Category Archives: Commentary

A Montana perspective on the Milky Way

Commentary,

A very nice essay on “dark skies” posted to the Missoulian via the Billings Gazette . . .

When I stepped out from the canopy of trees along the Appalachian Trail into a meadow, I walked into a sea of lights.

Fireflies danced in the night above the midsummer grass. Their larval offspring — the glow worms — hung from the surrounding trees, and like spectators at a giant amphitheater, they watched their parents dance.

Above, stretched over the length of open field, the Milky Way blazed across the moonless night.

Read more . . .

John Frederick, “The icon of the North Fork”

Commentary, History, ,

John Frederick, NFPA founder and perennial president, got some well-deserved recognition in Larry Wilson’s Hungry Horse News column this week . . .

Everyone who has spent any time on the North Fork has to know John Frederick. In the last few years, his friends have been worried about his health, and everyone has marveled at the level of his physical activity.

Just this past summer, he managed an all-day mule ride from Whale Creek to Thompson-Seton Lookout and back. That a minor achievement when compared to the multiple days he spent helping Bill Walker and others reopen the Coal Ridge Trail. By all accounts, the trail had not been maintained for nearly 40 years.

His activity level seems all the more remarkable when you see him brace himself to stand from a sitting position. It wasn’t always this way.

Although I have often considered John a relative newcomer to the North Fork, he has actually been here for nearly 40 years. He is a self-described environmentalist and was one of the founders of the North Fork Preservation Association and has been the president of that group most of the time since it was started.

Read more . . .

Larry Wilson: Yellowstone Park slide show lined up for Jan 20

Commentary, News, , ,

[Updated to correct time for presentation at Sondreson Hall.]

This is the seventh year Rick Graetz brings a group of his students to the North Fork and, as usual, he will be giving a presentation at Sondreson Hall. Larry Wilson’s column has the details . . .

This will be the seventh year that Rick Graetz, a University of Montana geography professor, will bring one of his classes to the North Fork.

The class will stay at the Polebridge Hostel and, as usual, Rick will present an educational program for local residents at Sondreson Community Hall. This year, the program will take place on Monday, Jan. 20, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Rick and his wife Suzie are accomplished photographers, and the program always revolves around a slide show of photos they have taken themselves.

This year, the program will feature about 100 photos of Yellowstone National Park as well as the narrative. It will illustrate the splendor of the mountains, rivers, forests, geysers and wildlife of what was once best known as “Colter’s Hell.”

Read More . . .

Daily Inter Lake: Seeing the forest AND the trees

Commentary, Environmental Issues, , , , , ,

The Daily Inter Lake posted a friendly editorial on the work of the Whitefish Range Partnership Saturday evening . . .

A group called the Whitefish Range Partnership should be commended for efforts to guide long-term forest planning on the Flathead National Forest north of Whitefish and Columbia Falls.

To say that the group of about 30 people representing highly diverse interests were not on the same page at the beginning would be a huge understatement. But after meeting regularly over a 13-month period, with a specific rule that all parties involved would have to sign onto a complete package of recommendations or abandon the effort entirely, the partnership came to a complete consensus on a 58-page set of recommendations.

They addressed potentially conflicting issues such as recommended wilderness, motorized summer use, mountain biking, snowmobiling, and timber harvesting.

Read more . . .

Larry Wilson: Wilderness compromise reached for North Forkers

Commentary, Environmental Issues, ,

Larry Wilson’s column discusses the efforts of the Whitefish Range Partnership . . .

Nearly 13 months ago, the Whitefish Range Partnership was organized. This group is a diverse group representing every aspect of forest users, from timber companies to wilderness advocates and everything in between — hikers, horsemen, trail bikers, snowmobilers, off-road motorists and commercial interests.

The purpose was to be ahead of the Flathead National Forest planning process and put together a document that would influence the Forest Plan and make it easier for the feds to come up with a plan acceptable to a majority of users.

Toughest subject to deal with was wilderness, and because the self-imposed rule of the WRP was that if even one member voted no then no proposal would be forwarded to the Forest Service.

Continue reading at the Hungry Horse News . . .

Forest plan revision overview posted

Commentary,

Public Affairs Officer Wade Muehlhof authored an informative article in the Flathead Beacon yesterday explaining the importance of the Forest Plan revision process. The Flathead National Forest is just getting started on this effort, which will take several years to complete . . .

For many people, the Flathead National Forest is the place where you can camp, hike, ride, ski, hunt and fish, observe wildlife and flora, gather firewood and Christmas trees where timber is harvested and fires are managed. Some enjoy the developed areas, others venture deep into the wilderness and many explore the areas in between. What people may not know is how much effort goes into managing these 2.4 million acres of public lands.

Management is guided by the Forest Plan. The plan is periodically revised to reflect current conditions. The forest was well into the plan revision in 2005 when a court case found the rule under which the planning effort was happening was not legal. As such the Flathead’s plan has not been revised since 1986. Now with a new planning rule, the Flathead National Forest is beginning the first phase of a multi-year planning process to revise the Forest Plan. The intent of the planning framework is to create a responsive planning process that informs multiple use management and allows the Forest Service to adapt to changing conditions, including climate change, and improve management based on new information and monitoring…

Read more . . .

