From the Thursday, March 19, 2009 online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .
For the second time this year, the Senate has passed a long-delayed bill to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness, from a California mountain range to a forest in Virginia.
The 77-20 vote on Thursday sends the bill to the House, where final legislative approval could come as early as next week.
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G. George Ostrom pokes fun at Larry Wilson and the New York Times and comes up with an excuse to use “ululating” in this week’s Hungry Horse News. Oh… and he also says some nice things about the North Fork.
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OK, it looks like the Daily Mistake Inter Lake was in error the other day when they listed “a $4.1 million rebuild of the North Fork Road, with paving to the Camas entrance of Glacier National Park” as being on the Flathead County wish list for federal stimulus funds. According to a brief note from Jack Potter, who is Chief of the Division of Science and Resources Management for Glacier National Park, the money would be used for such things as “the washout on the Camas hill and the replacement of the Akokala Creek Bridge.” So, these funds are being requested to make repairs affecting the perpetually disheveled inside North Fork Road on the park side of the river.
The Tuesday, March 10, 2009 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake had an article on the Flathead County Commissioner’s wish list of projects for federal stimulus funds. This includes the following excerpt of interest to North Forkers:
…Roads figure heavily into the county’s proposed stimulus projects.
Among the most expensive road projects on the list is a $4.1 million rebuild of the North Fork Road, with paving to the Camas entrance of Glacier National Park…
It’s not clear why this item is included, since it is likely not enough money to get the job done. Still, it’s interesting that it made the list.
This week’s Hungry Horse News has a pretty good overview of the threats faced by Glacier National Park over the next few decades . . .
In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed the “Organic Act” which created the National Park Service. In that bill, it said the Service has a purpose “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
In Glacier National Park, that mantra is becoming harder and harder to accomplish, admits Jack Potter, as the Park is besieged by both internal and external threats, most of which are not of its own making.
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The Saturday, March 7, 2009 issue of the Daily Inter Lake has a pretty good overview of the current plan to remove gray wolves from the list of threatened and endangered species . . .
There had been uncertainty about how the Obama administration would proceed, but Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday the decision to remove gray wolves from the list of threatened and endangered species.
The delisting proposed by Salazar mirrors a move by the Bush administration in January that was suspended in order for the new administration to review. It will apply to wolves in the western Great Lakes region and in Montana and Idaho, but not in Wyoming.
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From the Saturday, March 7, 2009 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
The Glacier Country Avalanche Center has issued a “high” avalanche advisory for the Glacier National Park and Flathead and Kootenai national forest areas.
“We’re currently rating the avalanche danger as high on those steep, open slopes that have received significant amounts of either precipitated or wind-deposited snow over the last three days,” said Stan Bones, an avalanche specialist with the Flathead Forest.
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From the Friday, March 6, 2009 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Retired Forest Service brass and other prominent Montana citizens called on Montana’s congressional delegation Thursday to press for the establishment of additional wilderness areas in the state.
The group said it believes that 26 years is too long since any land in the state has been permanently protected as wilderness. During that same period, more than 439 wilderness areas have been designated in other states.
“We believe that what Montana’s wildlands need now, more than ever, is leadership in Washington from Montana’s delegation,” the group said in a letter to Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Rep. Denny Rehberg.
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From the Friday, March 6, 2009 online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday he was upholding a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and the western Great Lakes from the federal endangered list.
Salazar said wolves would remain a protected species in Wyoming because its law and management plans were not strong enough. But management of the predator will be turned over to state agencies in Montana and Idaho and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah, in addition to the Great Lakes states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
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As promised, Flathead County has set some money aside for a sort-of dust abatement co-pay plan. Trouble is, there aren’t many takers so far. The deadline is March 27th.
From the March 4, 2009 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
Residents who want to tap into Flathead County’s cost-sharing dust abatement program this summer may want to heed an age-old adage: Speak now or forever hold your peace.
The deadline to sign up for the first-time program is March 27, and to date the county has had little response from rural residents, Public Works Director Dave Prunty said Monday.
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