Category Archives: Environmental Issues

Reminder: Community forum this evening, July 17, to discuss wild and scenic rivers

Environmental Issues, News, ,

An announcement from Kascie Herron of Montanans for Healthy Rivers . . .

For the last four years, Montanans for Healthy Rivers has been asking citizens around the state what they love about their rivers and how they want to see those rivers protected. The results of a 2014 bipartisan survey showed that approximately 75% of Montanans support the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act as a tool to protect more Montana rivers. Thanks to the input of hundreds of Montanans, including business owners, landowners, conservation groups, sportsman groups, land trusts (the list goes on!) and many of you, we are ready to share our draft Citizen’s Proposal for New Wild and Scenic Rivers in Montana.

Please join us on Friday, July 17 from 8-9pm at Sondreson Community Hall, to learn about the draft Citizen’s Proposal and to share your feedback on the rivers being considered in the North Fork. This proposal will need your fine tuning and support in order to be successful.

For more information on who we are, please visit our website at http://healthyriversmt.org/.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Montana cuts bobcat quotas

Environmental Issues, News,

Bobcat numbers have dropped, so Montana FWP has reduced the hunting quotas . . .

Montana wildlife officials have reduced quotas for bobcat hunting and trapping across a broad swath of central and northern Montana.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissioners on Thursday approved a proposal to lower the quota in three regions of the state by a combined 190 animals.

The move came after agency officials said they’d seen a drop in bobcat numbers in those areas. The decline is considered a cyclical population shift, but wildlife officials have said they don’t want to exacerbate the drop through hunting and trapping.

Read more . . .

Trapping restrictions imposed near Glacier & Yellowstone to aid lynx

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

Trapping regulations have been tightened up around Glacier and Yellowstone national parks to avoid accidental lynx capture . . .

Montana wildlife officials have tightened trapping regulations outside Yellowstone and Glacier national parks to reduce the chances that threatened Canada lynx accidentally will be caught.

The changes include restrictions on the types of traps, snares and bait that can be used in special protection zones outside the parks

State wildlife commissioners approved the changes on a 3-1 vote Thursday. Commissioner Gary Wolfe of Missoula cast the dissenting vote, Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokesman Ron Aasheim said.

Read more . . .

Grizzly and cubs relocated to North Fork

Environmental Issues, News, ,

More wayward bears got dropped off in the North Fork. In this instance, near Frozen Lake . . .

A grizzly bear and her two cubs are being relocated after killing about 10 sheep near Lake Frances.

The Great Falls Tribune reports the bears will be moved Friday to a site in the North Fork of the Flathead River.

Grizzly bear management biologist, Mike Madel, says the bear family had been spotted near the east shore of Lake Frances, where they killed about 10 sheep.

Read more . . .

Trout Unlimited concerned about logging in the Canadian Flathead

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

Trout Unlimited, among other conservation organizations, is keeping a wary eye on logging operations in the Canadian Flathead . . .

Members of Flathead Valley Trout Unlimited are worried about potential timber harvest in the headwaters of the Canadian Flathead.

Two companies, Jemi Fibre and Canfor, hold privately owned forestland or lease government “crown” land within the watershed. Jemi recently purchased 130,000 acres in the Flathead and Kootenai watersheds. Canfor holds the area’s provincial crown timberland under a license “tenure” agreement.

Jemi’s holdings include approximately 10,000 acres of Sportsmans Ridge, encompassing Foisey and McLatchie creeks, both major tributaries of the North Fork Flathead headwaters. According to U.S. Geological Survey fisheries biologists, 30-40 percent of all bull trout spawning occurs just downstream of these tributaries. The Canadian Flathead becomes the North Fork of the Flathead in the U.S. and is the western boundary of Glacier National Park. For decades, the U.S. and Canada sparred over coal and gold mines in the Canadian Flathead. After decades of negotiation, the province and the U.S. agreed not to mine the drainage.

Now the dispute is turning toward logging…

Read more . . .

Blackfeet Tribe breaks off talks over drilling in Badger-Two Medicine

Environmental Issues, News, , ,

The Blackfeet continue to fight attempts to drill in the Badger-Two Medicine region . . .

An American Indian tribe in Montana has taken the rare step of breaking off formal talks with the U.S. government and a Louisiana company that has been seeking for decades to drill for natural gas on land considered sacred by the Blackfeet people.

Blackfeet tribal leaders said that after three rounds of negotiations, they remain steadfast in their opposition to drilling in the Badger-Two Medicine area outside Glacier National Park and see no benefit to further discussions.

“We are not going to speak to anything other than no development,” said Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Officer John Murray.

Read more . . .

Blackfeet ramp up efforts to protect Badger-Two Medicine

Environmental Issues, News, ,

The Blackfeet tribe is keeping up the pressure to remove the remaining oil and gas exploration lease in the Badger-Two Medicine region . . .

The Blackfeet Nation’s leaders are ramping up efforts to protect the Badger-Two Medicine area near Glacier National Park, and recently highlighted the cultural, spiritual and ecological significance of a region threatened by oil and gas development.

On June 26, members of the Blackfeet Nation launched the most recent phase of a campaign to rally support for the area, with the aim of terminating 18 oil leases within the Badger-Two Medicine. The mountainous area, located between the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, is a cornerstone of the tribe’s creation story, a spiritual nexus known as the “Backbone of the World” and a pristine, untapped ecosystem home to grizzly bears and other wildlife.

To celebrate the area, the tribe hosted Badger-Two Medicine Days, which among other Blackfeet traditions featured an all-night “holy smoke” ceremony led by spiritual elders, with the goal of warding off oil and gas development, said Tyson Running Wolf, secretary of the Blackfeet Business Council.

Read more . . .

Wilderness boundaries becoming prime real estate target

Environmental Issues, News,

Researchers say increased residential development near wildlands is beginning to cause problems . . .

Despite heavy development, the U.S. still has millions of acres of pristine wild lands. Coveted for their beauty, these wilderness areas draw innumerable outdoor enthusiasts eager for a taste of primitive nature.

But University of Georgia researchers say these federally protected nature areas have a problem: Their boundaries have become prime real estate.

As the country’s population continues to grow, people have built homes close to national parks, forests and wilderness areas for the same reasons these systems have been left protected from development. However, this construction and growth near the National Wilderness Preservation System is beginning to degrade the quality of these lands and erode biodiversity.

Read more . . .

Grizzlies captured for study as feds look at delisting

Environmental Issues, News, ,

More grizzly bear monitoring action as the feds move towards removing the animal from the endangered species list in some areas . . .

Twenty-four grizzly bears have been captured so far this year in and around Yellowstone National Park as wildlife managers start another season of research toward a potential lifting of federal protections.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team captured the grizzlies in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and outside the parks in Montana and Wyoming.

Teams are now starting to trap grizzlies in eastern Idaho to attach radio or GPS collars.

Read more . . .

The pirates of Juvi Bay

Environmental Issues, News, ,

Five days a week, a couple of guys get paid to gill net lake trout out of Quartz Lake . . .

The skull and crossbones hanging from the light pole on the back of the 18-foot fishing boat has worn to tatters.

So has the population of lake trout in Quartz Lake.

Twice a day, Kevin Perkins and Carter Fredenberg string 1,800 feet of gill net through the waters of Juvi Bay – their name for the most productive summertime corner of this 869-acre Glacier National Park lake where juvenile lake trout linger. They come to pillage. The name of their pirate boat is unprintable.

Read more . . .