Category Archives: Environmental Issues

Flathead Forest Plan and grizzly bear amendments go into effect

Documents, Environmental Issues, News, ,
Flathead National Forest
Flathead National Forest

The new Flathead Forest Plan, as well as the associated grizzly bear management amendments, went into effect late last year. Here, delayed by the recent government shutdown, is the official press release announcing them . . .

Flathead National Forest Releases Signed Record of Decisions for the Forest Land Management Plan and NCDE Forest Plan Amendments

Kalispell, MT., February 1, 2019 – After four years of collaborative effort and public input, the Flathead National Forest has released a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Forest’s Land Management Plan (Forest Plan) and associated final environmental impact statement (FEIS). A separate ROD was signed and released for the amendments to the Helena, Lewis and Clark, Kootenai and Lolo National Forests’ land management plans that incorporate the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem grizzly bear habitat management direction as forest plan direction (NCDE amendments).

“We greatly appreciate the commitment of interested participants who’ve provided important contributions toward the development of the land management plan through their participation in the planning process,” Forest Supervisor Chip Weber said. “We look forward to working with our partners and public in the years ahead in utilizing the vision in this land management plan to reach strategic objectives.”

The 2018 Forest Plan replaces the 1986 Plan, updating the long-term strategic vision for managing the Forest’s 2.4 million acres of lands in northwest Montana. The Forest Plan is the second in the nation to implement the Forest Service’s 2012 Land Management Planning Rule (36 CFR 219), which facilitates goals of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in promoting sound land stewardship in partnership with communities.

“We were glad to be part of a robust collaborative process that included a wide range of stakeholders willing to work hard to find space for everyone in our National Forests,” stated Paul McKenzie, the Lands & Resource Manager for F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company. “We feel the collaborative proposal to the USFS was given good consideration in the Forest Planning process. Many elements of the proposal are reflected in the management plan for the North Fork Area. It just goes to show that working together produces better results than working against each other.”

Amy Robinson, Conservation Director for the Montana Wilderness Association added, “The Montana Wilderness Association thanks the Forest Service for including many of the collaborative recommendations the Whitefish Range Partnership offered regarding timber harvest, recreation, and weed management. We are particularly pleased the Forest Service is recommending 80,000 acres of new Wilderness in the northern Whitefish Range. This recommendation will help secure and enhance critical habitat for grizzly bears, lynx, and other wildlife that make this corner of Montana so unique.”

The Notice of Plan Approval was published in the Federal Register on December 27, 2018. The Forest Plan went into effect 30 days after publication and the NCDE amendments went into effect upon publication of the Notice of Plan Approval on December 27, 2018. The Notice of Plan Approval, signed ROD, Forest Plan, and FEIS are available at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/flathead/fpr. The signed ROD for the NCDE amendments, are available at www.fs.usda.gov/goto/flathead/gbamend.

Groups call for new methods to reduce grizzly bear deaths

Commentary, Environmental Issues, News
Grizzly bear claws dead tree looking for insects - Jim Peaco-Yellowstone National Park
Grizzly bear claws dead tree looking for insects – Jim Peaco-Yellowstone National Park

Another interesting item from Public News Service…

After a record number of grizzly bear deaths in 2018, groups are calling for an update to a decade-old report on conflict prevention.

Six conservation groups have sent a letter to the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee.

They’re urging members to develop new recommendations for avoiding conflict involving bears, people and livestock and also evaluate how well the 2009 report was implemented.

Read more . . .

As grizzlies recover, frustration builds

Environmental Issues,
Grizzly on ranch east of Yellowstone - Wyoming Game and Fish Department
Grizzly on ranch east of Yellowstone – Wyoming Game and Fish Department

A remarkably even-handed discussion of the issues surrounding grizzly bear delisting . . .

Trina Jo Bradley squints down at a plate-sized paw print, pressed into a sheet of shallow snow.

She reaches down with fingers outstretched, hovering her palm over a sun-softened edge. Her hand barely covers a third of the track.

“That’s a big old foot right there,” she says, with a chuckle. “That’s the one where you don’t want to be like: ‘Oh! There he is right there!”

Bradley, like many ranchers, applies a wry sense of humor to things that feel out of her control.

Read more . . .

GPS map vividly illustrates wolf territoriality

Environmental Issues, News, Science
Map Uses GPS Locations to Show How Territorial Wolf Packs Are - map by Voyageurs Wolf Project
Map Uses GPS Locations to Show How Territorial Wolf Packs Are – map by Voyageurs Wolf Project

Here’s an interesting find by the guy who operates the Twisted Sifter blog . . .

In a recent post by the Voyageurs Wolf Project, they demonstrate how territorial wolf packs are through the mapping of 68,000 individual GPS locations from 7 wolves in different packs from the summer of 2018. They explain:

‘Each wolf’s collar took locations every 20 min (with the exception of the northernmost pack which took locations every 4 hr starting in October) for the duration of the summer. The last photo of the post shows the name and territory of each pack. There are a few packs that we have had collared in the past 2 years that we were not able to get GPS-collars on this year.’

‘This detailed GPS-data is incredibly valuable for understanding pack boundaries and also for our predation research. We visited every spot these wolves spent more than 20 minutes to determine if the wolves made a kill. This required an estimated 5,000 miles of hiking this past summer from our field crew!’

