief of Science and Resources Jack Potter retires →

Snow depth and accumulation information available online

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Judging by the number of “hits” on the subject here at gravel.org, a lots of folks are interested in the unusually high snowpack at altitude and the potential for flooding later this spring.

For those of you who wish to keep track of such things, WeatherStreet.com has a web page that tracks snow depth and snow accumulation values for Montana. It also has the most recent SNOTEL snow depth reports.

Link: Montana Snow Depth and Snow Accumulation (WeatherStreet.com)

Obama Administration: Gray wolves go back to state control — in as many as eight states

Environmental Issues, News, , , , , ,

This too-short Associated Press article claims that, besides returning management of gray wolves to state control in the Northern Rockies, the Obama administration proposes to do the same for a further 4200 wolves in the Great Lakes region . . .

The Obama administration says it is lifting Endangered Species Act protections for 5,500 wolves in eight states in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes.

The move will turn control over the predators to state wildlife agencies. Public hunts for hundreds of wolves already are planned this fall in Idaho and Montana.

Continue reading . . .

President nominates Kalispell attorney Dana Christensen to replace U.S. District Judge Molloy

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Kalispell attorney Dana Christensen has been nominated to replace U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy who presided over many significant environmental lawsuits over the past years, including the recent effort to keep gray wolves on the Endangered Species List. Today’s Missoulian has the story . . .

The president has nominated Kalispell attorney Dana Christensen to replace U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, who will begin senior status this summer.

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., submitted the Kalispell attorney’s name to President Barack Obama for consideration earlier this year, and on Wednesday the president announced Christensen’s nomination along with those of five others to district judgeships nationwide.

Continue reading . . .

Obama administration taking wolves off endangered species list; return to state control Thursday

Environmental Issues, News, , , , ,

Here’s a good article from today’s Missoulian on the imminent delisting of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies . . .

Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolves officially return to state control Thursday, when their removal from Endangered Species Act protection is published in the Federal Register.

That means Montana and Idaho hunters will be back in the business of controlling wolf populations this fall. A bipartisan rider in the 2011 federal budget bill ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reinstate its 2009 wolf delisting decision and immunized it from further court challenges.

Continue reading . . .

Montana FWP wants quota of 220 wolves for fall hunt

Environmental Issues, News, ,

From today’s Missoulian . . .

Montana wildlife officials moved quickly to get fall hunting plans in place after the federal government returned the gray wolf to state management on Wednesday.

“We’ll propose tentative plans to the commission on May 12,” Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said shortly after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that wolves would no longer be protected under the Endangered Species Act. “We expect a (hunting) quota of 220, up from 186 last year, and there will be a special wolf management unit in the Bitterroots with a specific quota to address the elk depredation problems there.”

Continue reading for more details . . .

Storm system adds to already-deep snowpack

Flood Information, News,

Snow at the higher elevations just keeps piling up. Here’s a report from the Daily Inter Lake . . .

Mountain snowpack continued to pile up over the weekend in Northwest Montana, the result of a storm system that arrived Friday.

Automated snow measuring sites across the region recorded snow water equivalents accelerating well above historic averages, largely because snow depths have been increasing at a time when they are normally decreasing.

Continue reading . . .

Idaho could set wolf hunt quotas by August

Environmental Issues, News, ,

From an AP article posted to the Missoulian’s web site . . .

Idaho wildlife policy makers could set wolf hunt quotas by August after Congress last month directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist the predators.

There are currently an estimated 705 wolves in Idaho in about 87 packs, but Idaho Department of Fish and Game plans to update that information this month at a meeting in Lewiston.

Continue reading . . .

New USFS study shows beetle-killed trees ignite faster

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Here’s official support, with actual numbers, for something that seems intuitively obvious . . .

The red needles of a tree killed in a mountain pine beetle attack can ignite up to three times faster than the green needles of a healthy tree, new research into the pine beetle epidemic has found.

The findings by U.S. Forest Service ecologist Matt Jolly are being used by fellow ecologist Russ Parsons to develop a new model that will eventually aid firefighters who battle blazes in the tens of millions of acres from Canada to Colorado where forest canopies have turned from green to red from the beetle outbreak.

Continue reading . . .

Polebridge Mercantile reopens May 1st, Northern Lights Saloon soon to follow

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Following many months of extensive and often noisy renovation, the Polebridge Mercantile officially reopens on May 1st.

According to their Facebook page, the hours will be:

May: 7am-close (6ish during the week and 9ish on weekends)

June-August: 7am-10pm

September-November: 7am-close (6ish during the week and 9ish on weekends)

And even more good news, the Northern Lights Saloon and Cafe plans to reopen about four weeks later, on Memorial Day weekend.