This will raise the temperature of the wolf debate another notch . . .
An environmental group filed notice Tuesday that it intends to sue the federal government to force adoption of a plan to recover gray wolves across the lower 48 states.
Category Archives: Environmental Issues
Montana FWP using new approach to ‘reboot’ cubs into the wild
It’s kind of quiet right now, so here’s an interesting story about a new “soft release” method Montana FWP is trying for returning orphaned bear cubs to the wild before they become too habituated to human presence. Sounds like it might just work . . .
Erik Wenum can hardly see inside the small plywood box, where two orphaned black bear cubs at the state’s wildlife shelter in Helena are acting like teenagers trying to be rousted before noon. They just want to sleep, but Wenum’s got other plans for them. . .
Tester’s forest bill likely dead this year
Well, it looks like that’s pretty much it for Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” this year.
The Associated Press has the story . . .
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s bill to increase both logging and wilderness areas appears to be dead this Congress after the Senate abandoned a huge catchall spending measure that included it.
Tester’s bill was added to the legislation Tuesday, but Democrats controlling the Senate abandoned the spending measure late Thursday after an outcry from conservatives who complained it was stuffed with more than $8 billion in pet projects known as earmarks.
More detail available on Tester’s “Forest Jobs & Recreation Act”
As mentioned yesterday, Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” has been rolled into the massive, end-of-year, Senate omnibus appropriations bill. There have been some, fairly minor, revisions to the act– nothing substantive. Neither the act’s supporters or opponents seem willing to predict its chances for passage.
- Today’s Missoulian has an expanded article on the FJRA, including a discussion of the most recent changes.
- Sen. Tester’s web site also has a page devoted to the act’s current status, as well as links to the actual text and associated maps.
Tester’s forest bill added to Senate appropriations measure
Sen. Jon Tester’s “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act” has been stubbed onto one of those end-of-year Senate appropriations bills. The biggest change from the original proposal appears to be the longer and more obscure title. It is now the “Forest Jobs and Restoration Pilot Initiative.” Today’s Missoulian has the story . . .
A revised version of Sen. Jon Tester’s Montana logging and wilderness initiative has been included in a last-minute omnibus appropriations bill before the U.S. Senate.
Tester spokesman Aaron Murphy said on Tuesday the renamed “Forest Jobs and Restoration Pilot Initiative” is essentially the original version of a bill Tester submitted last year as the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.
Wolf bills have little chance of passage this year
The various House and Senate bills aimed at removing Wolves from the endangered species list in some western states are unlikely to go anywhere this year.
From today’s Flathead Beacon . . .
Lawmakers from the Northern Rockies say pending bills aimed at getting gray wolves off the endangered species list have little chance of passage this year.
A time crunch, coupled with unresolved partisan differences on the issue, means several wolf bills introduced in the lead-up to the election are likely to die without action.
BP retires oil and gas leases in and near the North Fork
BP has climbed on the bandwagon, retiring their local oil and gas leases, including “a 394-acre parcel near the Polebridge entrance to Glacier National Park.”
The Missoulian has the story . . .
The oil company BP voluntarily gave up its rights to explore for energy along the western border of Glacier National Park, U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester announced Friday.
“Permanently protecting the North Fork for our kids and grandkids has been one of my biggest priorities for many years,” Baucus said in a written statement. “Today’s decision by BP is another step toward that goal.”
The deal takes 1,853 acres out of potential exploration. That includes a 394-acre parcel near the Polebridge entrance to Glacier National Park.
U.S. FWS investigating wolf poaching in Flathead Forest; reward offered
From today’s Daily Inter Lake . . .
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the recent shooting of two wolves on the Flathead National Forest.
The carcasses were found on the same day, Nov. 6, in different locations on the forest.
One was found along Coal Creek Road in the North Fork Flathead drainage and the other in the Miller Creek area west of Olney.
The Missoulian also posted an article on this incident.
FWP plans to reintroduce mountain goats to Whitefish Range
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks wants to reintroduce mountain goats to the Whitefish Range where they were pretty much hunted out by the 1960s. The plan is to capture an initial population of about 15 goats from a large herd in the Crazy Mountains near Big Timber and release them near Stryker Mountain on the west side of the Whitefish Divide. The project is scheduled to start this January.
For more information, see the write-up in this week’s Hungry Horse News, as well as the story in the Daily Inter Lake.
Check out the draft environmental assessment for project-specific details. If you want to put your oar in, the project is open for public comment through Wednesday, Nov. 3.
Study says regional wolf population high enough to maintain genetic diversity
This is going to stir things up. A just-released scientific study concludes that the wolf population is more than high enough to maintain genetic diversity throughout the Northern Rockies. This from the same team that earlier concluded that the wolf population in Yellowstone was genetically isolated, a finding used to argue against removing wolves from Endangered Species Act protection.
Some old research is providing new insight into the genetic diversity of wolves in the Northern Rockies.
Authored by well-known names in the world of wolf reintroduction, the newly published study concludes that as far back as six years ago, wolf numbers were high enough to avoid genetic stagnation in the region.
Mark Hebblewhite, a University of Montana ecologist and longtime wolf researcher, said the study is the most comprehensive paper ever completed on a wild population of carnivores. . .
The study was authored by the same team that earlier reported wolves in Yellowstone National Park were genetically isolated. That information was used to argue against delisting the Northern Rockies population in 2008. . .
For more detail, read the related “News and Views” item from Molecular Ecology, as well as the full scientific paper referenced in the above article. (Both documents are in PDF format and will open in a new window.)