Read more . . .

If you live in Montana, your neighbors are wolves, lions and bears

Environmental Issues, News
Mountain Lion (Cougar) - Montana FWP
Mountain Lion (Cougar) – Montana FWP

Here’s a reminder that bears aren’t the only critter you should not be baiting onto your property . . .

Jamie Jonkel couldn’t help but smile a couple of weeks ago when a report of a trio of mountain lions near a Florence school bus stop hit the news.

The longtime Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife management specialist had seen it happen before.

“Those lions at Tie Chute were seen way at the upper end of the road,” Jonkel said. “It wasn’t near a bus stop. The man who made the report had just put his kids on the bus and he was on his way back home when he saw them.”

Read more . . .

Chris Peterson: Thoughts on habitat

Commentary, Environmental Issues
Mountain Goat - David Restivo-NPS
Mountain Goat – David Restivo-NPS

Hungry Horse News editor Chris Peterson has a well thought out editorial in this week’s paper . . .

I ask you this: Why is it that when I want to take a photo of a trophy-sized deer, elk, moose, bighorn of mountain goat, I go to Glacier National Park?

Glacier has a full suite of predators, big and small. It has wolves, mountain lions, black and grizzly bears, coyotes and lynx all roaming the landscape, gobbling up game, right?

Why if I was to listen to all the Fakebook experts there shouldn’t be hide nor hair of any game species in the Park. The wolves alone would have eaten them all up by now and what was left the bears would have scavenged, right?

Read more . . .

Study shows mule deer do some serious traveling

Environmental Issues, News, ,
Mule deer with tracking collar, Whitefish Range, Montana
Mule deer with tracking collar, Whitefish Range, Montana

The ongoing mule deer study is turning up some interesting data . . .

Preliminary data from a 2-1/2-year long mule deer study is showing some interesting facets in the animals’ behavior and movement across the landscape in Northwest Montana.

Researchers from the University of Montana in cooperation with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks, radio collared 44 mule deer on the Rocky Mountain Front near Augusta, 26 in the Fisher River drainage and 31 in the Whitefish range.

Currently, of those deer, 26 are still “on air” along the front, 21 near the Fisher and 19 in the Whitefish Range.

Read more . . .

Managing wolves across a divided landscape

Environmental Issues, News,
Gray Wolf
Gray Wolf

Here’s a good article on the wolf management difficulties faced by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks . . .

Wolves are complex critters that for centuries have inspired myths and legends while generating fierce controversies, an animal whose presence on the landscape is at once magical and maddening, captivating wildlife lovers while commanding condemnation from hunters who say the population of predators is decimating the bounty of big game in Montana.

Livestock producers living on the wild edges of wolf country have their own set of challenges, forced to keep constant vigil over calving pastures that serve as a veritable beef buffet for a pack of predators.

And wildlife managers with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP), the agency tasked with implementing regulatory mechanisms to manage wolves following delisting of the species from the Endangered Species Act in 2011, which granted the state full management authority of its wolf population, are caught in the middle, seeking to strike a delicate balance amid competing interests that remain bitterly divided.

Read more . . .

Last wild caribou in the contiguous U.S. no longer wild

Environmental Issues, News,
A male caribou overlooks his range along the Selkirk Mountains. - public domain image
A male caribou overlooks his range along the Selkirk Mountains. – public domain image

The Selkirks no longer have any mountain caribou on the U.S. side of the border . . .

The last mountain caribou to call the contiguous United States home made her exit from the wild, according to Science.

A team of biologists from British Columbia captured the female caribou in the Selkirk Mountains, just north of the United States-Canada border. They moved her to a captivity pen near the city of Revelstoke, where she will stay for at least a month, Science reports. It is believed that she is the only surviving member of the southernmost caribou herd, the final herd to spend its time on both sides of the border.

Canada’s caribou populations have been dwindling over the years as their habitats become increasingly threatened by those seeking the natural resources, including timber, gas, and oil, present there. Climate change has also been a major factor as it cripples food sources and creates irregular weather patterns, making it difficult for caribou to survive.

Read more . . .

Rally for public lands on January 11 at high noon!

Environmental Issues, News
Rally for Public Lands - January 11, 2019
Rally for Public Lands – January 11, 2019

Reminder: There is a rally for public lands in Helena at noon on January 11. The following write-up is shamelessly stolen from an announcement sent out by Dave Hadden of Headwaters Montana . . .

What are you doing next Friday, January 11, 2019?

I plan to be in Helena at the Public Land Rally organized to tell the Montana Legislature to keep public lands in public hands and protect Montanans’ public land heritage.

You may have noticed that public lands across the West have come under increased pressure (some would say assault) from private interests seeking energy, minerals, timber, or personal benefit from the nation’s public lands.

The Montana Legislature’s majority membership has a history of listening to and favoring those private interests, including efforts to transfer public lands to state ownership – for possible dispossession to private ownership.

The Legislature convenes for its biennial 90-day session on January 7. We think it’s appropriate for them to get an early message from citizens from across the great state of Montana to support public lands and all the social, economic, environmental, and spiritual sustenance that they provide.

Numbers matter, as in the number of people who show up! Check out the event’s Facebook Page here. Send the link to friends and ask them to join you in Helena on January 11, at high noon! . . .