That’s it for wolf hunting on the North Fork this year. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks announced it is closing the hunt officially a half-hour past sunset tomorrow, November 10th, after the shooting of the allowed two wolves in the “North Fork Sub-unit.” An AP article posted to the Flathead Beacon has some additional background.
Category Archives: Environmental Issues
Biologist’s findings show forest diversity & health influenced by wolves
The October 25th Missoulian had a fascinating article — with photos — on Cristina Eisenberg’s study of the surprisingly broad impact wolves have on the general forest ecosystem. Thanks to Oliver Meister for pointing this one out . . .
A clinging mist quieted the morning meadow, the icy hem of its robes brushing silent against autumn’s crackling knee-high grass.
In the darkest shadows, the cold crunch of snow remained, criss-crossed with wolf tracks, bear tracks, elk and deer tracks. Scat and bone and hair and hide. These were the morning news reports written in muddied prints, each with a thin film of ice.
Cristina Eisenberg scanned the headlines, then waded into the meadow to read the particulars.
“It’s all here,” the researcher said. “You just have to know the language.”
Poaching doesn’t impact Montana’s wolf hunt quota
Today’s online edition of the Missoulian has an article explaining why the recent wolf poaching incidents on the North Fork did not affect the local wolf hunt quota . . .
When a Columbia Falls man pleaded guilty last week to poaching two wolves just outside Glacier National Park, many thought the area’s wolf-hunting quota would be adjusted accordingly.
They were wrong.
“Looking at Idaho might have been somewhat constructive,” said Louisa Wilcox of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “They had a poaching incident there, and they cut the quota in response.”
But state wildlife officials say Montana and Idaho came at their quota counts in different ways, and in Montana those poached wolves already were considered dead, long before they were killed.
Appeals court: Flathead NF managed road work, grizzly habitat properly
From today’s online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Federal officials did a good job of balancing road work and grizzly bears in the Flathead National Forest, according to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“It’s a very significant victory for us,” Flathead forest planning staff officer Rob Carlin said Wednesday. “It supports us in the direction we’ve been taking at the Flathead.”
The court combined two cases involving road removal in areas burned in the 2003 wildfires. One was in the Roberts/Wedge fire along the North Fork of the Flathead River, and the other was along the west side of Hungry Horse Reservoir. Both areas have large grizzly bear populations and are covered by special forest plan rules for how many miles of road are allowed in grizzly habitat.
Baucus signs onto Tester’s wilderness bill
From yesterday’s Flathead Beacon . . .
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester says fellow Montana Sen. Max Baucus has co-signed a proposal to both add more wilderness and require more logging on federal land.
Tester made the announcement Monday during a public meeting in Missoula meant to answer questions about the “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act.”
Headwaters Montana advocates North Fork wilderness
From the Wednesday, October 14, 2009 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .
There’s a renewed push for wilderness in the North Fork. Headwaters Montana, a relatively new conservation group has released a plan for land conservation on both sides of the border.
Tucked in that plan is a call for 140,000 acres of designated wilderness in the Thompson-Seton and Mount Hefty areas.
But the plan doesn’t end there. It includes a wilderness designation for Glacier’s backcountry, expansion of Waterton Lakes National Park to the Canadian Flathead and wildlife management zones west of the Waterton expansion.
Follow-up: UNESCO scientific mission to Waterton-Glacier Park
Although the Missoulian posted some initial coverage of last month’s visit by a U.N. scientific delegation investigating mining and other resource development threats to Waterton-Glacier Park, the only local paper that paid significant attention to the subject was the Hungry Horse News — a fact that slipped past your friendly webweenie.
Herewith are lead-ins and links to the articles published by the Hungry Horse News.
From the September 24th edition . . .
U.N. scientists: Glacier on ‘pedestal’
Two scientists from the United Nations are touring the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and the Canadian Flathead to see for themselves the potential impacts of proposed mines in the region.
“We plan to consult as widely as possible with all stakeholders,” said Paul Dingwall, a New Zealand scientist with the World Conservation Union and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Dingwall and Keshore Rao, deputy director of the United Nation’s World Heritage Center, spent most of Monday holed up in Glacier Park’s community building, hearing report after report about the Park and its native flora and fauna.
From the October 7th edition . . .
Scientists here say they made an impression on U.N.
After a solid week of meetings and tours, American scientists and conservationists feel good about their recent visit with a delegation from the United Nations.
B.C. mining proposals threaten U.S. environmental jewel, enviros will tell UN
A Canadian Press article posted yesterday evening . . .
Environmentalists say a natural treasure in the United States is threatened by proposed coal and gold mining in southeastern B.C., and they’ll ask United Nations environmental experts later this week to put some pressure on the province to stop the developments.
The UN environmental experts are currently in Montana gathering information about the potential damage B.C. mining proposals could inflict upon Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park in that state, a UNESCO World Heritage site and Biosphere Reserve.
U.N. scientists assess mining threats to Waterton-Glacier Park
We’re starting to see more complete news coverage of this week’s visit by a U.N. scientific delegation investigating mining and other resource development threats to Waterton-Glacier Park.
The Missoulian posted an excellent article on the first day’s activities very early this morning. Here’s the lead-in . . .
A team of scientists from the United Nations is visiting Glacier National Park, assessing potential threats posed by mining plans in Canadian wildlands upstream of the park.
Glacier, in partnership with adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, was named a World Heritage Site in 1995; that UNESCO designation recognizes the area’s spectacular natural resources, including its diversity of wildlife and its role as a “biological crossroads.
But several Canadian companies are interested in resources that lie just beyond the two park boundaries – namely coal, gold and coalbed methane. British Columbia’s provincial government already has granted exploration permits in the Canadian Flathead River drainage, which flows south into Montana to form Glacier Park’s western boundary.
UN officials to visit Glacier Park this week — no details yet
A UN delegation is scheduled to visit Glacier National Park this week and locations in the Canadian Flathead as part of UNESCO’s investigation into threats to Waterton-Glacier Park posed by coal mining and other proposed extractive activities. So far, the only recent news is a short, uninformative AP article.
No further information yet. We’ll post coverage as it becomes available.