Bob Brown: Collaborative forest agreements are the future

Commentary

Bob Brown has a pretty good opinion piece in this week’s Hungry Horse News discussing the increasing importance of citizen-based collaborative forest agreements. It’s good background on an increasingly important way of getting diverse interests to work together . . .

Last month, Chuck Roady, vice president and general manager of F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co., a family-owned sawmill that has been operating in Northwest Montana for more than 100 years, traveled to Washington, D.C., to share with the powers that be what it’s like to run a mill in Montana.

At the invitation of Rep. Steve Daines, Roady spoke to the House Natural Resources Committee about the web of lawsuits that too often ensnare federal timber sales. He called it, with good reason, “endless litigation.”

Roady reminded the lawmakers that lawsuits have forced the Forest Service to spend as much as $350 million a year on “timber sale analysis.” That’s tax money that could be productively spent on the ground, on projects that create lunch-bucket jobs, improve forest health and reduce the threat of increasingly deadly and destructive fires.

Before we Montanans hold our collective breath waiting for Congress to cut the web and ax the analysis, we might take heart by looking closer to home. Here in Montana, some forward-thinking people have simply gone ahead and taken the responsibility of finding homegrown solutions to resource issues . . .

Continue reading . . .

Larry Wilson: Thompson-Seton Peak by mule and foot

Commentary, Environmental Issues, News, , ,

For those of you who haven’t encountered Larry Wilson’s enthusiastic Thompson-Seton trip report, here it is. Kudos to Frank Vitale for coming up with the idea in the first place and making it happen . . .

What a great trip. Regular readers of this column will no doubt remember Frank Vitale and I debating the wilderness issue in this newspaper late last summer. That debate ended with Frank challenging me to go with him on his mules to Thompson-Seton Peak, where we would sit down and debate the issue on the mountain top. After getting Frank to agree to not only take me into the mountains but also bring me out, I accepted the challenge.

Unfortunately, the weather turned wet and cold, and we had to postpone the trip until the summer. During the winter, we were both involved in the Whitefish Range Partnership, and over the course of the meetings, we both became fully aware of the other’s feelings and concerns about wilderness. Thus, there was no big need for a mountain-top debate, but I was still anxious to take the trip and was more than happy that Frank, too, was still willing to take me.

July 28 was set as a mutually acceptable date, and I was so excited I started putting my gear together a week ahead of time…

Continue reading at the Hungry Horse News . . .

Dave Hadden: It all makes sense from up here

Commentary, Environmental Issues, , , ,

Dave Hadden, Executive Director of Headwaters Montana, spent some time in the Canadian Flathead a short time ago. Here are his thoughts, written as he was on the summit of Mount Haig in the Canadian Rockies . . .

I’m sitting atop Mount Haig in the Canadian Rockies, just 30 miles (48km) from the Montana border and Glacier National Park. In front of me, the broken limestone and shale shards descend in sweeping arcs until they merge with ridge lines that go on forever. Behind me, very close behind me, my seat drops away vertically 2,000 feet to a jewel-like turquoise lake. I could be on top of Siyeh Peak in Glacier, but I’m not. I’m sitting on the highest peak in the proposed new Flathead National Park.

From up here you can see how the land fits together. How a grizzly bear and her cubs might tumble out of their winter den and find security in the high, carved cirque basin to my right from the instincts of male bears or the disturbance of human activities. How the green blush of a new year’s flowering moves up the valleys and canyon walls. How the returning winged-ones find willows and cottonwoods along the Flathead River and tributary creeks or in the tall spruce and pine to regenerate the song-filled air.

Continue reading . . .

John Frederick: North Fork Protection Vital

Commentary, Environmental Issues, , , ,

The following letter to the editor by NFPA President John Frederick was posted to the Flathead Beacon’s web site July 19 . . .

Republican Congressman Steve Daines has introduced HR 2259, a North Fork Watershed Protection Act, and he deserves much credit for doing so.

Democratic Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester had earlier introduced virtually identical legislation (Senate Bill 255). It passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on June 18 of this year.

The legislation withdraws federal minerals from future leasing only on Forest Service land in the North Fork (and a slice of federal land in the Middle Fork along the river) not currently under valid existing leases. More than 200,000 acres of leases have been voluntarily relinquished that represents 80 percent of the leased land.

When this legislation is enacted it will complete a gentleman’s agreement between British Columbia and Montana to not allow leasing of minerals in the Flathead of B. C. and the North Fork of the Flathead because of concerns about wildlife and clean water. The Canadians were considerably faster to do their part of the agreement.

Steve Daines is a Republican. He has not let partisan politics get in the way of working with Democrats toward a worthwhile goal. His efforts will ensure quicker action on the legislation and I wish to thank him.

John Frederick
Polebridge