Category Archives: Environmental Issues

Trout Unlimited concerned about logging in the Canadian Flathead

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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…

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

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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.

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Blackfeet ramp up efforts to protect Badger-Two Medicine

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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.

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Wilderness boundaries becoming prime real estate target

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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.

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Grizzlies captured for study as feds look at delisting

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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

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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.

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Researcher studying huckleberries in Glacier Park

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Here’s an interesting article on huckleberry research in Glacier Park . . .

Tabitha Graves can’t say this will be a bad year for huckleberries, even though four of the five sites she is monitoring in the West Glacier area show berry production is down 75 percent to 95 percent from last year. But the fifth is showing the same number of berries as 2014, when a bumper crop was produced after a wet, cool spring.

And Graves, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, doesn’t yet know what the huckleberry crop at higher elevations – where bushes are just popping out from under snow – will be like this summer.

“It could still be a great year if the berries at the higher elevations grow,” Graves says.

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Experts mull path towards grizzly delisting

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Again, a lot of discussion of a shift from grizzly bear recovery to grizzly bear management . . .

Top grizzly bear experts from Montana, U.S. and Canadian governments descended on Many Glacier Hotel last week to discuss the future of grizzly bear populations throughout the Northwest, including in and around Glacier National Park.

The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, created in 1983 to oversee recovery of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states, is considering removing the protected status under the Endangered Species Act of two bear populations: those in the Northern Continental Divide and Yellowstone ecosystems.

Grizzlies were one of the first high-profile listings under the 1973 law, listed as a “threatened” species in 1975 after being extirpated from the vast majority of their historical range.

“The animals are leading the way — they’re recovering themselves, along with a lot of our help…”

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Aquatic invasive species an ongoing problem

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It’s that time of year when locals and tourists are out and about in large numbers, many of them in boats and rafts. This, in turn, makes the spread of aquatic invasive species a big concern. Here’s the official press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks . . .

This summer, remember that state law requires all motorists hauling watercraft – from trailers with motorboats or inflatable rafts to canoes and kayaks perched atop cars and pick-up trucks – to stop at inspection stations.

As part of the state’s aquatic invasive species prevention program, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has 17 well-marked watercraft inspection stations set up around the state that will be in operation through September.

The annual education and enforcement effort, which this year includes multiple chances to win prizes from an array of local sponsors, is to further curb the risk of aquatic invasive species from attaining a foothold in Montana waters.

“One of Montana’s best defenses against spreading invasive species while enjoying the outdoors is to inspect, clean, drain and dry boats, trailers, and fishing gear after each use,” said Tom Boos, FWP’s AIS coordinator in Helena. “We can control the spread of these invasive plant and animal species if we don’t carry them from one water to the next.”

Montana law requires private motorists and outfitters and guides hauling watercraft – including motorboats, sailboats, kayaks, canoes, rowboats, rafts, jet skis and even small kick boats popular among some anglers – to always stop at AIS watercraft inspection stations for a brief interview and equipment check. Most inspections take fewer than five minutes, but failure to stop could lead to a $135 fine.

Montana’s “Inspect – Clean – Dry” slogan draws attention to a national problem threatening to take root in the West – aquatic hitchhikers. These non-native, destructive, and highly prolific AIS include harmful aquatic plants, animals, fish, and microscopic organisms, which include everything from invasive zebra mussels to whirling disease.

AIS can be easily transported from water to water by popular recreational activities like fishing and boating.

“If boaters and anglers get into the ‘inspect, clean, drain and dry’ habit we’ll be able to decrease the number of troubling and expensive introductions of harmful species in Montana,” Boos said.

To learn more, visit FWP’s website at fwp.mt.gov, then click “Inspect – Clean – Dry.”

Grizzly bears active in Beartooths

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Grizzlies continue to extend their range . . .

Red Lodge resident and hiker Grant Barnard is not worried that there have been more grizzly bear sightings southeast of town this spring than in decades. That’s because he used to live next door to Glacier National Park where he was “constantly surrounded” by the big bruins.

“I’m glad they’re coming back,” he said. “When we first moved here 20 years ago, I was told there were no grizzly bears. The only one I heard about was shot by a rancher.”

This year along the eastern face of the Beartooth Mountains there may be close to about 24 individual bears, most of them southeast of Red Lodge, said Shawn Stewart, a wildlife biologist with Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Red Lodge. “We have so much activity going on southeast of town that we almost add a new dot to the map every day,” he said.

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