Category Archives: Environmental Issues

Sarah Gilman: ‘Wilderness Lite’ wins the day

Commentary, Environmental Issues,

Here’s some pretty good commentary by Sarah Gilman of the High Country News concerning last Friday’s resurrection of the “roadless rule” . . .

One of the last decades’ most scintillating (that is, in the headachey confusing sense…) enviro-legal ping-pong matches may finally be drawing to a close. On Friday, a three-judge panel at the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver effectively reinstated the Clinton-era Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which banned new road building and most logging on more than 50 million acres of National Forest. The rule was meant to prevent further fragmentation of wildlife habitat, sedimentation of streams, and other negative effects of roads on lands that had been previously inventoried as “roadless.”

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Roadless rule reinstatement protects 6.4M acres in Montana

Environmental Issues, News,

After 10 years of squabbling, the “roadless rule” is back in force. From today’s Missoulian . . .

A decade of uncertainty over managing public roadless lands may have cleared with last Friday’s federal appeals court ruling.

A three-judge panel from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed that a 2001 rule governing inventoried roadless areas was the law of the land. That dovetailed with earlier 9th Circuit Court rulings saying the same thing.

The decisions prohibit road construction and timber cutting in 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas, including 6.4 million acres in Montana. That covers about 30 percent of the national forest system.

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Attempt to stop Montana and Idaho wolf hunts denied – for now

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Not unexpectedly, the request by a number of environmental groups for an emergency injunction against this year’s wolf hunt was denied . . .

A federal appeals court has turned down an emergency request by wildlife advocates seeking to stop gray wolf hunts underway in the Northern Rockies.

In a ruling Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the emergency injunction sought by three advocacy group but said it would consider the request during oral arguments scheduled for next month.

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Enviro groups file to stop Montana and Idaho wolf hunts

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

From today’s Missoulian . . .

A group of wolf advocates have requested an emergency halt to wolf hunting in the Rocky Mountains, one week before the general rifle season begins in Montana.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater and WildEarth Guardians want to return the gray wolf to federal Endangered Species Act protection.

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Grizzly bears moving east onto Montana’s high plains

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Some pretty interesting news about grizzly bear recovery from today’s Missoulian . . .

An increasing grizzly bear population is expanding east from the Rocky Mountain Front in western Montana as individual bears discover that the plains contain abundant food, a grizzly bear expert says.

Mike Madel of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said some bears appear to have discovered that food sources are better on the plains than in the mountains. He noted that in the past young bears trying to make it on their own were showing up on the plains, but now there are adult females that are passing their knowledge to their cubs.

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Tester’s Forest Jobs and Restoration Act included in Senate’s Interior Department appropriations bill

Environmental Issues, News,

Sen. Tester’s Forest Jobs and Restoration Act may be inching towards passage this year. From today’s Missoulian . . .

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s Forest Jobs and Restoration Act is included in the Senate’s Interior Department appropriations bill, giving it a chance of passage in the 2012 federal budget.

The bill provides annual funding for the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs and U.S. Forest Service wildland fire management.

The 183-page bill was released Friday.

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For further information, check out Sen. Tester’s Forest Jobs and Restoration Act mini-site.

Grizzly numbers in Montana, Wyoming & Idaho leveling off

Environmental Issues, News,

From today’s Missoulian . . .

Grizzly numbers in and around Yellowstone National Park dropped slightly this year, indicating the region’s bear population could be leveling off after decades of steady growth, researchers reported Thursday.

An estimated 593 bears are roaming the region of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, said Mark Haroldson, a bear researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey. That’s down from 602 last year and compares with a 4 percent average annual growth rate since the mid-1980s.

“Statistically, the evidence is it’s flattened out,” Haroldson said.

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Proposed ‘Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act’ would ban North Fork mining in B.C.

Environmental Issues, News,

Here’s the Hungry Horse News’ take on the recently introduced Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act . . .

A bill introduced in the British Columbia legislature last week would ban mining and oil and gas exploration in the Canadian Flathead, which is the North Fork of the Flathead River north of the border.

The Flathead Watershed Area Conservation Act, introduced by Steve Thomson, B.C.’s minister of forests lands and natural resource operations, codifies an earlier memorandum of understanding between B.C. and Montana to ban mining in the region.

The MOU, negotiated in 2010 by Gov. Brian Schweitzer and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, broke 30-plus years of differences between the two entities over mining in the drainage. B.C. mining interests through the years have proposed several mining and energy exploration projects in the drainage north of Glacier National Park.

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Biologist tells Glacier employees that 1.3 million acres of roadless lands vulnerable

Environmental Issues, News, , , , , ,

From the Missoulian . . .

Despite a legacy of conservation in the Crown of the Continent ecosystem, a biologist told Glacier National Park employees Tuesday that 1.3 million acres of roadless public lands remain vulnerable, and with them a suite of fish and wildlife species…

Although the core of the ecosystem is protected by the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Great Bear wildernesses – as well as the first-ever Tribal Wilderness in the Mission Mountains – 1.33 million acres of roadless area “is still up for grabs,” Weaver said…

…he stressed the importance of habitat connectivity along the periphery of conservation lands in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, and in particular on the Rocky Mountain Front, along the North and Middle Forks of the Flathead River, and in the Swan Range.

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Effort moving forward to protect trans-boundary Flathead from mining, energy development

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

From the Missoulian . . .

An effort to protect the transboundary Flathead River from mining and energy development moved a step forward Tuesday in the British Columbia Parliament.

Montana’s Gov. Brian Schweitzer and then-B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell signed a memorandum of understanding last year preserving the Flathead watershed, which borders Glacier National Park and the mountains west of Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. Montana Sen. Max Baucus put a bill in Congress to solidify the commitment on the U.S. side; it’s still awaiting action.

On Tuesday, B.C. Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson announced a similar measure was put before the B.C. Parliament. The bill would prohibit issuing permits for mining, oil and gas development.

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